(Ok, here's a new topic for this blog... or maybe not!)
DOCTRINES OF FAITH
Doctrine 8 / 36: The Sovereignty of God versus the Free Will of Man
The age old conflict of God's Sovereignty verses Man's Free Will is a debate primarily over this question: "If God completely controls everything, then how can man be held responsible for his actions?" There are many sidebars that take place to attempt to resolve this dilemma, but it ultimately comes back to how God can judge man for something that man is incapable of doing.
One way to answer this dilemma is to simply say that God is completely causing everything to happen, including man's actions. In this, God essentially has caused man to sin so that He could show His power and wrath over those that are damned, and show his completely arbitrary grace to some men. This concept magnifies God's grace, towards those whom He saved, and it makes His wrath so much greater towards the lost man. Romans 9 is used heavily to support this teaching when it says, "Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour? What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory" (Romans 9:21-23).
The problem with this idea is that it goes against the teaching in the Scripture that God does not desire the death of the lost. "As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked" (Ezekiel 33:11). And again, "[God] will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth" (1 Timothy 2:4). If God does not desire to destroy the wicked, then He would not have made them for that purpose.
The resolution to this seems to be in the fact that God made man in His own image and in His likeness. When God created Adam, He created a sinless being that had the capability of choosing to not sin. However, Adam made the conscious decision to go against God's commandment and he ate of the fruit in Genesis 3. Because of this sin, all of Adam's descendants have inherited his sinful nature. Man no longer has that same capability of living without sin. Every child, once it knows the difference between right and wrong, will definitely make the same conscious decision to go against God as Adam did. This is because of the nature that child received being a descendant of Adam. However, even with this corrupted nature, man is still said to be made in the similitude of God (James 3:9). And although man no longer has the nature to go without sin, he does have the ability to respond positively or negatively to the Holy Spirit's conviction of sin.
It is true that man's depravity is such that he is unable to bring about his own salvation, however the Bible teaches that God has shown His grace not only for certain of mankind, but for all of the world. "For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men" (Titus 2:11). Not only has His grace appeared to all men, but the Bible also teaches that the propitiation for the sins of the Christians is also the propitiation for the sins of the whole world (1 John 2:2). Jesus' sacrifice was made so that any man that responded to the Spirit's conviction (which is only given by God's grace in the first place) with faith would be saved. For God so loved the world that He gave His Son. It is not that He only loved certain of the world, but that He loved the world. God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9).
Some would argue that this teaching takes sovereignty away from God in some way. However, either God has a "permissive will" in which He has allowed man to determine things (always within His limits and control), or He is the immediate mover of all things, and therefore the author of sin. God is too holy to be the cause of sin, so it must be that He has given the ability to determine some things to man.
What of the "elect"? God has chosen some to save, and He has chosen them before He even founded the earth. However, this choosing was not the choosing of certain individuals to put into the body of Christ, or to give them faith unconditionally. Rather, the election was the choosing to save all of those that would be in Christ. Christ is called "the chosen of God." All those that are in Christ receive the benefits of the election. Truly God is omniscient, and when He created the world, He did know the eternal destiny of all souls before they were even born. Foreknowledge, though, does not require causation; that is, just because God knows what will happen to a man does not mean that He has to cause it to happen. God's election is based on His foreknowledge (Romans 8:29; 1 Peter 1:2). God in His sovereignty and omnipotence, has created man with the ability to respond or reject the Spirit.
"O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!"
1 comment:
Just an idea on this. God does mention the "elect" but this is because time is not linear with God, as it is with us. We all have free will, He does not deny any us of us to choose what we do, but He knows (because He is sovereign God) what the results of every possible decision each one of us makes, just as He know the number of hairs on each of our heads. Some people are destined to become pillars of Christianity, because as God, He knows the end all of their lives. As God creates humanity - Adam and Eve - He knows that they will sin. He knows how depraved humanity will become in this year 2008. It is still up to each us to procure our salvation through His blood, but it cannot ever take away from God's Sovereignity. We are mere humans, our limited vision and use of only 8% of our brain cannot begin to comprehend all the mysteries and Perfection of God. He knows all, and to even suggest that God cannot know what we ourselves have not decided yet, is to say He is limited.
An example, if Adam did not sin, would Christ have come down to earth to be born human? Well, first of all, God knew they would sin, but let them make the blunder. Second of all, the second person of the Divinity, the Word of God, is the King, and He would come down to be among us, and be the King of His people. But we, born in sin because of Adam, needed His sacrifice, so He paid the price for all of us that love Him and want to be His subjects in the eternal heaven....
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