I have written before that we not only need to read God’s word, but that we NEED to read it with other brethren as well. We need this for the same Spirit who teaches and trains us personally is the same Spirit that our brothers and sisters have. The Spirit can use their mouths to make known the truth of God.
Last Saturday I sat having coffee with two brothers from church. One man posed a question for our discussion: How can we really have free will if God is in control of everything?
What a question right?!? There are short churchy answers that can be given to this yet it remains truly mysterious.
I will summarize my three thoughts in one sentence: God did not create mankind with the autonomous free will that he possesses.
1) God’s Free Will
“Uncle Bruce how did the sermon go on Sunday?” I asked with a smile on my face. I knew he had preached on predestination.
“It was good. I had an interesting conversation with a lady afterward. She was kind but pointed. She said, ‘What about our free will?’ I paused for a moment and asked her, ‘What about God’s free will? Does your free will trump his?'”
My jaw dropped…I had never thought of God’s free will like that until Uncle Bruce shared his conversation with me.
God has autonomous free will, meaning he needs no ones aid, advise, or permission. “Our God is in the heavens, he does whatever he pleases” (Psa. 115:3; 135:6).
This is crucial to the conversation about man’s free will. We must understand that God’s free will is not limited like our own or by our own. He is free with no law above him for law flows from him. In Exodus 31:18 we read that God wrote down the law [instruction] by his own finger. There is no law above him.
In order for us to consider our own will and how we operate in it we must see God as free and lofty.
2) Adam’s Free Will and Our Will
Adam was created to be innocent and upright. Because of that innocence his heart was truly free to choose between obedience and disobedience. This was the manner of existence in which God put man into the world. But all of that changed.
Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.
Genesis 3:7
This verse encapsulates one of the most crucial moments in human history. Once Adam and Eve had eaten the fruit which God had forbidden EVERYTHING changed. This we must be mindful of as we consider the will of man. We have a God-given will yet it is one that has been corrupted by man’s rebellion.
I know this is a little aside from the question: How can we really have free will if God is in control of everything? However, it is a critical piece of information for how we biblically understand the will of man. Not only are we not autonomous as noted earlier but we are not innocent.
Adam experienced his human will in innocence and purity. On the other hand we say with David, “I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.” From the womb we are bent toward wickedness.
We have a will that is free to do whatever our heart desires, but what sort of hearts do we have?
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?
Jeremiah 17:9
In our human will we do whatever our heart desires.
3) Isaiah 10:5-7: A Quick Case Study
Let’s bring this back around to ur question: How can we really have free will if God is in control of everything?
We learn a lesson about God’s sovereign will and man’s will by observing the stories of kings in the Bible. Before we look to Isaiah 10 let us hear the Proverbs:
The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the LORD;
he turns it wherever he will.
Proverbs 21:1
I don’t need to say much about this verse. It is straight forward. But read it again.
We see here in Proverbs as we will see in Isaiah 10 that God not only moves in nature supernaturally (aka miracles…the splitting of the Red Sea, throwing hail stones down from heaven, turning water to wine) but he also supernaturally moves in and through the heart of man.
The plans of the mightiest men among us are under the jurisdiction of the Creator.
This was true enough of the king of Assyria. We see his heart also as a stream in God’s hand:
Woe to Assyria, the rod of my anger; the staff in their hands is my fury! Against a godless nation I send him, and against the people of my wrath I command him,
Isaiah 10:5-6
Yet he is acting in accord to the genuine desires of his heart:
But he does not so intend,
Isaiah 10:7
and his heart does not so think;
but it is in his heart to destroy,
and to cut off nations not a few;
The heart of the king of Assyria did not think of his war campaign as being planned and purposed by the Lord, “but it is in his heart to destroy.” That is to say, the king of Assyria called his generals to arms and set out on the war path not thinking it was God’s idea but only his own.
The king of Assyria thinks he is totally independent. And it would be false to say that he wasn’t acting freely. He willed to go out and conquer.
If Isaiah had ridden a horse out to the king to tell him he was a tool in the hand of God, the king would have laughed. It was the desire and design of the king of Assyria to muster his army and make war against Judah.
We learn from this narrative that the Bible’s teaching on the sovereignty of God and free choice of man are not incompatible. Here and elsewhere these two ideas are placed side-by-side in harmony. We certainly have difficulty reconciling these in our human mind yet it is no contraction to say God is in complete control and man is responsible.
Conclusion
In seeking understanding of the mystery of God’s sovereign hand over and in man’s true choice we can be helped by
- a) considering and comparing God’s free will to human will
- b) understanding the change in the human heart and thus the shift of the will of fallen man, and
- c) looking over biblical narratives that put forward God’s will and man’s in a harmonious picture.
These pursuits will lead us to a fuller picture of scripture, but also a truer view of life. By them we have hope for today and the days to come. We have hope because God is sovereign of the events of human activity and he is bringing all things to accomplish his plan by his purposing.
It is this vary vein of thought which grounds the belief that all things work together for good for those who love God and are called according to his purpose.
The Reforming Raker 