Free Will & Salvation

One thing which might help in this discussion is that there are at least 3 different definitions that people use-Moral Freedom, which is the ability to do good. Because of the fall, we lost moral freedom, the ability to choose God, because of our fallen nature. Thus, salvation restores moral freedom.

The second kind of freedom is called Liberterian Freedom and is what most people mean when they say free will; it is having genuine choice with no one making us decide one way the other. In this thinking, God needs to leave me alone and let me decide for myself. This person who says, "God must give me free will" is, however, insisting that God give us a universe that is hopeless. God moving upon our wills is actually our only hope of coming to Him.

There is a third kind of free will which is called Compatibilist Freedom, where our choices and God's will are compatible. Humanity is not left alone, with God up in the heavens watching. Neither is God making people do everything that happens, like puppets. God lovingly exercises His sovereignty in running the universe, yet He does so in a way that is compatible (thus, the name) with our choices out of respect for us as free agents. In other words, God is control and can interrupt us and move upon us whenever He wants; He is, after all, God. Yet we do actually choose, either good or evil. When people do evil, God is still in control, and could stop it, but He respects their choice, though hating it. In salvation, then, we still are choosing according to our nature, however, He moves upon our will, changing our nature, so that we do freely come to believe. In this way, the Christian can say, "God saved me; I did not save myself," "Yes, I did choose Christ, but He chose me first."

The beauty of the gospel is that it is not an "offer" which we decide for out of our liberterian freedom, for none would believe. The beauty of the gospel is that it is indued with power (Romans 1:16) to change our very natures, enabling us to believe, and "freely" choose Christ.

Predestination Reaction

Before I get going with writing more on the "deep labyrinth" of predestination, what was your reaction to what was shared Sunday? What are you feeling right now? What thoughts are rolling around in your head? More to come, but I wanted to see where everyone is at first.

Blog Respite

Hey dudes and dudettes, I won't be making any blog posts till after next Sunday since this past week, we had no teaching. This will give you a chance to catch up if you need to. Thanks. We'll be kicking in this next Sunday.

Prayer in the Now and Not Yet (8:18-27)

We have a mission. And embracing our mission leads to passion.

I want you to notice something in this section;

Creation groans for the kingdom to fully come (8:22).

Christ followers, if suffering for others, groan as well (8:23).

The Holy Spirit also groans in praying for us (8:26).

I hope that totally freaked you out. I walked in on a friend, one time, while he was praying. It disturbed me. He was weeping as he prayed for lost people that he knew. I want you to imagine for a few minutes what it would feel like to walk in on the Holy Spirit as He was praying for you. (Now, if you just can’t go there, imagine walking in on Christ praying for you; He’s “interceding” for you as well; see 8:34). How do you think it would affect you to hear God the Spirit speaking to God the Father about you? Do you think you could ever be the same again?

If you are living for this world, you will likely not be groaning for the next, nor weeping for the un-churched and de-churched, nor asking God to do much through you.

The Spirit of God within you GROANS with LONGING as He intercedes FOR YOU, based on His searching out the depths of God (8:27; 1 Corinthians 2:10), and so, He knows God’s will, God’s heart, God’s passion, and He desires it for you.

Just as knowing that we are in “the now and not yet” gives us a profound mission, it also can create within us passionate desire. Knowing someone is interceding for you, praying for you, groaning for you is profoundly humbling…and tremendously motivating.

It awakens desire.

The Now and the Not Yet (8:16-25)

This section gives us a powerful image of a fallen world, cursed in the garden (Genesis 3:17-19), groaning and longing to be set free from its slavery to corruption “into the freedom of the glory of the children of God” (8:21). The whole cosmos was corrupted by Adam’s fall, not just humanity. Like a woman in childbirth, creation longs to see the new world born, the kingdom of God to come, and the sons of God to be revealed. Jesus taught us to pray, “Thy kingdom come” because in one sense, the kingdom of God has come, yet in another sense, not completely. We live in what is called “the now and the not yet,” where the kingdom of God has been initiated on earth yet not in its fullness.

We don’t live as if in the times of the Old Testament, as if the Holy Spirit hasn’t been given, as if we have no power, as if the kingdom hasn’t come at all. Nor are we to live without passion, without purpose, as if the kingdom of God has fully come and our battle is over, as if we have no mission.

How, then, do we live in “the now and not yet?”

We suffer.

We are invited, due to the “now and not yet” in which we live, to suffer with Christ for people…to genuinely love them...to pray for them...to serve them…to do all things for their salvation…desiring for them to know Christ and be forgiven.

Here is the challenging aspect of this: to what degree do our lives reveal that we are aware of the age in which we live? Or to put it another way, if we aren’t involved with suffering for people, desiring and pursuing their salvation, do we understand reality? Does not lack of passion reveal that we believe ourselves to be back in the Old Testament or forward in the kingdom fully come?

We have a mission.

Holy War (8:10-16)

“I didn’t think the Christian life was supposed to be such a struggle.”

Where in the world does this thinking come from? The scriptures describe our spiritual journey in very intense terms-as an Olympic event (1 Corinthians 9:24-26), as a wrestling match (Ephesians 6:10-17), as a holy war (1 Peter 2:11). Each of these metaphors is an image of intense effort and struggle, of victory and defeat. We are in a holy war, but it is not our war to win alone.

Our spiritual resurrection from the dead, the transformation of our hearts, is accomplished by God alone. From that point on, each step of our walk is a cooperative effort; warring against our flesh’s lust and selfishness and whatever we struggle with by the Spirit…By the Spirit…Not by our self-reliance and hard work, but in cooperation with Him. It is intense, but we are not alone. Our part is to put our minds on the Spirit (8:5), not on the things of this world, and to subject ourselves to God (8:7), obeying His word. His part is to create new life in us as we walk in obedience to Him.

However, note that we are under a holy obligation, according to 8:12. In fact, it seems that as Christ followers, we are under the strongest obligation possible; we are commanded to PUT TO DEATH the deeds of the body…Hard to imagine stronger words than that.

Yet, this is by the Spirit. What that means is that I don't need to make myself holy, by myself; I just need to respond to the Spirit as He leads me. The Spirit moves on our conscience. It is the Holy Spirit that cautions us against proceeding in some sin. The Holy Spirit is the one who energizes our lives as we obey. He does not do the work for us, but the Spirit is works in, by, with, over and under my will, but never without it.

To survive and win our holy war, we must cooperate with the Holy Spirit.

We must treat the Holy Spirit as God because the Holy Spirit is God.

The Freedom of the New World (8:1-9)

Here in Romans 8, Paul is attempting to help believers grapple with what it means to no longer be under the Law’s influence, but to now live under the Holy Spirit’s influence. Essentially, Paul is announcing our standing in a New World; Christians have entered a new sphere, a new reality-we are no longer “in the flesh” but “in the Spirit” (8:9). On our good days, we are in the Spirit; on our bad days, we are in the Spirit. There is permanence to being in the Spirit because it is a new reality, independent of how we do.

It is as if the cross of Christ is a passageway into a new realm; as we pass through the cross (by believing) God’s condemnation of our past sins is removed (8:1), we are set free from the domination of sin’s power over us (8:2), we are set free from the Law’s “wretched” effect (7:23-24) of making us prisoners to its demands (8:2), and we are given the Holy Spirit making a life of loving God and neighbor actually possible (thus, fulfilling the Law-8:4).

Our experience of the “Old World,” life “in the flesh,” before we passed through the cross, was miserable. Many of us felt guilty because, in reality, we were guilty. Most of us felt a sense of shame, as if we didn’t measure up…because we didn’t measure up. Paul described himself under the Law as having a “body of death,” totally being unresponsive and unable to meet the Law’s standards. But we have been set free!

It is like emigrating from a country in which we were slaves to a country in which there was no slavery, only a loving Ruler who desires relationship with His servants. We stand in the New World, right now, in the forgiveness (8:1), the freedom (8:2), the life & peace (8:6), the acceptance (8:9), and resurrection power (8:11) of God. For me, adjusting to the New World hasn’t been easy. I am blinded by its light, and though I believe what my new King tells me, I still hear the voice of my previous ruler; I still feel the chains as if they are still there. And so, I have wrestled with many questions…

How do I live like a free man, yet in reverence and holiness toward my great King?

How can knowing that I am always “in the Spirit” help me?

What do I do with the feelings of “the Old World,” which scream of guilt and shame and duty?