“We can make our plans, but the Lord determines our steps.” –Proverbs 16:9
It is interesting that when you bring up the topic of predestination, people assume that if God determines whether or not to give you saving faith, then He has therefore created robots. This is a very emotionally charged statement as we immediately consider stiff, cold, metal machines incapable of free thought and not worth our affections. However, this doctrine doesn't teach that we are robots at all; it teaches us that we are children.
The individual whom God chose to save, chose, I say, before time began; that blessed man or woman to whom God said “I will pour out my grace upon you”: that is the individual God treats as a true son or a daughter. He does not forcibly compel, but grants faith as a gift, and the child receives it as though it had been given a wonderful present at Christmas. Once gifted with faith, our eyes are open to the majesty and glory of God, the wondrous love He has for us, and our journey of salvation has not only begun, but it is secure. Those spiritual eyes, once granted the sight of faith, can never be blinded again. God has not compelled a servant, no; He has taken his sick child in His arms, held it close, applied the cure, and made it well. It shall never be sick again.
As I write this, I have a daughter who is just about to turn three months old. She is quite helpless and needs to be waited on constantly as she cannot meet any of her many needs herself. As a parent, I do not compel her to serve me; rather I serve her every day, feeding her, cleaning her, clothing her, comforting her. I absolutely delight in doing all of these things for her, because I love her dearly, even though sometimes she smells, spits up, cries and fusses. None of these things diminish my love for her, and I would certainly give my life for hers. Isn't this precisely how God treats us? Indeed, He did give His life for us, and He feeds us, cleans us, clothes us and comforts us, not just physically, but spiritually also. We are truly His children.
Yet when it comes to salvation, we do not wish to be children; we wish to be adults, purely autonomous beings who make their own decisions for themselves without any outside influence compelling them this way or that. Yet the Bible doesn't refer to us, in relation to God, as though we are adults. In relation to God we are children: “See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are!” (1 John 3:1) As any parent can tell you, children are often disobedient, often stubborn, often in need of discipline. However, the parent is not compelled to bend to the will of the child, but by the very order of things guides and directs the child as he or she grows. The child may be a free spirit, but that freedom does not give it autonomy; throughout its young life it is subject to the guiding hand of the parent. A good parent does not enslave the child, controlling its every thought and movement, but neither does a good parent simply let the child go. No, a good parent sets boundaries, applies rules, and pushes and directs the child in a positive direction, always moving it forward for its own good, protecting the child, not only from the world, but from its own foolishness as well.
When God chooses to save an individual, it is not a spur-of-the-moment decision, a question that was hanging in the balance until that point in time when someone got down on their knees to cry out to Him. No, God always knew those on whom He would pour out His saving grace: “Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.” (Ephesians 1:4-5). He knew them because they were made to be His own, and because they are His own He guides and directs, disciplines, protects and instructs them. Are they free? Certainly, but they are free as a child is free, subject always to the oversight of a loving Father who will always be watching over them, protecting them and keeping them. A little child cannot disown the parent, though he may throw a tantrum now and then. Neither can we, who were adopted by the grace and choice of God, disown our heavenly Father. We are children, not robots, because we are chosen, cared for, protected and kept by His almighty will, grace, and love.
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