Christianity has some difficult theology to accept. Whether it is the doctrine of hell (how can a loving God send someone He created to eternal torment?), the concept of faith as a gift (why didn’t God give faith to my best friend?), or even the doctrine of grace (I don’t need anything apart from my repentant faith to enter into heaven? Even after sinning so much?), there are many common difficulties and doubts in the hearts of believers and unbelievers alike. I’d like to share some thought experiments about one of the most difficult topics: free will, God’s sovereignty and my sin.
thought ex·per·i·ment
noun
an experiment carried out only in the imagination.
The difficulties within this category of theology abound. We often aren’t sure how to reconcile God’s sovereignty with our free will. I’m not quite willing to say that God’s sovereignty trumps my own personal free will because, well, at least it feels like I have free will. But on the other hand, I’m not really willing to count God completely out of the picture either: I see God’s hand in so many instances of my life, big and small. But perhaps the greatest irreconcilable difference (or so it seems – more on that later!) between God’s sovereignty and my free will is my sin and God’s punishment.
The argument goes something like this. We believe in the total depravity of man. Any human being to walk the earth is simply incapable of earning his or her own salvation. The reasons for this are two-fold: man is sinful, and God is holy. Romans 3 tells us that “none is righteous, no not one” and that “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” From that first sin we are ruined to God’s perfect standard. But praise be to God and His glorious grace because that same chapter in Romans declares a way out of this predicament whereby man is “justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.” That’s great news! But it can also be terribly difficult to accept: if man is utterly doomed apart from God, then why doesn’t God save everyone? Who can resist God if He wills to instill one with faith?
Plain and simple: if God can save anyone, and everyone needs saving, and only God can save, then, well… why doesn’t He?
Many have tried to answer these types of difficult questions with thought experiments: made up scenarios to get across a point or to help provide a framework to work through a moral conundrum. I don’t know the source of the two I’ll share with you, nor do I know how common they are. They use biblical characters, but I assure you they can’t be found in the pages of Scripture.
Thought Experiment #1
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. We know the story; He goes on to create the moon, stars, the planets and everything that inhabits the earth including the first human, Adam. God charges Adam with a few responsibilities of tending to the garden. Cut the grass, pick the berries, and keep the bunny rabbits from eating the tops of the carrots: that kind of thing. Adam is free to roam and wander after he completes his responsibilities. The deal seems fair to Adam as he receives the blessing of living in the garden free of charge, so he is happy to tend to the chores that seem light and enjoyable. And for His part, God isn’t overly imposing: he only holds Adam to one rule. There is a deep pit in the corner of the garden which Adam must never go near.
This story hereon has no suspense and is incredibly predictable: Adam becomes the first “cat killed by curiosity,” investigates the pit further and falls in with no way of escape. The next day God comes into the garden and sees the grass not cut, the berries not picked, the carrot tops eaten off. Searching and finding Adam in the pit he asks why he hasn’t completed his duties. Adam, with his head drooping low in shame, explains how he fell in the pit. God tells Adam that he must tend the garden, and follow through on the agreement they’ve made. Adam replies with a certain level of frustration at God’s unreasonableness, “I can’t, without being helped out of the pit.” At this point, it’s prudent to mention that no one else is around to be able to help Adam out, either.
The moral of the story shows us the predicament of man. Clearly Adam (and by extension, all of humankind) can do nothing to fulfill the responsibilities we have toward God. Clearly, God does his part by warning Adam of the dangerous pit and is under no obligation to help Adam up. Perhaps He’d even be better off creating a new, second (better) Adam that actually follows his directions.
The story is at once both helpful and extremely dissatisfying. We’re left with more questions than we started. Why did God create the pit? How much time and energy does it really take to pull Adam out of the pit anyway? In this scenario, Adam at least understands that he’s in the pit, is aware of his responsibilities before God while on the other hand not everyone in the world has even heard the gospel, living life unaware that a pit even exists. What right does God have to impose these responsibilities on Adam anyway? With our questions unanswered, let’s turn to another thought experiment.
Thought Experiment #2
After a long day of ministry, Peter and Paul decide to stop over at a hotel and spend the night. To save on cash (#stewardship) they decide to split a room. Paul works hard, and that takes a toll on his energy levels so he decides to hit the sack at early 9:30pm. Peter, ever the rebel rouser and night owl, starts jumping on the bed to tease Paul. At this point, God steps in to try to calm the situation before Paul and Peter get into an argument. He tells Peter to stop bugging Paul so much and grab a book to read down in the lobby until he’s tired and can come back up to the room and quietly get in bed. Unbeknownst to Peter, the hotel has some maintenance issues and the door to the room is broken and completely stuck shut.
The moral of this story is the again the utter helplessness in the predicament of following God’s commands. Even if Peter desires to go to the lobby to obey God and not sin toward Paul, he literally cannot because of the faulty door. Usually the story finishes with Peter disobeying God and continuing to bug Paul long into the night. The thought experiment begs the question if Peter can truly be held responsible for his actions if he can do no other option? This story certainly illuminates the importance of *motives* in our actions. It’s clear that Peter has the heart intention to sin, even if he doesn’t have the means to do any other. And again, the hotel manager (God) is the only one with the power to call the locksmith and clear up the problem of the nonfunctioning door.
Scripture is better
These scenarios are helpful. They really are. I’ve used them as an evangelistic tool to try to illustrate the situation we are currently in apart from Christ: we simply have no exits on our highway to hell. God has every right to hold us accountable for our responsibility to follow His commands since He made the world, He made us, and He made everything in it. But I am left with the same question that I’m sure you’ve pondered as well. Why would God send those to hell who are incapable of going anywhere but?
I think Scripture gives a more satisfying answer.
Let’s turn to Romans 9. Here’s the premise:
(15) For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” (16)So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. (17) For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” (18) So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.
This is the same conclusion we’ve come to previously: God is able to provide His mercy for salvation or withhold it and harden the heart of whomever He wills. At this point, Scripture doubles down:
(19) You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?”
Yes, a thousand times yes. We know only God can save. So why doesn’t He save everyone? Who can resist His salvation should He decide to offer it? Doesn’t that implicate God’s unreasonableness to send anyone to eternal destruction?
(20) But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” (21) Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? (22) What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, (23) in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory— (24) even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles?
Scripture rebukes this line of thinking and replaces our man-centric worldview (God must do anything and everything required for man’s salvation) with a God-centric worldview (God acts so that He accomplishes the glorification of His name).
You see, God gets glory by saving. God gets glory by condemning. This is a hard truth, but who I am to answer back to God? God tells us that He does not take pleasure in the death of the wicked, saying in Ezekiel 18:23 “rather, am I not pleased when they turn from their ways and live?” But I must remember that I’ve failed at following His laws and I’ve failed time and time again at loving Him with all my heart, soul, mind and strength. Am I so bold to presume on kindness? As my Creator, hasn’t He the right to use me as His vessel for honorable use or dishonorable use?
But praise be to God and His glorious grace, I have an assurance of God receiving me into the kingdom of heaven – not because I deserve it, and not because I presume on his kindness, but because of the way God designated to pull me out of the pit of sin and break down the hotel door of my own hardened heart separating me from God: the blood of the lamb who was slain on my behalf. May God give us grace not to answer back to Him, but instead live humble and repentant lives of obedient in response for the grace He has shown by using our vessels honorably.
