Sunday, February 14, 2010

God's Sovereignty vs. US (Not the United States)

There's been this one little topic that's been bothering me for quite awhile. Especially since my disillusionment with fundamentalism.

There seems to be this air about some evangelical Christians that incorporates "free will" as something, shall I say, greater than God.

Basically, a question I thought about after church this morning.

If we really can "mess up" God's plan for our lives, then what's the point of God's sovereignty?

This past summer at good ol' church camp, the speaker greatly stressed the idea that if we do not follows God's plan for our lives, then we'll mess it up. And then basically, we've completely screwed up our lives. No chance to fix it. You've messed it up and you're done with that plan that you COULD made a thing of in your life.

And at first, this seemed quite accurate! How true! If I screw up God's plan for my life, OOPS! I'm in trouble!

Yet how much farther from the truth could that be...

Since when have we had the controlling factor in our lives?
Since when did we gain complete authority over our lives?
To say that we control our own lives and to say that we have free will over all of our choices...I guess one could call it blasphemy.

Yes. Blasphemy.

Is God not sovereign? Is God not omniscient? Is God not omnipotent? Can God not do as He pleases?

To say He can't...we're hindering God.

And funny thing is. We can't hinder God.

Or else He wouldn't be God.

So, all this to say, we have no control over our lives. As far as I see it.
Yeah, we go about our daily lives, doing what we do. We go to work. We may go to school. We go home to our families and friends.
Yet, in all of this, God has it all planned.
I used to think that God didn't have a plan like that. That we have all the control and that we make our own choices. Part of me wants to agree with that. But I know I can't now.

If God truly is a sovereign God, then He truly has full control over our lives. And to me. That's the most peaceful thing in the world. I fail to see how anyone could want to have ANY control over his or her own life. That's scary.

God's efficacious grace is amazing. To know that He predestined His elect to be drawn to Him. To know that God's plan is greater than our own. To know that God has everything planned for a reason.

"Amazing Grace. How sweet the sound. That saved a wretch like me."
Probably one of the most overplayed songs in my opinion. Yet, still is provokes one of the greatest messages we as humans can ever receive. God's saving grace. I don't think I ever quite grasped that song entirely in it's beauty until today.

In all. I find it best to ask ourselves this question and critically think about it.

If we really can "mess up" God's plan for our lives, then what's the point of God's sovereignty?

To deny God's sovereignty...shall I daresay...is to deny God.

3 comments:

  1. hmm. i agree with almost everything you said in your post, but we must be aware that there is a balance.
    yes, God is in control. and that means every aspect of everyones lives. as you said thats what makes Him God, what makes Him above us. well that and many other things too.

    but as humans God has granted us a choice. a free will. we cannot deny that. God does not will for His children to sin, yet we still do. That doesn't mean that God is not severign though. He is. and its by Him that we have the free will.
    so when we do screw up, mess up our lives God can work it all of for His glory even though He never wanted us to mess up, that wasn't His will.
    in the model prayer Jesus gave while He was on earth He said, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
    this is implying that God's will is not always done on earth like in heaven. We know this because of sin.

    This is what makes Christianity so amazing, the balance between God's sovereinty and our free will. Yes, both exsist, and both are balanced so perfectly that God can and has chosen His own, and we have the free will to choose if we follow God.

    just some rambblings. sorry for all the misspellings.
    :)

    jessica B.

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  2. The problem with the idea of free will is that while it is true that we have the ability to sin, it is not true that we have the ability in and of ourselves to choose Christ.
    What really makes God so amazing is his amazing grace. "But God, being rich in mercy because of His great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved.)" Eph 2:4-5
    We were dead in our sin and dead men do not make decisions. God made us alive! What amazing grace, we deserved His wrath and He instead made us alive!

    Mark L.

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  3. The Presby in me is compelled to quote chapter 9 of the Westminster Confession here (bet you never saw that coming - ha!):

    "I. God has endued the will of man with that natural liberty, that is neither forced, nor, by any absolute necessity of nature, determined good, or evil.[1]
    II. Man, in his state of innocency, had freedom, and power to will and to do that which was good and well pleasing to God;[2] but yet, mutably, so that he might fall from it.[3]
    III. Man, by his fall into a state of sin, has wholly lost all ability of will to any spiritual good accompanying salvation:[4] so as, a natural man, being altogether averse from that good,[5] and dead in sin,[6] is not able, by his own strength, to convert himself, or to prepare himself thereunto.[7]
    IV. When God converts a sinner, and translates him into the state of grace, He frees him from his natural bondage under sin;[8] and, by His grace alone, enables him freely to will and to do that which is spiritually good;[9] yet so, as that by reason of his remaining corruption, he does not perfectly, or only, will that which is good, but does also will that which is evil.[10]
    V. The will of man is made perfectly and immutably free to do good alone in the state of glory only.[11]"

    And on divine providence: "God the great Creator of all things does uphold,[1] direct, dispose, and govern all creatures, actions, and things,[2] from the greatest even to the least,[3] by His most wise and holy providence,[4] according to His infallible foreknowledge,[5] and the free and immutable counsel of His own will,[6] to the praise of the glory of His wisdom, power, justice, goodness, and mercy.[7]" (5.1)

    And, of course, everything else I said to you earlier. :)

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