Free Will B (Listen or Read)
Please carefully reflect on these passages.
¨ God will circumcise your heart to love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul (De. 30:6).
¨ I know that thou canst do all things, and that no purpose of Thine can be thwarted (Job 42:2 RSV).
¨ Blessed is the man You choose, and cause to approach You (Ps. 65:4).
¨ A man’s heart plans… but the Lord directs… (Pr. 16:9).
¨ The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord (Pr. 16:33).
¨ There are many plans in a man’s heart, nevertheless the Lord’s counsel—that will stand (Pr. 19:21).
¨ A man’s steps are of the Lord; How then can a man understand his own way (Pr. 20:24)?
¨ The king’s heart is a stream…in the hand of the LORD; He turns it wherever He will (Pr. 21:1).
¨ You will establish peace for us, for You have also done all our works in us (Is. 26:12).
¨ I will do all my pleasure,…indeed…I will bring it to pass. I have purposed it; I will do it (Is. 46:10-11).
¨ None who seeks for God.…Where is boasting? (Is.53:6; Ro. 3:11, 19b, 27).
¨ The way of man is not in himself; It is not in man who walks to direct his own steps (Jer. 10:23).
¨ I will give them a heart to know Me…for they shall return to Me with their whole heart (Jer. 24:7).
¨ I will put My fear in their hearts so that they will not depart from Me (Jer. 32:40).
¨ I will…cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them…. (Ez. 36:27).
¨ He does according to His will among the inhabitants of the earth. No one can restrain His hand (Da. 4:35).
¨ Those…were born…nor of the will of man, but of God (Jn. 1:12, 13).
¨ No one can come to Me unless the Father…draws [drags] him (Jn. 6:44). See “Every Knee” in chapter six.
¨ Without Me you can do nothing (Jn. 15:5).
¨ You did not choose Me, but I chose you (Jn. 15:16).
¨ Creation [people] was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who…subjected it in hope…. (Ro. 8:20).
¨ It does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs but on God who has mercy (Ro. 9:16 NAS).
¨ You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who has resisted His will?” (Ro. 9:19).
¨ God chose the foolish…God chose the weak…He chose the lowly…so that no man may boast… (1Co. 1:27-29 NIV).
¨ Predestined man…to the purpose of Him who works all… according to the counsel of His will (Ep. 1:11).
¨ God works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure (Ph. 2:13).
¨ He is able even to subdue all things to Himself (Ph. 3:21).
¨ God has put it into their hearts to fulfill His purpose, to be of one mind (Re. 17:17).
Who is in control here? Man or God? Whose will prevails? My friend David Nuckols said, “How ironic that those who believe God will not violate the ‘free’ will of man have no problem believing He will violate His own free will—that all men should be saved!” In “The Work of the Cross,” Ken Eckerty wrote, “How ironic that those who believe God will not violate man’s “free” will have no problem that He forces men—against their will—to confess and bow to Christ.”23
What are we saying to God in deifying the will of man? “Oh well, Lord, it is a sad thing that…
¨ You cannot have what is yours (Ro. 11:36).
¨ You cannot find what you have lost (Lu. 15:4).
¨ Isaiah was wrong about your hand not being so short it cannot save (Is. 59:1).
¨ The Bible exaggerates in saying nothing is too difficult for you (Jer. 32:17).
¨ Man has robbed the keys of Hades from You (Re. 1:18).
¨ He who is in the world is stronger than You (1Jn. 4:4).
¨ Your propitiation for the whole world is really only for a few (1Jn. 2:2).
¨ Your promises to reconcile all things are just exaggerated hopes (Ac. 3:21).
¨ Your hands are tied. You cannot accomplish all your will (Is. 55:11).
¨ All creatures will not really worship you like you hoped (Re. 5:13; Phil. 2:10-11).
What has happened to GOD? Our tradition has pawned His power off to man in the myth of “free” will. Are we better than the fools Paul referred to in Ro. 1:20-21? Why were they called fools? For failing to glorify God “as GOD.” Do we do the same?
References: See Bibliography page
