God's Sovereignty Thoughts about God's plan, His purpose for humanity, and the nature of man. By Benjamin Stegman

Thoughts...(As influenced by my reading of "By Divine Design", by Michael Pearl) All Scripture quotations are from the King James Bible.

The Bible says that God made man in His own image.(Genesis 1:26) I don't for a moment think this is confined to mere physical features, but also speaks of the metaphysical... the core foundation of our nature. Based upon the information in Scripture, I think that it is fair to say that God essentially wanted a family... or, more biblically, beings with which He could fellowship and interact, indeed, eventually rule with (II Timothy 2:12). These facts required these "beings" to be in all aspects compatible with His divine nature. Now obviously these beings would not have the exact same attributes, in terms of degree - if a being is by nature absolute, it is nonsense to assume that there could be any other more absolute than the first; absoluteness is defined by exclusivity. Therefore when God desired to make beings like unto Himself, these beings required several "features", though not as full in measure as His own "features". If we are to term God as the Person, and we as persons based upon His features, it seems advantageous to make some definition of what a person is. What makes up God’s person? He is revealed to us as a triune, singular being: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Let me make a few comparisons, using our observed features and God's. (A point that must be made first is that God is eternal, essentially He has always been that way He is, but this is only because He is not confined to time- Humans are obviously limited to time, thus we must develop to fullness the attributes God has given to every human. The key is development, in the same way God is never ending and never beginning; He is fully developed yet developing. He can never be less than Holy, yet He is continually more Holy- or, He will never be superceded in Holiness, thus His Holiness is as eternal as His character. This is difficult to understand I know, but this difficulty is to be expected when the finite attempt to explain the infinite). Thus while God is omniscient- He knows all; man is able to obtain wisdom, understanding, and knowledge. God is omnipotent- He is able to do anything (the Bible says that "The LORD by wisdom hath founded the earth; by understanding hath he established the heavens."); man is able to use his inherent creativity to solve almost any earthly problem. God is omnipresent- able to be anywhere; this is reflected in our own soul, man is able to move about in 3 dimensional spaces at the same time using his mind and imagination to think about many different places, things, people, and ideas at the same time. I could go on, but the point I'm trying to make is hopefully becoming clear: Man is a reflection, however dim, of God. Now, to carry this further: we are a "living soul" (called a "living soul", or spirit soul, in Genesis 2:7) that lives in a body of flesh (for we have this treasure in earthen vessels). It seems to me that the three essential aspects of our makeup reflect the makeup of the Godhead. As I inferred earlier, our soul is a reflection of God the Father, our spirit, a reflection of the Holy Spirit, our body, a reflection of Jesus. Notice that Jesus is the only part of God we've ever seen, so also our body is the only part of us that’s ever seen. Now, as I argued earlier, and should be obvious, man was not created with the completion or fullness of these reflections. Essentially, the form was present at creation, while the function needed to be developed. To be more concise, in order to have complete fellowship with God, we must have character comparable (to a degree) to God. Now we may ask, "What is character?" Well, think about how honesty is formed in an individual... take for instance a teller in a bank, daily he handles vast sums of currency, and providing he always is honest, as time goes on he becomes more and more likely to continue to be honest. He is forming honesty by choosing to be honest. Since honesty is a small part of good character, we can make the induction that it works exactly the same way with character in general. Thus when you think about it, since character, as honesty, is inextricably tied to history and time, character could not be created, it must be developed. For character to be created, time and choices must also be "created", which is essentially a lie. Since God does not lie (See Romans 3: 4-7. The argument goes like this: The absolute judge of the universe must alone be absolutely just and good. God is the judge of the universe. Therefore; God is alone absolutely just and good.) , He could not have created character. Now obviously character can never be neutral (i.e. no one can be neither good nor evil- one will either have good character or bad character- either one will make choices for good, or choices for evil; there is no middle ground), the point though is the presence of a choice. Until an individual can make a choice, he essentially can have no character. Consider the following: if God is the basis of all that is; He is the Logic behind all logic, the Reason behind all reason, the Fact at the base of all facts. Good and evil are defined by His Goodness and Holiness. God is the very definition of good character, and this is only true because He has eternally limited Himself to that which is good- this doesn't mean that there is a standard of good and evil outside of God- it simply means that God has chosen to limit Himself to His own nature- to be consistent with His own character- formed yet forming, complete, yet always becoming more complete in eternal space void of time. (like I said- hard to understand- there are some things about timelessness that beings limited to time simply cannot conceive of- if you're confused, don't worry, I find these confusing things about God comforting- it is one of the countless reasons why He is God and I am not!). His choice is unlimited (indeed, He is sovereign over all!), but He chooses and has always chosen, in His infinite wisdom, to limit Himself to that which is consistent with His nature. Thus, in order to become like unto God, man must be given the opportunity to develop character in the same way God did, and does. In other words, man must be given the opportunity to make choices like God does. When it comes right down to it, God, as the Person, has defined personhood as the ability to make choices. Based upon this, essential to the state of "personhood" is an individual’s right to self determination. To get to my conclusion, I have stated that God created us as persons reflecting the nature of the Person, and based upon His definition of a person we must have free will.   Whew. Now what does this all mean? It means that all that makes up reality has a purpose. Since we must have the right to self determination (i.e. we are not born with a "bias", we cannot be, any more than God is- He is purely good by eternal choice.) we were created, and are born, neither good nor evil (hey hey hey now... don't leave me just yet ;^) hear me out.). Good cannot be defined without evil, in the same way that white is defined by black and positive is defined by negative (by the Law is the knowledge of Sin- Romans 3:20). Therefore if God had created man without anything surrounding to define him, the objective of character like unto God would not ever have been met. Thus it seems God provided three "hindrances" to the development of good character: the world (I John 2:15-17) , the flesh (it is interesting to note that God found it necessary to come to earth and be found in human flesh in order to withstand all temptations- Heb. 2:18. Also see I Cor. 15:38-54), and the devil (Eph 6:12). Although these things are obviously contrary to good choices, they provided the necessary struggles on which positive character is built. In the same way muscle is built through the use of weights- resistance to evil creates resilience. The earth, while not inherently evil, provides the material for the satisfaction of any lust. More succinctly, the world is the medium of the flesh. As I've heard said, when God linked the human soul to a body of flesh it was rather like confining the wind to a hollow tree- the substance of soul and flesh are contrary in nature. In the same sense as the world, the flesh was not created inherently evil- inanimate objects can have no moral quality. The flesh could be compared to a fungus, mindlessly willing to eat, reproduce, and live ("who's God is their belly..." as the Bible says of fleshly man). The devil played (and plays) a key role in the development of character- as the master deceiver and the father of lies, he spent his time dreaming up new and more deceitful ways to trick us into selfish indulgence. Anyway, the point is that God placed man in an environment perfectly suited to His plan... In a real sense, man had it pretty easy at first- he had all of his needs provided: The garden was at his disposal, he had all the animals around him for entertainment and pleasure- and only one choice to make. Obey God and refrain from eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and of evil, or disobey God and eat of the tree. Had Adam obeyed, every temptation would have been met with a choice to obey God- Godly character would have developed, when Adam and Eve had children, the children would have learned from the tradition of choices for the good, and thus the human race would have continued on with Adam as its king. But Adam didn't obey. And thus he started the human race on a tradition of choices for evil that continues to this day. Does this mean the plan failed? Did God make some horrible mistake? A thousand times no! God is still in control, and He has provided a way for victory over the flesh. History has been a step by step account of God's love, mercy, and forbearance. When we sinned- and our race broke fellowship with the Spirit of God (God cannot stand evil), and the human race was condemned to death because we could not maintain the standard of righteousness... But God made a way! He nailed our sin to the cross with His own Son. He made it possible to be what Adam was intended to be, not through any act of ours, but through the death of His own Son. When we believe the Gospel and repent, God no longer sees our sin, but Christ's righteousness and character. Salvation has always been by faith in Jesus Christ friends, God did not abandon us when we chose to turn our backs on Him- do you understand this? He made a way! The point of all this is that I think that the power of choice, or free will, is central to God’s plan. To contradict a very ubiquitous doctrine, I do not believe men are sinful by nature, they are sinful by application. This is the only reason why Romans 1:18 can say that God's wrath is visited upon those who hold the truth in unrighteousness. God does not condemn those who sin in ignorance (i.e. those who are unable to make conscious choices for good or for evil. Examples would include a baby or a mentally handicapped individual), but those who violate the standard of righteousness that is present in every human (Romans 1 and 2).   Heh, thus to make an end of this dissertation, yes, I believe in free will. Now what does this say about the concept of predestination? Not for a minute do I think that God is taken by surprise when I make the decision to follow Him. But He could not have predetermined that I would make that decision without violating His own character (since to eliminate my choice would eliminate my personhood, thus making Him out to be a liar- as I said before, character cannot be created; only developed). Thus, while God has known forever that I would make the choice to follow Him; His foreknowledge could not have had any effect on my ability to choose to follow Him. Yes He engineered circumstances to place the decision before me, yes His Holy Spirit wooed and called me (John 6:44, etc.), but He could not have forced my hand- though His guidance has been on my life since before I was born... so it is with every believer. (Again, I don't think some things will be understood completely in this life.) In a sense, it’s the same as His sending His Son to the Jews to proclaim the Kingdom of heaven even though He knew that they would reject Him- obviously God did not make the Jews reject Jesus, but He knew all along that that was what was going to happen. How does this work? I do not know, as I said earlier, there are some things that those who are limited to time are incapable of conceiving. But one thing I do know, the Bible never says anything about my being predestinated to choose to become a Christian, the only thing it says I'm predestinated for as a Christian is to be "conformed to the image of His Son" (Romans 8:29; Ephesians 1:5,11) and to "do good works" (Ephesians 2:10).   Now, in practice, does all this differ from what is popularly taught concerning free will, predestination, sin nature, etc? I don't think so. Is man sinful and in need of a Saviour? Absolutely. Can humans attain God’s standard of righteousness on their own? Never... all have sinned, all our righteousness is as filthy rags. Is salvation by faith in Christ alone? Without question it always has been. Is God Sovereign and in control of everything? Beyond a shadow of a doubt, He is God. Why then pick on the details? Because we are called to be Bereans, to embrace truth, and to be always ready to give an answer for the hope that lies within us. The world is watching very closely to see what we're made of... we must be logical and consistent if we ever hope to mount a decent apologetic. On top of this, it is my belief that the concepts of absolute predestination and sinful nature robs God of His glory, for what magnificence is there in a God who must weight the dice and rig the race? God is so Sovereign, that even with my free will and choices, His will shall be done. I am in awe.   God is so good to us- He is above all and before all, He is Sovereign and absolutely Holy, yet the Almighty One has come down to us. Emmanuel, let us worship the Lord forever.

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