Tag: Free Will

Does Romans 9 Prove Calvinism?

Romans 9:11-24 is one of the most debated passages in Scripture, often pitting Calvinism’s emphasis on God’s sovereignty and predestination against Arminianism’s focus on free will and human responsibility. Yet, neither system fully reconciles the tension between divine providence and human freedom. A Molinist perspective offers a middle way, affirming both God’s exhaustive foreknowledge and His desire for a genuine relationship with free moral agents.

Verse-by-Verse Exploration

Romans 9:11-13

Paul cites Jacob and Esau to demonstrate God’s sovereign election. Before the twins were born, God chose Jacob over Esau “so that God’s purpose in election would stand.” A Calvinist may argue this supports unconditional election, where God’s choice is entirely independent of human actions. However, a Molinist would point out that God’s foreknowledge of all possible worlds (including the one where Jacob’s lineage fulfilled His redemptive plan) allows for this choice without overriding Esau’s freedom. God chose the line of Jacob because, in His omniscience, He knew Jacob’s descendants would cooperate with His purposes.

Romans 9:14-16

Paul anticipates the objection: Is God unjust? His answer: “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy.” Calvinists see this as God unilaterally bestowing mercy. However, Molinism emphasizes God’s mercy is perfectly compatible with free will. God’s choice to show mercy or harden hearts (like Pharaoh’s) is based on His exhaustive foreknowledge of how individuals will freely respond to His grace. Mercy is not arbitrary but aligned with His plan to bring about redemption while respecting free will.

Romans 9:17-18

Pharaoh’s hardening raises another question. Calvinists often assert that God actively hardened Pharaoh’s heart to display His power. Molinists, however, interpret this as God actualizing a world where Pharaoh freely chose to resist Him, knowing that Pharaoh’s rebellion would ultimately magnify His glory. This aligns with the broader biblical narrative, where God desires repentance but allows individuals to reject Him (e.g., Ezekiel 33:11).

Romans 9:19-21

The analogy of the potter and clay underscores God’s authority over creation. Calvinists see this as evidence that humans have no say in their destiny. Arminians might soften it, emphasizing human responsibility. Molinists affirm God’s sovereignty but highlight that He creates vessels of honor or dishonor based on His foreknowledge of their free choices. God’s shaping of individuals respects their agency while fulfilling His providential plan.

Romans 9:22-24

Here, Paul speaks of God’s patience with objects of wrath to make His glory known to objects of mercy. Molinism sees this as God allowing free agents to persist in rebellion, using even their defiance to serve His purposes. God’s foreknowledge ensures His glory is revealed without coercion.

Reading Romans 10 in Context

Romans 10 expands on the universal availability of salvation: “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Romans 10:13). This inclusivity challenges Calvinism’s limited atonement. It also highlights human responsibility, countering the idea that salvation is purely God’s unilateral action. Molinism bridges these chapters by showing that God’s sovereign plan incorporates human freedom. God foreknew who would call on Him and actualized a world where His grace is universally sufficient, but salvation depends on individual response.

Is God Less Glorious in Molinism?

Some might argue that acknowledging human freedom diminishes God’s glory. On the contrary, Molinism magnifies God’s glory by showcasing His ability to orchestrate a world where His purposes are achieved without violating free will. A God who can sovereignly guide free agents toward His ends is more glorious than one who relies on deterministic control.

The Call to Abraham-Like Faith

Paul’s argument in Romans 9-10 ultimately points us back to faith, as exemplified by Abraham. Faith is the humble acknowledgment that salvation is God’s work, and our response is to trust Him. God’s plan is perfect, not because He compels us, but because He foreknew how we would respond and crafted a plan where all things work together for good (Romans 8:28).

Final Reflection

Are we willing to trust God’s sovereignty and submit our lives to His will, knowing He has accounted for every choice we will make? Romans 9-10 calls us to marvel at a God whose grace is both sovereign and accessible. His invitation is open: Will you freely choose to call on His name?

My Will Be Done, or Thy Will Be Done?

In John 12:37-50, we find Jesus quoting Isaiah 6:10, a passage where God says He will “blind their eyes and harden their hearts” so that they will not understand or turn to Him. On first glance, it sounds as though God is actively working to prevent people from believing. But as we dig deeper, a richer perspective emerges—one where human freedom and God’s sovereign plan are in a perfect, if mysterious, harmony.

I firmly believe all things happen under God’s design, but this doesn’t mean God coerces every choice or action. Instead, God knows every possible outcome—all the ways a free creature might respond in any given circumstance. He orchestrates the world in such a way that His purposes are fulfilled, but human choices are genuinely free. This view helps us understand Jesus’ reference to Isaiah. The passage wasn’t about God “forcing” people to resist belief. Rather, it was about His awareness of their hearts and how His message would be received given their predispositions.

See, in Isaiah, the people’s blindness wasn’t manufactured by God; it was the result of a longstanding resistance to His message. By the time Jesus was teaching, the religious leaders and many others had spent years ignoring God’s call to genuine worship and repentance. Jesus’ use of Isaiah’s words acknowledges that these people would continue to resist, not because God forced them to but because they chose to close their hearts. God’s sovereignty allowed Him to use even their resistance to further His plans.

We might think of it like this: God’s will is broad enough to encompass both the willing and the unwilling, the faithful and the resistant. When someone continually resists, God may allow them to experience the consequences of their choice, but that choice is theirs. It is this deep respect for freedom that underscores the entire message of Jesus in the Gospels. He offers salvation, but He doesn’t coerce it.

Jesus’ example shows us how divine sovereignty and human freedom work together. Every time we choose to follow Him, we participate in God’s grand design, bringing His purposes to fruition in the world. The key difference lies in whose will we are choosing to follow. Will it be our will, with all its limitations and potential missteps, or will it be His will, which is perfect and ultimately fulfilling?

The question, “My will be done, or Thy will be done?” is one we face every day. Like those who encountered Jesus, we each have the choice to turn toward God and align with His purposes, allowing Him to work through us. Though we’re free to choose otherwise, God’s invitation remains open—a gracious reminder that His will is always toward life, restoration, and purpose.

God is a Gentleman

I grew up Catholic, which meant that God was far away and most waiting with a big stick to whack me if I stepped out of line. Eventually I became an agnostic and that lasted into my teen years. Then I got saved in a Pentecostal church when I was about 15.

During these formative years of my faith I was taught that much of what God does depends on what we do. I was always told that “God is a gentlemen”, He will never force Himself of you. God sort of reacts to what we are doing and orchestrates His will accordingly. This is broadly called “Arminianism”. In this way of understanding God, much is made of human free will, but God’s sovereignty suffers rather severely.

Once I became a pastor I worked for a few churches and one of them was staunchly “Calvinist” — the opposite of Arminianism. This says that everything that happens is because God willed it to be so. On this understating of God, much is made of God’s sovereignty, but human free will suffers severely.

By the way, if this stuff makes your eyes glaze over, don’t worry about it. Both of these camps are going to be in heaven. This is absolutely NOT a salvation issue… even if both of these groups are wrong.

We see throughout Amos, Isaiah, and now Hosea that God repeatedly tells that people that once they turn back to Him, He will restore them. So clearly we need to find a way to balance the free will of the creature (God will not restore us until we repent) with God’s sovereignty (He is in control of everything). How is this done?

Well, it’s long and complicated, and takes more time to explain than I really want to invest in this particular post. But essentially I believe it works like this:

God knows how you would respond in any given set of circumstances.
God has total sovereign control over everything.
God chooses not to override our free will, but to arrange the circumstances to achieve His desired outcomes.
In this way God is sovereign over everything that happens, but we are also allowed to exercise our free will.

That to say that I think my youth pastor when I was 15 was right. And that position is backed up by the preponderance of the Biblical evidence. Essentially… God is a Gentleman.

You Are Your Own Witness

At the end of Joshua’s life, he recounts the story so far, spanning from God’s Covenant with Abraham to the arrival in Canaan. He outlines how God has been faithful and provided and delivered on His promises. And then he ends with an exhortation that I found deeply moving. In chapter 24 and verse 22 he says, “You are a witness to your own decision, you have chosen to serve the Lord”.

You are a witness to your own decision. Just think about that. Let it settle in your spirit.

God knows you inside and out, your coming and your going, He knows the deepest desires of your heart of hearts. But Joshua doesn’t point that out, instead he underscores that they know what they’ve said. And in the same way WE know what WE have said. This means that they are accountable for their choices. They understood what was at stake and we will be called to answer for how they have lived in light of that evidence.

The same is true for us. We know what we are committing to, and so if we choose to abandon that commitment we will have to reckon with the consequences for the oath we revoked. In a word that is trying everything it can — both subtly AND overtly — to cause distraction, doubt, disillusionment, and deconstruction… we MUST be on guard. We must stand witness to our decision. Joshua 24:31 paints an ominous picture:

Israel served the Lord throughout the lifetime of Joshua and of the elderswho outlived him and who had experienced everything the Lord had done for Israel.

We aren’t told that Israel continued to serve the Lord, but rather that those “who had experienced” continued to serve. Friends, there is no reason we cannot experience the work of the Lord every day of our lives. If we draw near to Him we are told explicitly that He will draw near to us. Let’s near ever nearer so that our hearts do not grow cold, so that we do not fall away, so that we do not receive due judgement for abandoning our oath, but rather that we receive our reward in Christ Jesus for a life lived for His glory. Amen.

Joshua 22-24 | 089/365

Whose Will Be Done?

“I admit the deed! — tear up the planks! — here, here! — it is the beating of his hideous heart!” The satisfying release can almost be felt as we reading the thrilling conclusion of Edgar Allan Poe’s ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’. It is the story of a man whose guilt consumes him, until he can do nothing other than admit the deed. His conscience haunted him. It is a similar condition in which we find Joseph’s brothers during today’s reading.

They are struck by the famine Joseph predicted, and so make the trek to Egypt where food has been stored for exactly this occasion. Joseph’s Brothers bring money to Egypt to purchase food as their own supplies have nearly run out. They do not recognize Joseph when they come before him to request to purchase food. Joseph questions the brothers extensively before telling them that unless they bring their youngest brother, they’ll not be allowed to purchase any additional food. So they pay for their portion and head back to Canaan.

Along the way, they find that they have not only the food they purchased, but also the money paid in their bags. A secret blessing from Joseph. But they cannot even receive the blessing, they were still, after all these years, consumed with guilt about what they had done to their brother. It is a curse! they thought, God was surely punishing them. They could never go back.

But eventually they were forced to return. Now we pull God’s careful positioning of Joseph back out of the pocket from yesterday. Because it was during this trip that Jacob revealed himself saying, “God has sent me ahead of you to keep you and your families alive and to preserve many survivors” (Gen 45:7, NLT). Does this mean that God orchestrates evil events to bring about good? Some faithful Christians would say that He does. But I would say that God, in His omniscience, knows what each of us would do in any given circumstance and that He factored in the evil free-will choices of mankind when he providentially arranged the world.

Is it good that you did a bad thing because it achieved God’s Will? No. But God’s Will cannot be defeated by the works of mankind either. His Will be done. Amen.

Genesis 42:1-45:15 | 016/365

Who’s Leading Who?

We are all the hero of our own stories. But sin is eager to counsel us — and we are eager to listen, because the counsel of sin so often aligns with our existing desires. But God knew how hard-headed our free will would make us and so he made a way out; a way not obvious to everyone; a way that strikes most — nearly all in the case of Noah — as foolishness. Let me encourage you today in the strongest possible terms to listen to (in every sense of the word) the Lord’s leading.

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