How the Reprobate Prove the Doctrine of Reprobation
God’s righteousness is the ground for His reprobation. In other words, because God has decreed all things that come to pass, He has willed for some to rightly suffer the consequences for crimes committed against Him. God is right to judge and punish all sinners for the inherited and practiced rebellion against Him. Each sin is an action in eternity, as well as time, that positions man at enmity with the Holy God.
Adam and Eve employed their God-given will to break God’s law in the Garden of Eden. All humanity was found in the seed of Adam, so Adam’s sin became the inheritance of Adam’s progeny. Even before one is born, he or she is determined by God to be elect or reprobate, just as Jacob was loved by God, and Esau was hated by God, while both were still in Rebecca’s womb (Rom 9:6–13).
God’s salvation is derived from His eternal decree of election. This is an unchangeable, eternal decree. Election has its predetermined numbers of people, and reprobation has its predetermined numbers of people.
God is righteous to damn all people in hell because of the lawless breach of His holy commandments; but God has shown mercy to some, and this is entirely by His eternal good pleasure. There is only sin in man, who can merit absolutely nothing before the Great White Throne of Judgment. All men are guilty before God.
In eternity, God’s good pleasure manifested in His holy, unchangeable will, which He then decreed to be enacted perfectly by His providence. All things have been ordained to come to pass with precision…even the wicked for the day of evil (Prv 16:4). Some have been ordained to believe in the one and only Savior of sinners, Jesus Christ (Acts 13:48).
These believers in Jesus are the ones who rejoice in the God of election and reprobation. Unbelievers hate God for the revealed, biblical doctrine of reprobation. The thing that unregenerate unbelievers, even those posing as Christians, loathe about reprobation is God’s sovereignty. It is their penchant to put some condition on God that denies Him the sovereign reign that is His alone. They say God has done His part and now man must do his part in making salvation possible. This is heresy.
God is all-powerful and all-wise in doing His good pleasure. The fact that He hates those who do iniquity (Ps 5:5; 11:5), and has decided to pass by some, in order to demonstrate His righteous judgment and punishment (Rom 9:14–18), is what is hated by unbelievers. Sovereign predestination to election and reprobation is simply unacceptable to unbelievers.
Unbelievers declare that God would be unrighteous if He did not love everyone, everywhere, and at all times (even those already consigned to eternal fire). They reject the Christ who died for His people, claiming He would be unrighteous if He did not die for everyone, everywhere, and at all times (even for those already in hell on the day of the Savior’s birth!).
Finally, unbelievers despise the Holy Spirit when the Scriptures demonstrate that the Spirit does not reveal the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven to all people (Mt 13:11). They deny that Jesus even thanked God the Father for hiding the mystery of salvation from the reprobate (Mt 11:25–26).
In conclusion, God has eternally decreed election and reprobation. Some are chosen to be saved by Jesus Christ and His precious blood; and some are chosen to be damned, in righteousness and perfect justice. The difference is simply the sovereign mercy of God upon elect believers, who walk in humility, fully aware there was no good thing in them to merit mercy.
Who despises God’s just and sovereign mercy upon His elect children? It is the unregenerate unbelieving children of the devil, who hear of their reprobation, and who harden their hearts against God and doctrinal truth, thus proving the very doctrine of reprobation they hate with all their hearts.
David Norczyk
Spokane Valley, Washington
July 23, 2021
