Gods Sovereignty and Mans Free Choice

• Genesis 50:19-21
  • 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, in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory.
• Ephesians 1:11-12
• Questions:
• As our follow up to the Joseph narrative, certain questions need to be addressed:

  • Since Joseph had his dreams before his entire incident in being sold, moving to Egypt, ending up in jail, and then being exalted to 2nd most powerful person in the universe at the time; was God the One using him to complete His own plan? If so, was Joseph more of a “puppet” than a man with free will?

  • Does God’s sovereign will leave any room for man to make his own decisions?

  • If man decides to sin, can he truly be considered “guilty”? After all, God’s perfect plan was being fulfilled through the brother’s sin.

  • Did Joseph’s brothers have any “free choice” in selling Joseph into slavery so that he could complete God’s plan to end up in Egypt and then save the children of Israel?

  • How does this story shed light on how we understand “The Fall”, Pharaoh’s “hardening of heart”, Job’s suffering, God judging the sin of Israel by using the Babylonians to attack and murder them, Judas’ betrayal of Jesus, and a slew of other examples where God uses evil people/situations to accomplish His perfect will?

  • How does the sovereignty of God (God is king, supreme ruler, and law-giver of the entire universe) and the “free choice” of human beings agree?

2PRE-QUALIFIER:

• There is way too much history and information on God’s sovereignty and man’s free choice to cover in this single session. We will do our best to cover the essentials of this issue as it relates to salvation directly and the Joseph narrative indirectly.
• Traditional 2 Main Schools of Thought (with several in-between):
  • Arminianism vs. Calvinism (simplistic layout)
  • GodMan
  • Arminian does of the workdoes of the work
  • does of the workdoes of the work
  • Calvin does of the workdoes of the work

  • The issue at stake: exalt the “free will” or exalt the “sovereignty of God”?

  • Arminianism (James Arminius) – exalts the “free will” of man over the sovereign will of God
  • Calvinism (John Calvin) – exalts the sovereignty of God above the free choice (voluntos) of man
  • Total – man is inherently sinful as a result of the Fall
  • Unconditional – God will choose; no pre-conditional requirements
  • Limited – God’s blood is for the elect
  • Irresistible – God’s call to salvation is His alone – His will cannot be thwarted by man in any area including calling him to be saved
  • Perseverance of the – The fruit of the elect will remain

3Examine Handout: 5 Points Defined

• An examination of the “goodness” of works
• Works are with good (Reformed / Calvin)
• Works are good (John Wesley)

4Background: Historical views of Church leaders

• Augustine – God “predestines” according with man’s “free choice” (CG V,9)
• Pelagius – God “predestines” according to the quality of the lives God foresees men will lead
• John Calvin – God predetermines according to his own will alone
• This is what is meant when he says through the prophets (Is.45:7; Amos 3:6; Prov.16:1-4, 9, 33) that He creates darkness and light, that He sends death and life, that good and evil come only by His hand, even going so far as to say that He directs all those other things that seem to be fortuitous. And if anyone is killed accidentally in the process, it is He who is the cause of his death, indeed, has willed it, to the end that we might realize that nothing happens by chance, but only in accordance with His counsel and judgment.” And He is sorely angry whenever we think that these things occur by other means or whenever we fail to look up to Him, recognizing Him not only as the principal cause of everything, but also as the author, who by His counsel disposes as He wills.”
• - Calvin, John, And Against the Libertines, trans. Benjamin Wiltley, Baker, 1982. Chapt.14, p.244.
• James Arminius – Man is free to choose with no inducements from God
• John Wesley – Man did not totally lose the image of God within him at the Fall and therefore is capable of making some righteous decisions – even including the idea to become saved.
• “If (election) be so, then is all preaching vain. It is needless to them that are elected; for they, whether with preaching or without, will infallibly be saved.”
• “…and it (preaching) is useless to them that are not elected, for they cannot possibly be saved: They, whether with preaching or without, will infallibly be damned.”
• -John Wesley, Sermon:

5“Working out Our Own Salvation”

• Introspection of Beliefs:
• Scriptural Insight:

  • Does God impose His will upon men? Is this Election?

  • John 10:11
  • Rom.9:10-24
  • Rom.8:30
  • Eph.1:11
  • 1 Thes.1:4
  • 2 Thes.2:13
  • Titus 1:1-2
  • Didn’t Jesus die for the whole world? Doesn’t this imply “choice?”
  • Scriptural references
  • 1 Cor.5:15
  • 2 Cor.5:14
  • Titus 2:11
  • 1 John 2:2
• 4 Views:
  • “All” = . If God wants it, then He has provided salvation and everyone gets it freely
  • “All” means “all of men”, not everyone
  • “All” means only all those previously to be saved (Puritans like John Owen, Calvin)
  • Christ’s death was “sufficient for all but efficient for the elect.”

6– Synod of Dort (1618-1619)

• “All” means “offered to all. While God is not willing that any should perish, saving grace is not irresistible…it can be
• We believe that God is “all-powerful”. This definition in itself heightens the sovereign will and power of God to create ALL things and control ALL things according to His own will.
• All things were created Him and Him (Gen.1; Acts 17:28; Col.1:16)
• Since God is the supreme controller, could last a single moment if it were not upheld by His hand
• God’s sovereignty must cover of the universe for Him truly to be “all”-powerful
• He is the One who works behind the scenes to accomplish His divine, perfect, and often “hidden” will Phil 2:13
  • There are no accidents, no mishaps – God is in complete control. Not even the evil heart of fallen man may come close to thwarting His will.
• FAQ’s At-a-Glance:

  • What then is Biblical “free choice”?

  • Man is fallen, therefore, man’s will is fallen – it is completely depraved of the ability to make right choices

  • Can people justly be judged for this kind of “free choice”?

  • The wicked are justly because God has chosen to compare the m to His divine nature in which case all grossly fall short
  • Humans cannot know why the Lord would allow for the fall of Adam, but it does not release Adam from his for his “choice” to sin (Institutes 23.8)

  • Is God fair in calling some but not calling others to salvation?

7Views of God’s Grace

• Common Grace:
• Efficacious Grace:
• Prevenient Grace:

8“Double Predestination” / Supralapsarianism

• How did God “choose”?

• Arminianism
• God chose by looking ahead in time (forknowledge) and seeing who would Him
• Augustine walked this tightrope as did Thomas Aquinas
• Calvinism
• God chose according to His own good pleasure
• The call is universal, but the choice is God’s alone (IE: Romans 9)
• “They (Arminian) grant indeed that as touching election, it is a free gift, but they always return to their foolish supposition that God foresaw those who would do good (who would choose to be saved). But who should he foresee that which could not be? For we know that all Adam’s offspring is corrupted, and that we do not have the skill to think one good thought of doing well, and much less therefore are we able to commence to do good. Although God should wait a hundred thousand years for us, if we could remain so long in the world, yet it is certain that we should never come to him nor do anything else but increase the mischief continually to our own condemnation. In short, the longer men live in the world, the deeper they plunge themselves into their damnation, and therefore God could not foresee what was not in us before He himself put it into us.

9– Calvin, John, Sermons on Ephesians

• Goal of the Topic:
  • Scriptural truth
  • Eph.1:5, 9, 11
  • 2 Thes.2:11, 12
  • Rom.9:17-18

  • Why did God choose?

  • God does what God does to the praise of His own glorious grace
  • He is gracious enough to include us in this outstanding process.
  • When Joseph said (Gen.50:19), “…am I in the place of God?” I think that he was holding to a solid Calvinistic understanding of how the will of God is accomplished
  • He was not privy to what God was doing as He was moving Joseph around
  • God was accomplishing a plan that he could never imagine – he could only see it when he looked back…and he was amazed!
• Discussion:

10Suggested Reading: Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God (Packer, J.I.)