The Bible Nerd

Apparent paradox.  That would have been a better way to phrase my views on the “mysteries of the faith”.  Someone posted a comment on my post, and it helped me see that though I explained what I meant by a paradox, it would have been better to use the word “apparent”.  That way, you all understand I am saying TO MAN it is a paradox, and TO GOD it isn’t.  Of course, some people would still disagree and say that there really isn’t a paradox for man either, and then give some detailed explanations to show us how passages that seem to contradict their view, really aren’t contradictory at all.  You will have to decide on your own, but “apparently” someone is reading this blog.

In my opinion, Paul the apostle truly understood the paradoxical nature of this issue, and yet fully embraced and taught it to his disciples and converts.  Paul believed fully in God’s unstoppable will and election, and yet at the same time gave his life so that every man, woman, and child on earth would hear the Gospel and have a chance to respond.  He knew that often his prayers didn’t line up with God’s will and so were not answered no matter how much faith he had (2 Cor. 12), yet not only continues to pray, but also implores his followers to keep praying (Eph. 6, 1 Thess. 5).

First, we must establish the foundational truths:

1)    God is in control.  His will is always accomplished.

2)    God is good and love.

3)    Man has a free will and has the ability to make choices.

4)    The Bible emphasizes BOTH God’s sovereignty and the consistent appeal for man to make the right choices in life.

That these are true should not be in question.  I could cite many Scriptures for each (and I would suggest the first few chapters of Geisler’s book “Chosen But Free” for examples).  We will discuss many of the passages in the next few blogs, unless you have already decided to strangle me and burn me at the stake.

Let us take a look at two passages of Paul that will offer some paradigm to look at these foundations: Ephesians 2 and Romans 9-10. (the impress your nerdy friends at a party word of the day is “paradigm”).

Ephesians 2:8 “for by grace you have been saved through faith”.  Here is the combination of God’s election and man’s free will in one compact statement of Paul’s on the nature of salvation.  He begins with “by grace” as always emphasizing God’s grace in salvation, meaning His unmerited favor poured out in the election of the saints.  No works involved, no earning of God’s favor or forgiveness, God initiates a plan of salvation through Christ unaided.  Just one chapter earlier, Paul drops the P bomb (Predestination that is).  However, Paul includes the response of man: faith.  Man responds to God’s initiation of grace in believing and receiving this grace.  Is that a work of man then?  Does it all rest on faith making election ultimately a work of man?  Not at all.  Who takes credit for receiving a gift?  When you have a party, and someone gives you a birthday gift, you don’t take any credit for the acquisition of that gift.  You didn’t buy it, pick it out, or do anything to earn it.  All you simply did was to receive it.  Yet, you had a choice.  You could have rejected the present.  You didn’t, you accepted it, but the possibility was that you COULD have rejected it.  And the same is true of salvation, in that God knows that you will accept it, has predestined it, yet you COULD have rejected it by not having faith.

Here again we come to the mystery.  How does God’s foreknowledge and predetermination fit together?  I could offer fancy explanations as many have, yet in the end, we can’t fully understand it.  We want to point out the apparent paradox:  if it is up to man to accept it, then salvation is conditional and is ultimately dependant on man.  Paul doesn’t allow that paradox of man to interfere with his presentation of the truth, whether he can fully explain it or not is not important.  It is truth revealed by God, and that is the ultimate issue to Paul.  Paul could have left the “faith” part out, but he didn’t.  He is consistent with pointing out both aspects of our salvation.

For example, in Romans 9, Paul spends the whole chapter pointing out God’s sovereignty and election, even pounding the reader for the inevitable question of the fairness of God (clay analogy).  Yet, in the very next chapter 10, he utters the famous Pauline quote destined for evangelistic tracts, “if you believe in your heart and confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord, you will be saved”.  The paradox again, yet Paul reveals it as truth, whether it can be fully understood by man or not.  Paul gives us here in these two passages the paradigm:

1)    God is in control and is the initiator of salvation.  It is completely based on His grace and mercy and the work of Christ on the cross.  Man didn’t ask for it, pray for it, intercede for it, for it was planed before the “foundation of the world” (Eph. 1).

2)    Man is the responder and receiver of God’s grace and election.  He must respond with faith, which is merely receiving that gift of grace.  He does nothing of his own work for that salvation, he simply says, ” I receive it.”

There can be no boasting or dependence on free will in this, for if God had not initiated and carried out the plan of the cross, there would be nothing for man to CHOOSE.  He could be free all he wants, but would without choices, freedom is not truly freedom at all.  Unless the prison door is opened, escape from jail is not an “option”, and the knowledge that if it WERE open you could choose to escape, does you no good at all.   Before the cross, there was only one option: hell!

How and why does God choose to work within the environment of free creatures?  We could extrapolate from Genesis and the rest of Scriptures that again His very character and nature of love caused this.  Creatures without free will can never truly “love” and as God is love, He created creatures “in His image”, therefore with an ability to love and a necessity for free will to do so.  How could He create a world in which man is free to love, yet He is in control to insure that His love would bring Christ, the forgiveness of sins, and election of the saints to heaven without voiding the free will He gave?  That is the answer Paul knows we will never truly have, yet it makes neither of those two premises false.

Wow, we need a break.  I think it is time for Angry Birds.  Tune in tomorrow, when we talk about “God changing His mind.”  At least that will be an easier topic.