IS FREE WILL INVOLVED IN SALVATION?
The subject of the extent of man’s involvement in his salvation has been debated and disagreed on for a long time. This is a hot topic if you are into the theologies of Arminianism or Calvinism. Am I saved (given eternal life) by God’s grace alone without any involvement on my part, or do I have free will to believe the gospel and be saved? Another way of defining the problem is to ask the question, “Which comes first – salvation or faith?”
I do not pretend to have all the answers as to how this happens, nor is it my desire here to solve the issue. What I want to do is share some of the truths I see from my reading and understanding of the Bible. They make sense to me, but I am open to change if the Bible, or another person, brings to my awareness things I have not yet seen.
First I want to give my definition of God’s sovereignty and human free will as I perceive them from my reading of the Bible.
God’s sovereignty means that God is Master of the entire universe, has a plan for His creation, and will see it done. Nothing can destroy His plan or keep it from happening. He is actively involved in human history to bring it about.
Human free will means the ability to make choices within certain established perimeters or boundaries. Those perimeters or boundaries determine the limits of our choices. It is not free will if the human will is coerced or determined. Humans make many choices each day.
Here are some of my beliefs about salvation which seem Biblical to me:
(1) Faith, that is, the ability to believe God’s message of salvation, is not considered a work that I do to obtain forgiveness and eternal life. Some have said that we cannot exercise faith to be saved, for that would be a work we do. Faith that saves us must be a gift from God. A primary text for this is Ephesians 2:8-9. In this text, faith is considered to be a gift from God enabling us to be saved. However, in Romans 4:1-5 we have the example of Abraham, the father of our faith. It is said that he was declared righteous, not on the basis of works, but by faith. In this text it seems clear that faith is not a work. I find no contradiction between Romans and the Ephesian passage because the Ephesian passage can legitimately be interpreted another way and the Romans passage seems to be the clearer of the two regarding this subject.
(2) No persons can come to God and exercise faith to be saved unless God does something to bring those persons to a place where they are willing to believe in Christ. How God does this is part of His grace and mercy. It is like Adam and Eve in the garden after they sinned. They hid from God, but He approached them and helped them to face their situation. We don’t come on our own, but at some point we come because of the conviction of our need, which is the job of the Holy Spirit. It is only then, due to God’s initiating help, that we exercise trust in Christ for salvation.
(3) We do not obtain salvation by any works we do. When faith is exercised we are baptized with God’s Spirit, meaning His Spirit dwells within us. He empowers us to experience resurrection and eternal life.
(4) We are eternally secure in Christ. Nothing can snatch us out of God’s grasp. He promises to keep us and save us. If we sin we have not lost our salvation. It is like belonging to our family. We can wrong someone in our family, but we are still part of the family. We need not fear losing our salvation, but there are two things we can lose when we sin.
First, we can lose our fellowship with God. To restore a broken relationship with God we confess our wrong and acknowledge His forgiveness and proceed to walk and talk together without hindrance.
Second, we can lose our assurance of salvation. Eventually, if we continue in sin, disobedience will cause us to wonder if we are really saved. We may be, but we can’t know it, we lose our assurance. If I persist in sinful ways by choosing to ignore God’s Spirit within me, I and others, will have reason to doubt my salvation. This is because the Bible says that the person who loves God and belongs to Him will obey His word and seek to live a holy life. Lack of assurance can be overcome by confession and repentance of our wrongs and seeking again to love and obey the Lord. If we fail to repent, God may discipline us, or even allow our physical death, but we still go to heaven.
(5) God wants all persons to be saved and He gives opportunity to them within their lifetimes. If they are lost for eternity it is because they have rejected God’s light which leads them to eternal life.
(6) God ordains persons to be saved or lost based on their response to Him in their life’s journey.
(7) Once saved, we have the co-responsibility with God to persevere in our faith to the end. This we will do by His enabling grace, that is, by His help. God works in us as we work out our salvation.
(8) I leave open, at this point in my understanding, the question of whether a person can start out in “faith” to follow Christ, but fall away because it was not a "genuine" faith. It appears to me in Scripture that one can be close to being saved, even experience many of the evidences, but then fall away. I have a difficult time believing any will fall from genuine faith. But a person may have a faith that is weak or in danger unless it is strengthened. The purpose of many of the bad things that happen to us is to serve as tests of our faith, because only genuine faith is saving faith. If we pass through trials, still believing that God is good and has not abandoned us, it is evidence to us that we have been saved, are being saved and will be saved.
(9) I leave open the possibility that a person can freely choose to tell Christ to leave after being saved. Christ will honor such a request and the person will be lost. However, I cannot imagine that a truly saved person would ever want to do that, nor would ever be able to do it after knowing Christ. I leave open the possibility because it seems right that salvation remains a free choice lest we become robotic in our relationship with God.
There are still difficult statements in the Bible that are hard to understand. I remain a student with yet much to learn, or even to correct, about how salvation happens. At this point my mind is satisfied that the answer to the question “Which comes first, salvation or faith?” is that faith comes first.
This freedom of will which we possess, though limited, does not negate the right of God to step in and do whatever He wishes with any person or nation in order to see that His overall plans are done as He wills. Free will does not prevent God’s sovereignty. But God can choose to limit His own sovereignty. For example, I could oppose God to the extent that He will not override my choices. He may, in fact, cement them. That is a scary thought. As Proverbs 29:1 states, “A man who hardens his neck after much reproof will suddenly be broken beyond remedy.”
Suppose that you believe strongly one theology over the opposing one – that salvation comes first or that faith comes before salvation. What difference does believing one theology over another make in how a person lives the Christian life? In both views the Bible is revered as God’s word and our guide for right living. In both views faith in Christ Jesus is necessary in the process of salvation. In both views the gospel must be proclaimed for persons to hear and believe. In both views God is our Father and we share the hope of resurrection and life in God’s kingdom. In both views a holy life is required. In both views fellowship in the church is important for sustained growth.
Theologies are man-made, but they are important because they are attempts to help us better understand the Bible's content. It is good to read how various people understand the Bible. This means that there will be differences among believers. On the otherhand, though theologies are man-made and result in differences, love is Divine and can dwell in all believers. In love there is freedom to differ and yet remain unified as one body in Christ. God is like that – diversity in unity.
