Common Sense On The Will

There has been debate over the will of man for centuries. Martin Luther debated Erasmus of Rotterdam in a diatribe The Bondage of the Will, and Jonathan Edwards wrote the book entitled The Freedom of the Will. Most of the problem lies with semantics because people don't understand the definitions. No one is saying we are automata, chatty dolls, or robots, so to speak.

But Proverbs 21:1 says, "The king's heart is a stream of water in the hands of the LORD; he turns it wherever he will." Jer. 10:23 (cf. Prov. 16:9) says, "I know, O LORD, that the way of man is not in himself, that it is not in man who walks to direct his steps." Prov. 20:24 says, "A man's steps are from the LORD, how then can man understand his way?" "...Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?" (Rom. 9:19). There are numerous passages that seem to indicate that God is in control.

There are two kinds of free will. The will to do the divine and to do the mundane. We have not lost the free will to do a secular activity. We do not have the desire or inclination to choose Christ apart from a work of grace (God woos us). "No man can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him..." (John 6:44, cf. 65 known as the "hard sayings of Jesus). "So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy" (Rom. 9:16). Our destiny is ultimately in God's hands and He chose us according to His foreknowledge before time began. (This refers to the doctrines of election and predestination.)

Is His sovereignty limited by man's freedom? The most fanatic Calvinist will admit that man is free to do what he desires to do. God never forces anyone to do anything he doesn't want to do--that would be coercion or determinism. He feels no outside force but God is still able to influence Him to do His will. "For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure" (Phil. 2:13; cf. Col. 1:29; Heb. 13:21). The will is defined as that by which the mind chooses and is the referee, as it were. Finally, Prov. 16:9 says, "The heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps."   Soli Deo Gloria!

Is There Christian Fatalism?

Fatalism is a far cry from predestination, which is taught in Scripture (cf. Eph. 1:11).  The Bible sanctions no sort of determinism or coercion, whereby we have no input into our final lot in life.  This is akin to the Muslim blind fate known as kismet.  If I told you it was your destiny to be a piano virtuoso, you would have to practice diligently to fulfill it; but if it was your fate, you couldn't avoid it. We have input into our destiny, which is ultimately in God's hands, because He elected us and chose us before the foundation of the world, and so woos and guides us toward believing that the Holy Spirit quickens faith within us.  Pascal said that he would not have sought Christ, had He not first sought him.

The truth is that no one would come to Christ apart from the working of the Spirit in that person and the Father calling them. "No man can come to me, unless the Father, who sent me, draws him" (cf. John 6:44).  It must be "granted of the Father" (cf. John 6:65).  Anyone who claims to have come to Christ without being influenced by the Spirit and all of his own initiative, probably left Christ all alone, too!  He "compels" us to come in (compelle intrarre in Latin, or "compel them to come in").

Now we do have something to say about our final "lot"--we are free to accept Christ but on His terms. No one can ever claim that he wanted to get saved, but was on the wrong list (the election is sort of an inside secret of Christians, not to be spread abroad with the gospel message). Anyone who rejects Christ fully rejected of his own free will and not under compulsion.  God neither impelled nor compelled him to make the choice, but he acted solely according to his nature and evil inclination. We can thank God that He has completed a work of grace in our hearts to turn a heart of stone into a heart of flesh (cf. Ezek. 36:26).  We don't cooperate in our salvation but are saved by grace alone.

We don't get any credit for being noble, brave, wise, nor moral, but God just chose to work in our hearts (Soli Deo Gloria! or, to God alone be the glory! That is, we get no credit!).  Our righteousness is God's gift to us, not our gift to God!  Why should God choose to save some and not others?  He reserves the right to have mercy on whom He will have mercy (cf. Romans 9:15,18). Have you ever given to a beggar?  Why not to all of them? Clearly, you reserve the right to do so. There is much unnecessary consternation about this doctrine, and the false notion of double predestination (known as hyper-Calvinism), or that God goes out of His way to ensure damnation for the nonelect by predisposing them to evil.  The truth is, that some receive mercy and grace, the others receive justice, but no one receives injustice.

We are elect "according to the foreknowledge of God," and "according to His purpose and grace," and even "according to the pleasure of His good will."  (Cf. 1 Pet. 1:1-2; 2 Tim. 1:9; Eph. 1:5).   Remember the very words of our Lord:  "You didn't choose me, but I chose you" (cf. John 15:16).   The gospel general call goes out to many with evangelical pleas, but the Word says, "Many are called, but few are chosen"  (Matt. 22:14).

The only hardening that God does in a heart is to confirm the act already done and this is merely judicial hardening, such as He did to Pharaoh--God treats no one unjustly  (cf. Isaiah 63:17).  God makes no one do anything by force, that they don't want to do like they are robots or puppets.  There is no outside force acting on us making us do something we don't want to--this is coercion.  And we have input into our destiny, and so it is not fate or determinism.  Salvation requires a prior work of grace, whereby the gift of faith is bestowed and we are to act upon it in obedience.  Soli Deo Gloria!

Determinism

Everything is determined in some respect by something. The question is whether our will is restrained or not in the process. If I do something to you that causes you to do something as a direct result, that can be a sort of determination. According to Jonathan Edwards, God is 100 percent sovereign and there are no "maverick molecules" in the universe, (Edwards says, "I like to ascribe absolute sovereignty to God"), to use an illustration. God never forces us to do something we don't want to do, though (that would be coercion or determinism), but He does influence us and let us act according to His plan. Like Joseph said, "You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good." This is concurrence or the working together of our wills with God's ultimate will. The Pharisees were playing right into God's plan when they arrested Jesus and had Him crucified. So even the most dastardly act in history was foreordained by God.

"God is at work within you, both to will and to do of His good pleasure." (Phil. 2:13) We are moral beings responsible for our decisions, but things of a mere matter of taste or preference we are not. You are not going to die before your time even if you make a bad choice, like Chinese food and choking on it. A good Bible verse is Ps. 110:3 which says " Your troops shall be willing in the day of Your power." Col. 1:29 says God is mightily at work in us. Who made you prefer Chinese food? All our freedom means is that God doesn't force us to do something we don't want to do, but can change our nature and make us willing to do what He wants us to do.

Self-determination is at the heart of our will in this sense. No one can say, "I didn't make that decision!" We also reap what we sow (the law of the harvest) and God lets us suffer the consequences of choosing Chinese food if we don't know how to chew that well in our eating habits. God, of course, is free to intervene, but He doesn't have to (that would be mercy). The Westminster Confession states that everything that happens is God's ordained will or decree and that in allowing it to happen it has to be His will in some sense.

Wycliffe's tenet was that "everything comes to pass of necessity." It is fore-ordained to happen in God's divine decrees. God is both sovereign and we are free agents in the sense of having a will that makes choices. We make decisions on what seems best to us at the moment, all things considered. God manipulates the circumstance.

I'm not a fatalist, but I believe God's will must be done. There are different kinds of wills of God. The will of disposition is what God desires or what is pleasing to Him. He desires all to be saved in this sense. But God doesn't act according to this since all are not saved. God has a preceptive will, which we read about in the Bible. God also has a secret or decreed will which is none of our business. For instance, God never explained to Job why he as suffering. We do not have the ability to frustrate God and God is not so impotent that He cannot accomplish whatsoever He wills. God does what He pleases, both in the Heavens and on the earth (Ps. 135:6). This is one of the perks of being God--He can do as he wills. God is never frustrated in His will either.

I know I elaborated a little, but I don't think anyone understands the sovereignty of God, just like the Trinity or the glory of God. He is incomprehensible. The finite cannot penetrate the infinite. Nothing outside of us ever forces us to do anything we don't want to do. There is no effect without a cause! God is not an effect! (He is self-existent, has no history, and is not confined to time, matter or space, which He created.)