Is God Sovereign or Do We Have Free Will?

Part 1: The Bible Says, 'Yes.'

Photo by Kseniia Rastvorova on Unsplash

Did God decide before the creation of the world who He would save? Or has He left that up for each person to freely decide for him or herself?

These were the questions I was wrestling with at a truckstop somewhere between Livingston and Tuscaloosa, Alabama. I was 22 and the Lord had given me a renewed appetite for His Word. And everything was going just fine until I came to John 6:35-40:

35 Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. 36 But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. 37 All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. 38 For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. 39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. 40 For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.” 

The statements I’ve emboldened were the ones I found deeply troubling. 

All that the Father gives to the Son? That sounds like maybe the Father leaves some out. And if so, what about me? Am I in or am I out? 

I kept reading and a few verses later it seemed things got worse.

“No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day.” –John 6:44

Okay, Lord, what gives? How do I know that You have drawn me to the Son? 

My first brush with God’s sovereignty in salvation didn’t come after reading John Calvin’s Institutes. Truth be told, I’d never heard of Calvin at that point in my life. Nope. My first brush with God’s sovereignty in salvation came when I was reading the Bible itself. 

And I didn’t like it. Nor any of the other passages that I would later come across, such as some of the more well-known ones like Ephesians 1 or Romans 9. 

It almost felt like a betrayal of sorts. My conception of God at that point was that in Christ, He had tossed out a life ring to the entire world and it was up to each person to decide whether or not he or she wanted to grab hold. But these passages that I never realized were in the Bible seemed to push in the opposite direction. They seemed to portray God hand picking those He wanted to save and just letting the rest drown. This mental image caused my stomach to churn. In fact, I can still vividly remember crying out to God through tears, begging Him to help me understand how His sovereignty and our responsibility worked itself out. 

I say all that to say this… If that’s you right now, I get it. I’ve been there and it’s a tough place to be. But I also want you to know that grappling with this truth is good for your soul. It can be tempting to turn a blind eye to these passages. I tried that myself for a while. But you and I both know that doing so is neither right nor safe – to borrow a phrase from Luther. If all the Bible is God’s authoritative Word, then our willingness to wrestle with it shows that our consciences are held captive to it. And that’s a very good thing. So let that serve as an encouragement to you! 

Now before we get too far ahead of ourselves, it’s only fair for me to tell you up front that this series of articles likely won’t answer all of your questions. In fact, it will probably raise new ones. But by the end, I hope that it will remind you afresh that God is just and good and loving. I know you already know that. But as you’re wrestling with this tension in Scripture, it can be easy to lose sight of it. So that’s one aim.

My other aim in this series is that by the end you will have a renewed joy in your own salvation and that a doctrine that once appeared to be a hard pill to swallow will instead become a healing balm for your anxious soul. 

But until then, let me leave with another brief encouragement.

Here’s the same passage from John 6:35-40, but with different statements emboldened. 

35 Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. 36 But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. 37 All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. 38 For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. 39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. 40 For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.” 

The point here is clear: If you come to the Son for life, you will never be told that your name isn’t on the list. Indeed, your willful coming is all the evidence you need that the Father has already given you to the Son for eternal life. Rest in that truth this week. It will do you much good, dear reader. I promise.