Predestination or Man’s Free Will?

If you’re a Christian, you’ve heard of predestination. Divine election and predestination are doctrines taught in the Bible, yet most believers avoid these topics like last week’s leftover fish. It is commonly believed that these subjects are better left to theologians with too much time on their hands. The mere mention of election and predestination strikes fear in the hearts of some, anger in others. But what is predestination? How does free will fit in? Few doctrines spark as much controversy or provoke as much consternation as the doctrine of predestination. It is a difficult doctrine that demands to be handled with great care and caution. Yet it is a biblical doctrine and therefore demands to be handled.

That unfair! Narrow-minded! (The way is narrow).

The Bible teaches that all people are born totally depraved. This does not mean that everyone is as bad as they possibly can be, but that all of us have been corrupted by sin in every facet of our being. This means that people are not basically good, but inherently sinful. Man is sinful. He does not become a sinner by sinning. He sins because he is a sinner. He is depraved, which means that sin has corrupted all that he is: mind, soul, spirit, emotions, and body. Man is so engulfed in sin, so thoroughly touched by it, that there is nothing in him that merits or enables salvation. He, therefore, is born into a state of condemnation: "...and [we] were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest" (Eph. 2:3). The unsaved person, according to the Bible, is "dead in trespasses and sins" (Eph. 2:1), "hostile toward God" (Romans 8:7), and "indulging in the lusts of the flesh and of the mind" (Eph. 2:3). Jeremiah said that "the heart is more deceitful than all else and desperately sick; who can understand it?" (Jeremiah 17:9). Jesus said that our heart is the root of our sin and full of evil (Mark 7:20-23). Paul elaborates further on the condition of the unsaved in Romans: "There is none righteous, not even one; there is none who understands, there is none who seeks for God; all have turned aside, together they have become useless..their throat is an open grave...there is no fear of God before their eyes" (Romans 3:10-18). He says that the unsaved person is at war with God and not even able to submit to God: "the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so" (Romans 8:7).

So, let us ask ourselves: Does fallen man, in himself, have a desire for Christ? Does one who does not seek God (Rom. 3:11), who is at war with God (Rom. 8:7), who is unable to subject himself to God (Romans 8:7), who is full of evil (Mark 7:20-23), who is not just mortally ill but dead in sins (Eph. 2:1), who loves sin (Eph. 2:2-3), who is a slave of sin (Rom. 6:20) and who cannot understand spiritual things (1 Cor. 2:14) have any desire at all for Christ?

Many believe that man, by his free will, by something that resides in him, is completely able to independently accept or reject God. But this belief is not supported in scripture. As I stated above, man's will by nature is sinful. What then will a sinful free will choose? It will choose sin. His free will, then, would never allow Him to reach out to God. But we must ask, "What is free will?". Generally it is accepted to mean the freedom to choose according to one's desires. This seems true. But someone is only as free as his nature is free. His will is limited to that which is within his nature. The unregenerate can only choose what his nature allows him to choose. Since he is full of sin, not goodness, his choices can only be sinful.
In other words, a person can choose to do only that which his nature allows him to do. He cannot simply will to suddenly vanish into thin air or fly like Superman because he is incapable of such feats; his nature limits him. So too with the nature of fallen man. He is severely limited by what he can and cannot do.

How then can the good desire to want God come out of the unsaved's evil heart? It cannot! How is he able, in his sinful free will, to desire God when his inclinations are always to reject Him? He cannot. How can he, with his blind and sinful will that is deadened, hardened, and enslaved by sin (Rom. 6:20) ever choose God? He cannot! It is impossible. That's why Jesus said, "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible" (Matthew 19:26, NIV).

Since total depravity is true of everyone before they are saved, how does anyone ever come to believe? In other words, what must happen before a person will believe? Clearly, there must first be a spiritual transformation of our hearts that causes us to love the light and desire the light instead of hate the light (John 3:20, 21). In other words, God must regenerate us (i.e., make us born again). You do not become born again by believing in Christ; you must first be born again in order to believe. Regeneration precedes faith. When God regenerates us, He re-creates our hearts and gives us a desire for Christ that we otherwise would not have. Then, out of the desire for Christ in our new hearts, we come to Him and believe in Him.

It should be clear by now that election must be unconditional because sinful man is unable to meet any conditions; he cannot even come to faith unless God causes him to. If God left the matter of salvation ultimately up to sinful mankind, no one would ever be saved because no one has a desire for God until God first chooses to regenerate them. Total depravity shows that we would all use our free wills to reject God. This is exactly what Jesus taught: "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him" (John 6:44).

• Acts 13:48: And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord; AND AS MANY AS HAD BEEN APPOINTED TO ETERNAL LIFE BELIEVED.
• John 1:12-13: But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, WHO WERE BORN NOT OF BLOOD, NOR OF THE WILL OF THE FLESH, NOR OF THE WILL OF MAN, BUT OF GOD.
• Philippians 1:29: FOR TO YOU IT HAS BEEN GRANTED FOR CHRIST'S SAKE, NOT ONLY TO BELIEVE IN HIM, but also to suffer for his sake.
• Romans 8:29-30: FOR WHOM HE FOREKNEW, HE ALSO PREDESTINED to become conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the first-born among many brethren; and whom He predestined, these He also called; and whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.
• Ephesians 1:5: HE PREDESTINED US to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will.
• Ephesians 1:11 Also WE HAVE OBTAINED AN INHERITANCE, HAVING BEEN PREDESTINED ACCORDING TO HIS PURPOSE who works all things after the counsel of His will.

How can it be any other way than God's loving predestination to make our salvation not only possible, but also a reality? Left to man, salvation is impossible: "When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, ‘Who then can be saved?' Jesus looked at them and said, ‘With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible'" (Matthew 19:25-26). That is why it must be God who opens the heart: "And a certain woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple fabrics, a worshiper of God, was listening; and the Lord opened her heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul" (Acts 16:14). This is what truly glorifies God, that in His infinite mercy He is gracious enough to save those who would always reject Him, always hate Him, and always malign Him.