After the encounter with the rich young ruler in Matt 19:25, Jesus’ disciples ask “Who then can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
John 6:44 says it is completely out of our hands as Jesus says “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.” Verse 65 adds “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.”
Paul’s letters capture many assertions about predestination, a controversial and often misunderstood term, but a term that is literally biblical. Ephesians 1:4-5 says “Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will.”
Later in his letter to the Ephesians Paul cautions readers not to boast if they believe they are saved writing in 2:8 “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”
And (in Romans 8:29) “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.”
Jesus explained to Nicodemus (John 3:3), “Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
In John 15:16 Jesus says “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.”
Acts 13:48 excites the Gentiles “And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed.”
Jesus says we go through him “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6)
God owes us nothing. We’d not even know the concepts of right, wrong, justice, grace, mercy, were it not for the creator. To presume to question or critique His plan is pure folly. If he chooses to have some innumerable count of persons able survive physical death and be reunited with him after death, that is His decision to make. If a way exists to achieve this eternal life, I’m more than interested. In my experience, the cosmos is too vast and the limitations of this life too restrictive to not long for more. The answer to achieving eternal life is believing. This entails patterning my life after the perfect one lived by Jesus, and accepting Jesus as the one and only required atonement for my sins when I die.