The Gospel of John

Predestination and Grace

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Conversations, Panels and Sermons

Lesson: 72- 72

Genre:

Track: 070

Dictation Name: RR197AM72

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Year:

Our scripture is John 21:18-25. Our subject: Predestination and Grace. John 21:18-25.

“ Verily, verily, I say unto thee, When thou wast young, thou girdest thyself, and walkedst whither thou wouldest: but when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not.

19 This spake he, signifying by what death he should glorify God. And when he had spoken this, he saith unto him, Follow me.

20 Then Peter, turning about, seeth the disciple whom Jesus loved following; which also leaned on his breast at supper, and said, Lord, which is he that betrayeth thee?

21 Peter seeing him saith to Jesus, Lord, and what shall this man do?

22 Jesus saith unto him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? follow thou me.

23 Then went this saying abroad among the brethren, that that disciple should not die: yet Jesus said not unto him, He shall not die; but, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee?

24 This is the disciple which testifieth of these things, and wrote these things: and we know that his testimony is true.

25 And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen.”

We come now to the conclusion of John’s gospel. It is a rather unusual one, it is a century tied to the fact of the resurrection and we cannot understand it unless we read it in terms of the resurrection. John began with the magnificent prologue declaring what Jesus is, that He is the declaration of who God is, the exegesis. Now he concludes both chapter twenty and twenty one with rather strange comments.

He speaks of the truth of Christ as inexhaustible, not all the books in the world could contain it. We have a rather startling conclusion to this book. In verse eighteen our Lord tells Peter when you were young you did very much as you pleased but in your old age others will do with you what they will. This is a suggestion in our Lord’s words of death, of execution at the hands of others. Peter certainly understood that some kind of arrest and execution was meant and this clearly was a jolt to Peter. He turned around and looked at John and then asked Peter about John’s future, what about this man, what about him? Is he going to be put to death as I will? Jesus’ answer was blunt and to a great degree very blunt. If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? Follow thou me. Very obviously our Lord’s words presuppose predestination. It is He who ordains the lives of all men and He has decreed the lives and deaths of His disciples. His statement is emphatic, if I will, all depends on His sovereign will. Neither he, Peter, nor any other disciples disputes this. His predestination and His purpose differs from one person to the other. There is no equality in predestination, He could, He says, decree that John remain alive until the second coming but He does not say so, He simply says it is at my discretion. His remark was construed by some as exempting John from death which was a very foolish misinterpretation. What He did say was that His will is sovereign so that no man can complain about his portion.

Paul wrote about this, its implication, in 1st Corinthians 4:7:

“ For who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?”

You are what God made you, don’t glory in it as though you made yourself. What we are is as much a part of God’s predestination as what shall become thus later in time as in eternity. Wherefore our Lord’s blunt statement, what is that to thee? God’s purposes for us are determined by Him not by us but this does not absolve us from our duty. Predestination does not mean that we are autonomons, we are responsible creatures with a secondary responsibility and freedom, therefore our Lord tells Peter follow thou me. This Peter can do and so can we. In the Greek the order of the words is a bit different, Thou, follow me! Very blunt. It is personal and intensive, we are not to look at God’s treatments of others and then envy their blessings. We are all called to serve in a particular sphere and way and we are also at the same time being prepared for an eternal calling so that our difficult times are nothing compared to eternity. But this is a problem for our age because ours is one that stresses equality, there are those who say God should treat everybody equal even as our law does or is supposed to do but doesn’t. Although we may be fully aware of the evils of equalitarianism we still are so much the children of our time that we do hunger for leveling that will favor us.

That is what equalitarianism is about. We don’t want those below us on our level we want those above us on our level and this equalitarianism is anti-Christian. So our urge to say why me is wrong. But there is another point. Without predestination there is no grace. Predestination and grace are simply differing aspects of God’s sovereignty, if we remove God’s election from the scene we have then man’s self-electing works and no gospel at all. John throughout his gospel stresses God’s sovereignty and predestination, at the conclusion he records that Jesus confronted the disciples with this fact: what He said to Peter applies to all. John might not die at the hands of executioners but his sufferings were no less. He was exiled to the isle of Patmos as Revelation 1:9 tells us where he worked as a prisoner. It was a particularly slave labor site and it was rare for anyone to survive Patmos. Every disciple was to be used by men exactly as God ordained because all were Christ’s witnesses. In verses twenty four and twenty five John tells us that his account is attested and true. Again in the previous chapter, 20:30, John tells us that more books could be written about Jesus then the world could contain. Certainly if a daily journal had been kept by the disciples we would have several large volumes of detailed accounts but this does not seem to be what John meant. What his language in 20:40 and 21:25 tells us is that were we to describe an account for Jesus Christ is impossible because as the word of God, God the Son, He is like the Father and the Spirit inexhaustible. Were we to describe a man would be difficult, how could anyone describe us fully?

But because we are creatures and limited theoretically it could be done. Not so with God. How can men describe or comprehend one who is eternal, infinite and invisible as well as all mighty, all wise, most holy, most absolute and most free in all His being? To comprehend God would require of us a mind equal to God yet although He is incomprehensible we could still know Him truly through His revelation because He is self-consistent in all His being. Every part of God is true to every other part. We are not consistent. There are contradictions in our nature but not in Gods so that while we can never know Him exhaustively or know God the Son exhaustively we can know Him truly. It is this that John refers to and that all his gospel tell us about. Since John wrote his gospel the number of commentaries on the life of Jesus Christ, studies in the gospels, theoretical works on the subject and more have been legion yet each generation sees afresh as total relevance and no generation can exhaust his meaning. John writes orthodox Christians have always held, under inspiration of the Holy Spirit in a unique way. As in all scripture in John we see the words which are God given. In John more than in Matthew, Mark and Luke the deity of Jesus Christ is dealt with most plainly but John’s final word is that the subject is like the person, inexhaustible. But John in his prologue gives a summation, chapter 1:1-18, which rings out like music. John Calvin once wrote of the Apostle’s Creed that it should be sung because it is such glorious music, music in words.

There was another curious fact about John’s ending. Mark and Luke conclude with Christ’s ascension, Matthew tells us that the disciples assembled at the mount of ascension and although he concludes with the great commission the ascension is implicit. John does not include the ascension. He tells us of our Lord’s many references to it but still he does not record it. His account of Jesus Christ presents Him as forever present and yet eternally on the throne of glory. Twice John tells us that much remains untold about the signs Jesus did in the presence of His disciples. Why did John not make such a statement earlier? Earlier in his gospel? Why at the end in connection with the account of the resurrection, his appearances thereafter, the signs are miracles with the meaning that reveals the gospel. Nothing more clearly reveals the gospel then Christ’s atoning death and His resurrection. They tell us that Jesus Christ has destroyed the power of sin and death. John therefore deliberately limits the numbers of miracles he reports in order to point and concentrate on our Lord’s death and resurrection. But Jesus of history is He who made atonement for us, died and was resurrected. His life cannot be understand apart from this nor can we know His history in any other light. This is why John’s testimony tells us is true and while books filling the earth would not contain all that could be said the testimony given by John is true and faithful. The resurrection points to eternity, it tells us that Jesus Christ cannot be comprehended in anything man can say because the truth about Him while true in everything that the scriptures tells us is still inexhaustible as His being.

And so John points us to the resurrection, to the inexhaustible Christ who is from eternity to eternity and points us to the same eternity. And so He tells the disciples thou, follow me. You are going to suffer, your life is going to be very difficult, but the future is ours and it is an eternal future. And so John ends his gospel pointing us to more than the ascension, to all eternity and to the inexhaustible Christ. Not all the books that were written could begin to tell the whole of His story. Let us pray.

Our Father we give thanks unto Thee for this Thy word. We thank Thee that Thou who art infinite, eternal, all wise and beyond our imagination has made Thyself young to us as one like unto us and has summoned us to follow Thee. Make us faithful followers in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Are there any questions now about our lesson? Yes?

[Question Unintelligible]

[Rushdoony] Well, first of all he was closest to Him and John was best prepared to understand Jesus. He was related to the high priestly family, he did have an awareness of the theological issues unlike the others and while John was like the others also blind, unable to see the fullness, he grasped it much more eloquently and fully when the time came. Now that in itself tells us something, its anti-equalitarian.

The modern feeling is that Jesus should have loved every one of them equally including Judas. And one of the things that are, oh, a real problem to many people today is that they often, parents, will favor one child more than others. Now this is not always true, many parents love all their children. But very often a parent will feel especially fond of one. I recall an episode where there were three children and the baby was the one who was mother’s pet and darling and the two older ones complained about it as though somehow great wrong was done to them. They were thoroughly modern and ungodly and to them that was terrible that at times the baby got an obvious preference from the mother. And so they came to her indigently as though they had her nailed. You favor her and she said and what if I do? Have either of you ever had any lack of love and care from me? Well they couldn’t say no and so she said get out of my sight, don’t ever come to me with anything that stupid you’ve never lacked anything in love from me. Well, when we understand that we begin to understand why there is predestination, why John was the beloved disciple and why we are ourselves are more partial sometimes to one person then another. But in our equalitarian age this isn’t fair and we are told that God’s predestination varies from person to person. [unknown] varies from person to person. This again is not popular in our equalitarian age. Everything should be even handed. Well heaven is not going to be the great democratic society. Yes?

[Question Unintelligible]

[Rushdoony] Yes. At the last supper since they were all on low tables leaning on couches as was the custom then and still is in some parts of the world, so that you’d lie like this, leaning on your elbow and you’d be halfway against somebody else, since John was so close he was asked to ask of Jesus Lord, which is he that betrayeth thee. So John was the one who asked the question at the instigation of others.

[Question Unintelligible]

[Rushdoony] Yes. Any other questions or comments? Well if not let us conclude with prayer.

Our Father we give thanks unto Thee that by Thy spirit and by Thy grace and mercy Thou hast made us Thy people, has given us a delight in Thy word and an understanding of Thy word. Guide us this day and always so that we may know how great our future is in Jesus Christ. Grant that we may serve Thee with our whole heart, mind and being and be more than conquerors through Jesus Christ. And now go in peace, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost, bless you and keep you, guide and protect you, this day and always, Amen. e is