What if God’s grace really is unconditional and sufficient for all… yet He still sovereignly calls and predestines specific people before they are born? Many feel torn when they read Romans 8 and 9. I used to feel that tension too — until I saw how Scripture holds both truths together without contradiction.
“For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth; It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.” (Romans 9:11-13)
Grace: Unconditional and Sufficient for All
Grace is not a reward for good behavior. It abounded on Adam and Eve the moment they stepped out of paradise, even as sin and death followed them. It is still on hardened Israel today. It was on Mary, the most elect woman who ever lived — a sinner who would one day die — yet God sovereignly chose her to bear the Savior. Grace is offered freely to every person. It is sufficient to draw the dead sinner. It initiates everything.
The Two Wills and Two Kingdoms
Before the Fall there were two wills at work in man: God’s clear instructions and the deceiver’s lies — all complicated by the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Paul condemned the kind of reasoning that mirrors spiritual Eve in Corinth. There are still two bodies and two kingdoms (the two bodies, terrestrial and celestial; the two kingdoms, new heaven and new earth — also natural Israel and Spirit-led Israel with the baptism of the Holy Ghost) — natural Israel after the flesh and spiritual Israel of God.
Jews and natural Israel are a real thing and always will be a thing. But that nation is still looking for a Messiah to come. He came and He grafted in a new people — the Bride (predestined) and all others covered by grace to be called a spiritual Jew, circumcised of the heart. It is important to distinguish a Spirit-led Jew like Peter from natural Israel who is still hung up on Torah only. They too don’t see why the natural would later be for our learning of the spiritual, but somewhere out there is a called bunch of natural Jews who will come to Christ — maybe at the moment every nation finally turns on them as a country (the US as new Rome especially becoming an enemy of Israel). It is happening now with rabbis like Jason Sobel. One day they will be led by the predestined Bride of Christ during the 1,000 years.
Like the master announcing his return, who will be the wise virgins? These are churches and not individuals, so that is why they are not named individually in the predestined calling. It takes a lot to shape a church, so it starts with those called to the ministry to lead — just like Aaron, Moses, Noah, and all the prophets. Maybe call it talent. Leaders keep imposing their own will over God’s, yet grace remains. The covenant changed at the New Testament, but the gospel of grace never did.
God the Mathematical Genius: Foreknowledge That Transcends Time
God is the ultimate mathematical genius. He has calculated every long “hash” in the infinite choice-chain of His people. He transcends time itself (perhaps there was no time as we know it before the Fall). He knew Adam’s apostasy before it happened and already had the remedy prepared — Jesus, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. He guided every decision through centuries so that Jesus would come at the exact right empire to fulfill every prophecy and oracle. (Side note: He even knows every strand of our DNA and every possible genetic outcome woven into that choice-chain.)
Even for Jesus the human there was a real bar set that He had to reach. He could have failed or tapped out in the flesh — yet there was this predestination determination that had to be a solid root in Him. Angels ministered to Him in the wilderness (Matt 4:11), but that only shows the seriousness of the call. It was not enough to say “God’s grace is sufficient.” Jesus better have completed the mission. Holy, holy, holy. Can you imagine if He had failed? The crazy part is that the “well-pleased” the Father spoke over the Son (Matt 3:17) would never have been said — even though God is grace. That was a predetermined event that took supernatural grace to allow angels to come minister, to sustain the 40-day fast, and to give Jesus a perfect answer in the flesh for anyone who tested Him. “He shall not fail nor be discouraged…” (Isa 42:4). Though He were a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered (Heb 5:8). The same omnipresent, omnipotent force that shakes the fig tree and curses it for not bearing fruit instantly in season (Mark 11:13-14, 21) still demands instant, humble obedience from us today.
Esau’s Birthright, Adam’s Apostasy, and the Pattern of Election
Esau had the birthright — both spiritual and natural. Yet he despised it, and God was angry. Jacob the trickster was loved, Esau hated, before either had done any good or evil. The purpose of God according to election stood on His call alone (Romans 9:11-13). Elites can still fall from grace and be crushed in natural or spiritual judgment. The same pattern appears with Adam, with Mary, and with every one of us. God foreknows the spirit and attitude of the heart. On the basis of that foreknowledge He calls and predestines.
The River, the Mansion, and the Cup of Promotion
You can have a place called heaven with many mansions — names already on the mailboxes out front. Hint: not everyone gets a mansion! God leads the mind like a river. Rivers can dry up — but God brings the increase in rain too. Leaders feel fat, powerful, and supported. In reality, God is the voice in the cell and the salt carrying the electrolyte — sovereignly directing every molecular process since the beginning of time. He watched the Israelites wander the wilderness, and due to that generation’s unbelief and Moses’s sins, they never made it to the promised land. And what did they fulfill in their hard hearts? 42 times they encamped and that number just happens to be exactly the number of Jesus’ generations. Now if that isn’t predestination, I don’t know what is. Grace allowed them to part seas and swallow Leviathan. Grace allowed Joshua to be the next Moses. And grace abounded in the time of Judges. But woe to the sinner! And woe to the leader. God talked to Pharaoh’s heart. So much so it became hardened each time God’s soft voice, like water, formed the rock. And later poured out of a rock (grace)!
But if we choose our own will, that river may dry up and the mailbox may never get the mail. The cup of promotion may or may not have your name on it, but it is certainly up to who He chooses. After blood became part of flesh, people were predestined to die and resurrect. Who would actually come up when the graves are shaken open? Only God knows.
Crowns of Humility — Not Boasting
If that is the case about boasting, then crowns of life are not boastful in front of the angelic host. Of course not — because that crown is a crown of humility. It is still drinking from the cup of promotion. When we choose God’s will, there is no will left. Jesus modeled it perfectly in Gethsemane: “not my will, but thine, be done.” Paul ran so he would not be a castaway, yet later could say a crown was laid up for him. The only decision left to man is total surrender: obey or rebel. Everything — calling, election, perseverance, crown — is still 100% of grace.
Final Thought(s)
Grace is unconditional and sufficient for all. God the Father called you before you were born according to what He foreknew. Now we must live up to it by keeping the will submitted like Jesus. We can make our calling and election sure. We can make it — all because of His sovereign, abounding grace.
Author’s Note: I offer these thoughts with an open hand and a humble heart. I teach subject to question and correction. I am not strictly Calvinist nor Arminian; my deepest desire is simply to remain faithful to the whole counsel of God’s Word as best I understand it. I know that many faithful brothers and sisters see Romans 8–9 and the doctrine of predestination differently than I do, and I deeply respect that. Ultimately, only the Holy Ghost can reveal who is right and who is righteous.
Whether you lean one way or the other, the Bible calls us to honest, iron-sharpening dialogue. Solomon said it best: “debate thy cause.” If anything here stirs questions or pushback, I genuinely welcome it — let’s search the Scriptures together. Above all, my prayer is that the Holy Spirit would illumine all of us as we seek to honor God’s sovereign grace and live in total submission to His will.
The Audio Missionary 
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