Dear Dr. E: Our daughter attends a Christian school where the issue of election vs. man’s free will was recently brought up. We always try to go to Scripture on such things, but we have a lot of questions regarding this topic. As my wife and I talked, she said, “I wish we could ask Dr. Piper his thoughts on this.” That’s what led me to message you. Thank you for taking the time to respond. — Faithful but Confused Dad From Southern Kansas
Dear Faithful Dad: The Bible is very clear about both predestination and free will, and faithful Christians dare not
disregard either side of this orthodox coin.
St. Paul, for example, wrote in his letter to the Romans that “those [God] foreknew he also predestined,” but then, he quickly turned around and told his two proteges, Timothy and Titus, that “God our Savior… wants all men (emphasis mine) to be saved.”
Peter likewise highlights both truths in his second epistle, where he admonishes the early church to “make [its] calling and election sure,” but then just a few paragraphs later, he says, “The Lord is patient with you, not wanting anyone (again, my emphasis) to perish.”
And then there are the words of Christ, who said, “You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you,” while at the same time, he repeatedly made it clear that he came “to draw all men unto himself.”
In summary, it is irrefutable that the Bible teaches both truths.
First, God is sovereign, and because of his sovereignty, he knows everything — past, present and future. We, however, must remember that God is outside of time. He is the great I Am (not the “I was” or “I will be”). He is the ever-present “now.” We cannot surprise God with something that he doesn’t eternally know. Thus, we are “predestined” and “elected” before the foundations of the earth.
Second, human beings have free will. We are not robots or automatons. God created us in his image, and as such, we are morally responsible and culpable for our choices. Paul tells us that the “truth of God is written on every human heart,” and Peter admonishes that it’s God’s will that “all should [take responsibility and] come to repentance.”
Whether we lean to the Reformed or the Arminian side of this debate, all Christians must remember that our salvation is “a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast” but that his prevenient grace draws “for whosoever will” to salvation. He extends the gift to all of us, and all of us must accept or reject it.
The bottom line is that, yes, we are chosen, and yes, we have a choice.
Fallible human beings cannot fully understand these two truths. We simply must accept by faith that God is God, that we are not, and that the ways of God are beyond our comprehension.
One last word, if I may. Some have argued that the Scripture passages I’ve cited above that speak of “all men” and “everyone” are referring not to every individual person but rather to “people groups,” “nations” and “races.” To this claim, I simply offer the following quote from Charles Spurgeon, one of the greatest Reformed preachers of all time:
“As if the Holy Ghost could not have said, ’some men’ if he had meant some men. … As if the Lord could not have said ’all sorts of men’ if he had meant that. The Holy Ghost by the apostle has written ’all men,’ and unquestionably he means all men.”
And then this from the great apologist Norman Geisler: “It is an insult to the Holy Spirit who carefully chose every word of Scripture, breathing it infallibly, to claim that the Spirit chose to say Christ died for ’all’ when He really meant only for some.”
And finally this: “Remember [that] God ’spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all.’ Denying he means ’all’ flatly contradicts all the other texts, and indeed the whole scope and tenor of Scripture … [In] particular [these] texts: ’He is the Savior of the world’ (John 4:42); He is ’the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world’ (John 1:29); ’He is the propitiation, not for our sins only, but also for the sins of the whole world’ (1 John 2:2); He, the living God, ’is the Savior of all men’ (1 Timothy 4:10) ’He gave himself a ransom for all’ (1 Timothy 2:6); [and] ’He tasted death for every man.’” (Hebrews 2:9) — John Wesley
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