God's Sovereignty: Predestination & Free Will Part 2
God's Sovereignty: Predestination & Free Will Part 2
Many begin the discussion of salvation through the 5 points
of Arminianism or Calvinism with a discussion of man’s natural state. However, I don’t think that’s the appropriate
place to begin. All theology begins and
ends with God, not man. That’s why we
must begin with God and not just in a general sense but specifically with
respect to His sovereignty.
So once again the history behind how this discussion came
into being is helpful in understanding the way that it developed.
The Remonstrance, you’ll recall, was a protest against the Protestant
church (which itself was a protest against the Roman Catholic Church). The Protestants, up to that point, largely
held to Augustinian (proto-Calvinist) theology.
The Remonstrance opposed this and said they believed that men were
sinners but that they were not so spiritually dead that they could not respond
to God spiritually. They believed that mankind was sick, not dead. They believed that God does not choose people
to be saved based on His own sovereign will but based upon the completely free
will of man.
The atonement then, was in order to make people saveable (able
to be saved) but it did not mean that Christ was purchasing salvation for
anyone in particular. His atonement was
a general or universal atonement which make salvation a possibility in
humanity’s existence. Christ’s death was
universal and for all of humankind.
However, according to the Remonstrance, it did not actually accomplish
salvation for anybody until someone exercised faith in God on their own, and
through their own free will, decided to cooperate with God’s grace, at which
point God’s salvific (saving) power would be released from where it was kept
and directed into their lives.
The Remonstrance held that God was essentially unable to
save people apart from man’s permission. So what God really wants, He cannot
ultimately bring to pass resulting in a sort of cosmic frustration. It instead depended
on sinful man mustering up his own faith to permit God to fulfill His will: to
save. The Arminian Remonstrance said that despite scripture’s declaration that
God will save to the uttermost, by His own power and might, and raise dead
people to life, that it can only happen if ‘man allows God’...
On the matter of the security of salvation, the Remonstrance
was actually divided. Some said that
once a person is born again there is nothing that can separate them from that
salvation. Others continued their previous line of logic and asserted that if
it is by man’s own faith that they attain salvation, then the loss of that
faith must result in the loss of that same salvation.
Along came the response from the Protestant church
proper. You’ll remember the Synod of
Dort from the last post. Following these
154 church meetings, the Remonstrance’s assertions were rejected and the
council members gave a lengthy response of their convictions from scripture
that filled an entire book refuting the claims of the remonstrance. That compiled response is now called Calvinism
today. It actually took the opposite
view as the Remonstrance on each of their five points. They followed a nice acronym
called TULIP.
The first point of the Synod of Dort was that man is Totally
Depraved. Not that we are as bad as we could be (all have not committed murder
for instance) but that we, in our sin are spiritually dead. Like Ephesians 2
says, they are dead in their trespasses and sins and were by their very
‘nature’ children of God’s wrath. In Romans 1 the same people (prior to
conversion) suppress the truth of God in their unrighteousness and are enemies
of God. From the womb we flee from God. In Romans 9 it reasserts the OT
doctrine that there is none who is righteous or who seeks after God, not even
one.
The second point was called unconditional election. They
explained that if, as the Remonstrance asserted, God were to look through time
to see all of those who would believe in Him, in fact He would find none who
were faithful.
The senate of Dort understood the implications of this. God
is all-knowing; it is one of His immutable characteristics. I wrote all about it in an earlier blog post
if you’re interested called “Compelled to Worship: God’s Omniscience”. Since He
is, then that means there was never a moment when He did not know all things.
The Arminian, for hundreds of years (even today) would say that God looked
through the corridor of time to discover who will believe in Him and on that basis,
God chooses them back. That however, is a God who learns and is not
all-knowing. His knowledge would have
been incomplete at some point and so it was necessary for Him to ‘look’ into
our future to learn about what would happen so He could affect it to go along
with His will. This, many have argued,
strips God of His omniscience.
Further, the synod of Dort said that the atonement of Christ
was not unlimited and undirected as the Remonstrance asserted. The Synod said
that Christ’s atonement on the cross was perfect, accomplished God’s purpose in
salvation, and was a salvation that actually saved (not potentially saved). The
atonement accomplished all that God intended.
It wasn’t a theoretical atonement; it was an actual atonement
(Colossians 2 says that our sins were nailed to the cross).
This is referred to as Limited Atonement (to make the TULIP acronym
work) but it is better defined as Particular Redemption or Definite Atonement.
That means that when Christ died it was 100% effectual for all those it was
intended for – His sheep. They synod asserted that Christ did not die
needlessly for those that were not His sheep further stating that according to
Colossians 2 sin was paid for on the cross. Therefore, if the atonement was
universal, then all the sins of everyone in the world have been paid for and
the notion of judgement or hell would be rendered useless.
When the bible speaks of the world, it uses ‘world’ in four different
ways and the Synod stated that Christ’s death for the world referred to the
gentile nations (as well as the Jewish one); not that all of humanity’s sin was
paid for. For reference, the four contexts
of ‘world’ are the earth, all of humanity, the unholy operating system of
humanity, and the gentile nations.
The Synod was essentially responding against the teaching of
self-sovereignty and largely teaching Ephesians 2 as it is plainly read. That we
were dead in our sin and trespasses, but God made us alive according to His
grace (by which you were saved).
They would say that when God comes to bring salvation the
Father decrees it for Luke, the Son accomplishes it for Luke, and the Holy Spirit
efficaciously brings it about in Luke’s life.
So Luke is dead, God makes him alive, Luke suddenly now sees and believes,
then mourns and repents of his sin to God.
Jesus clearly articulates (John 6) that He has come to do
the will of the Father, not His own. Of those that the Father has given Him (a
particular people), He will lose none. Calvinism
is said to be summed up in John 6, then reiterated in John 10. Jesus says, “I
am the good Shepherd and I lay down my life for the sheep. Other sheep I have
who are not of this fold (Jews), them I must also bring to be one flock with
one Shepherd.” Then right after he says this the Jews plead with Him to tell
them if He is the Messiah. He says, “I
already told you but you do not hear because you are not of my
sheep. My sheep hear my voice and they come and I give them
eternal life and they are in my hands and nothing can snatch them from my
hands.” Calvinism is said to simply teach what Jesus Himself plainly taught.
Sovereignty
The one thing is missing from the TULIP acrostic is the
element that all of the others are encompassed within. The sovereignty of God. So
let’s talk about this first and most important element.
Psalm 115:3
Not to us, O Lord, not
to us, but to Your name give glory, for the sake of Your steadfast love and
Your faithfulness! Why should the nations say, “Where is their God?” Our God
is in the heavens; He does all that He pleases."
The world says, where is your God with all the tragedy and
difficulty and terrible things? The simple answer is to let God defend
Himself. “Our God is in the heavens, He
does all that He pleases.”
That’s the only answer that will suffice. The judge of all
the earth will only ever do what is right and judge matters correctly. What you want, is God doing as He pleases
because He is without sin or temptation to sin. What He does for His children
is only good. It may be hard, but it will be good.
Psalm 135
“For I know that the Lord is great, and that
our Lord is above all gods. Whatever
the Lord pleases, he does, in heaven and on earth, in the seas and
all deeps.”
He ‘does’. He does
not simply hope, or wish, or pursue. He accomplishes it. He does it.
If it pleases God to save a wretched rebellious sinful man,
can He do it? Yes.
That’s the fundamental assertion about God in Calvinism. He
is the one who brings things to pass apart from the desire and will of sinful
broken men. He does not need permission nor does He need our cooperation. He
brings it to pass because we are unable to bring it to pass on our own, due to
sin’s affect in us. We cannot give ourselves a heart of flesh, we cannot open
our own eyes, we cannot bring ourselves back to life, we cannot change our
wicked nature to desire holy and godly things.
This is only accomplished according to God’s sovereignty.
Isaiah 46:10
“Remember this and
stand firm, recall it to mind, you transgressors, remember the former
things of old; for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me,
declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet
done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my
purpose,’ calling a bird of prey from the east, the man of my counsel from
a far country. I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass; I have purposed, and
I will do it.”
We have nothing to fear. God is sovereign. All that God
purposes, He brings to pass. If He
purposes to redeem you, in spite of you, then it will happen. If He chooses to
bring calamity upon your life, against your will and wish, He will do it.
Daniel 4:35
“For his dominion is
an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom endures from generation to
generation; all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing,
and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and
among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his
hand or say to him, “What have you done?””
We love to say that Jesus is Lord and in control but only in
reference to heaven. He’s king over
Neverland. But we’re mainly in charge down here. Respectfully my brother or sister, that makes
you sovereign not the King who made all things and holds them all together by
the mere word of His mouth (Colossians 1).
But the God of the Bible says that He does according to His
will in heaven, on earth, and among all the people on earth, and no one
can stay His hand. He is in charge of every detail and no one can stand against
it. That means that if He purposes to accomplish something, you cannot resist
it successfully.
2 Chronicles 20:6
“O Lord, God of our
fathers, are you not God in heaven? You rule over all the kingdoms of the
nations. In your hand are power and might, so that none is able to withstand
you.”
The Remonstrance believed that man could resist God
successfully. The Synod of Dort said
that while man naturally resists God in his rebellion and sin, he is unable to
withstand God’s will because it easily overpowers their resistance. If God has elected to save a man like Paul,
for instance, then Paul’s terrorism, hatred for Christians and Jesus Himself,
would not withstand God’s purpose to save him. So in dramatic fashion God
overcame Paul. Paul’s response in being brought to life again was repentance
and sorrow over His sin and he did according to God’s word that he would be
used as a mouthpiece to the gentile nations (the whole world) until it cost him
his own life. God’s will was fulfilled perfectly because there are none who can
withstand it.
Proverbs 16:9
“The heart of man
plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.”
This verse alone explicitly denies man’s sovereignty over
his own life. Even in a redeemed state
we don’t rightly judge things and our gracious Father ensures His will for our
path will be established. How many times
has God redirected your path against your will?
You were heading down a road you thought was best but God stepped in and
did something completely different.
Then, years later, you turn back and worship God for His providence in accomplishing
His will over your own.
God being sovereign is not some sort of fatalism; where God
does not work through our inward parts and desires. It is simply recognizing that God is God and
we are broken creatures. We have a creaturely will to pursue what we desire but
God is holy & sovereign determining whether He allows what we desire or
not. Even when it conflicts with our
choices and desires. He can stop us, allow us, or move our hearts to do
something entirely different.
Proverbs 21:1 “The king's
heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; he turns it wherever he
will.”
The Genesis story of Joseph and his brothers is a prolific
one for teaching God’s sovereignty.
Joseph comes out of it stating to his brothers, “What you meant for
evil, God meant for good.” In other words, God brought it about. Joseph was saying, “You ultimately didn’t
have sovereignty in sending me here, God did.” God did it to preserve for
Himself a remnant of Israel. God sovereignly controlled the brothers’ desire to
sin; He allowed them to do what was already in their hearts, and it was in
perfect fulfillment of His own ends. God
lets them sin, in order to save them ultimately.
How beautifully this dovetails with the atonement. Acts 4:27-28 “…for truly in this city
there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you
anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the
peoples of Israel, to do
whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.”
They pursued, arrested, tortured, mocked, and killed Jesus,
for their own reasons, of their own desire and will, but it was exactly what
God purposed to take place, for the ultimate redemption of His sheep.
God predestined the murder of Jesus for your salvation. Herod, Pilate, the Jews, and gentiles, could
have done no other. However, they did so of their own desires which they were
utterly responsible for.
Before the foundations of the world, the Lamb of God was
predestined to be slain. Yet God brought it about in such a way as to not do
violence against the will of man, but which aligned perfectly with it. God did not sin, but man in his choice, would
also not do otherwise.
All of the doctrines of grace are laid upon one another with
the very foundation being God’s sovereignty.
A great resource to help you understand how utterly
necessary God’s total and complete sovereignty is can be found in Ligonier
Ministries website here:
These messages regard the notion of chance and how
impossible it is for chance to have influence over anything. RC Sproul expertly
deduces the necessity of a self-existent God who is altogether sovereign over
every element of His creation or then entire thing is undone.
Some material was adapted from Jeff Durbin’s message on
God’s sovereignty here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIYlCNkce74&list=PLzOJll8dItg6JUR1zZfa4h5cvhZB_cGVg&index=92&t=1243s
Next time we’ll discuss the first of the five (not including
the one today) points of Calvinism: Total Depravity.
I pray you’ll read them with an open Bible, heart, and a desire to
understand with God’s glory as the ultimate and chief end.
...until next time, be sanctified and reform Christ's church in the admonition of the Lord.
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