When it comes to the issue of salvation, the ‘sovereignty versus free will’ debate seems as old as time itself. Is God the only agent of salvation, or does mankind need to make a decision? Does salvation need to be ‘kept’? Can it be ‘lost’?
As frustrating as this debate has been in modern times, because the stakes of salvation are the souls of men, it nonetheless needs answering. Or at least a valiant ‘attempt’ at the problem.
The attempts of the past, as noble as they have been, have all fallen to the same problem; a significant body of Scripture which contradicts the ‘opposing’ side. In an attempt to reconcile the problem, the ‘obvious’ seems to have been overlooked; ‘what if two seemingly contradictory views were never meant to be reconciled?’
What if each view point (man’s role & God’s) is equally needed to save a soul, and similarly, to give that soul perfect peace that ‘it will be saved’? Put another way, what if God has sovereignly decided to save the soul of someone who chooses to be saved, but also that God already knows will ‘endure to the end’ in saving faith?
To see if this is a possibility, let’s examine both sides before making a decision.
First, the ‘sovereignty’ argument says that God chooses who He will save, and will save no matter what. The Bible calls this ‘predestination’ (Romans 8v29-30) and ‘election’ (Rom.9v11). Man simply goes along with the divine will, because the divine will ‘wills’ it. How will man resist the choice of God? How will he resist His will and power? (Romans 9v18-19).
Conversely, the ‘choice’ argument says that if a man simply has to submit to the divine will, how can there be genuine love, a genuine relationship, and thus a genuine salvation experience? If man’s choice doesn’t matter, are we not all just robots? And doesn’t the call of God to ‘choose this day whom we will serve?’ (Josh.24v15) become redundant?
Not to mention the call to repentance and faith. Why obey Jesus’ command and call to ‘repent and believe’ (Mark 1:15) if God will save you no matter what? Why also did any of the Apostles preach the Gospel to those that never needed to hear it? Many respond to salvation in the New Testament, which clearly shows that a human response has a part to play.
Endurance or grace?
The issue of whether we need to endure in our salvation also suffers from an absolute ‘for’ or ‘against’ position relating to the sovereignty of God versus the free will of man.
Jesus Himself said that those who ‘endure to the end will be saved’ (Matt.24:13). If man’s endurance and choice to endure in their salvation is irrelevant, then Jesus’ own exhortation, and many similar exhortations in Scripture, become redundant.
Similarly, if mankind needs to do all the enduring and God simply watches on impassively to see if we will succeed, then humans suddenly have something they can boast about before God (Rom.4v2). Suddenly we have made the doctrine of salvation by grace through faith (Eph.2v8-9) irrelevant; we have earned a part of the Salvation that only Jesus can give to us as a gift because of his work on the cross.
Intentionally irreconcilable
Ironically, many well-intentioned individuals have attempted to do what even the Apostles clearly never tried to do in the New Testament; to reconcile the issue of sovereignty and free will. Never once do we read the Apostle Paul or any other apostles explain how those issues perfectly join and intersect in our human understanding.
Instead, Paul stressed at length that only grace could save our souls (Eph.2v8-9). Then as strenuously emphasised that no one that walked contrary to the gospel would inherit the kingdom of Heaven one day (1 Cor.6v9-11).
Even Jesus himself never reconciled the issue while he walked and taught on the Earth. Never did he teach, “Here is the perfect formula’, as though salvation were a scientific experiment or a mathematic equation. Instead, he preached that men should ‘repent and believe’ (Mark 1:15), and he also warned them to ‘do’ the things he taught if they wished to be saved and have him as their Salvific Lord (Luke 6:46 & Matt.7:21).
The answer lies in the example
While these truths may seem to contradict, the reality is quite the opposite. Like an apple tree is an apple tree before it sprouts apples (as a seed or young sapling) as much as after it sprouts them (as a mature tree), so is a Christian truly a Christian before he bears spiritual fruit as much as after he does so.
Put another way; the fruit of a tree confirms what it already is, an ‘apple tree’, but it does not ‘make it’ it one. After all, how can the apple ‘boast’ against the tree it came from as though it made itself? Wouldn’t the tree respond; “Yes, you are what you are because I made you!”
Likewise, a truly saved Christian’s life, because of its very nature, will ‘evidence’ that they are truly saved because of what they already are; ‘saved’ and transformed by Jesus Christ. While at the same time acknowledging that only because of Jesus’ saving work could they produce that evidence.
Ironically, instead of the intellect, it is nature which has solved this age-old debate. And a tree, just like the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, that Adam and Eve once ate from even though they didn’t need to and were warned against it. Importantly, their example shows us that instead of ‘reasoning’ our way out of this conundrum, by deciding what we think is best for us (like Adam and Eve did), our salvation lies in simply accepting that God is sovereign but that He alsoasks us to do what we have already been transformed to do; bear the fruits of the tree of life (salvation) that are already within us by His grace.
Tim is currently a youth pastor in California. He loves God and has a heart to see people know Jesus and His will for their lives, and the time they’re living in.
Tim Price’s previous articles may be viewed at http://www.pressserviceinternational.org/tim-price.html
