GOD’S SOVEREIGN WILL & OUR FREE WILL

PRESENTATION TO METRO CHURCH OF CHRIST

18 AUGUST 2019

SOVEREIGN[ SOV-RIN, SOV-ER-IN, SUHV- ]

noun

• a monarch; a king, queen, or other supreme ruler.

• a person who has supreme power or authority.

adjective

• characteristic of a sovereign or sovereign authority; royal.

• having supreme rank, power, or authority.

• supreme; preeminent; indisputable: a sovereign right.

• greatest in degree; utmost or extreme.

• being above all others in character, importance, excellence, etc.

WILL[ WIl] noun

• Someone’s determination to do what is necessary to achieve what they want.

• The will to do something. e.g. the will to win, or a clash of wills.

• What someone wants to happen. E.g. last will and testament.

• To be against someone’s will. E.g. Being forced to do something against your will.

• To impose your will on someone (make other people do what you want).

• An ability to make decisions and take action. E.g. This computer seems to have a will of its own!

What do we mean by ‘God’s sovereign will’?

God is the creator of all things including the earth, universe and heaven which are all under his control. God is a supreme ruler with supreme power and authority above all others. i.e. God is sovereign over all things.

As God is sovereign over all things he has the absolute right and all authority to do or allow whatever he pleases.

• Daniel 4:34-35

• His dominion is an eternal dominion;

his kingdom endures from generation to generation.All the peoples of the earth

are regarded as nothing.He does as he pleases

with the powers of heavenand the peoples of the earth.

No one can hold back his handor say to him: “What have you

done?”

• Psalms 33: 8-11

• 8 Let all the earth fear the LORD;let all the people of the world revere him.

9 For he spoke, and it came to be;he commanded, and it stood firm.

• 10 The LORD foils the plans of the nations;he thwarts the purposes of the peoples.

11 But the plans of the LORD stand firm forever,the purposes of his heart through all generations.

• Isaiah 46:9-11• 9 Remember the former things, those of long ago;

I am God, and there is no other;I am God, and there is none like me.

10 I make known the end from the beginning,from ancient times, what is still to come.

I say, ‘My purpose will stand,and I will do all that I please.’

11 From the east I summon a bird of prey;from a far-off land, a man to fulfill my purpose.

What I have said, that I will bring about;what I have planned, that I will do.

•Ephesians 1:11

•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.

GOD’S SOVEREIGN (HIDDEN) WILL MEANS…

• God is sovereign over all and can do as he pleases.

• No person or nation can resist God’s grand plan or alter it.

• Everything is in conformity with his will.

• God’s sovereign plan remains firm forever.

• What God says he has planned and will bring about he will surely deliver upon.

• God has known the end of his plan before the beginning of time. God’s plan for the world has been predestined.

PUPPET, PUPPETEER OR BOTH?!

• God predestined us, and we are not free.

• We are free, and God did not predestine us.

• God predestined us, and we are free.

• If the latter, wow can we both be predestined and free?

• How can we be both the puppet and puppeteer?

IS EVERYTHING ALREADY PLANNED FOR US?

• If God has a predestined plan for us, we are not free.

• E.g. If God already has made his plan do any of our decisions matter? OF COURSE THEY DO!!!

• Did Judas have a choice to not betray Jesus?

• Did Peter have a choice to not deny Christ three times?

• Of course they did!

CAN OUR CHOICES CHANGE GOD’S PLAN?

• If we are free, then God does not have a predestined plan for us. E.g. If my own decisions can change the future then is God’s plan not predestined and subject to change? OF COURSE NOT!!!

PUPPET, PUPPETEER OR BOTH?!

•God predestined us, and we are not free.

•We are free, and God did not predestine us.

•God predestined us, and we are free.

PREDESTINED BUT FREE

• If God has a predestined plan for us and we are free, how can this be reconciled?

• How can we both be predestined according to God’s will and free to make our choices at the same time? How can we be both the puppet and the puppeteer?

BEING PREDESTINED BUT FREE IS BIBLICAL

• The Bible affirms both God’s sovereign will and our free will. The Bible is inerrant. Therefore, sovereign will and free will can and do co-exist, even if we can’t fully explain it.

• 1 Peter 2:8 “A stone that causes people to stumble and a rock that makes them fall.” They stumble because they disobey the message (free will) -which is also what they were destined for (predestined).

BEING PREDESTINED BUT FREE IS BIBLICAL

• Luke 22:22 The Son of Man will go as it has been decreed (predestined). But woe to that man who betrays him! (free will)”

• Acts 2:23 This man was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge (predestined); and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross (free will).

BEING PREDESTINED BUT FREE IS BIBLICAL

• Acts 27 But now I urge you to keep up your courage, because not one of you will be lost; only the ship will be destroyed (predestined).

• Acts 31-32 Then Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, “Unless these men stay with the ship, you cannot be saved.” So the soldiers cut the ropes that held the lifeboat and let it drift away (free will).

BEING PREDESTINED BUT FREE IS BIBLICAL

• Genesis 50:20 You intended to harm me (free will), but God intended it for good (predestined) to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.

BEING PREDESTINED BUT FREE IS LOGICAL• God knows that person X will be saved. It is

predestined.

• Person X also needs to choose to be saved. Free will.

• God knows that person x would freely choose to believe.

• God knows everything, even the future. God can’t be wrong about anything. Both are true statements.

• God knew Judas would betray Crist. Judas must betray Christ, otherwise God would be wrong. Judas freely chose to betray Christ but God knew that from before the time of creation. Judas was free and had free choice, God simply knew how Judas would exercise his free will.

BEING PREDESTINED BUT FREE IS LOGICAL

• God knows that person X will be saved. It is predestined.

• Person X also needs to choose to be saved. Free will.

• God knows that person x would freely choose to believe.

• Opposites can’t both be true at the same time or from the same perspective.

• From God’s perspective / viewpoint it is already determined. God exists beyond time itself. God knows the end from the beginning.

• In relation to person x’s free choice it is not predetermined. People live day to day, hour to hour or in the moment. Time is a very real constraint and real decisions are made with real consequences.

• So people freely choose to be saved but it is also predetermined to God from before the time of creation. The differences in time and perspective means there is no contradiction.

PREDESTINED BUT FREE IS LOGICAL: THE SPORTS REPLAY

• An example of viewing the same item from a different time and perspective is that of watching a pre-recorded event.

• E.g. Video tape of a football game. We know the outcome with foreknowledge, but each player is still using their own free will during the game. Every action is known in advance but free will still being played out on every action.

• God sits beyond time with foreknowledge as if he’s watching a video of his plan for the universe unfold. We are merely the players on the field acting it out with our decisions.

PREDESTINED BUT FREE LOGICALLY: THE TRAIN OF TIME

• Imagine a 20 carriage train passing through the open plains before it goes into a tunnel.

• A person with a high vantage point can see every carriage. He can see it approaching, as it enters the tunnel and as it appears on the other side.

• The person inside the tunnel can only ever see one carriage at a time as it passes by.

• Think of it as a ‘train of time’ – we catch glimpses moment by moment (carriage by carriage), God sees every moment of time, the whole train of time at once. Everything.

• Same train, two different but true perspectives.

PREDESTINED BUT FREE: WHY OUR FREE WILL CHOICES MATTER

• “Whosoever will may enter.”

• Matt 16:25, Luke 9:24, Mark 8:35, Revelation 22:17

• It is up to the individual to make a choice to repent and come to Christ.

PREDESTINED BUT FREE: WHY OUR FREE WILL CHOICES MATTER

• Christ died for everyone and wants all to be saved. Only the unwilling are lost.

• Matthew 23:37 “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing.

• John 3:16-18 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.

PREDESTINED BUT FREE: WHY OUR FREE WILL CHOICES MATTERWe can look to God and say “Thy will be done” and be saved by acknowledging God's will and his sovereign plan.

Those who are lost in the end will say thy own will be done – as in, that person’s own free will has lead them to their decision, not God’s.

People choose to not respond to God’s message. Such free will choices result in evil and being alienated from God.

Think back to how evil came into the world to begin with (Adam and Eve decisions) vs God’s plan for humankind.

PREDESTINED BUT FREE: WHY OUR FREE CHOICES MATTER

• Farmer and the drowning criminals. Farmer is out in the field and he sees some criminals drowning in the lake. The farmer can save them.

• Does he:

• A) Allow them to drown because justice demands they should die.

• B) Save who he wants to from his own sense of mercy even though he is not obliged to.

• C) Attempt to rescue all of them even though all deserve to die because his love demands it, knowing that some will refuse help and are lost.

PREDESTINED BUT FREE: WHY OUR FREE CHOICES MATTER

• Will all the boys be saved?

• Depends on if they’re willing to be saved.

• How can one be saved without your will. You’re fighting off your rescuer! You can’t surrender yourself, your will or be saved or rescued against your will? Throw out as many lifelines or buoys as you want, he just won’t grab it.

• If they boys are saved or rescued it is with their will – then they would have already given in and surrendered or submitted themselves to the rescuer.

PREDESTINED BUT FREE: WHY GOD’S WILL MATTERS

• “I chose you.”

• John 15:16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.

• Ephesians 1:11 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,

PREDESTINED BUT FREE: WHY GOD’S WILL MATTERS - MARRIAGE

• A man’s decision to marry and pop the question.

• 1) First needs to choose that he wants to be wed instead of remaining a bachelor.

• 2) He chose to ask someone whom he knew would choose to accept that marriage proposal (not someone who would reject it).

• 3) Nevertheless he chose her first. i.e. chosen according to his foreknowledge that she would accept.

PREDESTINED BUT FREE: WHY GOD’S WILL MATTERS - MARRIAGE

• 1 John 4:19 We love because he first loved us. We seek him because he first sought us.

• Christ relates to his church as a bride and groom. He chose us knowing that we would accept based on his foreknowledge. But free will is still being exercised both in the asking and in the acceptance. God didn’t have to ask us – like the drowning criminals in the lake, but he asked those who were willing to be saved and of their own free will say yes, save me. God simply knows who will say yes.

PREDESTINED BUT FREE: DO OUR WILLS HAVE EQUAL MERIT?

• Does our free will choice have merit?

• Problem – If we’re saved because of our choice to receive Christ, then isn’t salvation partly our own doing? i.e. works based?

• Answer: No, the receiver of the gift doesn’t take credit for having accepted it. Only the giver of the gift takes credit for having gifted it.

PREDESTINED BUT FREE: NATURE OF GOD’S FOREKNOWLEDGE

• God predetermines things in accordance with his foreknowledge of our free choices, not based on our free will choices.

• We are chosen but still free!

• Difference between foreknowledge and causality. Foreknown, not a forecreated or foregone conclusion. Knowing something doesn’t mean you make it happen.

PREDESTINED BUT FREE: NATURE OF GOD’S FOREKNOWLEDGE

• E.g. A car speeding up to try and cross the railway tracks. From your vantage point high on a hill you know that the car won’t make it, there’s going to be a disastrous crash. However, your foreknowledge of that crash didn’t cause the crash. You simply knew the outcome in advance when others were playing out the consequences of their own free choices. God’s foreknowledge doesn’t cause our salvation but he knows of it.

SUMMING UP