God's Sovereign Choice (Part 3)

by Bruce Mills

As I promised at the end of Part 2 in this series, this post will deal with the next word used in Romans 8:29-30, which is "predestined." According to these verses, God starts by foreknowing his children, and then it says that the people whom He foreordained to a relationship of loving intimacy, He predestined. It comes from the Greek word proorizw, which means “to mark out beforehand.” He marked them out ahead of time; He wrote down their names; He designated who would be the recipients of His grace and love. Those whom He predetermined to love, He “predestined…to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will” (Eph. 1:5). He started out with a predetermination to love certain ones and on that basis, He marked them out.

Predestination is not synonymous with foreknowledge. Foreknowledge focuses on the distinguishing love of God whereby people are elected. Predestination points to the decision God made regarding what He intended to do with those whom He foreknew. Predestination is that act in eternity past in which God ordained or decreed that those on whom He had set His saving love would inherit eternal life. They are eternally chosen to be the beneficiaries of God's love and grace in salvation, and because God's plans are unchangeable and irrevocable, there can be no other result.

One of the major problems with Arminian theology, and much of contemporary evangelism today, is that it teaches that salvation is predicated on a person’s decision for Christ. But we are not Christians first of all because of what we decided about Christ, but because of what God decided about us before the foundations of the world. Why God would choose certain people to eternal salvation and to eternally set His affections on them and not on others whom He also created is beyond the human mind’s ability to comprehend. When people say that man’s salvation is based on his own choice to believe or not to believe, they are making man the sovereign in salvation, and grace becomes nothing more than the just and fair wages of man’s decision.

So to reject the doctrine of sovereign foreknowledge, predestination, and election is to leave man in charge of his eternal salvation and to make God a lesser god; a diminished deity who sits in heaven wringing his hands, hoping that the people He created will exercise their will to choose Christ, incapable of guaranteeing their salvation apart from their own sovereign choice over the matter. I ask you: Is that the God of the Bible? Absolutely not.

I’m not saying that there aren’t questions such as, “Why did God create unbelievers if He knew in advance that He was not going to choose them and thus, they would always reject Him and never choose to follow Him?” There most certainly are such questions, and it’s okay to ask them, so long as when we ask them, we are not questioning God’s wisdom and justice in these matters. Many people ask those questions because they don’t think it is right for God to act as He has chosen to do.

Paul deals with those issues much more in Romans 9:18-23. Paul is talking about why God chooses some but not others, and here’s what he says. Remember now, this is God speaking to us about how we are to think about these matters.

So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires. You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?” On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, “Why did you make me like this,” will it? Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use? What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? And He did so to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory.

What’s God’s answer? It’s basically, “Shut up. Who are you to question the infinite wisdom of the sovereign Almighty God? I did it in order to reveal My wrath and power and glory to mankind, and that’s all you need to know.”

So be very careful about your attitude and motive in asking such questions about God’s righteousness and justice in His foreknowledge, predestination, and election of individuals to salvation. Just accept what He says in His Word as true and then praise His name that He chose to foreknow, predestine, and call some to Himself rather than justly condemning all of mankind to eternal hell for their rebellion against Him.

Human Free Will - Fact or Fiction?

by Robert Fraire

Free Will is one of those phrases that most Christians take to be a central truth of their Christian faith. For most of us the idea of "free will" was preached from the pulpit, proclaimed in Sunday School and assumed whenever Christians gathered. But I'm here to say that no one really believes that men have free will. And the Bible teaches in fact that man's will is not free.

So if you are still reading this post, let us examine the words Free Will. In order for a will to be free their must necessarily be No limitations on it. If the Will is Free, it must be able to accomplish whatever it sets out to do. But we all understand that to be false just from our own experience. To start with an extreme example: If a man wills to fly can he accomplish it? No, not unless he is in an airplane. So then can a man marry any woman he wills to marry? At 5' 6" and 42 years old can I dunk a basketball if I will to do so? (No I can't)

Ok, so we would all agree that man's will is limited in many ways. One of those ways is that our bodies can only accomplish things that are phyically possible. Are there other ways that the human will is limited? Yes, man's will is limited by his desires. A man will make choices that he thinks are best. He may choose to forgo pleasure for a time in order to reap greater benefits later. But men won't do what doesn't make sense for them to do. Unless of course they are insane.

So what is it in man that forms his desire? Here is where I will turn to scripture. The Bible tells us that man was created from the dust of the ground. Therefore part of man is his Flesh. The Bible then tells us that God breathed into the man and he became a living being. Or as the King James says, a living soul(Gen 2:7). So here we see that man has an eternal part to his being, his soul, or his spirit. So man has a spirit and a flesh. Those inform his will as to what is the right thing to do. So when a man is faced with a decision he does not make a choice in a vaccum. Whatever his spirit and his flesh tell him he then chooses.

So now what does the Bible tell us is the state of man's flesh and his spirit? In Genesis 3 we see the sin of Adam and Eve and that their punishment was death. That death was not only their eventual physical death, but also their spirit died as well. And by die, I mean that it ceased to be able to do what God commanded it to do. Romans 5:12 tells us that through Adam sin entered the world, and through his sin, all his descendants faced the same consequence that he did. We inherited a spirit that was dead in terms of being able to obey God. Our spirit was tuned to sin, and our flesh was tuned to sin. Jesus termed this truth in this fashion: in John 8:34, "everyone who sins is a slave to sin." And Paul echos this truth concerning our flesh. In Romans 7:14 Paul says "...but I am flesh, sold into bondage to sin. So if the spirit is a slave to sin, and the flesh is in bondage to sin then what will be the choice that man makes on his own? He will always choose to reject God's gospel. He is a slave to sin, nothing in him desires God. He is an enemy of God and the gospel message and his messangers are the stench of death to him (2 Cor 2:14-16)

In Romans 3: 10 - 18

as it is written,
"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;
THERE IS NONE WHO DOES GOOD,
THERE IS NOT EVEN ONE.
THEIR THROAT IS AN OPEN GRAVE,
WITH THEIR TONGUES THEY KEEP DECEIVING,
THE POISON OF ASPS IS UNDER THEIR LIPS;
WHOSE MOUTH IS FULL OF CURSING AND BITTERNESS;
THEIR FEET ARE SWIFT TO SHED BLOOD,
DESTRUCTION AND MISERY ARE IN THEIR PATHS,
AND THE PATH OF PEACE THEY HAVE NOT KNOWN.
THERE IS NO FEAR OF GOD BEFORE THEIR EYES."

So does a man who hears the gospel choose to accept it or reject it? Yes he does. And everytime he exercises his will, he chooses to reject! His will is NOT free, it is a slave to sin because his spirit and his flesh that inform his will are slaves to sin. Without the supernaturual work of regeneration by God himself all men would be lost, always rejecting God's invitation of the gospel.

So then where do people get the idea of "free will"? One place is a verse like John 3:16 In that verse, scripture says: "that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life."
The logic that follows is that since God gives a choice (whoever believes) then man must have the ability to believe. But this verse does not state that everyone is able to make the positive choice for faith in Jesus. It only states that whoever does believe will be saved. If I said, whoever runs a mile in less than 4 minutes will make the Olympic team. That, in no way states that you have the ability to run a sub 4 minute mile.

So then who does make the positive choice for faith in the Gospel? Earlier in John 3 Jesus says that it is those that are Born Again who will see the kingdom of heaven. So what occurs in the act of being born again? The Holy Spirit removes the man's dead spirit, and puts in a spirit that is free from sin. Thatman with a new spirit hears the gospel and then is able to exercise his will and always chooses to believe in Jesus Christ.

What a great God He is. In His mercy and through His grace, His Spirit brings new life to men, who then call out in faith and are redeemed. If you are a Christian today you are so because of God's work in your life. Not because you had something extra in your "free will" that decided to choose God. In fact, He chose you.

God's Sovereign Choice (Part 2)

by Bruce Mills

In my last post, we were examining Romans 8:29 and saw that God's foreknowledge refers to His predetermined plan regarding certain individuals. But what did He plan to do in regard to them? If we don't understand that, it is easy to define foreknowledge improperly. So exactly what did God plan to do with those people whom He foreknew? This is a very important aspect, and here it is: The concept of foreknowledge embraces the idea of a predetermination, not just to take a course of action, but to take a course of action which is motivated by love.

You see, to foreknow, in its biblical sense, is to predetermine an expression of love. In foreknowing Christ, God was predetermining an expression of love toward Christ which would bring His Son great glory forever through redemption. It is a predetermined, foreordained, foreseen love relationship borne in the eternal purpose of God.

Please understand that throughout Scripture, the concept of knowing refers to much more than simply grasping information. In Amos 3:2, speaking to Israel, God says, “You only have I known among all the families of the earth.” Now does that mean that of all the families, all the tribes, all the peoples, all the nations of the earth, Israel is the only one He knows about? No, it’s not information, it’s predetermination. In fact, the New American Standard Bible translates the word “known” here as “chosen.” So there is that foreordaining aspect. But behind that idea of knowing, there is also a very intimate truth.

If you go back in the book of Genesis, you find in 4:1 that Adam “knew his wife Eve.” That means more than simply that he knew who she was, or where she was, or what she was like because it follows it by saying “and she conceived and gave birth to Cain.” The verb “to know” is often used in Scripture as a euphemism for sexual intercourse, so that means it is used to express the most intimate expression of love. And in the New Testament, Joseph was shocked when he learned Mary was pregnant, and then the angel revealed to him in a dream that she was to give birth to the Messiah. Matt. 1:24-25 tells us that he “took Mary as his wife, but [lit., was not knowing her] until she gave birth to a Son, and he called His name Jesus.” The concept of “knowing,” then, embodies the idea of beautiful, intimate love that brings two together. It has the idea of caring for someone.

1 Cor. 8:3 tells us, “but if anyone loves God, he is known by Him.” From the standpoint of cognition and awareness, people don’t have to love God for Him to know about them in His infinite mind, because He knows everyone on the face of the earth. But this is talking about knowing in an intimate sense; that is, “if anyone loves God, he is known by Him” in the sense of an intimate love relationship.

In Matt. 7:22-23, Jesus was explaining what will happen on the Day of Judgment, and He said, “Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’” Did He mean, "I don’t know who you are," or "I never heard of you"? No, He meant “I don’t have an intimate relationship with you; I don’t have a love relationship with you; I don’t belong to you and you don’t belong to Me.”

In John 10:14, Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd, and I know My own and My own know Me.” And a few verses later in verse 27, He says, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them.” 2 Tim. 2:19 says, “The Lord knows those who are His.”

So, when you come to Romans 8:29 and see the word “foreknew,” there is a predetermined love included in it. When God foreordains, He predetermines to love a certain person. It is a predetermined, foreordained, foreseen love relationship born in the eternal purpose of God.

So what you have is this: God has a purpose and that purpose is to express His love to sinners. He predetermines, on the basis of His desire to express His love to sinners, exactly which sinners He foreordained unto salvation, and they are the people who will be the recipients of His eternal intimacy and love.

When He foreknew them, they did not yet exist; in fact, nothing existed, because according to Scripture, it occurred before creation (cf. Eph. 1:4). None of those whom He foreknew were worthy of His love and grace; in fact, they would all be born as His sworn enemies (cf. Rom. 3:10-18, 5:10, 8:7). So His foreknowledge of them was solely and only an act of His sovereign, infinite love and grace. There is no other reason than that.

In our next post, we will deal with the next word in Romans 8:29 which has also caused great consternation throughout church history, and that is the word "predestined."

God's Sovereign Choice (Part 1)

by Bruce Mills

For the past 16 months, I have been teaching through Romans in my Sunday School class. I recently taught through Romans 8:29-30, which reads, "For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified."

Those verses obviously contain some of the most complex truths in all of theology. There is, perhaps, none so controversial as the matter of God's foreknowledge and predestination of certain people to salvation. In reality, once the two terms are explained, most people's problem isn't with predestination, but rather with foreknowledge, because once the brick of God's foreknowledge is laid, the brick of predestination follows naturally. However, through the years, those two terms have come to be used almost interchangeably, even though they are not synonymous.

After finishing teaching on God's foreknowledge, one man approached me and asked me to summarize my teaching and put it on the blog. My response was that it would be entirely too long to be a blog post. I later discussed this request with another of the elders at the church and he suggested breaking it down into a series of posts so that each could be more "bite-sized." So that is what I intend to do; to write a series on the subject of God's foreknowledge and predestination. I'm not quite sure how many posts it will take, but eventually, I will finish. I'll do my best to summarize what I taught in class and not throw the entire truckload at you. So let's get started.

The first phrase of verse 29 says, "For those whom He foreknew..." Salvation begins with God’s foreknowledge. A Christian is, first of all, someone whom God foreknew. Salvation is not initiated by a person’s decision to receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Scripture is clear that repentant faith is essential to salvation and is the first step that we take in response to God, but repentant faith does not initiate salvation. God's foreknowledge is the first step in initiating an individual's salvation.

So let’s examine what this word means. Some people think it means that God looked down through the corridors of time into the future and saw who was going to make the decision to follow Christ and who was not. And once He looked down through history and saw how each of us was going to choose, He then predestined those whom He saw were going to choose to believe in Christ.

However, that viewpoint contains a very serious flaw. Man—who, according to Rom. 3:10-23, 8:7, is wicked, spiritually ignorant, spiritually blind, incapable of understanding the truth, incapable of stopping his iniquity, hates God, and is God's enemy—is dead in trespasses and sins and, on his own, will not make a decision to follow Christ. That’s the first thing we have to recognize.

Secondly, we have to ask the question, “If God just looks into the future and sees some people who believe and some people who do not believe, then where did the faith of those who chose to believe come from?” Is it natural for an unregenerate, wicked, blind, hopeless, helpless sinner to suddenly exercise saving faith in Jesus Christ? No, it’s not natural; in fact, it’s impossible. It can’t happen. The terminology used in Scripture to describe fallen man is that he is “dead in…trespasses and sins” (Eph. 2:1) and his mind is spiritually blind (2 Cor. 4:4). A dead man is incapable of doing anything, and a blind man cannot will himself to see light.

Think of it this way: If “foreknowledge” means that God knows beforehand what people will do in response to Him or to the preaching of the gospel, and then determines their destiny on that basis, what would God possibly see or foreknow except for a fixed rebellion against Him in every person’s heart? Paul has gone to great lengths in Romans 1-3 to explain that man is completely and totally opposed to God. So if foreknowledge was defined in the way some would like to define it, then the only thing God would see would be opposition to Him; not a decision for Him.

So, if the "God-looks-down-through-the-hallway-of-time" approach is incorrect, what does the word "foreknowledge" mean? I believe Acts 2:23 provides some wonderful insight as to what it means. Scripture is always the best commentary on Scripture, and in Acts 2:23, Peter, speaking under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, defines it for us. He says that Christ went to the cross “by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God.” That’s very important.

The word translated “plan” was used in classical Greek for a council which was convened to make a decision. This was a decision for a pre-decided course of action, so “the predetermined plan” of God means God determined the course of action. “Predetermined” is a perfect participle; that is, it speaks of an action which was completed in the past, but with continuing, on-going results. The word is ὁρίζω, which speaks of marking off boundaries or limits. We get our English word “horizon” from this word. The horizon is the border or boundary between earth and sky. So God pre-decided a course of action and marked off the boundaries of that action. This was His “predetermined plan.”

Now, notice that Peter also says that God’s “foreknowledge” was involved. In fact, I believe that what he is doing here is clarifying what “predetermined plan” means. He is defining “foreknowledge” as meaning a “predetermined plan.” “Foreknowledge” doesn’t just mean that God knows what’s going to happen; it means that He has pre-decided His course of action with the boundaries and limits marked out.

So when we speak of God's foreknowledge, we are saying that He predetermined precisely what He was going to do in regard to certain individuals, and according to Eph. 1:4, He did this before the foundation of the world. So what was it that He pre-decided to do? We'll look at that in our next post.