God's Choice and Man's Choice

Any Christian believer who thinks his salvation solely depends on exercising his free will and making the right choice to response to the Gospel message knows very little about the God of the Bible. He also knows very little about the sovereignty of God and the fallen nature of the unsaved person. It is very unfortunate whenever you raise the question of predestination and free will Christians would ask whether you are a Calvinist or an Armenian, or whether you hold the "reformed" view or the "non-reformed" view. My question is - why should Christians be divided because of different man's views?

The only reliable source of truth comes from God alone and never from man, even from the most Godly and most well-informed man. But this does not mean that we should give up discussing things that are known to be controversial altogether. With the help of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God we have sufficient revelation knowledge and understanding regarding God's Choice and man's choice and other related topics.

Things I don't know and things I do know

By way of introduction here are some statements concerning some of the things that I don't know and some of the things that I do know:

1. We all belong to the Adamic race and the entire Adamic race were born with a sin nature. We are fallen creatures. But Adam and Eve were not created fallen. They were created perfect with a perfect ability to exercise free will and to choose what was good. Yet they chose to sin. I don't know why they chose to sin and I have not found anyone yet who does know why.

2. I know God is sovereign. The Nelson's Bible Dictionary defines the sovereignty of God as - A theological term which refers to the unlimited power of God, who had sovereign control over the affairs and history of the world. Allow me to put it in simple layman term because I hate theological definitions, and I never understand them. What I understand is, God can do all things and will do what He likes, when He likes without having to explain to anyone and without having to ask anyone's permission.

3. I know God is the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last (Rev. 22:13). Therefore God being God everything begins and ends with God's, including His Choice. God's Choice is primary and man's choice secondary. Anyone who thinks his choice overrules God's Choice is a very proud person. He thinks he is above God.

4. I know God's plan for salvation is complete and is meant for everyone (John 3:16). But I have no idea why God saves some but not all. I don't doubt for a moment that God has the power to save all, but I know that He does not choose to save all. One thing I do know; if it pleases God to save some and not all, there is nothing wrong with that. God is not under obligation to save anybody. If He chooses to save some that is no way obligates Him to save the rest.

The Choice of the Natural Man

One thing the natural man (unconverted man) cannot choose and will not choose is Christ. In fact he is not capable of choosing Christ by himself. The natural inclination of the natural man is to keep on running away from Christ. After the Fall, Adam and Eve and all sinners after them became fugitive and turn their backs on God. Don't believe anyone who tells you, "So and so is not a Christian, but he is searching". An unbeliever never seeks after God. It is the job of Christians to help unbelievers to seek God.

What do the natural man seeks after? They are seeking happiness, peace of mind, relief from guilt, a meaningful life, and a host of other things that we know only God can give them. In other words, they are seeking the benefits of God. The natural man's sin is precisely this - He wants the benefits of God without God Himself!

Let us consider two important statements made by Jesus Himself:

"No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day" (John 6:44, NKJV, emphasis added).

"Therefore I have said to you that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father" (John 6:65, emphasis added).

Here are some statements of truth:

1. In the context the word "can" comes from the Greek word "dunamai" which means "having the ability", "possible" or "having the power". It does not mean "permission".

2. The word "draws" comes from the Greek word "helkuo" which means "to drag".

3. The natural man cannot choose to come to Jesus on his own steam without some kind of help from God. The Helper is the Holy Spirit (John 16:8, 9).

4. The word "granted" implies that God must choose him first and then drags him to Jesus.

A Major problem of the fallen man

It is important to realize that the fallen man is flesh (carnal) because of spiritual death - his spirit is dead and needs to be quicken by the Holy Spirit. And his dead spirit is unable to control his fleshly mind.

Paul said, "The fleshly mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you" (Romans 8:7 - 9, emphasis added).

The crucial word here is "if". What distinguishes those who are in the flesh from those who are not is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Only those who are born again have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit which enables him to please God by choosing Christ. As long as he remains in the flesh, unregenerated, he will never choose Christ.

The Principle of Divine Election

The Scripture reveals that the Church as well as individual Christian believer, just like Israel, is the products of "divine election" which simply means "God's choice". The principle of divine election says Israel is not Israel because the Jews chose God but because God chose them. Similarly we are Christians not because we chose God but because God chose us. Salvation depends on the decision God has already made. Any decision we make is merely a response to the decision which God has already made. Furthermore, He made that decision before He created the world. In other words, our will to choose Christ is merely a response to God's choice for us.

God's principle of divine election is revealed by the following passages of Scripture:

1. Paul said, "For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He Justified, these He also glorified" (Romans 8:29, 30, NKJV, emphasis added).

Someone called this the "Golden Chain of Salvation".

2. Paul said, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will" (Eph. 1:3 - 5, emphasis added).

3. Peter's greeting to the Jewish believers (the elect) in the midst of persecution.

".... to the pilgrims of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ; ..." (1 Peter 1:1, 2, NKJV, emphasis added).

A Major problem of predestination

It is one thing to contemplate God's gracious plan of salvation for the elect. But what about those who are not elect? Are they also predestined? Does God destine some unfortunate people to hell?

I believe totally in the doctrine of predestination because the Scripture says so. But I do not believe God is so unjust in such a way as to predestine anyone to hell. To understand this we have to look at God's sovereignty from a different perspective.

We have seen that all natural (unregenerated) men are guilty of sin in the sight of God. But God sovereignly decides to give mercy to some of them and give justice to the rest. In other words, the saved get mercy and the unsaved get justice. Nobody gets injustice. We must understand that all fallen or natural men do not deserve mercy but deserve justice. God is nover obligated to be merciful to sinners but by God's grace some sinners (the elect) get mercy. But the non-elect get justice.

For example God gave mercy to Jacob in a way He did not give it to Esau. He gave it to Peter in a way He did not give it to Judas. We must learn to praise God both in His mercy and in His justice. When He executes His Justice He is doing nothing wrong. He is executing His justice according to His righteousness.

God, in His mercy, intervenes in the lives of the elect to insure their salvation. The rest of mankind God leaves to themselves. He does not create unbelief in their hearts. The unbelief is already there. He does not have to cause them to sin. They sin by their own choices! They have evil inclination in their hearts. But by His common grace God restarins evil in the world. He restrains evil in individual fallen men in order to restrain evil in the world. He even restrains the appearance of the Anti-Christ until the fullness of time (2 Thess. 2:6, 7).

Judas was a fallen man with evil inclination in his heart. He was not a poor innocent victim of divine manipulation. He was not a righteous man whom God forced to betray Christ and then punished for the betrayal. Judas betrayed Christ because Judas wanted thirty pieces of silver.

It is true that God uses the evil inclination and evil intention of fallen men to bring about His own redemptive purposes. Without Judas there is no Cross for Jesus. Without the Cross there is no redemption. It clearly shows God's redemptive triumph over evil. Other similar examples are Pharaoh and Nebuchadnezzar, both fallen men with evil intention. God did not blemish His own righteousness by creating fresh evil in their hearts. He established His own righteousness by punishing the evil that was already there in them.

Another problem concerning predestination

Peter said, "The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance" (2 Peter 3:9, NKJV, emphasis added).

At first glance, a question comes to mind quite naturally - "If it is not the will of God to elect everyone unto salvation, how can the Bible then say that God is not willing that any should perish?"

The answer is that the above passage of Scripute does not say anything about the sovereign Will of God. In its context, the word "willing" in Greek is "boulomai" which means "be disposed" or "intend". Therefore the phrase "not willing that any should perish" should read, "(God) does not desire or wish or intend that any should perish". In other words, God does not take delight in the death of the unrepentant sinner. His desire is that all should come to Christ.

Conclusion

Let us echo what the apostle Paul said:

"Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unseachable are His judgments and His ways past finding out! For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen" (Romans 11:33, 36, NKJV).