The Thoughts of Ryan-C

So far he has sent me 2 of 4 parts… I will add the rest as he sends them…

I posted them after the jump….

hit the link below.

I am convinced not only by the whole scope and tenor of scripture that man has been given a real kind of free will, but also by particular scriptures and reason applied to scriptural revelation which points to the reality of free will as a result of man being made in the image of the Triune God.
For God to create persons in His own image (Genesis 1:26), He must have meant the fact that this crown of creation was a reflection of His personal attributes, since He is Spirit, and not flesh (John 4:23). The attributes that we see reflected in Adam and Eve are not His greatness (immutability, omniscience, omnipresence, omnipotence, eternality, etc…) but His personal attributes of emotions, intellect, and will. Saint Augustine himself attested to the pre-fall free will of Adam.

Original Sin and Common Grace
I believe with Augustine that the image of God in Adam and his offspring has been compromised, marred, and twisted. I believe that original (inherited genetic) sin as well as learned behavioral sin are a part of every human being in this fallen world. I believe that our ability to reason, to decide, and to experience pure and genuine emotions has been compromised (Romans 6). We are totally depraved (dead and enslaved) apart from the grace and truth of God.
Fortunately for humanity, God has given us common revelation and grace, such as those mentioned by Paul to the Greeks on Mars Hill (Acts 17:22-31) and in his letter to the Romans (1:20). God has revealed himself enough in nature and through the vestiges of man’s conscience so that man is without excuse. If man is without excuse, then God must reach each of us enough to give us a fair shot at seeking Him or running from Him, receiving Him or denying Him, choosing to love and know Him to the extent He reveals Himself or choosing to shun, hate, or ignore Him (To those who receive…).

Conditionality
God (and Jesus in the gospels) treats men as if they have free will, for when God reveals truth to men, He is giving them an opportunity to exercise free will. He knocks at the door of our heart, He invites us with hospitality; He does not kick down the door of our heart and force Himself upon us. He is not at his heart a God of violence. He entreats men and women to follow Him, and to be his disciples (Matt. 4:19).

Foreknowledge
The argument against God’s election based on foreknowledge (as articulated by Millard Erickson) is a weak one in my opinion, considering the logical succession that Romans 8:29-30 calls to mind. (Those whom God foreknew He predestined…..)
God and Man as Persons
God is clearly three persons and one God, and acts in history as such. God is personal, and stoops to personally commune with humans. He, as a person(s), talks, walks, wrestles, eats, suffers, argues, reasons, and lives with His creation in increasingly intimate ways. From the Abrahamic relationship, to the Mosaic (tabernacle then temple) relationship, to the Incarnation (Emmanuel, God with us), to the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in and among and through us as the Church, God has demonstrated that He, as a personal being, wants to have relationship with us, humanity, His creation in His own image.
Why would God want a relationship with a non-person? Why would He want people to be determined (by Him) to love Him? Is that even possible? I submit that it is not. He identifies Himself as a father, husband, king, judge, shepherd, and friend, among other analogies. I submit that He wants a real, free, personal relationship with those persons who freely choose Him.

Granted, as was addressed before, if we are in bondage to sin, if we are dead in our transgressions, if we cannot hear or heed the call, then we are not truly free, as Augustine and Calvin and others recognized.
I do not subscribe to a constantly available radiating prevenient grace, as some claim Wesley held. I hold that God reveals Himself to men based on His fathomless wisdom, foreknowledge, and love. I hold that God reveals Himself to each person in a way that does not violate his or her personhood, which would be violating His own image. He does not overpower each person by revealing too much, but He does not leave anyone with no revelation or hint of who He is. It has been said that He leaves enough shadow to remain hidden, but enough light to be seen, depending on whether or not a man or woman wants to see Him.
We must remember that it was by faith that Abraham (and others) has been accounted righteous, and a friend of God (Romans 4:2-3, 9). How can faith be possible if no faith is required? By that I mean that a person must have to exercise some faith in order for relationship with God to happen, but faith is impossible if there is absolutely no doubt, shadow, choice, or question. What place has faith without choice?
Perhaps even more importantly, what place has love without choice? The Bible says that we love Him because He first loved us (1 John 4:19). So He loved us. He created us, revealed Himself to us, died for us, and in some way gave us enough grace so that we could love Him back. If this is a relationship, between persons, predicated on love, then how can it exist without true freedom of choice? If we are predetermined to love Him, predetermined to choose Him, predetermined to grow in grace, and predetermined to persevere to the end, then where is our love? Where is our personhood? Are we made in the image of God?
None of this is to say that we choose Him first. He chooses us, and I believe He would choose all people (as He has revealed He wants to do) if He could, but He has determined to limit His own sovereignty by granting a measure of personal freedom to each person. I am submitting that God, in His absolute sovereignty, has chosen to limit His ability to violate or overpower the free will of the persons that He has created as moral agents in His own image, in order to have real relationships with them. Think of the previously mentioned analogies. Which of those relationships involve a degree of choice on the part of both parties involved? It is undoubtedly true that God seeks those who will worship Him in Spirit and in truth (John 4:23-24). He also promises that if a person seeks Him with all of their heart, they will find Him (Jeremiah 29:13).

The Necessity of the Word
I believe the key to this climate that God creates in order to empower humans to freely choose or not choose Him is the Truth of His revelation, especially His special revelation, or His Word. I believe that the revealed Truth of God creates an opportunity for men and women to respond to the call to salvation and repentance that God sounds to all men everywhere
For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same {Lord} is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him; For ‘WHOEVER WILL CALL ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED.’ How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher… So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
Romans 10:12-14, 17 NKJV

This passage seems to call for some genuinely free human response, specifically calling on the name of the Lord and believing in Him.

Two Readings of Romans 9
Some will no doubt argue that based upon a prima facie reading of Romans 9, man has no free will.
Just as it is written, “JACOB I LOVED, BUT ESAU I HATED.”
What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be!
For He says to Moses, “I WILL HAVE MERCY ON WHOM I HAVE MERCY, AND I WILL HAVE COMPASSION ON WHOM I HAVE COMPASSION.”
So then it {does} not {depend} on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy. Romans 9:13-16 NASB
On first read, this chapter seems to be an incontrovertible testimony to the sovereignty of God over against the undetermined free will of man. However, given the context of Romans 9, situated in the section of Romans which deals specifically with Israel and her role in salvation as a nation of priests (Exodus 19:6), there seems to be solid evidence that an individualistic and soteriological reading of Romans 9 is less than satisfactory. In fact, Romans 9:12 states “THE OLDER WILL SERVE THE YOUNGER” in reference to the Old Testament choice of Jacob over Esau. If this passage is about individuals, and not the role and destiny of Israel as a nation of priests, then why would Paul quote a verse that clearly refers to Jacob and Esau as representatives of future people groups, the Israelites and the Edomites? If one scours the Old Testament, it will be found that Esau never serves Jacob while they live, but the descendants of Jacob are served by the descendants of Esau. Furthermore, the context of Romans 9 and the larger context of Romans 9-11 demand that these verses be seen in light of their place in the discussion of Israel and her place in the salvation of Jews and non-Jews alike. Further evidence of this reading is discovered upon reading the “olive tree” discourse in Romans 11:13-25 (NASB)
But I am speaking to you who are Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle of Gentiles, I magnify my ministry, if somehow I might move to jealousy my fellow countrymen and save some of them. For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will {their} acceptance be but life from the dead? If the first piece {of dough} is holy, the lump is also; and if the root is holy, the branches are too. But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive, were grafted in among them and became partaker with them of the rich root of the olive tree, do not be arrogant toward the branches; but if you are arrogant, {remember that} it is not you who supports the root, but the root {supports} you. You will say then, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.” Quite right, they were broken off for their unbelief, but you stand by your faith. Do not be conceited, but fear; for if God did not spare the natural branches, He will not spare you, either. Behold then the kindness and severity of God; to those who fell, severity, but to you, God’s kindness, if you continue in His kindness; otherwise you also will be cut off. And they also, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. For if you were cut off from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these who are the natural {branches} be grafted into their own olive tree? For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery–so that you will not be wise in your own estimation–that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in;
Not only does this passage point toward a reading of Romans 9 that does not abrogate undetermined human free will, it actually points toward the importance of human choices as it pertains to belonging to the “olive tree” of God’s true people. Notice the conditional language in verses 20-24, “if you continue in His kindness; otherwise you also will be cut off. And they also, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again.”
The passage also provides part of the context in which we read Romans 9, and that context has everything to do with groups of people, such as Jews and Gentiles, not historical individuals, such as Jacob and Esau.

The Role of the Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit is obviously the agent of this interaction between the creation and revelation of God, which can be seen in such passages as Corinthians 2:10-14.
But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. NKJV
This and other references to the work of the Holy Spirit in salvation, regeneration, and sanctification remind us of the centrality of the doctrine of the Trinity to this discussion. The Trinity is not only the example of what humans and their relationships should be, but (as previously mentioned), the Triune God created man to specifically reflect and resemble the Trinity (Genesis 1:26). The way that we understand the relationship and essence of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit will influence how we view those made in His image and likeness.

Man as a Reflection of the Trinity
I believe that just as God is three in one, so is man made in his image. I believe that man is not dichotomous, trichotomous, or monist. I believe man was made to be and live triune. According to this line of thought, man is made of physical substance (the dust of the ground), spiritual substance (the ruach of God), and man has what some would call a soul, which is the seat of the intellect, will, and emotions. So, then, man acts as a triune being, with the body, soul, and spirit interacting and relating to one another in a way similar to the Holy Trinity. The body is not the soul, the soul is not the spirit, and the spirit is not the body, but the person is the body and the soul and the spirit. The spirit empowers the soul to manifest itself physically through the various systems of the body (nervous, endocrine, muscular, reproductive). The body provides stimulus to the soul, and acts as an interface with the physical world. The intellect, emotions, and will of the soul must be translated into electrical and chemical reactions in the body to impact the physical world. Therefore, not only is the person triune, but the soul itself is triune within the person.
Sin, Christ, and Salvation
The problem with this model is that it only works for humanity as created before the fall, or the person Jesus of Nazareth. When sin enters the picture, the spirit is subject to separation from the Holy Breath of God, or death (Gen 4:22-24). Without the power of the spirit in connection with the Holy Spirit, the soul is weakened and enslaved by sin, which twists the intellect, will, and emotions. This manifests itself in the body as well, as sinful acts, words, and emotions. The mechanisms in the body that were meant to provide stimulus to the soul are now corrupted, and they overpower the captive soul with the help of sin. The impulses of the flesh now control the soul, instead of the soul controlling the actions and chemical reactions of the body. Thus, as Calvinists will attest, humanity (each person) is totally depraved, enslaved, and spiritually dead as a result of sin.
It is interesting to think that not only is Jesus a person of the Trinity, but as a human (God made flesh), he also perfectly reflected the image and likeness of God (Col 1:15). It seems evident that the spirit of Christ was and is identical to the Holy Spirit of the Trinity, that His body was not corrupted by sin, and that his will, intellect, and emotions were perfectly in line with those of the Father. Even when, in his humanity, his emotions, intellect, and will were overcome by the task at hand, he submitted himself to the will of the Father. He also presented his body as a living sacrifice, and gave up his spirit to the Father (Luke 23:46). So then, the way in which Jesus lived and died was a perfect reflection (image and likeness) of the Trinity.
So Jesus lived, died, and freely willed as a perfect example of humanity in God’s image, but what about the rest of us? How can we really have free will if we are corrupted, enslaved, and spiritually dead (as previously discussed)? Once again, we look to the Trinity and man as the image and likeness of the Trinity. If the source of the corruption and enslavement of man’s body and soul is the separation from God and the death of the spirit, then the gap must be bridged and the spirit must be regenerated. But how can the spirit be regenerated without violating free will and advocating unconditional election, irresistible grace, and the logical conclusions of determinism that follow? The answer is that the grace of God, manifested through the wooing and working of the Holy Spirit of God, particularly through the preaching of the Word of God, as enabled by the propitiation and expiation of the sins of the whole world by Jesus Christ the Son of God, meets each person who encounters the revelation of God and in that moment empowers them to accept or reject the offer of a relationship with God which is by that grace through faith. It is reminiscent of the fresco on the ceiling of the Sistine chapel, where we see the hand of God reaching out to touch the hand of man.
So the free will of man is restored by the grace of God through the power of the Holy Spirit revealing the truth that set men free, that Jesus Christ died as a ransom for many. Man has been met by an infinite and holy God in the most dramatic of ways. It is as if a father travels 1000 miles and requires his disgraced child to take only one step toward him. All that man, in this moment of grace, must do is receive this gift of grace by faith (Eph 2:8). This is the one step. This is the act of will that man is responsible to perform. This is the moment that God sees in His foreknowing, the moment in which he predestines, calls, and chooses based upon this one grace-enabled act of free will. It is almost laughable to confuse this line of thinking with a work-righteousness model of salvation. There is no merit here, no earning of salvation. There is a God who descended to the greatest extent possible to rescue His creation, and stops only at the point which would violate His own image and likeness, and show that he is a God with violence, not hospitality, at His heart. He does not violate the free will that He has in His sovereignty given, because He chose to create persons in His own image and likeness, and He will not violate that image. This thought also impacts our understanding of eternal separation from God, or hell.