Podcast Summary:

Things Unseen with Sinclair B. Ferguson
Episode: Predestination: He Loved Us First
Date: November 11, 2025
Host: Sinclair B. Ferguson (Ligonier Ministries)

Episode Overview

This episode explores the biblical doctrine of predestination as presented in Romans 8:30. Sinclair B. Ferguson reflects on the implications of God deciding our destiny before our journey begins, addressing misunderstandings and highlighting the profound comfort and humility this doctrine brings to the Christian life.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Slowing Down to Explore Predestination

• After last week's rapid overview of Romans, Ferguson spends this week focusing on one major concept: predestination.
• He introduces the “four big words” from Romans 8:30: predestination, calling, justification, and glorification, but centers today’s discussion on predestination alone.
  (00:08)

2. Understanding Predestination

• Definition: "It means deciding on a destiny, deciding the destination of the journey and doing that before it actually begins."
  (Ferguson, 00:21)

• Ferguson recalls his church history professor’s insight:
  — "The Bible is a book about predestination."
  (00:44)

• He dismisses the idea that creation was left to happen randomly, stressing God’s intentional planning even before anything existed.

  • "God planned it. That is to say, he predestined it. He had a plan even before he created anything." (01:01)

3. Predestination Is Personal

• God’s predestination encompasses not only the cosmos but also our individual lives and salvation.
• Our very existence is not just a result of our parents’ choices but of God’s sovereign planning (01:30).

  "Their actions were sovereignly superintended by the planning of God." (01:40)

4. Common Resistance Among Christians

• Ferguson often hears, "I don’t believe in predestination," from evangelical Christians.
• His candid response:
  — "So you don’t really believe the Bible, you don’t believe the apostles, you don’t believe the Lord Jesus." (02:00)
• He recognizes that many are prejudiced against it due to prior teaching or unsettling feelings about giving up control.
  • “Predestination can be an unsettling teaching… it humbles me. And none of us really likes being humbled by nature. But of course, that’s exactly what we need as sinners.” (03:07)

5. Predestination as Comfort and Encouragement

• Once accepted as biblical truth, predestination is described as comforting and encouraging.

  “Predestination becomes a wonderfully comforting and encouraging teaching.” (03:25)

6. Hymn Insight: Charles Wesley

• Ferguson notes that even those critical of predestination, like Charles Wesley in his hymn “And Can It Be,” essentially confess dependence on God’s initiative for salvation.
  • Quote from Wesley: "Fast bound in sin and nature’s night; Thine eye diffused a quickening ray, I woke, the dungeon flamed with light, my chains fell off." (04:00)
• This is a tacit admission that we cannot save ourselves; God acts first.

7. The Necessity of God’s Initiative

• Citing Jesus, Ferguson points out that apart from God’s action, we cannot even see or enter the kingdom of God.
  • “God needs to bring us to new birth, and all of that means we need God to be acting first…” (04:38)
• Therefore, God’s initiative logically means he planned to act—that is, he predestined.

8. The Relational Heart of Predestination

• Foreknowledge in Romans 8:29 ("he foreknew us") means God set his heart on us even before we were born.
  • “Even before I was born, God had set his heart on us... planned my salvation, planned that he would take my broken and marred life and transform it by his grace.” (05:22)

9. Security, Grace, and Assurance

• The doctrine brings profound assurance:
  • “What love, what grace, what security. And yes, what planning. Because this reassures me that even although I am weak, his purposes stand forever.” (05:45)

10. Wise Counsel from Martin Luther’s Mentor

• Story: Luther’s superior, Staupitz, said,

  “Seek predestination in the wounds of Christ.” (06:12)

• Meaning: We cannot find answers by prying into God’s eternal mind or by self-examination, but only in the love of Jesus.
  • “When I take hold of Jesus Christ in faith and come to love him, he surely responds to me, ‘Yes, my child, but I loved you first.’” (06:35)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Sinclair B. Ferguson:
  “The Bible is a book about predestination.” (00:44)

• Sinclair B. Ferguson:
  “So you don’t really believe the Bible, you don’t believe the apostles, you don’t believe the Lord Jesus.” (02:00)

• Charles Wesley (quoted):
  “Fast bound in sin and nature’s night; Thine eye diffused a quickening ray, I woke, the dungeon flamed with light, my chains fell off.” (04:00)

• Martin Luther’s Mentor, Staupitz (recounted by Ferguson):
  “Martin, seek predestination in the wounds of Christ.” (06:12)

• Sinclair B. Ferguson:
  “We love him because he first loved us. And that’s at the heart of predestination.” (06:50)

Key Timestamps

• 00:08: Introduction; Romans 8:30 and the focus on predestination
• 01:01: Explanation of God’s planning before creation
• 02:00 - 03:07: Christian resistance and predestination’s humbling effect
• 03:25: Predestination’s encouragement and comfort
• 04:00: Quoting Charles Wesley and the necessity of God’s initiative
• 05:22: God’s foreknowledge and personal predestination
• 05:45: The security and assurance in God’s purpose
• 06:12: Staupitz’s advice to seek assurance in Christ, not abstract doctrine
• 06:50: Love as the heart of predestination

Concluding Reflection

Ferguson ultimately encourages believers to find their assurance not in introspection or speculation, but in Christ’s love. The doctrine of predestination, he argues, is at its heart a message that “he loved us first”—offering humility, security, and comfort to the Christian soul.