Sermon - Christmas II, Year C, 2025 - Luke 2:40-52

Child Jesus in the Temple, Jan Steen,1659

The Comfort of Predestination

1. Distinction between foreknowledge and predestination

2. We are predestined through Christ and His work of redemption

3. We are predestined through the hearing of His Word

“In love He predestined us for adoption to Himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will.” The topic of predestination often reveals the confusion people have regarding who is going to be saved. For example, there are some groups of Christians who believe in what is called double-predestination, whereby God predestines some to heaven and some to hell. Or on the other side of this many conclude that none are predestined to hell, but that all people are predestined to heaven. In which case they missapply predestination to mean that it doesn’t really matter what they believe or do in life, since if they’re predestined to heaven they will be saved regardless.

It’s this latter misapplication I mention which is I think most prevalent in our society. There is a sort of universalism ingrained in people today to think that all will go to heaven. Even the pope, just this past year, said: “I like to think of hell as empty.” What the pope said is wrong and damnably so! The Lord instructs us: “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.” Indeed, there will be many in hell, unfortunately.

Because the way to hell is so easy, and the way to paradise is so difficult, it often leads the faithful Christian to wonder whether they’re going to get into paradise. Because faithful Christians regularly examine their lives in light of scripture, they recognize their ridiculous number of faults. If you know the Bible pretty well, then you know all of the ways that you can sin against God and man, you know what it means to be good, you hear the Lord say that you must be perfect, and then you also must acknowledge your complete and utter failure to live up to God’s perfect standards. It’s within that context which the Lord teaches us about predestination, and it’s meant to be a comfort to troubled Christian consciences. 

So in order that we might parse all of these things out, finding the comfort the Lord offers us in this teaching, let’s unpack a few things. Firstly, we need to lay out the distinction between God’s eternal foreknowledge and the eternal election of His children to eternal salvation. God’s foreknowledge means that God sees and knows all things that will ever happen, before they even happen. “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father.” Or the Psalmist declares: “Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in Your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there were none of them.”

God’s foreknowledge knows everything that will ever happen, both good and evil. His foreknowledge also means that He preserves order and puts a limit to evil, so He will only let it last for so long according to what is best. But His foreknowledge is not the cause of evil. Evil is caused by the devil and sinful people, not by God. 

Predestination, on the other hand, is God preordaining to salvation His children from before the foundation of the world. Predestination is more than just knowing His children are going to be saved, but it also includes Him actively helping and promoting our salvation. Jesus promises: “No one will snatch them out of My hand.” Those who are predestined, who have been chosen by God in Christ for salvation from before the foundation of the world, will be preserved amidst every trial that they must face. 

It’s at this point that people often go astray and begin asking questions which cannot be answered. You might wonder why doesn’t God just fix it so that everyone can be saved? The simple answer is: I don’t know. That’s a question and answer which is not revealed in God’s Word. St. Paul, when faced with that question, answers more eloquently: “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgements and his ways past finding out! For who has known the mind of the Lord?” God has not revealed everything to us, and the question of why some are saved and not others is one of those things still hidden from our eyes.

So instead of trying to answer the unanswerable, we are to focus on what the Lord has revealed to us. Namely, “God desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth,” and “I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from his way and live.” Indeed, “God consigned all to disobedience, that He may have mercy on all.” All the human race is sinful and under the power of the devil. All have sinned and all deserve damnation. Yet we are redeemed and reconciled with God through the death of Christ, which merits for us eternal life. 

This eternal life is delivered to us through the word and the sacraments: “In Him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in Him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it.” When you heard the word of truth, when you heard the Gospel, you were chosen by God and sealed with the Holy Spirit.

Nevertheless, the Word still remains that many are called, but few are chosen. Most will hear the word and despise it, and not enter into the wedding feast with the Bridegroom. This is not the fault of God, instead it is the fault of sinful mankind and the perverse human will. The sinful heart hears the Word and rejects it. Like Christ said: “How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not!” The Lord desires to save all, but not all desire to receive His salvation. 

The results of refusing His salvation is extremely dangerous! Remember that God punishes sin with sins! If we reject Him and depart to our sins, then He hands us over to our sins, over to our depraved minds, in order to be punished by the very things we desire so badly. When you see unbelievers falling into deeper and deeper perversity, that is part of God’s punishment upon them, by giving them the evil things they desire. They wanted Satan in their hearts, so God gave them Satan! 

This is what happened with Pharaoh, afterall. God wanted Pharaoh to be saved, but Pharaoh did not. Pharaoh hardened his heart against the Lord, and the Lord punished his sin with more sin, and thus the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart. That should not be misinterpreted to mean that God wanted to condemn Pharaoh, because it was Pharaoh who rejected the Lord’s word, even when the Lord sent the greatest prophet Moses before his very face! If anything, the example of Pharaoh should illustrate how greatly God loves those who reject Him and desires them to be saved, for He goes to them and speaks His saving words to them. Nevertheless, it should also be a stern warning that if we close our hearts to the Lord, refuse to repent when given the opportunity, reject His Word, then we too will be handed over to Satan.

Therefore, open your ears and your hearts to the Word of the Lord! The pope is wrong and hell will not be empty. Just because you were once saved does not mean that you will always be saved. The way to life is narrow and difficult, few will enter paradise. Perhaps today you are strong in the faith, but it would be very easy for you to fall away. For this very reason the Lord promises to help you and preserve you through His Word. 

“In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of His will, according to His purpose, which He set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in Him, things in heaven and things on earth.” The Lord works all things according to His will, and His will is that you would be saved eternally. So humble your hearts, realize your frailty, and draw nearer to Him in His Word and Sacrament. When you are feeling as though your sins are insignificant, like you could do anything without any consequences, remember that many are going to hell, and you could be among the many if you treat sin lightly. 

When you are worried that you have not done enough, or that you are too sinful to be saved, or that your faith is too weak and your doubts too many, then remember the promise God makes in preordaining your election to eternal life. Of course we are not good enough, of course we are too sinful, of course our faith is too weak and our doubts too many, that’s the whole point and why we have redemption through His blood and forgiveness of our trespasses. Remember in love He has predestined you, dear Chrsitian, you, for adoption to Himself through Jesus Christ.