Last night I walked into the Discipleship class for the youth, after having to step out to make more copies of the lesson for the next session, and found a very robust discussion. On the board behind Chris was the letters on one end “pre” and on the other “destination.” Immediately, my mind flashed, “oh, boy, here we go…”
I tried to help answer the question concerning free will and predestination, but kind of felt a fog was still left in the room, so I want to try to clear some things up with Scripture texts that I found from a John Piper sermon series that I found. Hopefully these will speak for themselves with little if any explanation from me.
Do keep in mind one thing about what is called free will: it is a philosophy not a theology. What I mean is this, in our American-ness we tend to think that each individual has the ability to make their own decision, separate from any influence of another individual, even God. This is completely unbiblical. God is sovereign (all knowing and powerful) in everything as we will see from Scripture. So the best way to approach anything in life is to do away with the phrase “I think…” or “I feel like…” . But rather take on the phrase, “Scripture says…” or “ The bible says…” This way you won’t get into trouble for speaking wrongly (as long as you say what Scripture says in the proper meaning! J).
Let’s look to Acts 13.48 “ 48 Now when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord. And as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed.”(NKJV). Notice the progression. As many were appointed to eternal life believed. Who did the appointing? God did—not Paul or Barnabas or any other.
There is also a couple of verses from the lips of Jesus Himself that should be noted. We kind of discussed some of them in the class. John 6:44,65, “44 "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day.
John 6:44 (NKJV)
65 And He said, "Therefore I have said to you that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father."
John 6:65 (NKJV)
God does the drawing and choosing.
So why is it that we think we can choose for ourselves? The reason that we cannot is because sin is part of our very nature, so much so, that even if we were able to have a choice, we would choose sin over grace every time. That’s how blind we are to our own need. Only by God drawing us to Himself and granting us faith as we saw in Ephesians 2.8,( 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast.), faith is from God as well.
Here is a question for ya that a man by the name of Augustine asked. If it is only up to us to decide, separate from the influence of sin or of God, then why do you pray for the lost to be saved? Would we not be asking God to do what we have said He can’t do, influencing the decision? The answer is we DO pray for the lost because God DOES have the final say in salvation—not us.
Now let’s look at Ephesians 2.4-5
4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),
Eph 2:3-5 (NKJV)
Paul sticks this phrase in, by grace you have been saved, and also later on, but here it is as if he can’t wait to use it. It was grace, not faith, that first saves, because faith is dependant on grace to be given first. Also we were dead. Dead means—well, dead. Not alive or able to think. Why? Because we were DEAD! Why would God make us alive, then sit back and wait for us to believe in Him before He saves us?
In other words, why would God make someone alive, say Bill, and afterward sit back, and ask Bill, “Do you have faith in Me? Do you believe?”. Then wait to see if Bill would say, yes or no? That’s ridiculous. If God went to the trouble to raise Bill from the dead, why would He wait for Bill to believe when God could (biblically) grant Bill the ability to believe in Him, also. Don’t ya think Bill would feel a bit confused? God raised him from dead to living and now has to be asked to believe in the one who raised him?
If this sounds ridiculous its because that is not God. It could not be God because then God would depend on me for justification of His own glory. And then I would be equal to Him.
Rest in the fact that God chose you (Rom.8:28-31). Before all the foundation of the earth, He knew you would be one whom He would save!!! This should make you even more grateful to Him that He would send His own Son, just for YOU!!!
When you were unable, He is. While you were dead, He was made alive again, so that you could be.

Soli Deo Gloria,
Aaron “Tree” Landis
Psalm 1:3