Do people make totally free choices or are they constrained by various factors? This is one of the most important questions asked and answered in the Bible.
- TEXT: Proverbs 19:21; Romans 9:17-18
- SERIES: Difficult Questions Christians Deal With
- SPEAKER: Jason Dollar
- DATE: March 13, 2011
Proverbs 19:21 Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the LORD that will stand.
What Is the Problem?
- The Matrix – Do I work reality or does reality work me?
- Star Trek – The plague was drug addiction, which controlled the people.
- NATURALISM: Free Choice vs Chemicals/Environment
- CHRISTIAN THEISM: Free Choice vs Sovereignty
What Is the Will?
It is the part of a person that chooses. It is the grabber you might say. The will is moved by desire, but is not the same thing.
What Is Freedom?
Full freedom is a person’s ability to do anything he wants to whenever he wants to do it. Realistic freedom is a person’s ability to pursue the things he desires.
What Does the Bible Teach?
EXAMPLE 1: PHAROAH
Romans 9:17-18 For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.
Exodus 4:21 And the LORD said to Moses, “When you go back to Egypt, see that you do before Pharaoh all the miracles that I have put in your power. But I will harden his heart, so that he will not let the people go.”
Exodus 8:14-15 And they gathered them together in heaps, and the land stank. But when Pharaoh saw that there was a respite, he hardened his heart and would not listen to them, as the LORD had said.
Exodus 8:31-32 And the LORD did as Moses asked, and removed the swarms of flies from Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his people; not one remained. 32 But Pharaoh hardened his heart this time also, and did not let the people go
Exodus 9:34 – 10:1 But when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunder had ceased, he sinned yet again and hardened his heart, he and his servants. So the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he did not let the people of Israel go, just as the LORD had spoken through Moses. Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go in to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants, that I may show these signs of mine among them.”
EXAMPLE 2: JOSEPH
Genesis 50:20 As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.
EXAMPLE 3: JUDAS ISCARIOT
Acts 1:16-17 “Brothers, the Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke beforehand by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus. For he was numbered among us and was allotted his share in this ministry.” (see Psalm 69:25, 109:8)
John 13:2 During supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray him,
Matthew 27:3-4 Then when Judas, his betrayer, saw that Jesus1 was condemned, he changed his mind and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders, saying, “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.” They said, “What is that to us? See to it yourself.”
EXAMPLE 4: JESUS
Acts 2:22-23 “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know – this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.”
Summary of the teaching of the Bible: Proverbs 19:21 Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the LORD that will stand.
People have the freedom to make real choices that we are held responsible for as moral agents. But every choice is made in connection with the sovereign and broad plan of God for history.
How Does This Relate to Salvation?
John 6:44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.
Ephesians 1:3-6 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.
2. But people are held responsible for their choice to either receive Christ as Savior or reject Him.
Psalm 7:11-12 God is a righteous judge, and a God who feels indignation every day. If a mandoes not repent, God will whet his sword.
Romans 2:5-8 But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed. He will render to each one according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury.
APPLICATION
- We must call people to make a real decision to trust Jesus as their Savior.
- We must rest in God’s sovereign grace knowing that we are held firmly in the hand of God.
