Predestination And Free-Will

Who Seeks Whom?

 
Do ANY of the unsaved seek after God?
 

Romans 3:11 – “There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.”

Romans 10:20 – “But Esaias is very bold, and saith, I was found of them that sought me not; I was made manifest unto them that asked not after me.”

Ezekiel 34:11-16 – “11 For thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I, even I, will both search my sheep, and seek them out. 12 As a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered; so will I seek out my sheep, and will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day. 13 And I will bring them out from the people, and gather them from the countries, and will bring them to their own land, and feed them upon the mountains of Israel by the rivers, and in all the inhabited places of the country. 14 I will feed them in a good pasture, and upon the high mountains of Israel shall their fold be: there shall they lie in a good fold, and in a fat pasture shall they feed upon the mountains of Israel. 15 I will feed my flock, and I will cause them to lie down, saith the Lord GOD. 16 I will seek that which was lost, and bring again that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick: but I will destroy the fat and the strong; I will feed them with judgment.”

Luke 19:10 – “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.”

 
Note that God seeks us – we don’t seek him, because when we are unsaved we don’t even know that we are lost (see Romans 3:11 and 10:20 above). Once God shows us that we are hopelessly lost Hell-deserving sinners, we can cry out to Him to have mercy on our lost soul and to save us from the wrath of God. It is this recognition of one’s sinnership and God’s holiness that occurs at salvation, when God opens our spiritual eyes as He did with Isaiah:
 

Isaiah 6:5 – “Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.”

 
The only way that Isaiah could see the Lord’s holiness and his own sinfulness was if God reached out and gave him the ability to see:
 

John 9:39 – “And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind.”

 
Similarly, if God does not want someone to be saved or if it is not His time for them to be saved, they will not see the kingdom of God… their spiritual eyes will not be opened:
 

Romans 11:7-8 – “7 What then? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for; but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded 8 (According as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear;) unto this day.”

 
We cannot manipulate God and make Him save us just because we say a sinner’s prayer in which we ‘accept’ Christ as our Saviour. As spiritually blind sinners, we are entirely at the mercy of God to seek us out (Luke 19:10) and to heal us of our spiritual blindness:
 

Matthew 20:30 – “And, behold, two blind men sitting by the way side, when they heard that Jesus passed by, cried out, saying, Have mercy on us, O Lord, thou Son of David.”

 
God certainly causes a person to care about their sins, just as He enabled the two blind men mentioned above, to have faith in Christ to heal them. However, God saves people in His time and in His way. The two blind men in Matthew 20 were healed by the Lord’s touch. The blind man in John 9 was healed by the Lord making clay by spitting on the ground. In either case, these three men would never have been healed if it were not for the Lord coming their way and granting them healing. And so it is with salvation. God must send the workers out into the harvest field, and He must give them the Word to preach and He must bring conviction of sin and conversion of the heart.
 
Summary: This article is a section of a much larger article on the Bible doctrines of Election and Predestination called “Who accepts Whom?“. You are urged to check out that larger article for many other thought provoking questions pertaining these “Doctrines of Grace”. — RM Kane
 

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