Is God sovereign, or do we have a free will?

That God is sovereign and that man, though fallen, is a responsible creature, are two facts that stand out clearly in the Scriptures. It is when we study these two facts in their implications that we run into intellectual difficulties. It is easy to lay such stress on the one as almost completely to ignore the other. The two extremes are known as Hyper-Calvinism and Arminianism.

Hyper-Calvinism is that system of religious thought that sees little else in Scripture than God's sovereignty in election. The responsibility of man is so little thought of, if not denied, that he is reduced to a mere puppet. He is a plaything in the hand of fate. If he is elect, he must be saved, come what may; if he is not, he must be damned, and there's an end of it.

Arminianism, on the contrary, sees little else than the fact of man's responsibility, often to the total exclusion of God's sovereign and gracious work by His Spirit in the souls of men. Man is a free and unfettered being in the exercise of his own will: hence anything is lawful that will persuade him to exert the force of his will in the right direction.

Let us by the grace of God maintain firmly both these great facts — God is sovereign in His gracious actings: man, though fallen, is a responsible creature and addressed as such. The truth of Divine sovereignty is plainly stated in Scripture. Read such passages as John 6:37-44; Romans 9:10-24; Ephesians 1:4; 1 Peter 1:2. Equally plain is man's responsibility. Read such passages as John 3:16-18; Romans 2:6-16; 1 Peter 4:5-6. Let us then accept both, even if as yet we do not see far enough to discern exactly how they fit in with each other.

Many there are — intelligent people, too — who, when the gospel of the grace of God is pressed upon their acceptance, are ready to reply, "I cannot believe unless God gives me power to do so; nor shall I ever be endowed with that power unless I am one of the elect. If I belong to the favoured number I must be saved — if not I can't."

This is a thoroughly one-sided theology; and not only so, but its one side is turned the wrong way; yea, it is so turned as to wear the form of an absurd but most dangerous fatalism, which completely destroys man's responsibility, and casts dishonour upon God's moral administration.

In truth, human responsibility is as distinctly taught in the word of God as is divine sovereignty. Man finds it impossible to frame a system of divinity which will give each truth its proper place; but he is not called upon to frame systems, but to believe a plain record, and be saved thereby.

All who are lost will have to thank self; all who are saved will have to thank God. It is when the impenitent soul has passed through the narrow archway of time into the boundless ocean of eternity, that it will enter into the full depth and power of those solemn words, "I would, but ye would not."

Man's will, if he is left to himself never turns toward God. The fall has given it a permanent twist away from Him. This is definitely stated in Romans 3:10-12. It is stated first of all that "there is NONE righteous;" that is, none "right with God." ... there is "NONE that understands." ... "there is NONE that seeks after God."

This word, "NONE," thrice repeated, closes every avenue of deliverance if man is just left to himself. God must intervene. In other words, God must exercise His sovereign action on a man's behalf.

If Christ has come to save that which is lost, free-will has no longer any place. Not that God hinders man from receiving Christ — far from it. But even when God employs all possible motives, everything which is capable of influencing the heart of man, it only serves to demonstrate that man will have none of it, that his heart is so corrupted and his will so decided not to submit to God ... that nothing can induce him to receive the Lord and to abandon sin.

If, by liberty of man, it is meant that no one obliges him to reject the Lord, this liberty exists fully. But if it is meant that, because of the dominion of sin to which he is a slave, and willingly a slave, he cannot escape from his state and choose good (while acknowledging that it is good, and approving it), then he has no liberty whatever.

I admit therefore liberty of will as far as freedom from compulsion — I am free to will; my will is never free — will is a determined purpose. But to say that an inclined will is not formed by what inclines it, is false upon the face of it. If nothing acts upon it to incline it there is no will at all — there is indifference, i.e., no will.

That God elects to judgment is an idea reached as the fruit of human reasonings upon this matter, which so completely transcends our reason; it is never so stated in Scripture. The Scriptural presentation of the case is that all are totally ruined with no point of recovery in themselves, and that God chooses to have mercy on some and, consequently, in them to work with life-giving power.

"Vessels of wrath fitted to destruction" — it does not say God had fitted them, they had fitted themselves by their sin and rebellion; there were also "the vessels of mercy, which He had afore prepared to glory." Here Scripture does present God as the originator and worker. The vessels of mercy were such by His work.

Vessels of wrath have fitted themselves for wrath, while vessels of mercy will forever be indebted to Him for preparing them for glory, in spite of the fact that this epistle elsewhere says, Rom. 3:22-23, "For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God."

Finally, it may be held as certain that those who are saved are saved by grace, through the electing love of God, and that those who, in the very precincts where that grace is operating are lost, are lost by their own fault.

Let us observe, whilst we believe both statements, namely, of divine sovereignty and human responsibility, we are not pretending in a logical way to reconcile them. Perhaps it is never intended as finite beings that we should in this world ... let us yield unhesitating obedience to, and have unshaken confidence in, the word of the living God — believe what we find there, and leave to our blessed Lord to explain to us the apparent discrepancies therein.