Your Journey To Eternity – Chosen as a Child of God pt. 2

Welcome back, my friends. I’m sure my lesson last month, “Chosen as a Child of God,” raised a number of questions in your mind. For some, the things I wrote about may not jive with what you’ve been taught or understand about God, and for others, this is a whole new aspect of God you never thought about or expected. Some may be thinking: how could the God of Love turn His back on those who haven’t even been born yet, who haven’t even had a chance to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ and accept it or reject it of their own free will?

Once again, let me start by reminding us of what the Prophet Isaiah said about the God of the Universe.

“My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the LORD. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:8-9 (NLT)

The Sovereignty of God

Before I go any further with this month’s lesson, let’s dive deeper into the Word of God and learn more about God’s sovereignty. I cannot emphasize enough the importance of our understanding His sovereignty; it has a direct impact on how you view God and live your life.

Arthur W. Pink in his book The Sovereignty of God describes it this way: “The doctrine of God’s sovereignty lies at the foundation of Christian doctrine and belief, and in importance is perhaps second only to the divine inspiration of the Scriptures.

It is the center of gravity in the system of Christian truth: the sun around which all the lesser orbs are grouped. It is the marker on our journey to which every highway of knowledge leads and from which they all radiate.

It is the cord upon which all other doctrines are strung like so many pearls, holding them in place and giving them unity. It is the plumb-line by which every creed needs to measured, the balance in which every human belief must be weighed. It is designed as the rudder for our souls that guides us amid the storms of life.

The doctrine of God’s sovereignty is a divine cordial that refreshes our spirit. It is designed and adapted to mold the affections of the heart and give a right direction to conduct. It produces gratitude in prosperity and patience in adversity. It affords comfort for the present and a sense of security respecting the unknown future. It is, and it does all, and much more than we have just said, because it ascribes to God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the glory which is His due, and places the creature in his proper place before Him – in the dust”.

My friend, without a clear understanding of this foundational truth, you will be open to all of the false teachings and judgmental legalism the world has to offer. You leave yourself open to be caught up in the religious rites and rituals perpetuated by Satan and his evil minions. What rites and rituals, you ask? Those that teach salvation through the gospel of works — the Satanic lie that elevates and satisfies the fleshly desires of men and women, namely Pride.

The reality is that God has complete and total independent control over every creature, event, and circumstance at every moment in history. He is subject to none, influenced by none, and absolutely independent. The sovereignty of God really means that God does what He pleases, only as He pleases, and always as He pleases. He is Omnipotent (has all power and authority), He is Omniscient (knows everything) and He is Omnipresent (exists everywhere).

The real truth is He doesn’t need us for anything! How’s that for a slap in your face and a blow to your pride?

The sovereignty of God means that He has total control of all things past, present and future. He is in complete control of every molecule in the universe at every moment, and everything that happens is either caused or allowed by Him for His own perfect purpose.

Let’s read about His Sovereignty in His Holy Word:

People on earth are not really important. God does what he wants with the powers of heaven and the people on earth. No one can stop his powerful hand or question what he does. Daniel 4:35 (NLT)

Only I can tell you the future before it even happens. Everything I plan will come to pass, for I do whatever I wish. Isaiah 46:10 (NLT)

But the LORD’s plans stand firm forever; his intentions can never be shaken Psalm 33:11(NLT)

The LORD has made the heavens his throne; from there he rules over everything. Psalm 103:19 (NLT)

Our God is in the heavens, and he does as he wishes. Psalm 115:3 (NLT)

The LORD does whatever pleases him throughout all heaven and earth, and on the seas and in their depths. Psalm 135:6 (NLT)

God’s Holy Word is full of Scriptures testifying to the sovereignty of God and woven throughout the Bible as you will see. These Scriptures are undeniably the most revealing picture we will find of who our God and Father, the God of the Universe, truly is.

Why then is the total sovereignty of God so confusing and hard to understand and believe?

The simple answer to that question is that our old nature of pride is preventing our belief — the same pride that caused the downfall of Satan, the father of sin, and the very pride that made Satan say that I will be like God.

Let’s look at some of those old nature road blocks that prevent our acceptance of the truth of the Bible concerning the sovereignty of God.

The Humanizing of God

First of all, we try to humanize God. We want to bring God down to our level of human thinking and reasoning. We have a natural sinful human need to control what’s going on around us, so we try to use this approach with God our Father. We want be able to reason with and influence God into our way of thinking just like we do with those around us.

We believe now that as a child of God we’re part of His planning team, His advisors. And as part of His team, through our prayers and petitions, we can change God’s mind and redirect how the God of the Universe dispenses His Mercy and Grace.

We place God in a box and store him on the shelve in the bedroom closet, taking Him down when we have a need for Him.

When things aren’t going the right way, we feel a need to argue and justify ourselves (the poor innocent victim syndrome), particularly when we don’t agree with the way God is handling the situation. In the book of Job, Job felt the same need to justify himself to God and prove to Him that he wasn’t a bad person and didn’t deserve the things that happened to him.

When we pray, we often view God as our heavenly bellboy, waiting to serve us when we issue a command, I’m sorry, I meant a prayer request. We think that if God only had half the compassion and understanding as we do concerning this or that particular situation, He would give us what we were asking for and all would quickly be right. After all, we know what’s best for us, don’t we?

We think of ourselves as being number “one” and no one else. We live by the creed “If it’s going to be, it’s up to me” without anyone else’s help. It is no wonder that when we come to the Scriptures and confront the fact that God has absolute power, we become uneasy and troubled by that revelation.

Listen to what the Apostle Paul had to say about advising God:

Oh, what a wonderful God we have! How great are his wisdom and knowledge and riches! How impossible it is for us to understand his decisions and his methods! For who among us can know the mind of the Lord? Who knows enough to be his counselor and guide? Romans 11:33-34 (TLB)

We wrongly treat God as if He is one of our best friends, our buddy. Simply put, such is the arrogance of man’s old nature even in a child of God.

The sovereignty of God is something I believe the Church, the whole body of Christ, needs to study and understand in more detail. If we, as the body of Christ, truly understood God’s sovereignty, we would then understand that becoming a child of God is the highest privilege and honor that we could ever imagine.

If we truly understood the sovereignty of God, the whole body of Christ, His Church, would then appreciate what it means to be called a child of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. The very fact that our God is the one and only sovereign God of the Universe calls each of us to a higher standard of living than the world we live in.

But, if we’re honest with one another, we truly don’t live the life our Father is teaching and calling us to do. Do we?

Let’s return to last month’s lesson on Chosen as a Child of God and continue our discussion on the topics concerning free will and “whosoever will” as I promised.

Free Will

Let’s start with the Free Will conversation. Is the will free to do as it pleases? When God created us, He gave us a Body, Soul and Spirit. The will of man and woman resides in our Soul along with our mind and emotions. I’ve addressed this in detail in my first lesson from the series entitled “Who Am I Really?”

1. Your Mind: Thinking, Reasoning, and Choosing
2. Your Emotions: Feelings and Desire for Fellowship
3. Your Will: Ability to Decide and Choose

God clearly created our mind, emotions and will to work in the sequence described. We’re designed to:

• Gather the necessary information
• Analyze and process it
• Weigh the pros and cons
• Make a rational decision

Once you’ve weighed your options and made a decision, your emotions get excited about the prospect of your decision, and then your will chooses the most favorable or logical option to implement the decision, driving you to achieve your desire.

Let me share an example of how this process God designed works from His Holy Word. Although, I’ll admit that my example isn’t the best, it does show how God designed us to work.

Let’s go back to Genesis, chapter 3 and look at the fall of man. In verse four, we find Satan enticing the woman (Eve) into breaking the one command God had given Adam, “but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”

Satan responds to Eve concerning God’s command by calling Him a liar.

“But the snake said to the woman, “You will not die. God knows that if you eat the fruit from that tree you will learn about good and evil, and then you will be like God!” Genesis 3:4-5

Eve now goes through the process of thinking, desiring and choosing her fate and that of all mankind.

The woman could see that the tree was beautiful and the fruit looked so good to eat (Mind, sense-perception, intelligence), She also liked the idea that it would make her wise (Emotions, desire, self-gratification). So she took some of the fruit from the tree and ate it (Will, choice). Her husband was there with her, so she gave him some of the fruit, and he ate it. Genesis 3:6

So, does the will rule the mind or does the mind control the will? Notice that your will does not think, reason or make decisions. Your will makes choices. After your heart and mind have thought through an opportunity or problem and come to a decision, your will then looks at the options your heart and mind have developed and chooses the one that best suits the situation or desires. Without the options the heart and mind develops, your will would have nothing to choose from. So the will is not free when it comes to making choices; it comes under the influence and control of the heart and mind. “For as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.”

So we first have thought (mind), then heart (emotion to desire or hate), and then act (will). To say that the will is free to make its own choices is to say that the tail wags the dog rather than the dog wagging the tail.

The strongest motives of the heart and mind determine the actions of our will. What are some of those motivators? With some, it may be the logic of reason, with others, the voice of your conscience, the impulse of your emotions, the whisper of the Tempter in your ear, or the power of the Holy Spirit in your life.

In other words, the action of the will is determined by the condition of the heart and mind, which, in turn is influenced by one of three things— the World, the Flesh or God.

I’ve spent a lot of time discussing how our will acts, but it is important to understand as we move forward with our free will discussion.

Let’s return to my example of Eve and the apple. When she and Adam took a bite of the apple, we all know what happened to man, you and me.

“everyone has sinned and is far away from God\’s saving presence.” Romans 3:23 (GNT)

As sinners we are born with a will that is biased toward evil. Why, because “The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?\” Jeremiah 17:9 (NLT)

My friend, our will, yours and mine, is only free in one direction, namely, in the direction of evil. As sinners, our will is enslaved, in bondage to and servants of a depraved heart. Our will is under the dominion of sin and Satan. Therefore, the will is not free.

The Holy Writings say, “There is not one person who is right with God. No, not even one!  There is not one who understands. There is not one who tries to find God.”  Everyone has turned away from God. They have all done wrong. Not one of them does what is good. No, not even one!  Their mouth is like an open grave. They tell lies with their tongues. Whatever they say is like the poison of snakes. Their mouths speak bad things against God. They say bad things about other people. They are quick to hurt and kill people.  Wherever they go, they destroy and make people suffer. They know nothing about peace. They do not honor God with love and fear.” Romans 3:10-18 (NLV)

My friend, before you became a Christian in your old nature state of sin, you were incapable of freely choosing Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. The only choice you had was to head straight to hell where Satan waits with open arms, but none to go to heaven. It was only through the Holy Spirit’s almighty power that He performed a miracle of grace in your heart.

That’s the power of grace, my friend. God alone chose you and me before the foundation of the earth was laid to be one of His adopted children. He sent His son to pay the price of our adoption, which cost Him His life— a life He willing gave for you and me.

To the chosen, God sends His Holy Spirit to work His miracle and change our deceitful and desperately wicked heart of stone. He regenerates our heart of stone and gives us a new heart so that we can willingly accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior. He makes Christ irresistible to us, so it is not by force or obligation that we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior, but through the desire of our heart.

Where does this leave your will in the Salvation process? If the Holy Spirit makes Jesus the desire of your heart, remember what I said earlier. It is the strongest motives of the heart and mind that determine the actions of our will.

That’s Grace, my friend. God has done it all and we have done nothing to earn His marvelous grace.

However, what I’ve written, sorry to say, is not the widespread popular teachings of today. What is taught from the great majority of pulpits is that man has a “free will,” and that salvation comes to the sinner through his will cooperating with the Holy Spirit.

Let me close this lesson by asking you a question. If it is true that it is through your “free will” cooperating with the Holy Spirit that salvation comes to you the sinner, then what you are saying to me is that you played a role in your salvation.

You are saying then that God chose you, Jesus died for you, and the Holy Spirit has changed your heart so that you can receive salvation through Jesus Christ. And after all they did for you, the three of them now need to stand on the sideline until you make your “free will” choice before your salvation can take effect? Really?

If that’s the way you see it, then you will need to reconcile Ephesians 2:8-9 with your belief.

“I mean that you have been saved by grace because you believed. You did not save yourselves; it was a gift from God. You are not saved by the things you have done, so there is nothing to boast about.” Ephesians 2:8-9 (ERV)

If you still believe it was by your own “free will” that you chose Christ, then my friend, you should be very proud of yourself and if I were you, I would go out and brag to the rest of the world exactly what you’ve done.

I pray that this lesson has answered your question about “free will,” but there is still one unanswered question — the question of “whosoever will.” Unfortunately, I have run out of time and space to properly address this question. Join me next month as we continue on this topic, “Chosen as a Child of God” Part 3 and pick up where we left off.

Let me leave you with this wonderful quote I’ve run across in my studies. It has put my mind at ease as I struggle to understand the sovereignty of God our Father. “We must trust God, not only WHEN we do not understand, but BECAUSE we do not understand. The psalmist tells us, “As for God, His way is perfect” (Psalm 18:30). If God’s ways are “perfect,” then we can trust that whatever He does—and whatever He allows—is also perfect.”

Until next month, may His mercy, peace and love be multiplied to you.