Lesson 7: Now - Who Is Really In Charge? (1)

This lesson covers one of the more troubling subjects in Christianity today. On the one side are those who believe in the sovereignty of God, and are sometimes accused of holding this position to the absence of human will. On the other side are those who believe in human will, and are sometimes accused of holding this position to the lessening of the sovereignty of God. The first position accuses the second of believing in salvation by works, and the second accuses the first of believing that man has no choice in anything. I submit the truth lies in the road between these two positions and each have some part of real truth.

Why is this subject important? Why do we address it in this study? Very simply, the reason is pride. We as humans take pride in many things, but salvation and God's work of grace must be excluded from this habit. We must dig deeper into the Word and see what the Bible says about this subject of freedom or choice versus sovereignty.

First, we must define some words. What are the definitions of will, freedom, and sovereignty? How do we define will? Is not this usually defined as the ability to choose for myself? How do we define freedom? Do we not usually say it is the ability to go and act as I please? How do we define sovereignty? Is it not the idea of a slave master?


Our definitions, however, are not accurate according to the Scriptures. A careful look at the Scriptures shows us that God never intended to give humanity a completely independent will. For example, how many of you chose who your parents would be? How many of you chose who your children would be? How many of you chose when you would be born? How many of you chose your level of native intelligence? You get the point; there are many things in our lives that have a tremendous impact on us which are outside of our ability to choose. Therefore, will is limited to some extent, and that extent is what we need to look at.

Defining freedom according to Scripture is just as easy. Read Matthew 12:30 where Jesus says, "who is not for us is against us." One Bible teacher said freedom is not the power to act or not act but freedom is in being able to make a choice. God has not given man total freedom, but has given us the freedom to choose from a set number of options. We cannot choose option C when God gives us only options A or B.

We will study this further in the next lesson.