In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

At the end of the parable about the workers in the vineyard, Jesus summarizes it by saying that “many are called, but few are chosen.” This is a mysterious verse from God’s Word, which introduces to us an even more mysterious topic. And that is the so-called doctrine of election, also known as predestination. In several places in the Bible, the Holy Spirit reveals to us that even before God created the heavens and the earth, He elected or chose all those who would be saved. As Saint Paul writes in Ephesians chapter 1, “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, 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 as sons through Jesus Christ.” Similarly, the apostle Paul also writes in Romans chapter 8, “For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son… and those whom He predestined He also called, and those whom He called He also justified, and those whom He justified He also glorified.” From these few passages alone, we can easily see just how impossible it is for someone to reject this particular teaching, without doing serious injury to their faith. God gave us everything in the Bible for the purpose of saving our souls. Nothing is intended to hurt us, but all of it is supposed to help us. And that includes the doctrine of predestination.

So, in this morning’s sermon, what I’m going to do is simply walk through some of things that we need to keep in mind if we want to get this teaching right. Lots of times I think that the reason why people don’t want to talk about predestination, or even think about it, is because they don’t really understand it. Instead of considering it in light of God’s Word, they come to conclusions based off of their own reason. But’s that not how we do theology! We don’t think our way to the correct beliefs, we listen to Scriptures, and we let them do the thinking for us.

The first thing that we need to remember if we want to get the doctrine of predestination right is that God truly does want everyone to be saved. In 1 Timothy chapter 2, the Bible literally tells us, “This is good, and it pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.” Likewise, in 2 Peter chapter 3 we read this: “The Lord is not slow to fulfill His promises as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.”

And, that, of course, is exactly what we see taking place in the parable of the workers in the vineyard too, isn’t it? On the one hand, the owner of the vineyard, who obviously represents God, goes out of his way to invite people to come and work for him. Despite the fact that many of them are standing idle in the marketplace, and definitely don’t deserve to be there, he still compels them to come in. He offers them a place in his vineyard, just like God offers all men a place in His kingdom. Again, what does Jesus say in our text today? He says, “Many are called.” That means that God’s call is universal. His grace is for everyone. The Lord wants all people to be saved.  

Even at the end of the parable, when some of the workers are mad at the master, and stubbornly walk away from him, what does the master still call them? He calls them his “friends.” He says, “Friend, I am doing you no wrong.” This shows us that even when a person rejects God’s grace, and dies and goes to hell, that was never God’s desire for them. It wasn’t because He hated them, or wanted them to be lost from the beginning. They might not have wanted to stay with the Lord, but the Lord always wanted to be with them.

The monstrous idea that is taught in some churches that God has predetermined to send certain individuals to hell from eternity, and that those who end up there, He must have never actually wanted to save, is completely contractionary to the Scriptural witness. Yes, the Bible does tell us that God has absolutely elected some to salvation, and that He knows what will happen to all people, but it never says that He has elected others to damnation. The true application of this teaching only goes in one direction. It only applies to Christians.

And that leads me to the second thing that we need to remember if we want to get predestination right, and that is that the reason why some people are lost is not because of God’s fault, but their own. Remember what Saint Stephen once said in the book of Acts. Right before the people picked up rocks to kill him, he said, “You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in hearts and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you.” That’s very similar to what Jesus once said about the people of Jerusalem in Matthew chapter 23, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem,” He cried, “the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing.” From these verses we learn that the cause of someone’s damnation is not located in the heart of God, but in the heart of man. The reason why some people don’t go to heaven is not because God doesn’t want them to, but because they resist the means that God uses to bring them there.

Yes, God desires that all people would be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. But how do we come to that knowledge? We come to it through the preaching of God’s Word. That’s how the Holy Spirit gives us the gift of faith. That’s how He calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian church on earth and keeps it with Jesus Christ. He does it through the proclamation of the Gospel. So, when someone refuses to listen to the Gospel, or ignores it and plugs their ears to it, even though God wants to save them, their salvation isn’t possible. 

Again, think about the parable of the workers in the vineyard. The owner of the vineyard repeatedly called people to come and work for him and promised them a certain amount of money. He went out at the first, the third, the sixth, the ninth, and even the eleventh hour. But what would have happened if someone didn’t listen to that invitation? They wouldn’t have gotten the denarius. Even though it would have been there waiting for them, they wouldn’t have got to receive it, because they refused to have it. That’s how it works when a person goes to hell. It isn’t God’s fault when that happens. It’s their own. 

On the other side of the coin, though, the third thing that we need to remember if we want to get predestination right is that no one is allowed to take any credit for his or her salvation. Sometimes the fact that the Bible says that individuals are responsible for their own damnation, makes people assume that they must at least have some role to play in their salvation too. “If I can do things to dam myself,” the argument goes, “then certainly I must be able to do things to save myself as well.” But that’s not what the Word of God teaches us either.

All throughout the Scriptures we learn over and over again that a person is saved solely through God’s grace alone. It isn’t the result of anything that we do, but purely the work of our merciful Lord. For example, in Titus chapter 3 we read, “God saved not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to His own mercy.” And as it says in Ephesians chapter 2, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing, it is a gift of God, not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

Literally, the entire point of the parable about the workers in the vineyard is that salvation is not a reward for our good works, but a gracious gift of God. Some people in the parable worked all day long. Other people in the parable only worked for an hour. But at the end of the day, everyone got the same thing. That shows us that we don’t get into heaven by the things that we do. We get there through what God does for us. 

One popular way that people have tried to solve the mystery of predestination in the past is by suggesting that God must have elected certain individuals to salvation in view of their future faith. He must have looked ahead in advance to see who would “make a decision for Christ” and then He made His decision based off that. But the problem with that explanation is that that’s not how faith actually works. We don’t come to faith by a decision of our own free will. Our will is bound in sin apart from Lord. We are spiritually dead prior to our conversion and can’t do anything to bring ourselves to faith at all. Rather, faith is gift that God gives as a result of His own gracious will. It isn’t something that we cause to happen, it’s something that the Holy Spirit causes to happen to us. As Jesus says in John chapter 15, “You did not choose me, but I chose you.” And as He tells us in John chapter 6, “No one can come to Me, unless the Father who sent me draws Him.” God doesn’t elect people to be saved because He saw that they would one day decide to accept His grace. His election is what lead to them receiving His grace to begin with. 

Nothing highlights the truth that we are saved by grace alone more than the doctrine of predestination. When did God choose to save us? When did He determine to call us to faith and preserve us to the very end? The Bible says that it happened even before we were born. As Saint Paul writes, “He chose us, in Christ, before the foundation of the world.” 

And finally, then, the last thing that we need to remember if we want to get the doctrine of predestination right is that the only purpose of this teaching is to comfort Christians who are sorry for their sins. It’s to humble those who think that their salvation is caused by their own good works, and console those who are looking to Christ for salvation because they know that their works haven’t been good enough. What does Jesus say right before He says, “Many are called, but few are chosen,” in our text? He says “the last will be first, and the first last.” That’s a summary of how things work in God’s kingdom. Those who consider themselves worthy of a place in it because of themselves will not enter it. But those who know that they should be outside of it, and yet trust in the Lord to be merciful to them and let them in anyway on account of Christ, will stay in it forever.

If you’re thinking about predestination in such a way where gives the impression that you can do sinful things on purpose and it won’t make any difference because you’re one of God’s elect, then you’re not thinking about it in the right way. You aren’t using it to comfort sinners; you’re using it to harden them. And if you’re thinking about predestination in such a way where it makes you terrified that you might not go to heaven, regardless if you repentant of your sins, and look to Jesus for forgiveness, then you aren’t thinking about it correctly either. What you’re thinking about isn’t even the real doctrine of predestination. It’s something else entirely. 

We seek out the answer to our election always, and only, in Jesus Christ alone. As our Lutheran Confessions point out, He is the Book of Life in whom all the names of the saved are written. That means that you don’t figure out if you are one of God’s elect simply by sitting in the corner of a room and wondering if God chose you. You look to His Son Jesus, who died for the sins of the whole world, meaning He died for you sins too. You look to the promises that God made to you in your Baptism, where the Bible says that He called you by name into His kingdom, just like the master in the parable called the workers into His vineyard. You listen to the word of the Gospel, which assure you of everlasting life for all believers. And after all that, then you marvel at the mystery that God planned your salvation and chose you for it even before the world began. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.