Love and Free Will

One of the truisms I use every now and then is that love only means something when it is freely given.

If I were talking about how a man won his wife’s heart you would be relatively easy to convince. It might be true that a young man wants to believe he won his wife, that he found a way to make her love him. But as a man ages he will quickly admit, happily admit, that it is more important that she chooses to love him. In fact, a man who wants to force his wife to love him, regardless of her will, would be considered manipulative at best or more likely downright dangerous.

But since I am talking theology instead of romance I expect a little more resistance, especially from those who embrace Calvinism or reformed theology. This perspective believes that men can play no role in their own salvation, that men cannot make any choice whether they will love God.

For these individuals, God’s sovereignty answers every question. He has absolute authority and therefore he can choose in advance who will be saved apart from their personal choices or activities. His Sovereignty allows Him to have it all: He can choose for men to sin, He can condemn them for this same sin, and He can choose to redeem others. Under this system He would have it all, except He would not have anyone who willingly, freely chose to love Him. Love only means something when it is freely given.

This choice is what I believe we were made for. We were created to give us the opportunity to freely choose a relationship with God. In order to allow this possibility, to allow for this greatest good to be a potentiality, He gave us free will. He knew we would uniformly choose sin, but He allowed the rebellion of sin because it became the path to the greater good. This greater good, or even greatest good, I speak of is the freely given love of those who would also choose His gift of redemption from sin.

 

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The Devil

There are some things that Christians believe about the devil. The Bible teaches that the devil was an angel, that led a rebellion, and with him one third of the angels became fallen.

The question that naturally arises is, how do you stage a rebellion attempting to overthrow an all-powerful and all-knowing God? God will know what you are up to, and absolutely nothing you do can harm Him. So how is rebellion even possible? Why didn’t God stop it before it ever got started?

As how rebellion is possible, the devil convinced himself that he could successfully rebel, being blinded by his own arrogance and vanity. He lied to himself to believe he could succeed.

But answering why God allowed it, has to come down to one reason. The devil’s rebellion served God’s purposes. Now for some people this is a hard pill to swallow. For them, thinking God allowed sin, for any reason, is reprehensible. I prefer to look at it that God is powerful enough, that every sin, is used by God to bring about positive results.

I believe God’s purpose, His positive result, is to create humanity as truly and completely free moral agents. We have been given the power of choice. However, the power to choose is meaningless without choices to choose from. Similarly, if all of the choices are right choices, then we are not truly free.

The devil creates for humanity the alternative to choosing right. Without this choice we would not be truly free, and therefore not truly human. The purpose of our humanity is the ability to choose God, choosing to love and serve Him instead of self. This human free will is what makes us the crown of creation, and without it we would be nothing more than fancy automaton.

The next question that arises is, does that mean God is responsible for sin? The answer is no. God creates angels and humans with a true power of choice, and with this power comes the responsibility for one’s own choices. God knew the wrong choices that would be made, but that does not make Him responsible for our sins. We choose them and we are responsible for them.

To help illustrate this point, think about a couple bringing a new baby home to a two year old. They can reasonably assume the older child will at some point mistreat the younger. So does that mean they forcibly separate the two and never let them meet? Of course not, to do so would be an unspeakable cruelty. These two are born to be siblings and to love each other. So over their growing up years the parents know there will be errors, but seek to teach them to love and grow together into healthy, non-murderous, siblings.

Similarly God is not responsible for our sins. He is simply allowing the situation which gives us the possibility of becoming fully what God has created us to be. He made us to be the crowning jewel of His creation, the ones who choose to love Him.

Total Depravity

Descriptions of classical Calvinism generally begin with a statement on total depravity. This doctrine means a lost man is incapable of reaching out to God, because of the manner in which sin has corrupted the human form. In this corruption, this fall, we are remade to not desire the things of God. We are free to choose what we want, but apart from God’s intervention we will not want God.

Today I want to make a few notes about this construct and how people use Scripture to support this idea. I notice that with any doctrinal idea, the person who believes it, sees it in Biblical passages others would not. For total depravity, I have heard many verses cited, which made me scratch my head.

Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is more deceitful than anything else, and incurable —who can understand it? Saying the heart is deceitful, or that humanity is sinful, is not logically the same as saying we are incapable of choosing God, or desiring God. It is logically uncomfortable to think God created a world where we are capable of choosing anything else, but not that which we were created for, that which we need the most.

Romans 3:10-12 As it is written: There is no one righteous, not even one. There is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. All have turned away; all alike have become useless. There is no one who does what is good, not even one. This passage is part of a longer one speaking of the nature of sin. This discussion of the nature of sin is in a longer passage describing why we need Jesus. In this context, it doesn’t appear to me to be a statement of absolutes but of general tendencies. Yes it does use all-inclusive language, but like Jesus speaking of chopping of a hand, it is used for emphasis. If it were literal lost people would not be able to do any good. But we all see lost people do good things. In my opinion this includes the ultimate good of reaching out to Jesus for salvation.

Ephesians 2:1 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins (Note, this is a part of longer passage you should read carefully if wrestling with this issue.) This passage is affirming we were spiritually dead prior to coming to know Christ. It is step beyond though to say that spiritually dead means unable to choose life. Spiritual death is used comparatively to physical death, but like any illustration, we can choose to include details unintended in the original text.

1 Corinthians 2:14 But the unbeliever does not welcome what comes from God’s Spirit, because it is foolishness to him; he is not able to understand it since it is evaluated spiritually. This verse is describing what the process of rejecting God looks like inside the person. The term unbeliever here probably means more than one who rejects God, but one who rejects all things spiritual.

There is a habit of people arguing theological points to flood their opponents with Scripture, moving so quickly that each one cannot be evaluated as it goes by. While all of these passages will appear to read in support of total depravity to one who is already convinced of it, I have a hard time seeing it in any verse.

In my view, humanity is incapable of reaching out to a God they do not know. The intervention they need in order to make them capable of choosing God therefore, is a faithful witness speaking of the Christ who took on flesh to reach out to them. Those who hear of Him, have sufficient new information to make them capable of choosing or rejecting God’s Savior. Romans 10:14 But how can they call on Him they have not believed in? And how can they believe without hearing about Him? And how can they hear without a preacher?

Sovereignty of God

The word sovereignty reflects the rule of a king. When applied to God it is a theological point to say God is the boss. But this by itself may be less descriptive than some people think. I believe in the sovereignty of God. However, what I believe about the sovereignty of God is may not be the same as what other people believe in the sovereignty of God.

For some people this means God is not only in charge of everything, but also ultimately He is making every decision whether we realize it or not. His sovereignty means He always gets His way in everything, right down to the minor details of life. In this model He not only decided to redeem man from their sins, but He also decided for them, when and how they would sin. I just don’t believe this and probably neither do you.

For other people this means God is ultimately in charge of everything, but mankind being capable of making decisions, are responsible for their own choices. Therefore God is not always getting His way in every little thing. But the framework of choices man is capable of making is strictly controlled by God, and He will get His way in the most important things. Especially, man, who is capable of making other decisions, is incapable of making a decision for salvation. Therefore, no one can be saved except for God’s decision that the one individual person would be saved. I don’t exactly believe this either. The explanation for why we cannot make a choice to be saved is inadequate to my understanding.

For me, and probably a lot of other people, God is sovereign. In His sovereignty He chose to make humanity with decision making capability. He knew this meant He would not get His way in every little thing, and in some cases not in larger things. He does, however, exercise the freedom to intervene whenever and however He chooses. I do not believe sovereignty is lessoned when someone else is allowed to hold subordinate authority. I do not see adequate reason for the ability to choose God to be outside of man’s capability. And finally, I do not see it as taking glory from God when mankind makes this choice, love means more when it is freely given.

First of all, then, I urge that petitions, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone, for kings and all those who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. This is good, and it pleases God our Savior, who wants everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.  1 Timothy 2:1-4  (HCSB)

Forgiveness

What do you believe about forgiveness?

Do you believe humanity needs forgiveness? I do. We do things we know are wrong. When we do wrong it is offensive. God is offended. People around us are offended. We even offend ourselves. All this offensiveness needs reconciliation, or to put that in the word of the day, we all need forgiveness.

Do you believe God offers forgiveness to humanity? I do. God, being omniscient, knew what humanity would be like.  If He did not want to extend forgiveness to humanity He would not have created us, or at least not in our current form. He knew we would sin, and also knew what the solution was going to be.

Why do you think God used the cross as a means of forgiveness? The cross was a demonstration put on for humanity. It was a means God designed to show both His love for us and the nature of eternal life. He was not forced to the cross by some cosmic law, He is the highest law. He chose the cross. It was a way of putting a choice in front of humanity—the choice of what will we do with Jesus.

How have you responded to the offer? I hope that you have asked Jesus to be forgive your sins and committed the rest of your life to live for Him. This is not the only choice, but it is the best choice.

Relational God

Perhaps the most basic point of theology is the question of whether or not God exists. For many people the concept of God is illogical. They would have expected the world to look different when a holy God was the source. This expectation leads them to count every evil on earth—every war, every disease, and every hungry child as evidence that God couldn’t exist.

But as far as I can see these things are perfectly consistent with God’s existence and His nature.

One often overlooked aspect of God’s character is, He is relational. He created everything for the purpose of being in relationship with humanity, the crown of His creation.

Do you remember having a Barbie or GI Joe as a kid? How good was the relationship? Did you find deep meaningful friendship with these toys?  Of course not. In order to have a real friendship, a meaningful relationship, the other party in the relationship must also be a being of free will. Love doesn’t mean a thing unless it is freely given.

I assert, from God’s perspective, giving His creation moral free agency is the righteous choice compared to withholding this highest gift from us. He knows we who have free moral agency will choose sin. Humanity will create horrific hurts on our planet, but that’s our free moral agency at work.

If we assume God is responsible for sin as Creator, we are ignoring what free moral agency is. If we blame Him for giving us the choice, we are pretending we would be better off as automatons, without free will.

Freedom does lead to bad choices and all the pitfalls of a fallen world, but we are responsible for those failures, not God. If God had not given us the opportunity to choose wrong, He would have also been withholding the opportunity to choose right.

Since the purpose of creation was to fulfill God’s relational nature; this world looks exactly like what I would expect.