Biblical Predestination
There is sometimes a misconception among those who debate Christianity that we are either destined for hell or destined for heaven. It is important that we cover a bit of that question before we dive into today’s parables. The biblical idea of predestination hinges on God’s foreknowledge. God’s foreknowledge does not determine destiny. His foreknowledge is simply that He sees everything in all times. So He knows what choices you and I will make in our lives. The basis for the biblical doctrine of predestination is found in Romans 8:29 CSB, “For those he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, so that he would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.” This verse says that God foreknew everyone who would choose to respond in faith to the Gospel message. He also foreknew all those who would not. For those who would choose to put their faith in Jesus, He destined to be conformed to the image of Jesus. It is not God deciding who will be saved and who will not be saved. It is God knowing who will freely choose to believe and dealing with those individuals as sons and daughters in Christ.
I heard a perfect illustration of this many years ago in college. It goes like this, when we walk up to the gates of heaven, we will see a banner that reads, “Whoever will, may come.” In other words, anyone who desires to respond to the invitation may come. The invitation is to everyone. When we walk through the gates of heaven and turn around, we will notice another banner over the gate that reads, “Predestined from the foundations of the world.” In His foreknowledge, God saw those who would choose faith in Jesus and declared that they would be sons and daughters.
The parables we will study today relate to the universal invitation of God to every human being and the universal blessing received by those who respond in faith. The invitation comes through the Gospel message of the sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God’s only begotten Son.
A different kind of landowner
Our first parable is called the Parable of the Vineyard Workers and is found in Matthew 20:1-16 NLT.
“For the Kingdom of Heaven is like the landowner who went out early one morning to hire workers for his vineyard. He agreed to pay the normal daily wage and sent them out to work.
“At nine o’clock in the morning he was passing through the marketplace and saw some people standing around doing nothing. So, he hired them, telling them he would pay them whatever was right at the end of the day. So they went to work in the vineyard. At noon and again at three o’clock he did the same thing.
“At five o’clock that afternoon he was in town again and saw some more people standing around. He asked them, ‘Why haven’t you been working today?’
“They replied, ‘Because no one hired us.’
“The landowner told them, ‘Then go out and join the others in my vineyard.’
“That evening he told the foreman to call the workers in and pay them, beginning with the last workers first. When those hired at five o’clock were paid, each received a full day’s wage. When those hired first came to get their pay, they assumed they would receive more. But they, too, were paid a day’s wage. When they received their pay, they protested to the owner, ‘Those people worked only one hour, and yet you’ve paid them just as much as you paid us who worked all day in the scorching heat.’
“He answered one of them, ‘Friend, I haven’t been unfair! Didn’t you agree to work all day for the usual wage? Take your money and go. I wanted to pay this last worker the same as you. Is it against the law for me to do what I want with my money? Should you be jealous because I am kind to others?’
“So those who are last now will be first then, and those who are first will be last.”
There are two principles to uncover from this parable. The first principle is regarding why the landowner paid everyone the same wage. Those who labored all day received the same pay as those who only worked during the last hour of the day. Jesus is addressing something we can feel is unfair. Those who come to Christ on their death bed after decades of living a sinful life receive the same eternal life as someone who came to faith as a child and worked all their life to glorify God. The gift of eternal life is the same regardless of when a person comes to faith. Note that this has nothing to do with the rewards, or crowns, spoken about in other areas of Scripture. The parable is dealing with the believer receiving eternal life from God. It is His to give to whom He chooses.
The second aspect of this parable deals with paying the workers who came to the field last, first. In our eyes, paying the people who had been working the longest would be the right thing to do. However, I believe in illustrating this, Jesus is saying that the human standard of honoring those who are greatest first is not how the Kingdom operates. In the Kingdom of Heaven, the forsaken, the abused, the mistreated, the rejected – those considered the lowest of society – are given priority. In other words, those whose need is greatest are served before those who are self-sufficient.
These two concepts can twist our brains if we let them. But we need to understand and acknowledge, that we have received eternal life through faith in Christ only by God’s grace. We did not earn it. It was and is a tremendous gift. God can give it to whomever He chooses. After all, He did say that He will have mercy on who He will have mercy and compassion on whom He chooses to have compassion, Romans 9:15 NIV. It is His kingdom, it His gift, and we should celebrate any soul to whom God chooses to be merciful.
Cast a wide net
The second parable we will look at today is found in Matthew 13:47-48 NLT. “Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a fishing net that was thrown into the water and caught fish of every kind. When the net was full, they dragged it up onto the shore, sat down, and sorted the good fish into crates, but threw the bad ones away.”
Beginning with Jesus’ ministry, the net of the Gospel of the Kingdom of Heaven is cast upon the chaotic sea of humanity. The net catches all kinds of fish. In the sea, there are fish that are good for market and other fish that have no marketable value. The marketable fish will be kept and the others thrown away.
The disciples of Jesus are those who cast the net through their testimony. Some people will reply sincerely. Other people will get caught up in the message but not be converted in their hearts. Still others will miss the net entirely and reject the message of the kingdom.
The main point of this parable is that the message is preached to all. Jesus was adamant that His second coming would not occur until the message of the Kingdom of Heaven was preached to all nations, tongues, tribes, and peoples, Matthew 24:14. God wants to save every human possible. So His message of salvation through faith in Jesus is sent into all the world so that His net can be full. There is no distinction as per race, creed, gender, color, or geography. The net is cast into all the world so that all people of all time can hear and respond to the message of the Kingdom.
An open invitation
The third parable we look at today is found in Matthew 22:1-14 NLT. This parable struck a nerve with the Jewish people of Jesus’ time because it showed that the message of salvation would be shared with Gentiles.
“Jesus also told them other parables. He said, “The Kingdom of Heaven can be illustrated by the story of a king who prepared a great wedding feast for his son. When the banquet was ready, he sent his servants to notify those who were invited. But they all refused to come!
“So he sent other servants to tell them, ‘The feast has been prepared. The bulls and fattened cattle have been killed, and everything is ready. Come to the banquet!’ But the guests he had invited ignored them and went their own way, one to his farm, another to his business. Others seized his messengers and insulted them and killed them.
“The king was furious, and he sent out his army to destroy the murderers and burn their town. And he said to his servants, ‘The wedding feast is ready, and the guests I invited aren’t worthy of the honor. Now go out to the street corners and invite everyone you see.’ So the servants brought in everyone they could find, good and bad alike, and the banquet hall was filled with guests.
“But when the king came in to meet the guests, he noticed a man who wasn’t wearing the proper clothes for a wedding. ‘Friend,’ he asked, ‘how is it that you are here without wedding clothes?’ But the man had no reply. Then the king said to his aides, ‘Bind his hands and feet and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
“For many are called, but few are chosen.”
This parable was preceded by another parable about evil farmers. After telling that parable, Jesus addressed the Jewish leaders with a stern indictment. Matthew 21:43 NLT reads, “I tell you, the Kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a nation that will produce the proper fruit.”
This third parable reenforced Jesus’ message to the Jewish leaders. The invited guests to the wedding are the Jews. But they were too busy with their lives, or simply uninterested in honoring the king and his son. So the king invited others. He invited the non-Jews to the banquet. Many of these eagerly came to the wedding feast.
In first century Jerusalem, non-Jews, or Gentiles, were looked down upon by the Jews, especially the teachers of the Law and the pharisees. That Jesus was teaching things that condemned the Jewish leaders and excluded them from God’s kingdom was not only insulting to them, but it bordered on defaming the name of God.
However, this parable again points to the universal invitation of the Kingdom. That the king in the parable ordered his servants to “invite everyone you see” to the wedding feast indicates that God had opened entrance into His kingdom to anyone willing to come.
The fact that the man not dressed for the wedding indicates that while all are invited, those who choose to attend the wedding feast, or enter the Kingdom, are held to standards or they too will be rejected. Jesus closes the parable with the statement that many are called, but few are chosen. Attending the king’s banquet for his son’s wedding required appropriate decorum. Coming to the Kingdom of Heaven requires certain standards as well.
In these parables, we see that the invitation to enter God’s kingdom started with the Jews but became a universal invitation. It was always God’s intent that anyone who believed would spend eternity with Him. Every person who believes, whether they come to faith early or late in life is given the same gift of eternal life.
For more about Brad and to read more of his work, connect at https://bradchurch.com. His recent book, The Stranger’s Conflict, can be purchased on Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DSFZNSN6/