Acts 13 · a question people ask
"As many as were appointed to eternal life believed." (13:48). What does it mean?
This question is only about 13:48. First, what the chapter says. On the next Sabbath, "almost the whole city was gathered together to hear the word of God" (13:44). "But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with jealousy, and contradicted the things which were spoken by Paul, and blasphemed." (13:45). Paul and Barnabas "spoke out boldly" (13:46-47). "As the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified the word of God. As many as were appointed to eternal life believed." (13:48). The chapter says no more of the appointing than this verse does. Christians read it in more than one way, each resting on its verses, and this question picks none. All agree on what Paul says earlier in the chapter: "by him everyone who believes is justified" (13:39). Whom the Father draws is asked in Favor's chapter on John 6, and whether someone who knows God can be cast off in Favor's chapter on 1 Chronicles 28; neither is asked again here, and these notes set no verse of John beside 13:48. They apply neither reading to anyone today.
How Christians read it
Where Christians differ, Favor sets out the main views side by side and doesn't pick one.
God's appointing comes before believing
Those who read it this way read 13:48 as saying that God's appointing came first, and that those appointed to eternal life are the ones who believed. They set two other verses of Acts beside it. At Philippi, of Lydia, Acts says, "The Lord opened her heart to listen to the things which were spoken by Paul." (16:14). And at Corinth, the Lord says to Paul in a vision, "for I have many people in this city" (18:10). On this reading, those God appointed believed.
Acts 13:48 · Acts 16:14 · Acts 18:9-10
God's appointing goes with the hearers' own choice
Those who read it this way read 13:48 as saying that God's appointing and the hearers' own choice stand together. They set two other verses of Acts beside it. Two verses before, Paul and Barnabas said to those who "contradicted the things which were spoken by Paul" (13:45): "Since indeed you thrust it from yourselves, and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles." (13:46). And at Athens, Paul says, "he commands that all people everywhere should repent" (17:30). On this reading, the appointing of 13:48 and the hearers' own choosing go together.
Acts 13:45-46 · Acts 17:30 · Acts 13:48
The verses
“and by him everyone who believes is justified from all things, from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses.”