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(48) Now when the Gentiles heard this, they were
glad and glorified the word of the Lord. And as many as had been appointed to
eternal life believed. New
King James Version Change your email Bible version
An interesting contrast arises between verse 27, where Paul says those who
did not know Christ in Jerusalem put Him to death, and verse 48, where Luke,
writing after the fact, relates that those who responded to the gospel in
Antioch were appointed to eternal
life. This is important in understanding our unique position relative to the
rest of humanity and in fine-tuning our relationship with each other and most
importantly with God.
Appointed is translated "ordained" in the King James Version.
However, almost all modern versions render it "appointed." It also means to set,
dispose, incline, devote, designate, institute, resolve, arrange, and even
addict. The word never indicates an internal disposition or inclination
arising within oneself, but always contains the notion of an ordering,
arranging, setting, or appointing from without, that is, from a source other
than the individual himself. In this case, Luke implies that the Gentiles who
responded to Paul and Barnabas' preaching were inclined or disposed to believe
the gospel and embrace eternal life by God
through His Holy
Spirit. In other words, their faith
was not self-generated.
This explains, at least in part, why those in Jerusalem did not know Jesus.
If God did not dispose them to know Him, they were operating entirely from their
own minds dominated by human nature and very unlikely to recognize Jesus as Lord
and Savior. Because God did not incline them to believe, Jesus appeared to them
nothing like what He truly was. They most commonly judged Him as a mere man from
Nazareth, a religious competitor, and pretender to the throne of David. Though
He was popular with the people, they could easily brush Him aside and condemn
Him to death for blasphemy.
Commentaries sometimes say verse 48 is controversial because it indicates
predestination, but a measure of predestination is clearly involved in our
calling! Paul writes in Ephesians 1:5, "[God] predestined us to adoption as sons by
Jesus Christ to Himself, according to
the good pleasure of His will." He is equally expressive in Romans 8:29-30:
For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His
Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom He
predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and
whom He justified, these He also glorified.
If we believe in justification and glorification, is there not also equal
evidence for predestination? This does not mean that every act of a person's
life is predestined, but that God predestines some to be summoned to salvation
while not calling others. Do not the words "call," "invite," or the even
stronger "summon" indicate separating one from several or many?
We can all relate to this simple illustration: If a child is playing outside
with some other children, and his parent goes out to call or summon him, though
the other children may hear the parent's voice, is not that calling specifically
for his child? Does it not separate him from the group? Is not the child's mind
disposed or inclined to respond to his parent's call? The other children may
hear the call, but they do not respond in the same way because the summons is
specific to the particular child.
When a parent calls his child, he does not do it without purpose; he calls
the child for a specific reason. As the child responds and separates from the
group, the parent begins to reveal to him why he was called: "Go wash your
hands—we are going to eat dinner"; "Get ready for bed"; "Run this errand for
me"; "Clean up your room"; or "I just wanted to see that you were all
right."
In principle, this is similar to God's calling of us except for the purpose.
By His Spirit He supernaturally disposes our minds through His summons and
begins to separate us from those He is not calling. At the same time, He begins
to reveal Himself and His way. He does not call everybody generally, just as the
human parent predetermines which child he wants to call. Thus our calling is
completely within the will of the sovereign God, who specifically appoints those
He desires to understand at this time.
God must predispose us to respond because we are so deceived about what to
look for that we would never find Him. In addition, we are so busy doing our own
thing, like a child playing around, that we do not even care. Even though He
reveals Himself, it still takes us a long time to come to know Him because we
carry so many false concepts, and like children, we have short attention spans
and are easily distracted.
One reason this is controversial, especially among the more naturally
religious, is that human nature does not take pleasure in being humbled. It
avoids admitting that salvation is far more an act of God than earned through
our intelligence, goodness,
wisdom,
morality, purity, conviction, commitment to prayer
and study, dedication to seeking Him, or love
of God. Human nature is so perverse that even in this, in the face of so much
biblical evidence, vanity wants to take credit for what it simply does not
deserve.
Paul says in Romans 3:27-28: "Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By
what law? Of works? No, but by the law of faith. Therefore we conclude that a
man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law." He adds in Ephesians 2:8-9: "For by grace
you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of
God, not of works, lest anyone should boast." Even the faith that starts us on
the road to repentance
and justification is God's gift!
— John W. Ritenbaugh
To learn more, see:
The Sovereignty of God: Part Seven
Related Topics:
Appointed to Eternal Life
God's Calling
God's Sovereignty
Holy Spirit
Parent Child Analogy
Predestination
Predisposition to Believe
Response to God
Response to Gospel
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