The Freedom Of The Will
It is inherent in the nature of man that his will must be free. Made in the image of God
who is completely free, man must enjoy a measure of freedom. This enables him to
select his companions for this world and the next; it enables him to yield his soul to
whom he will, to give allegiance to God or the devil, to remain a sinner or become a
saint.
And God respects this freedom. God once saw everything that He had made, and
behold, it was very good. To find fault with the smallest thing God has made is to find
fault with it's maker. It is a false humility that would lament that God wrought but
imperfectly when He made man in His own image. Sin excepted, there is nothing in
human nature to apologize for. This was confirmed forever when the Eternal Son
became permanently incarnated in human flesh.
So highly does God regard His handiwork that He will not for any reason violate it.
For God to over ride man's freedom and force him to act contrary to his own will
would be to make a mockery of the image of God in man. This God will never do.
Our Lord Jesus looked after the rich young ruler as he walked away, but He did not
follow him or attempt to coerce him. The dignity of the young man's humanity forbade
that his choices should be made for him by another. To remain a man he must make his
own moral choices; and Christ knew this and permitted him to go his own chosen way.
If his human choice took him at last to hell, at least he went there a man; and it is better
for the moral universe that he should do so than that he should be jockeyed to a
heaven he did not choose, a soulless, will-less automaton.
God will take nine steps towards us, but He will not take the tenth. He will incline us
to repent, but He cannot do our repenting for us. It is of the essence of repentance that
it can only be done by the one who committed the act to be repented of. God can wait
on the sinning man; He can with-hold judgement; He can exercise long-suffering to the
point where He appears "lax" in His judicial administration; but He cannot force a man
to repent. To do this would be to violate the man's freedom and void the gift God
originally bestowed upon him.
Where there is no freedom of choice there can be neither sin nor righteousness,
because it is of the nature of both that they are voluntary. However good an act may
be, it is not good if it is imposed from without. The act of imposition destroys the moral
content of the act and renders it null and void.
For an act to be sinful the quality of voluntariness must also be present. Sin is the
voluntary commission of an act known to be contrary to the will of God. Where there
is
no moral knowledge or where there is no voluntary choice, the act is not sinful; it
cannot be, for sin is the transgression of the law and transgression must be voluntary.
Lucifer became satan when he made his fateful choice: "I will ascend above the heights
of the clouds; I will be like the most High." Clearly there was a choice made against
light. Both knowledge and will were present in the act. Conversely, Christ revealed His
holiness when He cried in His agony, "Not My will, but Thine be done." Here was a
deliberate choice made with the full knowledge of the consequences. Here two wills
were in temporary conflict, the lower will of the Man who was God and the higher will
of the God who was Man, and the higher will prevailed. Here also was seen in glaring
contrast the enormous difference between Christ and satan; and that difference divides
saint from sinner and heaven from hell.
But someone may ask, "When we pray 'Not my will, but Thine be done,' are we not
voiding our will and refusing to exercise the very power of choice which is part of the
image of God in us?" The answer to that question is flat No, but the whole thing
deserves further explanation.
No act that is done voluntarily is an abrogation of the freedom of will. If man chooses
the will of God he is not denying but exercising his right of choice. What he is doing is
admitting that he is not good enough to desire the highest choice nor is he wise enough
to make it, and he is for that reason asking Another who is both wise and good to
make his choice for him. And for fallen man this is the ultimate use he should make of
his freedom of will.
Tennyson saw this and wrote to Christ,
Thow seemest human and divine,
The highest, holiest manhood, Thou;
Our wills are ours, we know not how;
Our wills are ours, we make them Thine.
There is a lot of sound doctrine in these words - "Our wills are ours, to make them
Thine." The secret of saintliness is not the destruction of the will but the submergence of
it in the will of God.
The true saint is one who acknowledges that he possesses from God the gift of
freedom. He knows that he will never be cudgeled into obedience nor wheedled like a
petulant child into doing the will of God; he knows that these methods are unworthy
both of God and of his own soul. He knows he is free to make any choice he will, and
with that knowledge he chooses forever the blessed will of God.
A.W. Tozer
from That Incredible Christian |
