What is predestination?
Question 07034
Predestination is a word that makes many people uncomfortable, whether because it suggests a rigid determinism that leaves no room for human freedom, or because popular presentations of it have been unnecessarily harsh. But the discomfort is not a good reason to avoid a concept that appears repeatedly in the pages of Scripture. The question is not whether Scripture teaches predestination but what Scripture actually means by it — and the answer, on careful examination, is rather more specific and less alarming than most people assume.
The Word in Scripture
The Greek word is proorizo (προορίζω), meaning to pre-determine, to decide beforehand, to mark out in advance. It appears six times in the New Testament: Acts 4:28, Romans 8:29-30, 1 Corinthians 2:7, and Ephesians 1:5 and 11. In each case, the word describes something God has predetermined or appointed in advance. The question is always: what has He predetermined?
In Romans 8:29-30, the classic passage, Paul writes: “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son… And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.” The predestination here is “to be conformed to the image of his Son.” The content of the predestination is conformity to Christ — sanctification and glorification. This is the destiny toward which God’s purpose is driving: a people who reflect the character of Jesus.
Predestination and Conformity to Christ
It is worth pausing on the phrase “conformed to the image of his Son,” because it bears more weight than is usually recognised in discussions of predestination. The typical debate treats predestination as primarily about who goes to heaven and who does not, as if the main question is eternal destination. But the text itself says something more specific: God predetermined that those He foreknew would be conformed to the image of His Son. The focus is on what they will become, not merely on where they will end up.
This suggests that predestination in Scripture has at least as much to do with the believer’s calling and destiny within God’s purpose as with the bare fact of salvation. John 15:16 is relevant: “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit.” The election and appointment are to function and fruitfulness. Ephesians 2:10 says believers are “created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand.” 2 Timothy 1:9 speaks of a “holy calling” given “before the ages began,” which is not about eternal destination in isolation but about the shape of the believer’s existence and service. Holding this with appropriate tentativeness, there is a strong case that predestination in Scripture has more to do with standing and service than with eternal destiny in the narrow sense that theological debate usually addresses.
The Calvinist Formulation
In Reformed theology, predestination is understood as God’s eternal decree determining the eternal destiny of every individual — some to salvation, some to reprobation. This double predestination is presented as the logical outworking of God’s rule over all things. Calvin himself was explicit: God has chosen some for glory and passed over or appointed others for condemnation, all according to His inscrutable will rather than any foreseen response in the individuals concerned.
The difficulty with this formulation is not that it takes God’s initiative seriously — it clearly does — but that it presses beyond what the predestination texts actually say. Romans 8:29-30 predicates predestination on foreknowledge, not the other way around. The Calvinist system inverts this: foreknowledge, on that reading, is simply God’s knowledge of what He Himself has already decreed, which evacuates the word “foreknew” of any independent meaning. That is a significant exegetical move that requires considerably more justification than it usually receives.
Predestination and Human Freedom
A biblicist approach holds both the reality of God’s predestining purpose and the reality of genuine human freedom without forcing an artificial resolution. God foreknows all things, including all freely made choices. His predestining purpose works with, not against, genuine human agency. This is not a compromise between two extremes; it is what Scripture actually teaches when its texts are read in their own terms rather than through a predetermined systematic grid.
The practical implication is that predestination generates confidence rather than fatalism. God’s purpose toward the believer is not tentative; it will be completed. Romans 8:30’s chain — predestined, called, justified, glorified — is written in the past tense even though glorification is still future, because from the perspective of God’s settled purpose it is as certain as if it had already occurred.
So, now what?
Predestination is not a doctrine designed to produce arrogance in those who believe they are elect or despair in those who fear they are not. It is a doctrine about the certainty of God’s purpose for His people and the security that His eternal intention provides. The person who has believed in Jesus does not need to wonder whether they are among the predestined; John 6:47 is clear enough. Whoever believes has eternal life. Assurance belongs to those who are in Christ, and it is found by looking to Christ, not by gazing inward at one’s own spiritual condition.
“For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.” Romans 8:29
