Predestination is a doctrine that greatly troubles many people. Could it be that God has determined to damn me? What a horrible doubt this casts upon the human heart, which is altogether too ready to doubt. There is plenty of evidence in my heart that I am worthy of being damned. Of that I am quite sure. It is a small step then to presume that God has destined me for perdition. Satan, who is a skillful, but corrupt, theologian, comes and reinforces our doubts with a preaching of our sin, sin that is obvious and all too true. He is the master of the inconvenient truth, which as it turns out, is a lie. For as true as our acknowledgment of sin might be, there is a better Word, which proclaims that our sin is paid for and our warfare accomplished. God says for Christ's sake, "Your sin no longer applies to you. It applies to Christ and was taken away by Him." Satan is desperate to drive us into doubt of exactly that and all the better to use God's own Word to lead us into despair and other great shame and vice.

If we are predestined, how do we find out whether we are predestined to damnation or salvation? We are led to wonder how we could find out from the hidden God whether we are among those on the right or on the left. Perhaps we can climb the ladder into heaven and get a peak at the mind of God and get a clue where we stand. That would be a high ladder indeed. Those who have tried to scale the stairway to heaven have found that eventually it collapses (Gn 11:1-9). We who are earthly must remain on earth. What then is left? What can we know?

The Son of God descends to reveal Himself to the patriarch Jacob (Gn 28:10-22). In these last days, His coming is not a dream, but an earthly incarnation of Mary. God becomes man and partakes of the earth in his birth, death, and resurrection. There is no need to climb up when the Son of God comes down, partaking our full humanity (Jn 1:18; 6:38). The solution to this temptation to tear off the mask of the heavenly Father is to see His self-revelation under the mask of His Son. Then I know what I need to know of His mind and heart through what He has revealed of His mind and heart. What is that? It is the crucified and dying God, Christ Jesus. How could we not know what is in the heart and mind of God toward us if while we were still sinners Christ died for us (Rm 5:8)? What is in the heart of the God who sends His Son to substitute for me? Nothing but my good and every gracious blessing. When we get tangled up in our hearts seeking and considering the hidden will of God, we need to repair to the revealed will of God under the hidden God, Christ. We should follow the advice of Johnannes von Staupitz, Martin Luther's kindly monastic superior, who said to him in his struggles: "Look at the wounds of Christ and at the blood that was shed for you." Ah, that we would all find so kindly a confessor.

Martin Luther