I never hear this question:
“Does God honor my free will?” I
always hear it phrased as a definitive statement such as: “God would never force someone in anything because
He is a gentleman and honors/respects our free will.” But then the people that say this never back
it up with any biblical proof. This
assumption that God honors/respects (does not encroach upon) our free will just
does not hold much water with me so I wanted to do the following study to see
what the Bible says.
First
of all let me make a few points about this “assumption statement” to simply
voice some things I find irritating about the statement in general. For one, why would someone define God as a
gentleman? I love God, but “gentle” is a
pretty strange way to describe Him because it is such a small part of who God
is. Gentleness is one of the fruits of
the Spirit so I have no problem with saying that God is gentle, but describing
Him as a gentleman would be much like referring to George Washington as Episcopalian. Okay so he was an Episcopalian but he was
much more to the history of this country than that right? In the same way, God is truly gentle but He
gets done what needs to be done even if it requires His commands, His rebuke,
His discipline, or even His wrath. It
doesn’t feel gentle when I am being rebuked; how about you? At the very least I think we could agree that
God has other attributes as well and He does not always operate in ways that
are gentlemanlike. In addition to that,
let’s not forget that many “gentlemen” in the south owned slaves who were of
course held to work against their free will so being a gentleman does not
preclude someone from imposing their own will. Sorry, the idea of confining God within the simple
guidelines of a gentleman limits His abilities to within human institutions and
I serve a limitless God who surprisingly (tongue-in-cheek) exists outside of
our regard for Him. Exodus 22:20, 22-24 “He who sacrifices
to any god, other than to the Lord alone, shall be utterly destroyed. You shall not afflict any widow or
orphan. If you afflict him at all, and
if he does cry out to Me, I will surely hear his cry; and My anger will be
kindled, and I will kill you with the sword, and your wives shall become widows
and your children fatherless.” Gentle,
huh? And just so you know it is not just
an Old Testament thing: Matthew
16:23 “But He turned and said to Peter, ‘Get behind Me,
Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me;
for you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s.’” In both of these examples God is speaking to
believers not unbelievers. Of course God
turns His wrath on those who dishonor and deny Him, but the thought that He is
beyond treating believers with anything but gentleness and courtesy is asinine.
Second,
the Bible says that God is no respecter of persons (Acts 10:34, Romans 2:11,
Ephesians 6:9 KJV). God does what He
does with some regard to me only because He loves me (John 3:16) but He does
not wait for my approval before He acts.
That would imply that I am god not Him.
This thought is, in fact, entirely prideful and humanistic and reveals
the self-centered arrogance Satan has convinced us is true justice. Can’t you just hear Satan whispering in the
ears of the immature “God would not surely make you do something outside of
your own will, would He?” Doesn’t that
sound eerily like the conversation with the woman in the garden, “You will not
surely die…for God knows in that day…you will be like God.” Let’s not assume what God says, but instead
look and see what God’s word ACTUALLY says. Romans
9:15-18 “For He says to Moses, ‘I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I
will have compassion on whom I have compassion.’ So then is does not depend on the man who
wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, ‘For this
very purpose I raised you up, to demonstrate My power in you, and that My name
might be proclaimed throughout the whole earth.’ So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and
He hardens whom He desires.” Sorry
to burst anyone’s bubble but these verses clearly spell out that God is not
altering His will just because you will something else. It is, in fact, only when we align our will
with God’s will that we will receive what we desire (Psalm 37:4). He is not changing for anyone just because
they “free will” something different. Job
23:13 “But He is unique and who can turn Him?
And what His soul desires, that He does.” Hello?
I am not
going to take the time to go through each verse of the Bible that speaks to
God’s sovereignty, His predestination of events or His all-powerful nature,
etc. Instead I figured I would just
compile some of the stories littered throughout the Bible and see if we can
identify any times where God enacted one plan while the subject “free willed”
something different. Maybe the weight of
the evidence will point to whether or not God honors our will or His own….just
sounds funny even saying it, doesn’t it?
Is this seriously even an argument?
1)
Jonah:
The prophet Jonah was commanded by the Lord (not asked) to go to the
people of Nineveh and warn them that they were wicked and the Lord had taken
notice and was about to destroy them.
Jonah, in his free will, fled. He
got on a ship headed to the ends of the known world. Despite Jonah’s obvious desire to flee from
God and the task God had commanded him to complete, God sent a storm in the
path of Jonah’s flight. The storm forced
Jonah into the sea and he was swallowed by a great fish. While in the belly of the fish, Jonah’s will
to flee broke and he then willed to live.
The fish vomited him out on the shore and God again commanded him to go
to Nineveh which he did.
Thoughts- I suppose God “gently”
encouraged Jonah to change his mind?
Then He was patient and loving to Jonah in order to win Jonah’s
heart? I suppose God didn’t want to
impose His will on Jonah so He drowned him (water-boarding) until he
repented? If I could be permitted to use
my own words, I would say that God broke Jonah’s will like a glass vase in a
cement mixer. This hardly lines up with
our original “assumption statement.”
2)
Philip: One
of the original deacons in the Acts church, Philip in Acts chapter 8 comes
across an Ethiopian reading out of the book of Isaiah. After describing how this story spoke of the
Christ, the Ethiopian was saved and Philip baptized him in a body of water
along the road that connects Jerusalem to Gaza.
Then in Acts 8:39 the Bible tells us that “the Spirit of the Lord
snatched Philip away.” Philip was
miraculously transported to the city of Azotus where he continued to preach the
gospel.
Thoughts- “Snatched away?” But what if he didn’t want to leave yet? He was not compelled to leave. He was not asked to go to Azotus. He was “snatched.” This is only further proof that God is not as
concerned with our opinion as He is His own will.
3) Simon
of Cyrene: Simon was a Jew from North
Africa who was in Jerusalem at the time of the crucifixion of Christ
celebrating the Passover with his sons Rufus and Alexander. We do not necessarily know that Simon became
a believer but his sons undoubtedly did since they were known by the readers of
Mark’s gospel as is evident in the language used in Mark 15:21 (see also Romans
16:13). Mark tells us that Simon was
“pressed” into the service of carrying Jesus’ cross while Luke tells us Simon
was “seized” and they placed the cross on him.
Thoughts- Now
words like “pressed” and “seized” do not sound much like free will. In fact, it sounds as if God was
accomplishing His goals of crucifying His Son regardless of if Simon wanted to
help out or not. God was going to use
Simon to accomplish His goals even if Simon was late for dinner or even if Simon
was allergic to wood.
4) Judas: And on that note, how could we forget
Judas. He was the disciple who was hand
selected by Christ to assure that He fulfilled God’s will to sacrifice His own
Son so that He could bring Him back to life and redeem His Church.
Thoughts- No
doubt, Judas shows his free will when he sells Jesus to the Jews/Romans for 30
pieces of silver, but upon closer examination, it appears that Judas changes
his mind and returns the money (Matthew 27).
So was he perhaps “forced” to do something outside of his will? At the very least we can say that he was not
allowed to change his mind no matter how desperately he wanted to. I don’t think it was Judas’ will to have his
guts spilled out in the Field of Blood, but that is what God did to him anyway. What a gentleman!
5) Joseph: The favorite son of Jacob, Joseph was hated
by his brothers and sold into slavery.
As he faithfully persisted to honor God no matter the circumstances, he
eventually elevated to 2nd in command of Egypt and saved a continent
from starvation.
Thoughts- Not
only was it the will of the brothers that Joseph died, it was the will of Ruben
(the brother that saved him and sold him into slavery) that Joseph go away
forever. Genesis 50:20 “As for you, you
meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this
present result, to preserve many people alive.” Do you see the contradiction between wills in
that text? Joseph did not expressly
admit to having a different will than God’s but common sense would tell us that
he was not asked if he would be willing to be sold to a foreign country.
6) Nebuchadnezzar: The king of Babylon the great who, because of
his arrogance and pride, was made by God to go crazy and live out in the fields
with the cattle for seven years. God’s
emphasis in this was that Nebuchadnezzar turn from his pride by being humbled,
recognizing that “the Most High is ruler over the realm of mankind and bestows
it on whomever He wishes.” (Daniel 4:17 & 4:32). When Nebuchadnezzar was broken from this
pride, his kingdom was reestablished by God.
He then concludes:
Daniel 4:37 Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise, exalt and honor the King of
heaven, for all His works are true and His ways just, and He is able to humble
those who walk in pride.
Thoughts- Again we
see the example of God not being a gentleman, or respecter of persons, but
outright asserting His authority which He has every right to do. He does not hesitate to break us until we do
as He commands. That doesn’t sound like
free will to me. That sounds like
sovereignty. If it looks like a duck and
quacks like a duck, it must be a duck.
Did He ask Mary if she wanted to
be the mother of Christ? Did the
Israelites want to be exiled into Babylon for 70 years? Did the Hebrews impose a 40 year desert wondering
on themselves? Did they not even
criticize Moses and say that he should have left them in Egypt because he took
them out against their will? Did He ask
Mary and Martha if it would be okay if Lazarus died so Jesus could raise him? Did
He ask the disciples if they wanted to follow Him or did He command them
saying, “Follow me.” So many stories
where God uses us to accomplish His will whether we want Him to or not. So where in the world do we get making claims
like our assumption statement? These are
just a few examples off the top of my head but I am sure there are dozens
more. I think I have made the point
adequately but if not just don’t make this statement around me. We are often so concerned with retaining our
self-worth and self-independence that we forget who it is that gives us worth
and makes us free. Many people will come
back to say, “Well we are not just puppets or robots to God.” To this statement I would agree that we are
not “just” puppets but we are at least partly puppets. That is kind of what I meant by surrendering
my life over to His will. Here are my
strings. You pull where you want me to
go because I have made a wreck of things.
Not that He can now use me if He wants to because I give Him permission,
but that He was using me all along and I am just going to stop resisting
Him. I don’t want my will to have to be
broken like Jonah’s anymore. If you are
not His “puppet” then you need to take a look at your strings and see whose
puppet you are. The Bible says we are
slaves; either slaves to righteousness or slaves to sin (Romans 6). Slaves, I think most would admit, do not have
the freedom to choose the way of life they desire. They are tied to their masters and whatever
they will. So why is that so hard for us
to swallow? Because we want to be like
God just as the woman in the garden did thousands of years ago. Satan’s doesn’t have to get new tricks when
they have worked all along.
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