The Gospel (part 7)
by
BERT BAUMAN
THE HUMAN WILL
But what of the human will in all of this? Is man not able to choose? Is he not commanded to choose God and believe? Indeed, man has a will – he was created with one. But to say that he has a free will and is able to do as he wishes is contrary to scripture, “In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth and that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.” (2 Timothy 2:25-26). “And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness” (literally, “lies in the wicked one” (1 John 5:19). Again, in Romans 3:10-18, God declares the natural state of a man as totally helpless and depraved. There is NOT ONE righteous, there is NOT ONE that seeks after God among all mankind. Truly, man has a will, but he uses it, WITHOUT EXCEPTION, only to say NO to God. He cannot do otherwise, for man in in bondage to the god of this age and has taken on his rebellious nature. The fact is clear, ALL MEN WILL NOT. It is only God’s gracious will that brings mankind to Him. FREE will can only begin with the new birth. As we have read in 2 Timothy 2:25, God alone can set man free unto repentance (change of mind and will). Jesus said, “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.” (John 8:36).
Unless God shows favor through imparting His life, the will man has can only be used against himself. This is what it means to be a sinner. Only those born again can begin to choose to do the will of God and even these need the help of God to do so, “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13). Obviously, the much talked of “free will” is true only within the parameters of God’s will. He, as sovereign God, has the final say. Any attempt to venture beyond His permissive will only leads to His judgements. In the final analysis, the Christian life is one of learning to use our will in such a way that it conforms to His will. This is child-training. Every child of God is being trained.
Until the natural man has been freed by the power of God and given His life, he cannot begin to use his bound will as a child of God can. The popular notion that the human will can overrule or frustrate God’s will is one of the gravest errors in modern thinking. Such an idea is foreign to the scriptures. God is not limited sovereign. He is ABSOLUTELY sovereign. Neither can it be found in scripture the He voluntarily gives up His sovereignty out of respect for the will of any of His creatures. Indeed, He does respect the will He has given his creation, but He is in no way controlled by such respect. When necessary, He produces a change in the choices of any creature He pleases in order to produce His will. Even after rebellious will does its worst, the results reveal that God’s will was finally done. The crucifixion of Jesus Christ is the supreme example. The Apostle Paul was not seeking to worship Jesus Christ when he was converted on the Damascus Road, neither did Jeremiah in his mother’s womb, choose to be a prophet or man of God. Likewise, Nebuchadnezzar did not choose to recognize the sovereignty of the Most High God until he ate grass with the oxen under the chastening hand of God. Satan, the greatest rebel among God’s creatures, can only do his worst within the bounds of God’s permission, as is witnessed in the first two chapters of Job. From Genesis to Revelation God is shown to be in absolute control, though It appears from our viewpoint that we control our own destinies and He is subject to us. Eventually, with Nebuchadnezzar, all creation will confess, “… mine understanding returned unto me, and I blessed the Most High, and I praised and honored him who liveth forever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from generation to generation. And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing; and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest tho?” (Daniel 4: 34-35).
Extract from the book “The Gospel” by Bert Bauman