Free Will & Determinism (vii)

I suppose it was quite natural for me, in talking about how God works on the will of his creatures, to at some point talk about the conversion/regeneration experience, seeing it is a place where the difference of opinion on the freedom of the will becomes intense between Arminians and advocates of "free will," and their Calvinist and Determinist opponents. I have alluded to the bondage of the will as respects man's natural depravity, how he is compelled by his nature to sin, though not necessarily any particular sin. When it comes to changing the will of man in conversion the Calvinists believe in what is called "irresistible grace," or "effectual calling." Those who oppose this idea say that it amounts to forcing salvation on people who do not want it. There is much we could say about this but will not go into great detail on it now in this condensed series. 

I believe that what we have seen already shows that God can and does, thankfully, mess with free will. Perhaps a better term for "irresistible grace" would be "conquering grace," or "victorious grace," for God does conquer and capture the will of sinners, taking the will captive to Christ and freeing it from depravity. It is like taming wild horses by "breaking" them by a "bronco buster." Man is born like a wild ass's colt (Job 11: 12) and has a stubborn obstinate will like a mule or jackass. His will must be broken by Christ. When he rides the sinner the sinner will be convicted (against his will I might add) and his will tamed to serve Christ. So we see this in the conversion experience of the apostle Paul. We are born with a will that is naturally disposed to sin and to reject God and righteousness and this is because of the will of Adam bringing sin into the race. It is also irresistible and effectual, for who has not been born with a depraved will? But, the will of "the last Adam," Jesus Christ, also assuredly brings about a change in the will of sinners without fail. 

I have also shown how coming to love God and his Son Jesus Christ is compelling and irresistible with some (and these are the elect) so that they fall in love passively and yet actively too for they set their affections and love upon Christ whom they have seen as "altogether lovely." So Paul says - "For the love of Christ constraineth us." (II Cor. 5: 14 kjv) Or, as the ESV -  "For the love of Christ controls us." Or, as the NIV - "For Christ’s love compels us." Further, doing something freely does not exclude being compelled. As stated previously, I came to Christ willingly and freely and yet I was also effectually drawn and compelled. Jesus spoke of this when he charged servants to "Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled." (Luke 14: 23) Yes, the compelling was done by words, by exhortations, by persuasive speech, but still it is compelling. Those whom God especially wills to persuade compellingly, he does so without fail. To show that God can successfully persuade any time he chooses, let us observe this text from the old testament.

"Then Micaiah said, “Therefore hear the word of the LORD: I saw the LORD sitting on His throne, and all the host of heaven standing by, on His right hand and on His left. “And the LORD said, ‘Who will persuade Ahab to go up, that he may fall at Ramoth Gilead?’ So one spoke in this manner, and another spoke in that manner. “Then a spirit came forward and stood before the LORD, and said, ‘I will persuade him.’ “The LORD said to him, ‘In what way?’ So he said, ‘I will go out and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.’ And the LORD said, ‘You shall persuade him, and also prevail. Go out and do so.’ “Therefore look! The LORD has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these prophets of yours, and the LORD has declared disaster against you.” (I Kings 22: 19-23 nkjv)

Think about planning a surprise birthday party for someone. You need to get the person (Sam) whose birthday it is to be at a certain place at a certain time and so you ask others who are helping to plan the surprise party - "how can we get Sam to the place at that time without him suspecting?" Oftentimes it involves telling Sam a lie to get him to that place and time. The spirit in the above story offers to go and "persuade" Ahab, the wicked king whom God had decided to kill, or be killed, and God asks him how he will do this persuading. At this point we think of some questions that ought to be asked, and some observations made.

1) The spirit does not seem to be in doubt of his ability to persuade Ahab and this being so, says something about what the spirit believes about being able to persuade human beings

2) If the spirit believed that Ahab could successfully resist being persuaded, he could not speak so certainly of success in persuading Ahab, but would have said "I will go and try to persuade Ahab and hope and expect him to be persuaded."

3) Further, God tells the spirit that he will succeed in persuading Ahab. But, if the Open Theists are correct, then God could not know whether the persuading will be successful since Ahab would have a free will and may or may not be persuaded. 

So, we may say that Ahab was compelled by the persuasive abilities of an angel of heaven. God is a persuader and he is able to persuade any man or angel if he so will and work it. He knows what will persuade this or that man. God does not fail to convince or persuade when he chooses to put forth the right amount of power and means to effect persuasion. 

This of course, brings up the question as to whether God is limited in his efforts to persuade. Some say that God is self limited in the degree of effort he can put forth in persuading sinners to repent or trust in him as their Lord and Savior. Some say that God cannot "force" or "compel" sinners to believe and repent or do anything good. That would take away from a creature's "free will" and make them only puppets, it is argued. Therefore, God must limit the degree of "influence" he exerts upon the heart, mind, and will of sinners so that he is not guilty of "coercion" or forcing a person against his will. Defining when God crosses the line or Rubicon so that his influence and persuasion becomes "forced" and "coercive," is the crux of the debate. But Job says: "How forceful are right words! But what does your arguing prove?" (Job 6: 25) So, if God's word is "forceful," does it not "force"? 

I take it as a basic proposition of my understanding of the scriptures to say that it teaches that God can save any sinner any time he pleases. (Or, in a broader context, can turn the heart of anyone in whatever direction he pleases) If you want to call that God forcing salvation on people against their will and decision, then so be it (though it really is a more involved question and needs much discussion and clarification). Who can deny that God uses force (or power) against the force of depravity and other factors operating upon the will? Does he not, metaphorically speaking, use force to pry people away from their lusts and sinful desires? 

Is it true to say "to know Christ (or God) is to love Christ"? To my mind, this is one of those most difficult questions that must be answered with both a "yes and no." Those who truly come to know Christ deeply and insightfully, will admire him, adore him, and love him. Those who do not love Christ may know a lot about him from reading the scriptures, or from hearing others speak of him, but they only know Christ intellectually, abstractly, and superficially.  Further, there are different kinds of love (hence the several different Greek words translated "love" in NT English translations), and many who know about Christ and his teachings, about his biographical story, have warm feelings, and sympathies, friendship love, for Jesus, but who do not love him in the most intimate of manners, with "agape" or deep penetrating love in the heart and spirit. 

Chris is beautiful, or "altogether lovely" (Song of Sol. 5: 16) The beauty of Christ is alluded to in these words addressed to Christian women:

“Your beauty should not come from outward adornments, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight.” (I Peter 3: 3-4)

When we speak of the beauty of Christ, we are not talking about his physical appearance while on earth. Of Christ the Messiah Isaiah said: "He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him." (Isa. 53: 2b NIV) His beauty was and is in his "inner self," and in "the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit," the kind Peter calls on holy women to work on obtaining. 

So, why do many who come to know about Jesus choose not to love and serve him? Why are they not attracted to him as are others? Is it not because it takes a secret internal work of the Holy Spirit to give new eyes to see the beauty of Christ? Is it not because he removes the veil that keeps them from seeing the "perfection of beauty" (Eze. 28: 12) in Christ? Wrote Paul regarding this:

"But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them." (II Cor. 4: 3-4)

"Blinded minds" and a "veil" keep sinners from seeing the full beauty and glory (those two things are linked together in many verses) of the Savior presented in the gospel and coming to love and believe in him. When this veil is removed and one can see the real beauty of Christ, he then finds it impossible to keep from adoring and loving him and then placing faith in him (for "faith works by love"; Gal. 5: 6). This is when the sinner comes to love Christ and to effect union with him by covenant. The sinner chooses Christ, but it is a choice both done freely and yet done by being irresistibly drawn to Christ. 

Is love a voluntary choice or an involuntary emotion? Or both? Is love active, passive, or both? Is love instantaneous and progressive (growing and increasing)? Surely it is both a conscious choice and a spontaneous reaction. It is both active and passive. Thus we see texts which exhort people to love God, Christ, and the way of the Lord, all which demonstrates that love is a choice. Paul said to believers "set your affection on things above and not on things of the earth." (Col. 3: 2) Men are responsible to love what is lovely, morally speaking. If they love sin and evil, they are responsible for choosing to do so. 

Christ speaks of the "first love" of professing Christians. (Rev.2: 1) This means that Christ becomes the one loved more than anyone else. It may also describe the love that characterizes the newly converted Christian, in his initial love for Christ and of the honeymoon period he has with his new master who he has fallen in love with, and with whom he is infatuated. 

People not only ought to love Christ, since he is beautiful and worthy, but they will be condemned for not loving him, and for choosing rather to love themselves, to love the world, to love sin, to love carnal pleasures, etc. Wrote Paul: “If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha.” (I Cor. 16: 22) "Anathema Maranatha" means to be cursed at the second coming of Christ. This is why men are called to the love of Christ and condemned for choosing not to do so. They refuse to love him because they are blinded and veiled by Satan and by depravity and lust.

All should be "lovers of God" (II Tim. 3: 4). The Greek word philotheos (another genitive) is contrasted in the context with "lovers of their own selves " (vs. 2) and "lovers of pleasures" (vs. 4). In conversion and in being born again (becoming God's offspring), God turns hearts and minds in a new direction. He does not give a faculty for loving, for all already have that, but he changes what it is that is loved. Prior to conversion to Christ a person's heart and mind, yea, his love and affection, are towards self, pleasures, and the world (which is governed by Satan), but afterwards it is turned in a new direction, and Christ is now loved more than self, pleasures, and things of the world. Further, we have already noticed at least two texts which speak of God's turning the hearts of people. He turns the heart of kings as he turns the courses of rivers, which are both by his omnipotence. He turned the heart of the Egyptians to hate his people and to deal with them harshly. So, we may say in summary that the cause for anyone falling in love with God and with Christ, and with the things of both, is from God's initiative and doing, i.e. his act of turning the heart. 

This, of course, does not exclude God calling upon people to turn themselves and their own hearts and minds. Both can be true, as I have shown many times. So we hear Ephraim say - "turn Thou me, and I shall be turned, for Thou art the Lord my God." (Jer. 31: 18)

So, we confess that God calls all who hear the gospel to behold the full glory and beauty of Christ and to love and to serve him and yet, they cannot because they have a veil or blinder that is preventing them from obtaining that full vision and revelation of Christ which is necessary for conversion and salvation. (See Matt. 11: 25-27; 16: 16-17) Thus it is only when the Spirit sovereignly removes the blinders, the veil, that the lost sinner is able to see clearly the full beauty of Christ and be fully drawn to him. Jesus spoke of this when he said "everyone who sees the Son and believes in him" or "beholding the Son." Seeing Christ through the veil of ignorance, depravity, blindness, hardness, mist of spiritual darkness, etc. makes lovers and believers of Christ. Here we may say that it is true that "to see him, or to know him, is to love him." If we look at Christ as through opaque glass, and get not a full clear sight of him, we will not be so affected by his beauty. There is nothing unattractive about the person of Jesus Christ. 

"How We Come To Love God

"God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us." (Rom. 5: 5 NIV)

Said one Greek scholar (See the note for Rom. 5: 5 here - emphasis mine)

"The phrase ἡ ἀγάπη τοῦ θεοῦ (hē agapē tou theou, “the love of God”) could be interpreted as either an objective genitive (“our love for God”), subjective genitive (“God’s love for us”), or both (M. Zerwick’s “general” genitive [“Biblical Greek”, §§36–39]; D. B. Wallace’s “plenary” genitive [ExSyn 119–21]). The immediate context, which discusses what God has done for believers, favors a subjective genitive, but the fact that this love is poured out within the hearts of believers implies that it may be the source for believers’ love for God; consequently an objective genitive cannot be ruled out. It is possible that both these ideas are meant in the text and that this is a plenary genitive: “The love that comes from God and that produces our love for God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us” (ExSyn 121)."

I certainly do believe that it includes the objective genitive, and means "love for God." Paul is not describing how God came to love people (sinners) but how people come to love God. In the previous text, he tells us why people do not set their affection upon the Lord. It is because their vision of Christ is greatly obscured by the blinders they have over their eyes. In the above verse in Romans, on the other hand, he describes how people come to love God and Christ. He says that "the love of God" (a genitive) "has been poured out" or "shed abroad" (KJV) and may be either middle or passive voice, the latter no doubt since the one doing the pouring is the Holy Spirit. The heart is passive in being poured upon, and then becomes quickly active and responsive. 

In all this divine working in conversion God is messing with the heart, mind, and will of people, to one degree or another, and for one purpose or another. And, thank God he did. If God were waiting on me to turn my own heart, or to change my inner desires by an act of will, then I would never be turned nor choose Christ. So the apostle whom Jesus loved said - “We love him, because he first loved us.” (1 John 4:19) Also, the prophet Jeremiah records this word: "The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee." (Jer. 31: 3) It is out of love that God draws sinners, and it is love for him unto which they are drawn. This is described by the young love of king Solomon in the Song of Solomon. She says:

"Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth: for thy love is better than wine. Because of the savour of thy good ointments thy name is as ointment poured forth, therefore do the virgins love thee. Draw me, we will run after thee: the king hath brought me into his chambers: we will be glad and rejoice in thee, we will remember thy love more than wine: the upright love thee." (Song of Solomon 1: 2-4)

"His mouth is most sweet: yea, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem." (5: 16)

I believe this love is both passive and active. The young woman fell in love with Solomon and became infatuated with his person. Love for him controlled what she chose to do. We see this same type of falling in irresistible love in the story of -

Hosea & Gomer 

There are excellent lessons from the story of Hosea's love for Gomer the prostitute and how it pictures God's love for his people Israel and how it becomes the cause of the people coming to love God, illustrating the truth that "we love him because he first loved us," for Hosea loved Gomer before she was ever drawn to love him. In an excellent writing titled "THE GREATEST LOVE STORY NEVER TOLD (SONG OF SOLOMON)" Leland Acker wrote (See here; emphasis mine):

"The Song of Solomon is often overlooked in Bible studies for a variety of reasons. First, it’s located in the middle of the Old Testament. Secondly, the imagery of passionate romance depicted in the book can seem awkward for groups with young children, or groups with both genders. Thirdly, and possibly the biggest reason, is that the book can be difficult to understand."

"Even the great Bible expositor Charles Haddon Spurgeon expressed difficulty in interpreting the Song of Solomon when he said the book could only be understood by the “initiated,” and that the book stood in the middle of the Old Testament like the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden, whose fruit you cannot eat unless you are brought by Christ past the cherubim with the fiery sword. Apparently, Spurgeon was incapable of simply saying, “This book is hard.”

Says Acker further:

"Song of Solomon is often preached as a book about marriage. However, Spurgeon believed, as do many other Bible teachers, that Song of Solomon is an allegory for the love Christ has for His people.

It’s with that context that we examine the book, Song of Solomon. The Song of Solomon can be divided into three parts… the romance, the wedding, and the marriage. Each mirrors a stage in our walk with Christ." 

(Yes; It not only is an allegory depicting the love of Christ for his people but also of the love his people have for him as their chosen companion)

Says Acker further:

"In the beginning of Song of Solomon, we see the romance develop between the Shulamite woman and King Solomon. In Verses 1:5-6, the Shulamite woman notes that she is black, that she keeps vineyards for others, and her mother’s children were angry with her. The fact that she is black indicates that she has spent her life in hard field labor. She has not known luxury, nor has she been able to preen or care for herself. While she says that she is comely (she looks good,) her body shows the effects of her life of hard labor.

She also says that she has not kept her own vineyard, which means she has no vineyard. She has no wealth, she has no assets. (Just as every sinner comes to Christ, saying "just as I am without one plea") She is hardly a bride suited for a king. 

(She was chosen by Solomon for reasons we do not know. We only know that she had no personal attributes or assets that earned her favor with him; so God's people are chosen to salvation apart from any worthiness) 

Says Acker further:

"In Old Testament times (as well as medieval times, and even modern times), royalty married those who could bring peace or prosperity to their kingdoms. Alliances, trade agreements, and even mergers were orchestrated through royal weddings. The Shulamite woman can offer none of these. Yet, despite her destitute situation, King Solomon loves her. In Verse 2:4, the Shulamite woman says, “He brought me to the banqueting house. His banner over me was love.” This is a Cinderella-type story if there ever was one. King Solomon not only loves the Shulamite woman, and cares for her, but he brings her to the banquet. There’s a banquet, a ball. The creme de la creme are there. And King Solomon has this Shulamite woman on his arm, is introducing her to every one, and his proud to be in love with her.

It means a lot that King Solomon makes this romance public. He loves the Shulamite woman. She is the object of his love, and he is driven by his love to care for her. She is not a scandal to him, and he is not ashamed of her.

This is a mirror to how Christ loves us. He loves us in spite of the fact there is nothing we can do for Him. He loves us in spite of the rejection we suffer at the hands of others. He lifts us out of our hopelessness and takes us into His kingdom, where we can know love, care, and be provided for."

This will conclude this series on this subject. Combined with what I have written over the years on this subject, it is extensive.