What God wants vs. What God does

The Bible is clear in stating that God does not want "anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance" (II Peter 3:9). He "wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth" (I Timothy 3:4).

Yet, it is also clear that faith, by which salvation comes, is a gift of God (Ephesians 2:8) and this gift has been given to some, but not all men and women. Jesus said that the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to His disciples, but not to others in the crowd who heard the same parable from Him (Matthew 13:11). In His prayer, Jesus clearly spoke of those whom the Father has given Him and who belong to the Father, different from those who are of the world (John 17:9). When Paul and Barnabas were preaching in Pisidian Antioch, it was those who were "appointed for eternal life" that believed (Acts 13:48). Those who become God's children have been chosen before the creation of the world and "predestined" to be adopted to be His children (Ephesians 1:4-5, 11).

If God wants all men to be saved, why did He not choose and predestine all men to be saved? This has been a perplexing question for many students of the Bible.

I find my answer to this question in Lamentations 3:32-33: "Though He brings grief, He will show compassion, so great is His unfailing love. For He does not willingly bring affliction or grief to the children of men."

It is not God's will to bring affliction or grief to the children of men, but He does bring grief. It seems that God sometimes does, though not willingly, what He does not want to do -- like bringing grief. It seems that God does not always do what He wants to do in His compassion and love.

He has decreed that the price of sin is death: "And the LORD God commanded the man, 'You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.'" (Genesis 2:16-17). Adam sinned and all men after him became sinners, all deserving of death. God is faithful to His words and must exact the price of sin from the sinners. It is not, however, that God predestined us to become sinners and to die of sin; we became sinners on our own.

God still shows compassion to sinners. He shines the sunlight and sends rain to all men, whether righteous or not (Matthew 5:45). And He has given a special gift to some men, whom He has chosen before the creation and predestined to be His adopted children.

Obviously it is not known to us as to who has been chosen and who has not been. We only know who has been chosen, once he or she believes -- even here, most of us would not know for sure, until we meet each other in heaven. It is not our responsibility to try to figure out what has not been given to us. What is our task is to rejoice in salvation and glorify the Lord's name.