We speak often of “free will,” and in many everyday senses the term is appropriate. We make real choices, we bear real responsibility, and Scripture never treats us as puppets. Yet the biblical witness consistently presses us to see that God’s sovereign influence reaches far deeper into human behavior than we tend to assume. Paul’s statement in Romans 14:4 is a striking example: “Who are you to judge the servant of another? To his own master he stands or falls; and he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.” The believer’s perseverance is not merely a matter of human resolve; it is grounded in the Lord’s active ability to make His servant stand. That theme is woven throughout Scripture.
Paul tells the Philippians to “work out your salvation” because it is God Himself at work “both to will and to work for His good pleasure” (Phil 2:12-13). Obedience is not simply commanded; it is enabled. The writer of Hebrews prays that the God of peace would “equip you… working in us that which is pleasing in His sight” (Heb 13:20–21). Ezekiel goes further still, promising that God will put His Spirit within His people and “cause you to walk in My statutes” (Ezek 36:26–27). In other words, the very inclinations of the renewed heart are gifts of divine grace.
Faith itself is portrayed as God’s action. When Lydia heard Paul preach, Luke tells us that “the Lord opened her heart to respond” (Acts 16:14). Jesus teaches that no one comes to Him unless the Father draws him (John 6:44), and He tells Peter that his confession of Christ’s identity was not revealed by “flesh and blood” but by the Father (Matt 16:17). The human response is real, but its origin is divine.
Scripture also shows God restraining sin. He tells Abimelech, “I… kept you from sinning against Me” (Gen 20:6). David blesses the Lord for restraining him from bloodshed in his anger toward Nabal (1 Sam 25:32–34). Conversely, when God gives a people over to their stubborn hearts (Ps 81:12), the removal of restraint is itself an act of judgment. Restraint and release both belong to Him.
The hardening of the human heart is another sobering theme. Paul states plainly that God “has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires” (Rom 9:18). The Exodus narrative repeatedly attributes Pharaoh’s stubbornness to God’s hardening. John echoes Isaiah when he writes that God has “blinded their eyes and hardened their heart” (John 12:39–40). These are judicial acts, yet they reveal that even human resistance can fall under divine sovereignty.
Even the decisions of rulers are not autonomous. “The king’s heart is like channels of water in the hand of the Lord; He turns it wherever He wishes” (Prov 21:1). God stirred up the spirit of Cyrus to send Israel home (Ezra 1:1). Nebuchadnezzar learned the hard way that God “does according to His will… and no one can ward off His hand” (Dan 4:35). Human authority operates under a higher hand.
The wisdom literature often speaks of God’s direction of human steps. “The mind of man plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps” (Prov 16:9). The psalmist says that the steps of a man “are established by the Lord” (Ps 37:23). Jeremiah confesses that “a man’s way is not in himself… nor is it in a man who walks to direct his steps” (Jer 10:23). Our planning is real, but our path is God-governed.
Repentance itself is a divine gift. God exalted Christ “to grant repentance to Israel” (Acts 5:31). When the Gentiles believed, the church concluded that “God has granted to the Gentiles also the repentance that leads to life” (Acts 11:18). Paul instructs Timothy that God may “grant repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth” (2 Tim 2:25). Repentance is not merely a human turning; it is God’s gracious work.
Even our affections fall under His shaping hand. David prays, “Create in me a clean heart” (Ps 51:10). The psalmist asks God to “incline my heart to Your testimonies” (Ps 119:36). Paul prays that the Lord would “direct your hearts into the love of God” (2 Thess 3:5). Love, desire, and devotion are not self-generated; they are divinely directed.
Taken together, these passages present a consistent biblical picture. Human will is real, responsible, and meaningful. Yet it is never independent. God can incline, restrain, harden, renew, or redirect the human heart according to His purposes. Jude declares that God “is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy” (Jude 1:24). Like Romans 14:4, it fits squarely within this larger pattern: the believer stands because the Lord is able to make him stand. Our choices matter, but they unfold within the sovereign, gracious, and sometimes hidden work of God, who shapes His people for His glory.
I can clearly see how Scripture informs the picture you paint regarding God working sovereignly in the ways you depict. I am wishing that you would address Part 2 of this truth, which I believe follows naturally for the thinking person: human ability / responsibility / liability / culpability. I am sure that I am not alone in having thought about the logical and reasonable implications of the Doctrines of Grace as they relate to Man’s responsibility vs. inability (and I have mentioned it in the past--see 10/17/24, “St John, the Calvinist”). My observation is that while you have posted a great deal about God’s sovereignty over the years, I have not seen the flip side of the coin addressed in-depth at Winging It. (The post most closely addressing it that I found is 5/22/14, “Because of Sovereignty”).
ReplyDeleteSpecifically, I have not personally been able to fully reconcile the following line of reasoning:
Since humans are set against God by default from their conception, due to an inherent sin nature, and since no one will turn to God except He draw them and enable them to have faith to believe and obey, and since God has determined to draw only a small subset of humankind to Himself, how/why are those who don’t turn to Him accountable for the rebellious state into which they were born and from which they have no natural inclination or--more importantly--ability to turn? To me, it’s not reasonable to assert, “Man is responsible to repent and believe” when we accept as truth the fact that he cannot do so unless God ordains it.
As I said, this is the one aspect of Reformed Theology that I see as contradictory.
Lorna, I'm sorry to hear you believe in a theology you believe to be contradictory. That seems like a dangerous place to stand.
DeleteThe Bible is clear that we are without excuse for our rejection of God. His power and glory are made evident to all of us even without Scripture telling us how. We owe allegiance and obedience to God, and we choose daily to forsake Him. And because we have forsaken Him, our ability to commune with Him has been severed. It takes an act of God to repair that connection before we would ever desire to obey Him. There is nothing contradictory in Reformed Theology. There is mystery. How is God Sovereign and Man culpable is not a contradiction but a mystery, something that is difficult to understand but will be made more clear with further revelation. We have not been told the mechanism, but we do know that God is not a God of contradiction or confusion. So when He says that He is absolutely Sovereign and we are absolutely culpable, for us to see contradiction is a failure on our part to fully understand something that has not been revealed. Just like the question, "If God is all good and all powerful, why did He allow evil?", we're not able to answer because He hasn't told us, but we can't let that become some sort of contradiction or source of doubt because He has promised good. It would be unjust of God to punish us for something we can't do. God is not unjust, so we are punished for what we can do. It is not clearly spelled out how exactly this works, but to give it over to contradiction is to refute the teaching of the Bible.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts, David.
DeleteYou know me as a defender of Reformed Theology (inasmuch as I understand it), yet I will admit that I find it hard to sort out the topic of the human will as it functions within a sin nature and its characteristic proclivities (i.e. how free is our will, actually?). (A few months ago, I started reading a small booklet I found among my things; it is titled A Primer on Free Will, authored by John H. Gerstner (published in 1982 by Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Co.). I didn’t get very far into it before giving up, but I hope to return to it.) The topic of the will relates to Doctrine of Grace #1 (“Humanity’s Radical Corruption”), of course, so it is rather fundamental, to my mind. I will give it more study and thought (but not to the extent of actually reading either Erasmus’s On the Freedom of the Will or Luther’s On the Bondage of the Will!).
P.S. As it happens, I do not see theodicy as a contradiction. I guess I have worked that one out in my mind!
You're going to skip out on one of the best works on the Reformed doctrine on free will? I assume you won't be reading Edwards either? If you're going to try to believe a "contradiction" it might behoove you to read two of the greatest works on the subject (admittedly Edwards is a hard read) to clarify the topic.
DeleteI am flattered, David, that you think I actually consume that level of reading material! I will try to get through the booklet for starters.
DeleteJust to clarify what I mean by contradiction in this case: it is the opposing thoughts of “you must come to God to be saved” and “you cannot come to God on your own.” I am not objecting to God’s judgment upon rebellious mankind, who inherited Adam’s sinful nature, which is set against God; rather, I am questioning the possibility of one acting contrary to that inherent nature in order to obey the call to repent and believe. I wouldn’t desire to “believe a ‘contradiction’,” as you say, but to understand how two contrasting notions could be true at the same time. (Honestly, I would expect that the truth be found plainly in God’s Word instead of only comprehensible through higher learning.)
Perhaps we’ll pick this conversation back up at today’s post.
I often contemplate the mechanism that keeps God in control and our wills intact. This isn't a hill I'd die on, but I think it may be God strengthening and weakening our conscience. We are still responsible for our action, but God directs us how He wants us to go. Free will is still intact because we are the one that chooses our current strongest inclination, but God has influenced what that inclination is.
ReplyDelete