Predestination and Human Freedom
Unconditional election means that "our
final destination, heaven or hell, is decided by God not only before we
get there, but before we are born. It teaches that our ultimate destiny
is in the hands of God" (R.C. Sproul, Essential Truths of the
Christian Faith, p. 161). God did not base His
choice on anything in man. He did not choose those whom He foreknew
would choose Him, but based His choice upon Himself and His holy purposes
only.
How does unconditional election relate to human freedom? I believe
that they are both compatible and will now endeavor to show why.
Freedom
Freedom is the ability to choose according to our desires. It
means making an unforced decision. "Even the most ardent Calvinist
would not deny that the will is free to choose whatever it desires. Even
the most ardent Arminian would agree that the will is not free to choose
what it does not desire" (Sproul, p. 179).
So, before we choose something, we must first desire to choose it.
Jonathan Edwards conclusively argued in his book The Freedom of
the
Will that the will always chooses according to its greatest desire at
the moment. For example, if I have a choice between eating liver or
steak, I will always choose steak because I
desire steak more than liver. But what about when you choose, for
example, to
study for a test when you really want to go to a movie that night? In that
case, you desired the long-run benefits of the good grade that studying
will bring more than the short term enjoyment a good
movie will bring. So when you choose to study you are still choosing what
you most prefer, all things considered.
With regard to salvation, the question is posed well by R.C.
Sproul: What does an unsaved
person desire? Does an unsaved person, in and of himself, have a desire
for Christ?
Total depravity
The Bible teaches that all
people are born totally depraved. This
does not mean that everyone is as bad as they possibly can be, but that
all of us have been corrupted by sin in every facet of our being. This
means that people are not basically good, but inherently sinful. We are
all "by nature children of wrath" (Ephesians 2:3). The unsaved person,
according to the Bible, is "dead in trespasses and sins" (Eph. 2:1),
"hostile toward God" (Romans 8:7), and "indulging in the lusts of the
flesh and
of the mind" (Eph. 2:3). Jeremiah said that "the heart is more deceitful
than all else and desperately sick; who can understand it?" (Jeremiah
17:9). Jesus said that our heart is the root of our sin and full of evil
(Mark 7:20-23).
Paul elaborates further on the condition of the unsaved in Romans:
"There is none righteous, not even one; there is none who understands,
there is none who seeks for God; all have turned aside, together they
have become useless..their throat is an open grave...there is no fear of
God before their eyes" (Romans 3:10-18).
He says that the unsaved person is at war with God and not even able to
submit to God: "the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it
does not subject itself to the law of
God, for it is not even able to do so" (Romans 8:7). Furthermore, "a
natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God; for they are
foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are
spiritually appraised" (1 Cor. 2:14).
So, let us ask ourselves: Does fallen man, in himself, have a
desire for Christ? Does one who does not seek God (Rom. 3:11), who is at
war with God (Rom. 8:7), who is unable to subject himself to God (Romans
8:7), who is full of evil (Mark 7:20-23),
who is not just mortally ill but dead in sins (Eph. 2:1), who loves
sin (Eph. 2:2-3), who is a slave of sin (Rom. 6:20) and who cannot understand
spiritual things (1 Cor. 2:14) have any desire at all for Christ?
Clearly, the answer is no! What will a sinful heart choose? Only
more sin, but not God since there is no desire for God. "Men loved the
darkness rather than the light; for their deeds were evil" (John 3:19).
Those who love darkness and do evil simply will not ever come to the
light: "For everyone who does evil hates
the light [and remember Eph. 2:1-3 and Romans 3:9-18 -- all people
indulge in evil before they are saved] and does not come to the light,
lest His deeds should be exposed."
Effectual grace
Since total depravity is true of everyone before they are saved,
how does anyone ever come to believe? In other words, what must happen
before a person will believe? Clearly, there must first be a spiritual
transformation of our hearts that causes
us to love the light and desire the light instead of hate the light (John
3:20, 21). In other words, God must regenerate us (i.e., make us born
again). You do not become born again by believing in Christ; you must
first be born again in order to believe. Regeneration precedes faith.
When God regenerates us, He re-creates
our hearts and gives us a desire for Christ that we otherwise would not
have. Then, out of the desire for Christ in our new hearts, we
come to Him and believe in Him.
It should be clear by now that election must be
unconditional because sinful man is unable to meet any conditions; he
cannot even come to faith unless God causes him to. If God left the
matter of salvation ultimately up to sinful mankind, no one would ever be
saved because no one has a desire for God
until God first chooses to regenerate them. Total depravity shows that
we would all use our free wills to reject God. This is exactly what
Jesus taught: "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws
him" (John 6:44).
The fact that not everyone is saved shows that God does not choose
to regenerate everyone. He chooses to change the hearts of some and give
them a desire for Christ. These are called the elect. Others, He
chooses to pass over and leave them in their sins. These are called the
non-elect. Thus, we see that God has
chosen unconditionally to save some and not others.
Now we are in a position to understand why unconditional election
does not violate free will. Remember that free will is the ability to
choose according to your desires. The non-elect reject Christ because
they have no desire for Christ. Since their choice is in accordance with
their desires, it is a free choice that
they are responsible for. God cannot be blamed for their eternal
condemnation because He is not forcing them to reject Christ -- He is
simply letting them have what they want.
Before God regenerates them, the elect are in the same condition of
total depravity as the non-elect -- they love sin and hate God. But then
God changes their hearts of sin into hearts that love the light and
desire Christ. Then, because the elect
are now given a desire for Christ that is greater than their desire for
sin, they come to the light. This is also a free choice because it is in
accordance with their desires. The elect are not forced to come to
Christ, but come because they want to.
If what I have explained about regeneration preceding and causing
faith is true, we would expect there to be verses in the Bible that teach
this. There are. And if salvation is decided by God alone, we would
also expect there to be verses which teach that the grace of regeneration
is always successful in causing the elect to believe. For if God's
grace of regeneration simply made it possible for a person to believe but
did not make it actual that they believed, salvation would be ultimately
up to man instead of God. (Of course, as we saw earlier, if salvation
were left ultimately up to man in any way at all, man would always reject
God). Are there verses which teach that God's regenerating grace does not
need us to cooperate with it to make it effective, but causes
us to cooperate with it and is always effective in
bringing us to faith? There are.
"To all who received Him He gave the right to become children of
God, to all who believed in His name, who are born not of blood, nor of
the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God" (John
1:13). This verse is clear--you do not choose to be born again. God
must choose to give you the new birth. Then, with
your new heart, you will choose to receive Christ.
"Those whom He foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the
image of His Son. And those whom He foreknew He also predestined; and
those whom He predestined He also called; and those whom He called He
also justified; and those whom He justified He also glorified" (Romans
8:29-30). The phrase "those whom He called He also justified"
indicates that the same ones who are called are the same ones who are
justified. In other words, all who are called in this sense are also
justified. Since Scripture teaches that no one can be justified without
faith (Eph. 2:8,9), and
that everyone who gets called is justified, this call must be the
act of
God by which He calls faith into being and is successful every time. It
is a call that works effectively to bring the elect to faith and that
cannot fail.
This is called the effectual call of God since it is always
successful in bringing about the desired result--faith. If someone is
called in this way by God, they will believe. Since not everyone
believes, not everyone is effectually called by God.
Therefore, salvation is a result of God's choice of whom to call.
Election is unconditional.
"All that the Father gives Me will come to Me..." (John 6:37). How
many that are given to Christ by the Father come to Him? All! This must
mean that God works effectively in each person He has chosen to ensure
that they come to faith. God is the
one who unconditionally decides who is "given" to Christ because in 6:64,
65 Christ says that the reason some people do not believe is because it
has not been "given them from the Father." If a person does not come to
Christ, it means that the Father did
not choose to give him to Christ. In 10:26 Jesus reiterates this point:
"You do not believe, because you are not of my sheep." You do not
become
a sheep by believing. You can only believe if God has chosen to make you
a sheep.
"...so shall My word be which goes forth from My mouth; it shall
not return to Me empty, without accomplishing what I desire, and without
succeeding in the matter for which I sent it" (Isaiah 55:11). God is
clear -- His word cannot fail to accomplish its purpose. This means that
if God sends His word to change a person's heart, the heart will be
changed. First Peter 1:23-25 and James 1:18 are clear that God's word is
the instrument that God uses to regenerate us. God calls us effectually
to faith through the working of His word in us. Since God's word cannot
fail, then if God wills for a person to be saved, the person will
come to faith. If a person is not saved, it is ultimately because God did
not choose to send His word into their heart for the purpose of saving
them; it is because God did not choose to save them.
"Now I know that you can do all things, and no purpose of Thine can
be thwarted" (Job 42:2). God's will is always accomplished. None of His
purposes can fail. If God purposes to save a person, they will be
saved. If they are not saved, it is because God did not purpose to save
him.
Summary
First, we saw why election must be unconditional. The human heart
is so sinful that unless God first chooses to change a person's
heart,
he will never want to come to Christ. If you insist on God leaving the
ultimate decision for salvation in the hands of men, you are insisting
that all mankind reject Christ and perish forever. Second, we saw
evidence for unconditional election in the
verses which teach God's effectual grace in salvation. Further, if God
does not make Christ a person's greatest
desire he will never come, because the person desires sin more than
Christ. So in order to bring a person to faith, God must change his
heart and give
him a desire for Christ that is greater than his desire for sin.
And when God does this, He is in effect guaranteeing that the person come
to faith since the will always chooses according to its greatest desire.
What do you ask God to do when you pray for the lost? Do you ask God to
give the person a
weak desire for Christ that leaves the person in his sin (i.e., not work
effectually), or do you ask God to give the person a strong desire for
Christ that will irresistibley cause him to believe (i.e., work
effectually)? In the first prayer, you might be asking God to preserve
the person's ultimate self-determination, but the result is that he will
not come to faith. In the second prayer, you are asking God to work
succesfully, triumphing over his sinful will, and thus acknowledging
that God is the one who must make him believe.
The one who says that God's effectual grace eliminates the
genuineness of our faith is arguing with the Bible, not me. The Bible
teaches that man is
not a robot, but also that God can cause us to believe with our wills.
Having seen the ways our wills work, we can now see better how this is
possible. Since the non-elect and elect are both choosing in
accordance with their desires, which is the essence of freedom, we must
conclude that their choices really are real, genuine choices.
Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1975, 1977, by the Lockman Foundation.
MP
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