"Can I Be Free?"
February 17, 20002 Communion
Getting into Matters beyond our Depth
Kids' "Dear God" letters; Fleas / Dog; Mice / Piano
We can have questions for God and express wonder at any age. Here's a "top ten" selection of "kids' letters to God" originally from the Internet.
Dear God, instead of letting people die and having to make new ones, why don't You just keep the ones You have? - Jane
Dear God, If You watch me in church on Sunday, I'll show You my new shoes. - Mickey
Dear God, I read the Bible. What does "begat" mean? Nobody will tell me. Love, Alison
Dear God, Are You really invisible or is it just a trick? - Lucy
Dear God, Who draws the lines around the countries? - Nan
Dear God, I went to this wedding and they kissed right in church. Is that okay? - Neil
Dear God, thank you for the baby brother, but what I prayed for was a puppy. -Joyce
Dear God, Please send me a pony. I never asked for anything before. You can look it up. - Bruce
Dear God, I think the stapler is one of your greatest inventions. - Ruth M.
Dear God, I didn't think orange went with purple until I saw the sunset you made on Tuesday. That was cool. - Eugene
Today we're addressing a very deep topic, God's sovereignty and human freedom. As we approach such mysteries, let's keep in mind how limited our human perspective actually is. Robert Fulghum once sat beside an Australian carpenter on an airplane, and they struck up a conversation about theology. The carpenter declared that his theology had a lot to do with fleas and a dog. How so? Arguing whether or not God exists, he said, is like fleas arguing whether or not the dog exists.
Another story tells about a family of mice who lived inside an old piano. All the dark spaces of their world were filled with sound and harmony. At first the mice were impressed by it. They drew comfort and wonder from the thought that there was Someone who made the music - though invisible to them - above, yet close to them. They loved to think of the Great Player whom they could not see.
Then one day a daring mouse climbed up part of the piano and returned very thoughtful. He had discovered how the music was made. Wires were the secret; tightly stretched wires of graduated lengths which trembled and vibrated. They must revise all their old beliefs: None but the most conservative could any longer believe in the Unseen Player.
Later another explorer carried the explanation further. Hammers were now the secret, numbers of hammers dancing and leaping on the wires. This was a more complicated theory, but it all went to show that they lived in a purely mechanical and mathematical world. The Unseen Player came to be thought of as a myth.
But the pianist continued to play...
With that as background, maybe we're ready to start exploring the intriguing subject of how human so-called "free will" relates to God's own freedom and sovereignty.
Can Human Freedom co-exist with an All-knowing God?
Summary of God's Being
Article of Faith 4.1.1
The one and only true God is Spirit: self-existent, infinite, personal, unchangeable, and eternal in His being; perfect in holiness, love, justice, goodness, wisdom, and truth; omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent; creator and sustainer of all things, visible and invisible; both immanent and transcendent to creation; eternally existent in three persons, one in substance and co-equal in power and glory – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
All-powerful Gen.18:14; Jer.32:17,27; Mk.10:27
Is anything too hard for the LORD? I will return to you at the appointed time next year and Sarah will have a son." (Genesis 18:14)
"Ah, Sovereign LORD, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you. (Jeremiah 32:17)
"I am the LORD, the God of all mankind. Is anything too hard for me? (Jeremiah 32:27)
Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God." (Mark 10:27)
All-knowing Ps.147:5; Rom.11:33f
Great is our Lord and mighty in power; his understanding has no limit. (Psalms 147:5)
Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! (Romans 11:33)
Humans enter the scene - Crowding the Phone Booth
free to eat Gen.2:16; Article of Faith 4.3.1
Mankind was created by an immediate act of God and not by a process of evolution. We were created in the image and likeness of God, possessing personality and holiness; enjoying sweet fellowship with God in our original state, we were created to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. Having been created in the likeness of God we are self conscious personalities
capable of free and rational choice. Human life has inherent worth from conception.
And the LORD God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; (Genesis 2:16)
Human freedom not interfered with: case study - Jesus' crucifixion Mt.17:12; Jn.19:11; Acts 2:23, 4:27f, Prov.16:33
But I tell you, Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him, but have done to him everything they wished. In the same way the Son of Man is going to suffer at their hands." (Matthew 17:12)
Jesus answered, "You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin." (John 19:11)
This man was handed over to you by God’s set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. (Acts 2:23)
Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. (Acts 4:27)
The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the LORD. (Proverbs 16:33)
Our Feeble Un-Free Fallen State / God's Merciful Awakening
Dead in Sins, Powerless to please God
Article of Faith 4.3.2, 4.4; Gen.2:17; Jer.17:9; Rom.3:10-12,23; Eph.2:1-3, 4:18; Titus 3:3
Through the transgression of Adam, mankind is fallen from original righteousness, suffers under sin's curse, and, apart from the grace of God, is not only entirely destitute of holiness, but is inclined continually to evil, and, unless born again, "cannot
see the kingdom of God". We, in our own strength, without divine grace, cannot do good works pleasing and acceptable to God. As persons we are free moral agents and are responsible for our eternal destiny. Under the influence and empowering of the Holy Spirit and due to the prevenient grace of God we are enabled to exercise our wills to accept God's will and gift...
We are all sinners, guilty before God, and dead in trespasses and sins. Therefore, we are unable to save ourselves, but God has, out of His infinite love, given His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to become our Saviour.
but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die." (Genesis 2:17)
The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? (Jeremiah 17:9)
As it is written: "There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one." (Romans 3:10-12)
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, (Romans 3:23)
As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. (Ephesians 2:1-3)
They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. (Ephesians 4:18)
At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. (Titus 3:3)
God's Gracious Choice to Save Some by the Gift of Faith
Westminster Confession - "Eternal Decree"
"God from all eternity did, by the most wise and holy counsel of his own will, freely and unchangeably ordain whatever comes to pass: yet so, as thereby neither is God the author of sin, nor is violence offered to the will of the creatures, nor is the liberty or contingency of second causes taken away, but rather established."
God's free decision / choice / "election": Eph.1:4,9,11; 2 Thess.2:13; Rom.8:28; 9:15,18
For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love (Ephesians 1:4)
And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, (Ephesians 1:9)
In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, (Ephesians 1:11)
But we ought always to thank God for you, brothers loved by the Lord, because from the beginning God chose you to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth. (2 Thessalonians 2:13)
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28)
For he says to Moses, "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion." (Romans 9:15)
Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden. (Romans 9:18)
Article of Faith 4.4.2; Eph.2:4-9; 2Tim.1:9; Titus 3:5
Faith, which must accompany repentance, is God's gift where, by an act of the will, we embrace the promises of God and appropriate personally the provisions of God's grace. The believer, by faith, rests in the completeness and adequacy of the atoning merit of Christ's sacrifice as the sole ground and hope of salvation. Scripture also teaches that good works
characterize a regenerated life. They spring from a true and living faith and are pleasing and acceptable to God in Christ.
But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions— it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith— and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. (Ephesians 2:4-9)
who has saved us and called us to a holy life— not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, (2 Timothy 1:9)
he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, (Titus 3:5)
Predestined...to what?
to be conformed, called, etc. Rom.8:29f; to be adopted Eph.1:5; to hope in Christ, be for His praise Eph.1:11; good works Eph.2:10
Calvinism's "Double" Predestination:
Westminster 3.3b; Rom.9:22f; Prov.16:4
"By the decree of God, for the manifestation of his glory, some men and angels are predestinated to everlasting life, and others foreordained to everlasting death."
What if God, choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath— prepared for destruction? What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory— (Romans 9:22,23)
The LORD works out everything for his own ends— even the wicked for a day of disaster.
(Proverbs 16:4)
caution flags: God wants all to be saved 1Tim.2:2, ransom for all 2:6, Heb.2:9, 1Pet.3:18
for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. (1 Timothy 2:2)
who gave himself as a ransom for all men— the testimony given in its proper time. (1 Timothy 2:6)
But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. (Hebrews 2:9)
For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit, (1 Peter 3:18)
Article of Faith 4.3.3
God has provided redemption for all persons through the mediatorial work of Christ who voluntarily offered Himself on Calvary as a perfect sacrifice for sin, the just suffering for the unjust, bearing sin's curse and tasting death for every person.
Does God have any right to discriminate? Jacob/Esau, Pharaoh, Potter/clay Rom.9:11-21
Yet, before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad— in order that God’s purpose in election might stand: not by works but by him who calls— she was told, "The older will serve the younger." Just as it is written: "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated." What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all! For he says to Moses, "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion." It does not, therefore, depend on man’s desire or effort, but on God’s mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh: "I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth." Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden. One of you will say to me: "Then why does God still blame us? For who resists his will?" But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? "Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’" Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use? (Romans 9:11-21)
JI Packer: "The wonder is not that He withholds mercy from some, but that He should be gracious to any."
"foreknowing not foreordaining": God's choice based on foreseeing our response?
difficulties: entirely by grace; predestined unto faith (2Thess.2:13) - can't rest upon foresight; Bible implies foreknowing = foreordaining Acts 2:23 (JI Packer, NBD)
Eternal Security
unsnatchable Phil.1:6; Jn.10:28f; 1Pet.1:5; Rom.8:33-35
being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. (Philippians 1:6)
I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. (John 10:28)
who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. (1 Peter 1:5)
Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died— more than that, who was raised to life— is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? (Romans 8:33-35)
caution: "if" remain Jn.15:6; warning against falling away Heb.6:4-6; 2Pet.2:20,21
If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. (John 15:6)
It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age, if they fall away, to be brought back to repentance, because to their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace. (Hebrews 6:4-6)
If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them. (2 Peter 2:20-21)
Article of Faith 4.4.5
Through the declaration of Scripture and the testimony of the Holy Spirit the obedient believer can be certain of forgiveness, salvation, a continuing walk with Christ, and the promise of resurrection life. The Scriptures do, however, warn against failing to abide in Christ, being hardened by sin, or being overcome by the world. To allow the Devil such a foothold is to open oneself to the temptation to consciously reject Christ, abandon one's faith, and ultimately be lost.
In Christ, Restored to Freedom - to Serve
Son makes free indeed Jn.8:31f,34,36
To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." (John 8:31f)
Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. (John 8:34)
So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. (John 8:36)
free from sin, become God's slave Rom.6:18-22
You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. I put this in human terms because you are weak in your natural selves. Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness. When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. (Romans 6:18-22)
free from sin's rule, controlled by Spirit Rom.8:2,9,12
because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. (Romans 8:2)
You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. (Romans 8:9)
Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation— but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it. (Romans 8:12)
stand firm in freedom/service, in step Gal.5:1,13,25
It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. (Galatians 5:1)
You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love. (Galatians 5:13)
Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. (Galatians 5:25)
live free as God's servants 1Pet.2:16 (respect/submit 17,18,3:1,7)
Live as free men, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as servants of God. Show proper respect to everyone: Love the brotherhood of believers, fear God, honor the king. Slaves, submit yourselves to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and considerate, but also to those who are harsh. (1 Peter 2:16-18)
Wives, in the same way be submissive to your husbands so that, if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the behavior of their wives, (1 Peter 3:1)
Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayers. (1 Peter 3:7)
heart set free runs in path of commands Ps.119:32
I run in the path of your commands, for you have set my heart free. (Psalms 119:32)
Learning from History: Dogmatic Danger
Luther/Erasmus, Melanchton/Flacius
"power of applying oneself to grace"
In an historical article in Eerdman's Handbook to the History of Christianity, JI Packer reviews the hot debate that went on over these matters early in the Reformation. Against Erasmus' proposing humans had free will, Martin Luther had stressed the sinner's total spiritual powerlessness and made God's sovereign grace the sole source of faith. After Luther's death in 1546 his successor as leader, Melanchthon, said fallen man had free will in the sense of "power of applying oneself to grace". This phrase from Erasmus, which Luther had abhorred, Melanchthon explicitly approved. So my faith ceases to be God's work in me, and becomes my work. This position was attacked by Flacius and followers.
pan-Lutheran Formula of Concord
A generation of conflict was ended by the pan-Lutheran Formula of Concord in 1595, which reaffirmed the sinner's total spiritual inability and God's unconditional predestination of the elect to faith -- but stated also that an external call to salvation reaches all people and that final falling from grace is possible.
Reformed: Beza/Arminius
supralapsarianism / Remonstrance
Meanwhile, the same kind of debate was going on in the Reformed camp. Beza was John Calvin's scholastic successor at Geneva, Switzerland. He developed belief in sovereign grace into "supralapsarianism", the view that God decreed the fall as a means to the end of saving the elect from sin. Most Reformed theologians at the beginning of the 1600s agreed, but Jacob Arminius, a gifted Dutchman, once Beza's pupil, did not. In 1610 his disciples produced a document "Remonstrance" that affirmed that election to salvation rests on faith foreseen; that Christ died for all, though only believers benefit (Beza said he died only for the elect); that grace is not irresistible; and that perseverance (being certainly saved for the rest of your life) depends on one's own action over and above God's help.
pan-Reformed Synod of Dort 5 points of Calvinism
Against this, in 1618 the pan-Reformed Synod of Dort formulated the so-called "five points of Calvinism" which can be summarized by the letters in the word
"tulip" - total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement*, irresistible grace in effectual calling, final preservation of the saints
*that is, limited in in efficacy to the elect
So, you can see the topic we've been dealing with today is not trivial, but was a source of much conflict in the church in times past.
Dow's Hypothesis of Mystery and Heresy
"Rationalism applied proudly and persistently to profound Biblical truth produces spiritual eccentricity"
(or, trying to cram eternal mysteries into our puny mind bends something out of shape)
Wrapping up: It's a Wonder
EA Robinson: trying to spell God with the wrong blocks
EA Robinson wrote, "The world is a kind of spiritual kindergarten where bewildered infants are trying to spell God with the wrong blocks."
Collins, commoner, and the great/little God
A well-known English deist of the 1600s, Anthony Collins, was walking one day when he crossed paths with a commoner. "Where are you going?" asked Collins. "To church, sir." "What are you going to do there?" "To worship God, sir." "Is your God a great or a little God?" asked Collins. "He is both, sir." How can He be both?" "He is so great, sir, that the heaven of heavens cannot contain Him; and so little that He can dwell in my heart."
Collins later declared that this simple answer had more effect on his mind than all the volumes he had ever read about God, and all the lectures he had ever heard.