Do the scriptures paradoxically teach both "election" and "free will", in a way that we simply have to accept on faith, even if we can't understand how both can be so?
Well, keeping in mind that, ultimately, we do indeed "see through a glass darkly", and cannot, ultimately, penetrate any of these things (even, most significantly, the parts we assume we have a handle on but just aren't sure "how they work together"--that blithe, prior assumption can be so dangerous)--keeping that in mind, I would venture and dare to suggest that perhaps it's not quite so paradoxical as we comfort ourselves by saying it is (or, in some cases, dissatisfied with "inscrutable paradox"--which itself was likely a premature conclusion--we comfort ourselves by perfunctorily canceling one or the other side of it: "well, there's just no free will, that's all"; "well, there's just no predestination, that's all", which is a vivid case of logical "out of the frying pan, into the fire"...).
I think that a key and crucial and intrinsic element--theologically and conceptually--is the phrase "in Christ". For the apostle Paul there is no "predestination" or "election" apart from election in Christ. It is spiritually perilous to divorce anything Paul says about election/predestination from its sole determinative and conditioning context: "in Christ". "In Christ" is no mere tag or addendum; it is no afterthought or token tip of the hat, as if it meant "We are predestined by God; and, yes, of course, we have to be thankful that Christ died for us--otherwise, God couldn't have elected/predestined us." Such a conceptual take on what Paul means by our being chosen in Christ is simply catastrophic and inevitably distorts so much else revealed in holy scripture.
One must maintain a conscious hold, in fact, on the sense of the word "Christ" itself (the word being a constant statement about the Person) because it is conceptually packed and immediately inter-dynamic with the notion of election/predestination with which Paul intrinsically links it (and us!).
The Christ, the Mashiakh, the "Anointed" is the embodiment and epitome of Chosen-ness. To be the Chosen One is to be The Christ. To be united to Him is to derive our chosen-ness, our election, from Him. No one is predestined, per se, except that Christ is predestined..."slain from the foundations of the world"...to be the One, the Only One, in whom redemption is consummated and materialized, made real and perfect forever. Because He is, there is election, there is predestination, there is Divine Appointment and a holy place for our spirits. "Whosoever believeth"...as John 3:16 says...enters into the only chosen-ness, election, predestination and holy place that God holds out in grace to all mankind: the Son of Man, Son of God, the only Christ, Jesus.
To me it seems not so much "paradox" as ineffable perfection of grace in divine beneficence. God's grace welcomes our choice, and furnishes the "place", the Person, the Only Way, in which our choice could ever mean anything--because He, Jesus, is the Christ, and in Him alone..."it is finished". And so, we enter the spiritual union with the only One "in Whom all My favor rests" and like branches draw from Him, the Living Vine, our election, our chosen-ness, our predestined...and consummated in Christ...glory as the children of God.
