"The elect among them did [obtained unto it], but the rest were hardened" (Rom. 11:7).
"...I say, 'My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please'" (Isaiah 46:10).
Though there is much consternation over the doctrine of election, our destiny is ultimately in God's hands--we are not the master of our fate, nor the captain of our soul ("My future is in Your hands," says Psalm 31:15, and "Salvation is of the LORD," according to Jonah 2:9). If we have never realized our helplessness and depravity in God's eyes and cried out, "God be merciful to me, the sinner," we are not saved.
We are born semi-Pelagians who insist that we have absolute "free will" (I put it in quotes because it is too grandiose a term for our power of choice and right to self-determination); however, we made the decision to believe ourselves and God doesn't believe for us, though faith is a gift it is our act. We do not need free will to be saved, but wills made free.
We are not born free, but enslaved (to sin) and need to be set free, and that includes our wills (in the doctrine of total depravity, in which we are wholly infected with sin in our passions or emotions, minds or intellects, and wills or volition). The gospel doesn't sound reasonable, doesn't feel right, and we simply don't want to do it. We are unable to come to Christ (this is without the wooing of the Spirit) and wooing is contingent upon grace per John 6:44, 65.
God is in charge of our destiny: God can and does interfere with our wills by His sovereignty (can't He do anything He wants?): "Why, LORD, do you make us wander from your ways and harden our hearts so that we do not revere you?" (Isaiah 63;17); "He does as he pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of he earth," says Daniel 4:35c); He interferes at will "according to His purpose and grace"--"The LORD does whatever pleases him" (Psalm 135:6). Note also Jeremiah 10:23: "LORD, I know that people's lives are not their own; it is not for them to direct their steps;" and Prov. 20:24: "A person's steps are directed by the LORD. How then can anyone understand their own way?" This is the issue of the sovereignty of God plain and simple: He leaves nothing to chance and there is no "maverick molecule" as He never plays dice with the universe, according to Einstein.
The problem is not that some desire to get saved (what makes them desire?) and some don't (a merit that Romanists claim), but that, in reality, no one chooses Christ, and God reserved the right to choose some (the elect) according to His the good pleasure of His will and to demand justice for the reprobate or nonelect. "Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden [like He did Pharaoh]" (Rom. 9:18).
It is a good thing that God made us willing because we were unwilling and He turned our hearts of stone into hearts of flesh (cf. Ezekiel 36:26), just like David prayed in Psalm 51:12: "...grant me a willing spirit to sustain me." God is working on us as "works in progress" and we are not our own, but God is our Maker and we are simply clay in the hands of the Potter. "For it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose" (Phil. 2:13). God can make the king's heart turn anyway He desires according to Prov. 21:1 as we see: "In the LORD'S hand the king's heart is a stream of water that he channels toward all who please him." We never do anything we don't want to, but who decided our nature? It was our Maker who made us choleric, melancholy, sanguine, bipolar, schizoid, impulsive, impetuous, or happy-go-lucky, et al. Why does the dove prefer seed and the vulture carrion? Because they are acting according to their God-given nature!
Our righteousness is not our gift to God, but His gift to us! I do not believe in determinism or coercion, because there is no outside force making us do something we don't want to do (the will is the mind choosing according to Jonathan Edwards), but all factors are not always equal: isn't it easy to say you will go on a diet after a big meal? If I point a gun at you and demand your money, will you not change your mind? If I throw you a ball, do you not have to decide whether to catch it? God is in charge of all circumstances that affect our decisions and very little of our decisions are wholly based upon our wills, which is only one of the variables of the equation.
It is not a question of man's freedom, but of God's omnipotence and His power to accomplish His will--we don't frustrate His plans because He has no Plan B and all is working out according to intention and we are nobody to question His wisdom. We strive to do God's will but it is only by grace: "To this end I strenuously contend with all the energy Christ so powerfully works in me" (Col. 1:29). God will make sure you can do His will too: "...[who will] equip you with everything good for doing his will..." (Heb. 13:21).
There is a divine directive, marching orders to the church at large and to the believer that can only be done with God's aid (I am not against works but only those done in the flesh): "Your troops will be willing on your day of battle" (Psalm 110:3). Remember, even our salvation is owed to God's power and intervention into our willpower: "It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God's mercy" (Rom. 9:16). Also, John says it so well in John 1:13: "Children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God."
God saw that no one wanted to come to Him (even Adam chose against him), though He invited them (a general call to salvation is given to all, but God only calls the elect according to Acts 2:39 and Rom. 8:29-30), and He decided to save some (the elect) by grace, not according to any merit, wisdom, work, intelligence, charisma, or in any way "better or deserving," but "according to His purpose and grace" and the "good pleasure of His will," or it wouldn't be grace, but justice. He didn't owe any man salvation and is no man's debtor nor respecter of persons. Soli Deo Gloria!
"...I say, 'My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please'" (Isaiah 46:10).
Though there is much consternation over the doctrine of election, our destiny is ultimately in God's hands--we are not the master of our fate, nor the captain of our soul ("My future is in Your hands," says Psalm 31:15, and "Salvation is of the LORD," according to Jonah 2:9). If we have never realized our helplessness and depravity in God's eyes and cried out, "God be merciful to me, the sinner," we are not saved.
We are born semi-Pelagians who insist that we have absolute "free will" (I put it in quotes because it is too grandiose a term for our power of choice and right to self-determination); however, we made the decision to believe ourselves and God doesn't believe for us, though faith is a gift it is our act. We do not need free will to be saved, but wills made free.
We are not born free, but enslaved (to sin) and need to be set free, and that includes our wills (in the doctrine of total depravity, in which we are wholly infected with sin in our passions or emotions, minds or intellects, and wills or volition). The gospel doesn't sound reasonable, doesn't feel right, and we simply don't want to do it. We are unable to come to Christ (this is without the wooing of the Spirit) and wooing is contingent upon grace per John 6:44, 65.
God is in charge of our destiny: God can and does interfere with our wills by His sovereignty (can't He do anything He wants?): "Why, LORD, do you make us wander from your ways and harden our hearts so that we do not revere you?" (Isaiah 63;17); "He does as he pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of he earth," says Daniel 4:35c); He interferes at will "according to His purpose and grace"--"The LORD does whatever pleases him" (Psalm 135:6). Note also Jeremiah 10:23: "LORD, I know that people's lives are not their own; it is not for them to direct their steps;" and Prov. 20:24: "A person's steps are directed by the LORD. How then can anyone understand their own way?" This is the issue of the sovereignty of God plain and simple: He leaves nothing to chance and there is no "maverick molecule" as He never plays dice with the universe, according to Einstein.
The problem is not that some desire to get saved (what makes them desire?) and some don't (a merit that Romanists claim), but that, in reality, no one chooses Christ, and God reserved the right to choose some (the elect) according to His the good pleasure of His will and to demand justice for the reprobate or nonelect. "Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden [like He did Pharaoh]" (Rom. 9:18).
It is a good thing that God made us willing because we were unwilling and He turned our hearts of stone into hearts of flesh (cf. Ezekiel 36:26), just like David prayed in Psalm 51:12: "...grant me a willing spirit to sustain me." God is working on us as "works in progress" and we are not our own, but God is our Maker and we are simply clay in the hands of the Potter. "For it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose" (Phil. 2:13). God can make the king's heart turn anyway He desires according to Prov. 21:1 as we see: "In the LORD'S hand the king's heart is a stream of water that he channels toward all who please him." We never do anything we don't want to, but who decided our nature? It was our Maker who made us choleric, melancholy, sanguine, bipolar, schizoid, impulsive, impetuous, or happy-go-lucky, et al. Why does the dove prefer seed and the vulture carrion? Because they are acting according to their God-given nature!
Our righteousness is not our gift to God, but His gift to us! I do not believe in determinism or coercion, because there is no outside force making us do something we don't want to do (the will is the mind choosing according to Jonathan Edwards), but all factors are not always equal: isn't it easy to say you will go on a diet after a big meal? If I point a gun at you and demand your money, will you not change your mind? If I throw you a ball, do you not have to decide whether to catch it? God is in charge of all circumstances that affect our decisions and very little of our decisions are wholly based upon our wills, which is only one of the variables of the equation.
It is not a question of man's freedom, but of God's omnipotence and His power to accomplish His will--we don't frustrate His plans because He has no Plan B and all is working out according to intention and we are nobody to question His wisdom. We strive to do God's will but it is only by grace: "To this end I strenuously contend with all the energy Christ so powerfully works in me" (Col. 1:29). God will make sure you can do His will too: "...[who will] equip you with everything good for doing his will..." (Heb. 13:21).
There is a divine directive, marching orders to the church at large and to the believer that can only be done with God's aid (I am not against works but only those done in the flesh): "Your troops will be willing on your day of battle" (Psalm 110:3). Remember, even our salvation is owed to God's power and intervention into our willpower: "It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God's mercy" (Rom. 9:16). Also, John says it so well in John 1:13: "Children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God."
God saw that no one wanted to come to Him (even Adam chose against him), though He invited them (a general call to salvation is given to all, but God only calls the elect according to Acts 2:39 and Rom. 8:29-30), and He decided to save some (the elect) by grace, not according to any merit, wisdom, work, intelligence, charisma, or in any way "better or deserving," but "according to His purpose and grace" and the "good pleasure of His will," or it wouldn't be grace, but justice. He didn't owe any man salvation and is no man's debtor nor respecter of persons. Soli Deo Gloria!