How do we as Christians reconcile the freedom of man's will with God's sovereign and unmerited grace in salvation? Many Christians will give God all the credit and glory for the payment of their sins at Calvary but when it comes to believing in Christ they give themselves either all or some of the credit and glory. This issue, therefore, needs serious Biblical examining.

The will is only as free as its nature. For example, God has free will but He cannot choose to do evil since it is contrary to His nature. For example, the Scripture says in Hebrews 6:18 that it is impossible for God to lie. God cannot even want to do evil. Fallen man has free will but he cannot choose God on God's terms. Men by nature are certainly free to choose God on man's terms, but in order for an individual to choose God on God's terms, as revealed in the Christian Gospel, that individual must first receive a new nature, a new heart - he must be born again, otherwise he will not, even cannot, want God on God's terms.

The Apostle Paul said to Timothy that he was persuaded that Timothy had "unfeigned" faith (2 Timothy 1:5). The word "unfeigned" means "genuine." Thus, it is not simply enough to have faith in Christ for salvation, but Scripture teaches that faith must be genuine. Only genuine faith in Christ will save. Our motives for believing must be right. Tell me whose free will has the ability to control one's motives. The natural man cannot ever have spiritual motives that are Godward. He must be born again in order to have such motives.

The Bible teaches that the carnal mind is enmity with God and cannot even be subject to God (Romans 8:7). Before a person is born again that is all that he has - a carnal mind which is only free to think, will, and desire carnal things including carnal religion. God must choose to save a person and give him new birth before such a person can ever desire God on God's terms.

Romans 11:5-6 teaches that election (God's choosing those who would be saved) is by grace, that is it is not based on our works. God didn't choose those who would be saved because they would choose Him, but, rather, we who are saved chose God because He chose us by His grace in Christ before the foundation of the world.

Doesn't Romans 8:29 teach that God chose those whom He foreknew would choose Him? That is not what the verse teaches. The verse does not say "whom God foreknew would choose Him ..." The verse says "Those God foreknew He also predestined ..." What the verse is saying, in context, is that those whom God knew intimately and personally even before they were born God predestined to be saved. The word "know" or "knew" here has an intimate connotation. Just as God said to Jeremiah in the Old Testament "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you" (Jeremiah 1:5). God knows everything, but that is not what is meant by the word "know" or "knew".

If God's choosing us was based on our choosing Him then we have something to glory in, but we don't have anything to glory in because as Romans 11 teaches God's election (His choosing in salvation) is unconditional - it is not based upon some condition in us or from us. The Biblical fact is if we are truly saved then we chose God because He chose us. That is what makes the doctrine of election precious. Of course, God knew that we who are saved would choose Him but He only knew that because He had already chosen us (predestined us) to choose Him!

Jesus says in John 6:37 "All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out." And we read in Acts 13:48 "For as many as were ordained (predestined) to eternal life believed." Only those chosen in Christ by God the Father will ever truly and genuinely believe and trust in Christ for salvation.

How, then, can fallen man be accountable or responsible to give God genuine faith when the ability is not there? Just as a bankrupt borrower is still morally obligated to pay his debt even though he cannot do so fallen man is under moral obligation to believe in Christ genuinely and spiritually as his Lord and Savior on God's terms even though he is spiritually bankrupt and unable to offer God such faith.

God does truly desire to save all men but His sovereign (effectual) desire and will is to save only those whom He chose in Christ by His unmerited and undeserved grace before the foundation of the world.

Then why preach the Gospel? Because God not only ordains (predestines) the end but He also ordains (predestines) the means by which He accomplishes the ends. God has ordained the means of the preaching of the Gospel, and He works in our hearts to will and to do of His good pleasure, to accomplish His ordained ends.

Scripture shows that God can have contrasting wills: one will that is non-sovereign (or non-effectual) and another will that is sovereign (or effectual) towards the same object. However, God cannot have two contrasting sovereign wills towards the same object.

For example, God says in Scripture that He has no pleasure in the death of the wicked but that the wicked turn from his way and live (Ezekiel 33:11), but we also know from Scripture concerning God that His counsel will stand and that He will do all His pleasure (or purpose, Isaiah 46:10). Thus, from one perspective God does not desire (or will) the death of the wicked and this must be His non-sovereign (or non-effectual) will or otherwise the wicked would not have died in their sins, but we also know from other Scriptures that God wills or ordains the death of the wicked that He may be glorified in exercising His righteous power and judgment against evil and sin. This is His sovereign (or effectual) will.

Although God's purpose is in everything He ordains, His heart is not. For example, God ordained evil (although He cannot do evil) but His heart is not in the evil He ordains. His purpose, however, is. Nothing can happen unless God ordains it because nothing can happen outside of His power and Scripture confirms this abundantly. Evil cannot come from God's nature but God can use the evil in the nature of fallen humanity to accomplish His purposes.

A careful reading of Romans 9:22-23 shows the reason for God ordaining reprobation - so that He may make known the riches of His grace on the vessels of mercy which He ordained beforehand for glory. That reprobation glorifies God's justice is true but the primary reason given in Romans 9:22-23 for reprobation is so that the vessels of mercy may know - appreciate - the riches and depths of God's undeserved grace towards them.

We see again and again in Scripture that from one perspective God has one attitude but from another perspective He has a different attitude towards the same object. From one perspective He loves the same object but from another perspective He hates the same object. He even told us in certain cases to have such contrasting attitudes (i.e. In Scripture Jesus says we are to love our mother and father from one perspective but yet from another perspective He tells us whoever does not hate father and mother for His sake is not worthy to follow Him).

Of course, God has not given us the right to have all the feelings He has towards someone (i.e. Scripture teaches that vengeance against personal wrongs done to us belong to God and not for us to take into our hands).

These are just some brief thoughts on the subject. The reader may find some excellent books in a Christian bookstore giving more in-depth analysis from Scripture. An excellent booklet and introduction to the subject of God's sovereign grace in salvation is The Five Points of Calvinism published by The Banner of Truth Trust.

Are you a Christian? Will you then give God's grace all the credit for your genuine faith in Christ?

Sincerely, Babu G. Ranganathan (B.A. Bible/Biology) www.religionscience.com

The author, Babu G. Ranganathan, is an experienced Christian writer. He has his B.A. with academic concentrations in Bible and Biology. As a religion and science writer he has been recognized in the 24th edition of Marquis Who's Who In The East. The author has a website at: http://www.religionscience.com