The Divine Initiative
Renewing Your Mind
Ligonier Ministries
4.8 • 5.3K Ratings
🗓️ 6 March 2026
⏱️ 26 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Since God has already predestined everyone who will be saved, why should we evangelize? Today, R.C. Sproul reflects on the Bible's compelling answer to this common question.
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Meet Today's Teacher:
R.C. Sproul (1939–2017) was founder of Ligonier Ministries, first minister of preaching and teaching at Saint Andrew's Chapel, first president of Reformation Bible College, and executive editor of Tabletalk magazine.
Meet the Host:
Nathan W. Bingham is vice president of media for Ligonier Ministries, executive producer and host of Renewing Your Mind, and host of the Ask Ligonier podcast.
Renewing Your Mind is a donor-supported outreach of Ligonier Ministries. Explore all of our podcasts: https://www.ligonier.org/podcasts
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | In light of the whole concept of predestination, if God has decreed from all eternity that certain |
| 0:05.6 | people are saved, then certainly those people will be saved, why then should we be concerned |
| 0:11.3 | about evangelism? |
| 0:18.3 | When the topic of God's sovereignty comes up, that may be one of the most asked questions. |
| 0:24.3 | Why evangelize? It seems to make sense, though, doesn't it? Since God is in charge of salvation, |
| 0:30.4 | why bother sharing the gospel? Well, that's the question R.C. Spro will tackle today on this |
| 0:35.9 | Friday edition of Renewing Your Mind. |
| 0:39.5 | Chosen by God is the series you've been hearing this week, and it was this series and book |
| 0:44.5 | that the Lord used to help me as I wrestled with the doctrine of God's sovereignty. And that story |
| 0:50.8 | is shared by countless Christians. So if you'd like to help fuel the spread of trusted teaching, |
| 0:56.8 | like that found in Chosen by God, |
| 0:59.2 | when you make a donation before midnight tonight, |
| 1:01.9 | we'll send you a special 40th anniversary edition |
| 1:05.0 | of Chosen by God and the DVD edition of the series. |
| 1:08.8 | Plus, we'll unlock all the messages and the study guide for you |
| 1:12.8 | in the free Ligeneer app. Simply give your gift today at renewingyourmind.org. So how does |
| 1:19.8 | evangelism relate to predestination? Here's Dr. Sprawl. Throughout this series, I've made references from time to time to Paul's teaching on |
| 1:32.3 | this matter in his letter to the church at Ephesus. |
| 1:36.3 | And in this session, I want to consider further what we call in theology the divine initiative, referring to that first step of salvation that is brought to pass |
| 1:56.9 | in our lives unilaterally and exclusively by the power of God. |
| 2:03.5 | And we see this in this passage in Ephesians 2 that I have made occasional reference to, |
| 2:09.3 | and I'd like to spend a little bit more time on it now. |
... |
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