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Hello and welcome to another Five Good Minutes, in which I answer your theological questions in five minutes or less. Here’s the question today: Since the Bible says we are predestined and chosen to be His, are we then just robots without a choice in the matter?
This is exactly what Paul says in Ephesians 1:4-7: “Even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. In love, He predestined us for adoption to Himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will, to the praise of His glorious grace, with which He has blessed us in the Beloved.” So, Dan, what you’re saying is that God determined in advance, before time began, and then chose us according to that plan? Yes, that’s exactly what the Bible says.
But does that mean man is just a robot without any real choice? The problem arises when people misunderstand grace. Most people view grace as merely an opportunity—a second chance God gives you to respond to the gospel. But that is not the nature of grace at all. If grace were only a chance, then salvation would partially depend on mankind. God does His part, and now we have to do ours. Do I think we have the ability to do so on our own? No, I don’t.
To summarize, the Bible says we are dead in sin (Ephesians 2:1, 5), we love our sin rather than God (John 3:19), we are spiritually blind (2 Corinthians 4:4), and we cannot understand spiritual things from birth (1 Corinthians 2:14). By nature, we are hostile to God. Romans 3:11 says, “No one understands; no one seeks for God.” If no one seeks God, then how can anyone be saved?
God could give you a quadrillion chances in your lifetime, and because of your nature, you would always miss it and always choose sin over God. God is not merely throwing a lifeline to a drowning person. Some people think salvation is like us drowning and God tossing us a rope—it’s up to us whether we grab it. But in reality, we’ve already drowned. We’re dead at the bottom of the ocean. Grace is not a chance—it’s God diving to the bottom, bringing us to the surface, breathing life into us, and making us alive.
Then, and only then, can we open our eyes, see the One who saved us, and respond in faith. God doesn’t force us to do anything like robots—He gives us the ability to live. And with that new life, we can hear, believe, and trust Him.
The gospel says that all who believe will be saved, all who call upon the name of the Lord will be forgiven. But how can dead people respond? How can the blind see unless there is divine intervention? God changes something in us, and then we respond—not mechanically, but willingly. That is what grace does in us. When grace awakens us, and we see the true light and beauty of God, that’s when we come to faith willingly.
So, no, we are not robots. We are dead in sin, and God must make us alive. Once He does, the only natural response is faith, because we now have the Holy Spirit. Only then can we truly understand God, see ourselves as sinners in need of grace, and trust in Jesus. We love God and believe in Him not because we’re programmed like machines, but because God changes our hearts and makes it possible.
This is true grace—exercised by a sovereign God on sinners. And it is a beautiful thing.
This has been another Five Good Minutes.