Free Will, Predestination and the Greatest Story Ever To Unfold

How do you begin to understand the meaning of free will and predestination in the Bible?

It was my sister’s view about the “Parable of the Wheat and the Weeds” that made me think again about predestination. In the said parable, it seems that from the start, there is already a distinction between the children of God and of the evil one. Here are the related Bible verses:

“He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man, the field is the world, the good seeds are the children of the Kingdom, and the darnel weeds are the children of the evil one. The enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. As therefore the darnel weeds are gathered up and burnt with fire; so will it be at the end of this age.” - Matthew 13:37-40, WEBBE

Could it be that from the very beginning, some people have already been God’s children while others are the children of the evil one?

While the Bible clearly mentions predestination, it doesn’t take away the free will God has given us.

I would like to believe that free will and God’s predetermination are both true. But how do you reconcile the two?

I will try to process and share some of my thoughts about it in the succeeding paragraphs.

Our God-given Free Will

First of all, we know we have free will because God created us in love and only in freedom can we have true love.

We can either choose Him or we can reject Him.

God knew, since the very beginning of time (and even before the creation of time, for He exists in eternity) who among us would choose Him and who would not.

Having known beforehand, He still chose to create everything, to create the people who will choose Him and those who will reject Him.

He fixed the eternal destinies we have chosen from our free will. He may have chosen not to create the world anymore, but He still chose to. He could have created us without free will, but He did not do that. He knew what our response would be to His love, and He respected our response.

For those who would choose Him, He gave provision such that “all things work together for good for those who love God”.

For those who would reject Him, He allowed them to have their choice and to suffer the consequences of that choice. He allowed. He did not intend them to choose what was evil. But they did it out of their own accord.

Thus, God had always known who are His children and who are the children of the devil. Those we belong to Him and those who do not.

God as the Author

God is like the author of a great book who created a world in which good and evil would exist and in which good would prevail in the end. He created the characters in the book, characters who would later on choose either good or evil.

But in that book, He also gave a “special gift” to the characters. He gave them the gift of freedom.

He also did what no author could ever do. He entered into the story Himself and gave His life for the sake of those who would respond to His love. After everything He has done, whose fault would it be if one were not saved in the end?

“God predestines no one to go to hell; for this, a willful turning away from God (a mortal sin) is necessary, and persistence in it until the end” (CCC 1037)

Not Our Free Will Alone

God gave us free will and respects our free will. But even that free will is not enough for our eternal salvation. It is God who “predestined” all of those who would freely choose Him to be saved and to be sons and daughters of God. It is God who decided to give them their eternal inheritance and to make all things work for their justification and glory. God is the author who planned for every detail of His great book and who makes everything happen beautifully in His time.

“To God, all moments of time are present in their immediacy. When therefore he establishes his eternal plan of ‘predestination’, he includes in it each person's free response to his grace…" (CCC 600)

If you’re an author, you somehow know how it’s like. Before you even begin to write, you think about the story in your head. You think about the possible plot and the possible characters. You think of every possibility and in the end, you come up with the most beautiful plan. No character, however, should be out of his or her character. For each one to come to life, they must move and act and speak our of their own accord. If they do anything out of character, that would be hampering their freedom to act the way that they should.

In the end, it is the author who approves everything. The final book is in the hands of the author. And in real life, in the hands of God.

“We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, for those who are called according to his purpose. For whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn amongst many brothers.‡ Whom he predestined, those he also called. Whom he called, those he also justified. Whom he justified, those he also glorified.

What then shall we say about these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who didn’t spare his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how would he not also with him freely give us all things? Who could bring a charge against God’s chosen ones? It is God who justifies.

- Romans 8:28-33, WEBBE

You may also want to read: