Saturday morning I went to men’s breakfast at church, and as usual, we had a very interesting discussion. Toward the end of the discussion, the topic turned to free will vs Predestination. You know what I mean, am I free to choose God, or did he already decide if I was going to be saved. As you might imagine, even in our small group there were differing views. Now, I am not going to tell you my view, because frankly I’m not sure after Saturday’s discussion exactly what my view is. But, In the end, we all agreed that this could be one of those questions that we won’t get an answer to until we get to Heaven. Thank God there is a Heaven, and that we can get all our questions answered when we get there.
Speaking of getting into Heaven, Jeremiah 29:13 says “You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.” Wow, that is a great promise, as much for what it doesn’t say as for what it does.
It doesn’t say, the things you have done are too horrible to be forgiven.
It doesn’t say you have to understand the whole Bible.
It doesn’t even say, you have to be good enough, or that you have to be perfect before you can get into Heaven.
It only says you need to seek Christ and search for Him with all your heart. You see, God knows I can never be perfect, and He knows that I am going to continue to sin. The great news is that when I seek God with all my heart, he changes my heart to be a good heart, so that even though I will still sin, I know, even as I am sinning, that I am not a sinner, and that this sin that so easily entangles is not the real me.
So, whether I choose God, or He chooses me, one thing we can all agree on is that the power to overcome sin comes from God and God alone. Without God I am powerless to turn away from sin. With God and my new heart, I have a choice to turn to God and away from sin, or…. to follow my old ways. When I follow my old ways, I am still forgiven, but I have allowed myself to be deceived into thinking I am something that I am not, a sinner.
Lord, I pray You will pour out your power in me and through me so I can complete the race you have set before me, and thank You Lord that I can be sure that You will.
Tom Zimmer - PhotoBubba 
Scripture teaches that we are responsible to believe AND that God is sovereign in salvation. A very good example is found in John 1:12-13 “But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.” Verse 12 speaks of man’s responsibility to believe and identifies what happens if we do believe. Verse 13 tells us by who’s will the belief came to be. It wasn’t ours. In fact Romans 3:11 tells us that “no one seeks after God.”
Jesus told Nicodemus in John 3 that we have to be born again BEFORE we can enter or even see the kingdom of God. Being born again, out of necessity precedes faith and is the first step in salvation because we are born “dead in trespasses and sin.” Dead people can’t do anything.
Our faith isn’t something we contribute to the process. Ephesians 2:8-9 tells us that even the faith we exercised to believe came from God. Otherwise we would have something in which to boast.
And finally, Acts 13:48 tells us who will believe when the gospel message is preached. “And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed.” Only those appointed to eternal life.
Heaven will be filled with people on both sides of the argument and I thank God that we don’t have to fully understand any of this in order to be saved. I only ask one question. Which positions gives all the glory to God? The one that says “My faith played a part in my salvation.” Or the other that says “My salvation is entirely of God.”
Thank you David for the good verse references on this subject, and I like your final question. The only observation I would like to make is that; I wonder if people that don’t want to believe that God “somehow” decides who will be saved, are concerned that we don’t really have free will, or that giving all the responsibility to God will cause believers to ignore God’s command to reach the lost.
I for one, am content to let God handle His part, and to play the part He has given me to play, which is just to be His hands, feet and voice to a dying world as He empowers me. Not running ahead, not following behind, just walking with Him while listening and responding to His whispers in my ear.
Have a great week!