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Our Epistle lesson confronts us with a paradox and therefore a mystery. Take for example, verse twenty-eight. "We know that for those who love God all things work together for good for those who are called according to his purpose" (ESV) or "We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (NIV), depending on which Bible version you're reading, and indeed which New Testament manuscript.
Either way, this all-inclusive, absolute statement of truth conflicts with our human reason and our human experience. The two simply do not jibe, do not mesh, do not go together but clash. Thus the paradox, the mystery. Human reason and experience teach us that though generally speaking good things happen to good people and bad things happen to bad people, the opposite also can be true, that is, bad things can happen to good people and good things can happen to bad people.
The Bible teaches that Satan and his minions, originally good creatures of God, fell out of faith in God, falling from His grace into disgrace and from His favor into disfavor, disobedience and rebellion. The Bible teaches, furthermore, that Satan tempted Eve and Adam, creatures whom God made in His image and according to His likeness, originally good creatures of God, and that they believed and trusted Satan and disbelieved and distrusted God, obeyed Satan and disobeyed God and alike fell from His grace into disgrace and from His favor into disfavor, losing the image and likeness of God, losing original righteousness and gaining original sin, giving rise to a sinful nature, producing actual sins of thought, word and deed, all of which they bequeathed to their descendants.
Moreover, the Bible teaches that God is omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent and altogether good. What is more, the Bible teaches that nothing whatsoever happens apart from God's will or permission and conversely, therefore, everything that does happen happens according to God's will or by His permission. If the latter is accepted, human reason and experience deduce that, just as He is the source of all creation, God must also be the source of the fall of Satan and his cohorts and all mankind, all of creation and, as a consequence, the origin of both good and evil.
In other words, God must be a double predestinarian. He must have predestined both. The Bible, however, does not teach this. Anything but! As noted, this is a human deduction derived from human reason and experience, which are creatures, like human nature, that are products of the fall and subsequently not only defective but sinful, not only mortal but corrupt, not only errant but disobedient and rebellious and at odds with God and what He teaches in the bible. Hence, this is not a matter for human reason and experience but, inasmuch as it is what God teaches in the Bible, it is a matter of faith which God gives because it is He who works in us both to will and to do His good pleasure. For every good gift comes from Him! Therefore, the paradox, the mystery, remains. Faith suffers the paradox and believes the mystery. Human reason and experience must go.
Consequently, the we in "we know" are not people in general, especially not those whose only guide is human reason and experience, but believers, those who love God, who are loved by God first when they are anything but lovable, when they are altogether unlovely, unlovable and loveless. "God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners," at just the right time, "Christ died for us" (Rom 5:8-10), the ungodly, justified us by His blood and saved us from the wrath of God. While we were still enemies Christ reconciled us to God by His sacrifice. As a result nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. Although for His sake we are being killed all the day long and are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered, nonetheless "in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us" and in whom we triumph because He triumphed over all for the love He bore the Father and the Father Him. Therefore nothing can separate us "from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Rom 8:37, 39).
This is a paradox, a mystery neither reason nor experience can grasp, but faith does, imbibing and living therefrom like a newborn from his mother's breast and breastmilk. "This is love, not that we have loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. We love because He first loved us" (1Jn 4:10, 19). For God is love! We believers know even as we're known of God and are given to know by Him that "God works all things together for good" in that He works "in all things for the good of those who love Him”, who are loved by Him and return His love, "those who are called according to His purpose."
Here the Bible's teaching of God's election from all eternity of all who are saved comes into play—and it's a most comforting teaching to be sure. The Apostle Paul writes in Ephesians chapter one, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places" (v 3). The Holy Spirit unites us and makes us one with Christ already in Holy Baptism. It follows, then, that we are with Christ in accordance with His exaltation at the Father's right hand in glory even now by God's grace through faith and that we are so from eternity in keeping with His election, "even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world”, that is, from everlasting, "that we should be holy and blameless before Him" (v 4).
By means of the Epitome of the Formula of Concord, Article XI, we confess,"God's Word leads us to Christ, who is the Book of Life, in whom all are written and elected who are to be saved in eternity" (FC Ep XI 7). We're not holy and blameless apart from Him, in and of ourselves—we're anything but—but only incorporated into Him and one with Him, and we are so forever, from everlasting to everlasting due to God's election of us in eternity by virtue of Christ’s holiness and blamelessness as the perfect sacrifice for our sins.
"In love He predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will”, His formerly hidden and now revealed will, formerly hidden and now revealed by Him in conjunction with His good pleasure, "to the praise of His glorious grace, with which He has blessed us" in His beloved Son. All this we have joined to Christ and made one with Him by the Holy Spirit in Baptism, reborn into God's family as His adopted children and fellow heirs in Christ through faith in Him.
And this is the key to this treasure chest. "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," bringing to light what once was hidden, enlightening us, "according to His purpose, which He set forth in Christ" before all ages "as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in Him, things in heaven and things on earth" (Eph 1:4b-10).
And that’s not all. Holding the key to this treasure chest, having redemption through Christ’s blood, the forgiveness of our sins by the riches of His grace, we are fellow heirs. "In Him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all thing according to the counsel of His will" (Eph 1:11). Only children can be heirs and obtain an inheritance—or in this case adopted children reborn into God's family by Baptism through faith in the chief heir Jesus Christ. And what an inheritance is ours in Him, all that the chief heir is heir to, all that the benefactor bequeaths, which the Bible summarizes as forgiveness, life and salvation. To this we're predestined.
Luther comprehends the Bible's teaching on predestination as it comes to us in the Book of Romans in his commentary. "In chapters 9, 10, and 11 [Paul] teaches of God's eternal predestination in order that our salvation may be taken entirely out of our hands and put in the hand of God alone. And this too is utterly necessary. For we are so weak and uncertain that if it depended on us, not even a single person would be saved; the devil would surely overpower us all. But since God is dependable—his predestination cannot fail, and no one can withstand him—we still have hope in the face of sin.
But while enlarging on these comforting truths concerning the gospel teaching on election Luther warns of those "high flying spirits who first apply their own reason to this matter. . . and worry in vain about whether they are predestined.” He has better advice for pious believers. "But you had better follow the order of this epistle. Worry first about Christ and the gospel, that you may recognize your sin and his grace. Then fight your sin, as the first eight chapters here have taught. Then, when you have reached the eighth chapter, and are under the cross and suffering, this will teach you correctly of predestination in chapters 9, 10, and 11, and how comforting it is.” (AE 35:378).
We know that God works all things together for good, working in all things for the good of those who love Him, whom He loves, those who are called according to His purpose. This is a paradox and therefore a mystery which neither reason nor experience can penetrate much less solve for the simple reason that it clashes with them, being at odds with them. Never the twain shall meet, let alone merge. Hence, this is not a matter for reason or experience which are fallible and do err ever since the fall but, inasmuch as it is God's teaching, it is an article of faith which God gives because it is He who works in us both to will and to do His good pleasure.
An evangelical Lutheran theologian makes these helpful distinctions in regard to this concerning the ultimate source of salvation and damnation. "Two answers have been given throughout the history of Christian thought—each logical according to our natural powers of reasoning. One reply is that man himself is finally responsible either for his salvation or damnation, depending on what he does or fails to do—including both his deeds and his personal decision. The other answer is that God is the ultimate source," that is, God as double predestinarian, "depending on whether he has elected and predestined people to salvation or to damnation. According to rules of logic, each set of answers is reasonable and there is no third alternative.
“But according to Scripture, there is another reply to the query. Namely, that God is the source of salvation and man is responsible for damnation." God is no double predestinarian. He predestines to salvation, true enough, but not to damnation. That's man's doing—by snubbing God, refusing His grace, and rejecting His Word and the faith He gives by this means, in favor of his fallen reason and corrupt experience.
"So regardless of what our reason would dictate, we must answer theological questions on the basis of Scripture alone, which paradoxically teaches concerning salvation, 'For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith' (Eph 2:8) and concerning damnation: ' O Jerusalem, Jerusalem . . . how often I have longed to gather your children together . . . but you were unwilling' (Mt 23:37)."
The paradox and the mystery remain. Faith endures the paradox and embraces the mystery. Human reason and experience must go. "Our salvation is the result of our election by God from eternity, which is a gospel message." To extrapolate from this that God must therefore elect and predestine some people to damnation since not all are saved is a prejudice of fallen reason and corrupt experience and, therefore, wrong.
"On the other hand, the 'unreasonable' doctrine of election to salvation (but not to damnation)", for God is no killjoy double predestinarian, "is a particularly comforting part of the gospel message. When Christians ponder their spiritual situation, especially in the latter years of life, and wonder whether they will remain in faith at the hour of death, the Biblical teaching on election offers reliable assurance. If faith were their own accomplishment, fear that faith might fail before death would present some cause for doubt and alarm.
“But thanks to our election to salvation from eternity by God's grace our faith is a gift of God, the result of God's choice, and is sustained by his Holy Spirit through Word and sacrament. Therefore Christians can be assured with Paul, 'Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? . . . For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord'" (Ro 8:35, 38-39) [Concordia Self-Study Bible, pp xvii-xviii].
We know that God works all things together for good in that He works in all things for the good of those who love Him, whom He loves first, those who are called according to His purpose. To this we are elected. For this we are foreknown, predestined, called, justified, glorified. "For those whom He foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, in order that He might be the Firstborn among many brethren. And those whom He predestined He also called, and those whom He called He also justified, and those whom He justified He also glorified" (Rom 8:29-30).
God is no double predestinarian, that's for sure. In Christ He elected you to salvation, not damnation! Amen.