Scripture teaches God controls us all, even deciding our eternal fate, having mercy on a few of us and hardening the rest. (Ro 9:18) Is God then unfair to condemn us, since He controls us? (Ro 9:19)
This seems so obviously wrong, even asking the question is embarrassing. But obviousness is often the enemy of correctness; in the end, how can any complaint against the goodness of God be rational? (Ro 9:14) Perhaps an illustration will help.
Suppose we dwell in a frigid climate where we enjoy three things: lounging in a hot tub under crisp, starlit heavens; ice water bathing; and competing in the annual ice sculpture festival. Being thrifty and innovative, we design special panels we can assemble into water-tight tubs of various shapes and sizes. When we want a steamy evening outside, we put one together, fill it with water and drop in a heating element. When we want our ice bath, we back off the heat to just above freezing and take the plunge; and at sculpture time we pull the heater, let it freeze, pull the panels and put our genius to work.
With a reliable water heater we can control the state of the water in our tub as we please, from steamy to frozen solid, by precisely controlling the heat we supply. In making ice we could say we’re “hardening” the water, but we’re really just withdrawing heat and leaving the water alone; where we live, water hardens naturally all by itself, and very predictably.
In the same way, God controls us by resisting our fallen, sinful nature (Ps 19:13), either reining in our depravity (De 18:14) (i.e. heating the water), or giving us up to pursue our own evil ways as He sees fit (Ps 81:12) (i.e. letting the water freeze). God never actively causes anyone to sin (Ja 1:13-14), or forcefully hardens anyone; we do that all on our own whenever He lets us.
God’s hardening is passive, simply letting us go our own way (Pr 1:31), not forcing us; when left to ourselves, we obey the law of sin operating within us (Ro 7:23), so we’re as predictable as the law of gravity. God knows exactly what we’ll do in every circumstance if He withdraws His grace from us. Just as we can control an object‘s elevation by only pushing it upward, never causing it to fall, God can precisely control us by restraining our evil nature without causing us to sin. (Pr 16:9)
God isn’t unloving or unjust in letting us sin; it’s the essence of free will, and we’re no less guilty because we always want to sin as much as He allows. (Ro 3:19) Neither is God unfair in restraining us, some much more than others: it’s all His mercy. (Ro 9:23)
God’s purpose in all this is ultimately to glorify Himself by revealing His amazing nature. (Ro 9:22) He could do it all differently and save everyone from themselves, but the end result would evidently not be as glorious. He’s doing it all perfectly.
The key to resolving one of the deepest spiritual mysteries, how God can be absolutely sovereign, yet also loving and just, evidently lies in the depravity of Man, the puzzle piece most of us overlook. Depravity is simply what happens when God let’s do our own thing (Ge 6:5), and nothing obligates Him to override everyone’s natural will. His choice to intervene and only quicken and transform some of us isn’t unfair, it’s brilliant. (Ro 9:16) Anything else is lackluster at best.
God is rejoicing in how He’s responding to sin (Mt 11:25-26), and we should be too (Php 4:4): He’s always in perfect control of it. (Ep 1:11) Exactly what it will all look like in the end remains to be seen, but I expect it will be amazing, like everything else He does. (Re 15:4) In seeing all of life from God’s perspective, we can give thanks always for all things with joy. (Ep 5:20)
Tim,
Thankful for the [grace] exercised through you on this subject. Free will is obvious to me from the “choose YE this day whom YE will serve” – and also the scriptures on hardening, and Romans 9:22 which seemingly few Christians acknowledge to Elohim’s Glory — ie… 🙂 they use it in self righteousness to be condemning towards others… your perspective is FRESH.
Appreciate the labor.
stephen
Thanks for the comment, Bro. I’d agree in the sense that “choose YE” implies our obligation, and our freedom in that God will never oppose us here and force us to make any other choice. Yet, apart from the intervention of God, would any of us actually choose God, if He left it entirely up to us? I think the biblical answer is, “No. Not one.” (Ro 3:10) The fact that some of us choose Him lies in God’s intervention and quickening of us, not in our own nature and goodness. You agree?
An implication of God being in control of everyone is that God has not let anyone go completely in their depravity; no one has yet been as evil as they could be; God has put some measure of common grace in every living soul. (“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” Je 17:9) For God to control He must have influence; since He cannot cause evil, the only remaining influence is restraint; so He must be restraining evil at all times in every soul on earth.
I think it is only in Hell where God turns each soul entirely over to their nature; that is, in our analogy, withdrawing all the heat within them and letting them go down to absolute zero. This has yet to be seen among mortal men. In the end of time, the nature of all outside of JEHOVAH will be revealed, and come to steady state — and it will indeed be breathtaking.