God's Will & Our Free Choices
- James Collazo
- Jul 2, 2022
- 13 min read
Updated: Mar 15
Introduction
Although the mystery between God's will and our free choices is a complex theological matter, it is listed under "Doctrine & Ministry" because this is one of the most common questions and debates among Christians. Most churchgoers divide themselves between "Calvinists" and "Arminians" based on the doctrines of the French theologian John Calvin (1509–1564) and the Dutch theologian James Arminius (1560–1609), respectively. However, the question of God's sovereignty and human free will is much older than these men. Plato (427–347 BC) and Aristotle (384–322 BC) discussed the Greek concept of fate and where it leads us. Nearly every world religion and school of philosophy tries to answer just how free our choices are. Even atheists—such as American neuroscientist and philosopher Sam Harris (b. 1967), who offers a secular view in his book Free Will (Simon & Schuster, 2012)—must reckon with this question, although they deny God's existence.
Before exploring whether the scriptures emphasize God's freedom or human choice, we must define divine foreknowledge, free will, omniscience, predestination, and sovereignty. So many conversations begin with a tacit understanding of these terms but alienate the uninitiated. Divine foreknowledge refers to God's ability to know the realities and events before they happen. The apostle Paul clarified, "For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters" (Rom. 8:29). Predestination means that God has eternally chosen those whom he plans to save; we must separate it from determinism, which rejects all human agency. The doctrine of predestination does not necessarily rule out human choices.
There are three kinds of free will: compatibilist, determinist, and libertarian. Compatibilism refers to our free choices that are "compatible" with God's will. This kind is the genuinely scriptural view of free will, which was Arminius' position when he wrote:
Predestination, therefore, as it regards the thing itself, is the decree of the good pleasure of God in Christ, by which he resolved within himself from all eternity, to justify, adopt and endow with everlasting life, to the praise of his own glorious grace, believers on whom he had decreed to bestow faith (Arminius, p. 8).
However, the subsequent Arminian tradition most often implies the libertarian perspective in today's debates, which means freedom between at least two choices with full moral responsibility not caused by God. In other words, contemporary Arminians believe God applies his prevenient grace to begin a relationship with those who freely respond to him. However, prevenient grace is not a causal factor but an invitation that a free person may reject. The Calvinist view teaches the opposite: God strictly determines whom he saves and guides the course of history with little choice given to humankind. Calvinists believe that God is both the cause of salvation and condemnation—the doctrine of double predestination. Calvin himself wrote:
We say, then, that Scripture clearly proves this much, that God by his eternal and immutable counsel once and for all those whom it was his pleasure one day to admit to salvation, and those whom, on the other hand, it was his pleasure to doom to destruction. We maintain that this counsel, as regards the elect, is founded on his free mercy, without any respect to human worth, while those whom he dooms to destruction are excluded from access to life by a just and blameless, but at the same time incomprehensible judgment (Calvin, p. 613).
This article reviews the implications of both views, offering a middle ground from the Molinist perspective. Molinism teaches that God invites free individuals by prevenient grace and orchestrates events in their lives to cause salvation through voluntary decisions. Molinism teaches libertarian free will while emphasizing God's sovereignty.
Omniscience vs. Free Will
The word "omniscience" defines God's ability to know all things, and it is synonymous with "foreknowledge" but also expands from the past to the present and the future. In the determinist view, God is highly proactive in saving people from sin and its consequences. In libertarianism (not to be confused with political philosophy), God is merely reactive to human whims. Once we move past Calvin and Arminius, the more theological terms are "monergism" and "synergism," respectively. They stem from the Greek words monos (G3441, "one"), sun (G4862, "with"), and ergon (G2041, "work"). That said, monergists believe that God works alone to save us, while synergists view humans as working together with God toward salvation. Incidentally, monergeō never appears in Scripture, whereas sunergeō (G4903) does—especially in Romans 8:28 ("And we know that in all things God works together with those who love him to bring about what is good—with those who have been called according to his purpose" [emphasis added]). No literary evidence supports monergeō as an actual word in ancient Greek—there is no Strong's Concordance number for it. Of course, that does not mean theological terms must derive from biblical Greek to be valid (e.g., "Trinity"). Still, we must consider Paul's words about salvation in this context.
Not so fast! There would be no debate if this were simply a matter of vocabulary. However, synergists often downplay scriptures that convey God's sovereignty and his ability to plan the events of human history. They correctly understand verses such as Romans 10:9 ("If you declare with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved") to suggest a free-will response. The monergists rightly point to verses such as Romans 9:20 ("But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God? Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, 'Why did you make me like this?'"). This verse undergirds the doctrine of irresistible grace. God's message to Ananias after Paul met Jesus on the road to Damascus also implies monergism: "Go! This man is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel" (Acts 9:15). For Calvinists in the English-speaking world, the mnemonic TULIP represents the five key points of monergism:
Total depravity
Unconditional election
Limited atonement
Irresistible grace
Perseverance of the saints
Yet, this is a relatively modern and debatable interpretation of the Canons of Dort (1618–1619), much less the New Testament letters. To summarize these points: 1) No one can seek God because of their depraved human nature, and 2) God elects individuals to save. Thus, Jesus' atonement is limited to them instead of the entire world; 3) The chosen sinner cannot resist God's grace out of love and a desperate need to repent; and 4) The Holy Spirit regenerates the elect to keep their faith until death. Conversely, Arminians offer the mnemonic FACTS:
Freed by grace to believe
Atonement for all
Conditional election
Total depravity
Security in Christ
To summarize these points: 1) God calls everyone to repentance and offers prevenient grace to deter people from sin; 2) Jesus atoned for the sins of all people, not just those of a select group; 3) Election is conditional on whether an individual preserves their faith in Christ; 4) Depravity is total, meaning that a person is lost and enslaved to sin until God invites them to be saved; and 5) all believers are secure in their relationship with Christ as long as they sustain their faith in him. People can turn away from Jesus, but it is impossible for an outside force to steal one's salvation (Heb 10:26–27; cf. John 10:28–30).
Omniscience & Free Will
Late in the sixteenth century, a Jesuit theologian, Luis de Molina (1535–1600), discovered an intelligent solution to the omniscience/free will divide. In this little-known theology called Molinism, God has foreknowledge and "middle knowledge." Molinism is the view of the American philosophers William Lane Craig (b. 1949) and Alvin Plantinga (b. 1932). Because the scriptures do not use the phrase "middle knowledge," this concept relies more on philosophy than theology. However, it is very defensible with both Scripture and reason (e.g., John 18:36). Middle knowledge encompasses God's will and every possible result, even if creation or the fall of humankind never happened. Molinism is similar to the "best of all possible worlds" view of the German philosopher Gottfried Leibniz (1646–1716).
Simply put, the world we now live in is the "best possible" since we may choose to worship God or sin against him. A determinist world in which human beings honored God in robotic obedience would not be the "best possible" since relationships cannot flourish under total control. Of course, evil may not exist if God chose to restrict our freedom, but this begs the question: "What is the value of choice?"
So, what does the Molinist teach about salvation? As in monergism, God is fully sovereign and controls the flow of world history. However, Molinism is still a modified form of synergism in which humans freely "work together" with God. How does this work? God applies his middle knowledge to coordinate events in our lives in which he knows exactly how we would respond to them. For this reason, he gives us a chance to repent and serve him because he already knows the outcome. In our minds, we freely choose as God lays out several options before us. He sets the controls for each of these variables. From a neuroscientific standpoint, this is precisely how we make decisions. The critical trait distinguishing the human mind from the animal mind is the ability to reasonably "predict" the future based on past experiences. However, we know our "predictions" may change with new information. When applied to God as "middle knowledge," we understand that God takes his past, present, and future experiences and uses them to foreknow, elect, and predestine individuals toward salvation.
American theologian and journalist Timothy George (b. 1950) formulated the mnemonic ROSES to define the Molinist view of soteriology:
Radical depravity
Overcoming grace
Sovereign election
Eternal life
Singular redemption
Thus, humans are not totally depraved but retain something from God's image even after the fall (1 Cor. 11:7; James 3:9; cf. Gen. 1:26–28). We are not as evil as possible, but more accurately, we confuse good for evil and vice-versa, making our depravity radical rather than total (Isa. 5:20; 2 Tim. 3:5). Likewise, Jews distinguish between our inclination toward good (Hebrew: yetzer ha-tov; H2895, H3336) and our inclination toward evil (Hebrew: yetzer ha-ra; H7451). If our depravity were "total," we would also have total anarchy. God then overcomes our rebellion through his persistence and grace, which makes it overwhelming and deliberate. His election remains his choice alone, but in keeping with the synergist view, God desires the salvation of all people. Yet, one may exhaust all options and freely lose them (Heb. 9:27–28; Rev. 6:14–16). In his sovereignty, God chooses us, not that we choose him. He preserves our new life in Jesus with steadfast faith in him based on a result that God already knows. Finally, the Molinist believes Jesus redeemed everyone sufficiently, but only efficiently for those who freely walk in God's plan. Given that he only presents two options—heaven or hell—our free will can never be truly free. It is either grace or judgment that keeps us in check.
Messianic Jewish View of God's Will
One of the primary goals of First Century Christian Faith is to explore New Testament biblical theology instead of rehashing the views of systematic theology. In other words, to find scriptural answers rather than ones based on culture, history, or mere speculation. In addition to the New Testament, the tools we must know about first-century faith are the Didachē and Messianic Judaism. Because God chose the Jews to be his inheritance, they prioritized the doctrines of election and sovereignty. Even in Paul's letters, the Christian Gentiles are "branches" that God grafted into Israel's tree, which symbolizes election (Rom. 11). Likewise, Jesus tells us, "You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you" (John 15:16). A first-century Judaic liturgical document known as the Didachē outlines the "two ways, one of life and one of death" (Did. 1, Richardson, p. 171) based on God's counsel for the ancient Israelites to "choose life" before they entered the Promised Land (Deut. 28). We must realize, however, that even this counsel includes the ability of the Israelites to choose life or death freely. God ordains his plan and the path for us to follow, but we may decide to leave both to our detriment. American theologian Asher Intrater (b. 1952), a Messianic Jew living in Israel, presents TF3:
Total sovereignty
Faithfulness to the forefathers
Firstborn nation of Israel
First-century apostolic church
The difference between the Gentile mnemonics TULIP, FACTS, and ROSES and the Messianic TF3 is that it prioritizes relationship over the concept. Simply put, Jews mainly describe God's will by their experiences of it, whereas Gentiles typically indulge in speculation. God is sovereign because only he has the unlimited freedom to choose. Yes, he does limit this freedom through covenants and the incarnation of Jesus, but he does so freely. God is the potter, and we are clay in his strong hands (Isa. 29:16, 45:9, 64:8; Jer. 18:6, 11; Lam 4:2; Sir. 33:13 CEB; Rom. 9:21). He elected the Jewish people to be his chosen nation by which to draw all the others in worshiping the one true God (Rom. 9:14–23). We are the beneficiaries of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who are the forefathers of Israel (e.g., Luke 20:37). As long as we acknowledge Jesus, who is the Messiah, we are honorary citizens of Israel—the firstborn nation of the world because God first cut his covenant with them (Exod. 4:22). Any government that seeks to do God's will must consult with the Jewish people (Zech. 8:23). Nevertheless, the first-century church began as a Jewish movement, carrying out Israel's national election to the ends of the earth.
Conclusion
God's will is sovereign, yet he has given us the responsibility to make real choices. Scripture consistently affirms both God's control over history and human accountability. While people may struggle to understand how these truths work together, the Bible clarifies that God's plans will be accomplished and that individuals are called to respond to him in faith and obedience. Rather than seeing these ideas as opposing, we should trust that God's wisdom is greater than ours and live according to his revealed truth.
Molinism offers a helpful framework for understanding the relationship between God's sovereignty and human free will. It suggests that God's omniscience includes knowledge of what will happen and all possible outcomes based on human choices. This view allows for human freedom while affirming that God sovereignly works through those choices to bring about his will. In the Messianic Jewish view, the coming of Jesus as the promised Messiah fulfills God's sovereign plan of salvation while respecting our free will to accept or reject Christ. This perspective highlights the harmony between divine foreknowledge and human responsibility.
Prayer
Blessed are you, LORD our God, King of the universe; whose will it is to restore all things in your well-beloved Son, the King of kings and Lord of lords: Mercifully grant that the peoples of the earth, divided and enslaved by sin, may be freed and brought together under his most gracious rule; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
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