Questioner: Did God indeed choose whom He would save before the foundation of the world? And if He did, how are those who do not believe responsible and held accountable for their unbelief?

John MacArthur: First of all, yes, God did predestine those who were to believe before the world began, because that’s exactly what the Bible says. You were chosen before the foundation of the world. Your name is written in the Lamb’s Book of Life before the foundation of the world. Predestination is a word in Ephesians chapter 1. We were predestined to be in Christ.

So yes, we have to understand God is God, and God is the one who ordains everything. And God is not a spectator. God is the one who acts. He doesn’t react. So the Bible is crystal clear. He chose Israel: Israel, His chosen people out of all the nations of the world. And He chose His church. He tells the apostles to go into a certain city. He said, “Because I have many people in that city.” Well, the gospel hadn’t even been there, but He knew who the people were that were chosen.

So yes, God chooses. That is clear in Scripture. Secondly, sinners are responsible for their unbelief. That is clear in the Bible. Jesus says, “Why will you die? Because you don’t believe in Me.” That’s clear responsibility. So you say, “Well, how do those go together?” And I say, “I don’t know. I have no idea.” But is it possible that the mind of God is beyond mine? Or does everything have to be understandable to me? Can I leave a little room for an infinite mind that may be able to grasp things that are beyond my understanding?

So throughout all the years that I’ve taught the Bible, I can teach without hesitation that God predestines people to salvation. That’s the only way they could be saved, because they’re dead in trespasses and sin. They don’t have the power to believe or the will to believe. So the Lord has to awaken the sinner and grant him the repentance and faith to be saved. At the same time that I believe that is a sovereign work of God, I also believe that it is not apart from faith, and that the sinner must believe.

How God harmonizes those two things is beyond me. And that’s very comfortable for me. And I’ll tell you why: I don’t want a God who fits perfectly into my own understanding.

Let me give you another illustration of this. If I ask you, “Who lives your Christian life? Is it you, or is it God?”

Questioner: Both.

John MacArthur: “What do you mean? How can it be both?”

Questioner: “I’m going to work out my salvation with fear and trembling, for it’s Christ who works in me.”

John MacArthur: “Yeah, but is it Him or you? So when something good goes, it’s Him, and when something bad goes, it’s you?”

So let me ask you another question. Who wrote the book of Romans? “Paul.” Paul? “The Holy Spirit.” Are you having trouble with this question? Yeah, exactly.

So it was all the Holy Spirit. Every word was inspired by God, and it was all out of Paul’s vocabulary and Paul’s mind. Any time you step into the world of God interacting with man, you are going to have this massive apparent paradox, because the infinite cannot be reduced to the finite mind.

The good news is God has chosen His elect, and they will be saved. Also, the good news is anyone who comes to Christ to believe and repent will be saved. You don’t have to find out if you’re elect. You come. And that’s where the harmonizing comes. But every doctrine, every major doctrine in the Bible that relates between God and man, has this strange reality: this is something beyond my comprehension.

Questioner: And I think you just answered it, Pastor John, but to the person asking, “Well, how do I know if I’m one of the chosen, one of the elect, one of the predestined?” you would say, “Have you come to Christ?” Would that be your response?

John MacArthur: Yeah.

Questioner: Yellow stripes, right?

John MacArthur: Right. So the way you know you’re elect is you repent and come to Christ. And He calls sinners to come. So come.

Questioner: Love it. No, that’s so helpful. Thank you so much.