Beliefs: Free will and Sovereignty (S08, E01)

Greetings and welcome to the Faith Chapel podcast. My name is Jason,

and I am the pastor of Faith Chapel.

In the podcast, we are starting a series where we will look at the core beliefs of the Christian faith.

This will be a five-episode series

that takes a look at some of the key doctrines of Protestant beliefs.

We begin by contrasting the ideas of Calvinism and Arminianism and looking at

the key issues of free will and God's sovereignty.

Thanks for joining us as we dive into this discussion.

We all have a lens through which we look at the world. We all do.

It doesn't matter where we come from. It doesn't matter what perspective we

see. We have a way to view the world.

And sometimes our view can be very clouded and in.

Sense, this is what this sermon is about, to try to help us to see clearer one

of two perspectives on the Bible.

The Faith Chapel became an independent congregation yesterday.

It is something that we had been working for for several months,

but we officially are a self-governing church as of today.

And in the process of doing this, one of the things, one of the documents that

we worked behind the scenes to produce was a belief statement that most of you

were able to come and give your input on in a town hall meeting.

And as we become more and more of an independent congregation,

or as we became an independent congregation, the idea here is to help us to

really understand where

we are as a congregation, where we are as a people.

And so we're going to go through the list of our beliefs over the next several

weeks just to provide this as an opportunity to really help you hone in on who

we are as a congregation.

And if you are interested in joining Faith Chapel, you have that ability.

If you aren't already a member, you will have that opportunity at the end of

the series to become a member of the congregation after we get through these beliefs.

But we're starting today with an issue that divides Protestant Christianity. Right?

And it's our view on scripture. It's the lens through which we see the world.

I've worn lenses since I was in third grade. Since I was like nine years old,

I've had a pair of glasses on my face. And I only learned this week why glasses work.

You see, I have nearsightedness, which I believe makes the cone of my eye really, really long.

And the light doesn't hit the back of my eye as it should to help me to see correctly.

And so what these lenses do is they focus the light that's coming into them,

to the correct spot in my eye so that I can see better.

Now, I looked this morning and

if I take off my glasses and look at that banner, I can make out the blue.

I can make out that there is a person down beneath there and I can see the white

of the letters, but I can't make out discernible letters for that.

But with my lenses, focusing the light in the correct spot of my eye, I can see it clearly.

I can read it clearly.

And that's what lenses do. They help us to focus the light in on what we need

to look at and what we need to see.

And this is what, and we need a lens to see scripture.

Scripture is a very complex and beautiful writing.

It is God's revelation to us.

But it leaves some gaps so that we don't fully have answers to questions of

things that God does and what his will is.

And we have to take one of two vantage points.

We have to put on one of two lenses to really see that, to really see clearly what scripture says.

And so I'm going to try to dive into this as much as possible in a sermon series,

but this is going to be a lot more like a teaching lesson than a preaching lesson.

And so because it is in that capacity, I want to make sure that you understand what I'm saying.

And so if at any point during this series or any point during the sermon,

you feel like I need more clarity on that, I invite you to raise your hand and

to say, hey, I need you to explain that a bit more.

Hopefully I can and I'll try, but if not, I'll find the answer and get back with you.

And so like Amanda said, as she said, we need to do the motions here.

We need to let go of some things.

If you really have a question, like I'm honestly asking you to raise your hand

and say, hey, can you clarify that a bit more?

Because we're gonna look at the two lenses and how they view scripture and what

they look like as we go through this sermon, looking at three different scripture passages.

But before we do that, let me pray.

Gracious heavenly father, I come before you and I ask you that you will take

and speak what you need to speak today.

Jesus, I just lay this at your feet.

Make this be what you want it to be. Amen.

I'd be very sad if I didn't mention one thing first.

The majority of the information that I got from this text was a book that Mike

Cloud and I have been going through that he gave to us.

And with him in the hospital, I just wanna give him the credit because he brought

this book to my attention and he's walked me through almost half of it up to this point.

And so again, I just wanna lift him and Brenda up to you in continual prayer,

But he really is instrumental in the understanding that I have of these two

lenses through which we go through.

The other thing that I really want to tell you is another analogy,

an analogy about how we can look at things differently.

So my family and I, we tend to watch competition cooking shows.

And there are different ways and lenses through which we can see these shows.

One of the lenses is somebody who's really trying to learn about how to cook. All right.

How are they putting these ingredients together? How are they mixing this first?

What are they really doing? So you put on the lens of I'm a student in this

moment, in this show, and I'm

really, really looking at the execution and new techniques and new ingredients

that I can incorporate in my diet.

Another way that you can look at this, and it's the one that I generally look

at it upon, is, man, this is making me super hungry.

Like that food looks really, really good and I don't care what the ingredients are.

Like I would just like to have a bite of that. That looks delicious to me.

Another person could get wrapped up in the competition of it all.

They could root for their favorite chef and say, be really, really engrossed

in like the time and say, all right, this is how much time you have left.

And they're getting nervous on the edge of their seats and they're like,

let's go, let's go, let's go. Get everything on the plate, get everything on the plate.

And so you can see how there's different ways to view it.

None of those are really wrong ways to view scripture, or to view that show, but they're different.

And it comes from the vantage point that we are going after.

And in Protestant Christianity, there are two really predominant,

and I would say orthodox, ways of looking at scripture.

And before I get into it, I just want to say my belief in this.

There are going to be people from both camps in eternity, both lenses that you

could put on, like you have a faith in Jesus Christ.

You are believing in him. God is saving you and has put his Holy Spirit inside

of you and is taking you on that road that leads to life and life eternal.

And it doesn't matter, You don't have to have the lens that I view Scripture

on to be a follower of Jesus Christ. You can take either one of these lenses

and you can have an intimate relationship with Christ.

But as we'll see, it matters because of how we interpret and how we see. That's the difference.

And so we're going to begin today with a Scripture passage that lends itself

more to the lens that I don't look through.

Because scripture can contain what we would call tensions in it that both things

are true, but they seem to be opposite of each other.

And this passage really stretches my understanding of looking at scripture through this lens.

So we're gonna go through it first because I want to be as fair as I can,

but with these two lenses of scripture.

And so the two lenses of scripture are, one is called Calvinism or a reformed lens of scripture.

And this one kind of exalts.

The greatness of God. When they look at scripture, they are looking through

the lens of how great God is.

The other is called Arminianism, and it's not based on Arminia,

the country. It's based upon a guy by the name of Jacob Arminius.

And this one tends to focus on the goodness of God.

And so from the book that Mike gave me, we have a quote that I'm going to read to you.

So it says, of course, both sides recognize some truth in the other perspective.

Calvinists acknowledge God as loving and merciful, and Arminians acknowledge

God as almighty and sovereign.

Both believe God is supremely great and good, but one side starts with God's

greatness and conditions God's goodness in that light.

The other side starts with God's goodness and conditions God's greatness in that light.

And so these are the two lenses, the greatness of God. And they look at scripture

and they see how great God is.

And they condition everything else under that lens.

But on the other side, it's the goodness. And we're looking at the goodness

of God and we're seeing everything in light of that.

And again, this is going to lead to two perspectives that cannot be reconciled to each other.

They cannot be reconciled to each other. And I'll show you how.

Starting in Ephesians 2 verse.

Verses eight and nine. And again, this leads more towards looking at the greatness

of God, looking at scripture through the lens of the greatness of God.

So in Ephesians 2, eight and nine, the apostle Paul writes, God saved you by

his grace when you believed.

And you can't take credit for this. It is a gift from God.

Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done. so none of us can boast about it.

And when we look at this, it's very, very clear.

Salvation is not a work of human beings. You and I, we can't do anything to be saved.

That is clear and that is agreed upon by both Arminians and Calvinists.

The difference here in this passage is that Calvinists say, okay,

God imparts on people not only his grace, but their faith.

And he just puts it inside of them and this is what saves them.

God is, they like to use the word election.

He is electing these people and the word elect is in scripture.

And so he is electing these people to eternal life. These people are going to be in eternity.

And so they look at this and they say, okay, God imparts these things to them

and God is the sole and active agent in salvation. Can we all see that?

It is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not a work of

your own. It is the gift of God.

Arminians have a very, very hard time with this question.

We don't have an answer, but we believe and we confess that God is the active

agent. He is the only agent, and there's nothing that we can do about it.

But I, as an Arminian, have to be able to say, I don't know how what I take

as important is my response to God's grace.

What scripture calls faith.

And I believe that there's a response to it from human beings,

that God just doesn't give you this.

Because of how good he is, he lets us make this choice.

But this choice cannot be something that we elevate and hold up as a work of

our own. Because that's what scripture says.

Like, I don't know how our response to God's grace is not a work.

I have to admit that. But I surrender myself to the authority of scripture.

And I surrender myself to the goodness of God. and I say somehow,

someway in God's economy, my response is not a work.

It is wholly a gift of God.

Okay, to break it down, like I said, this might seem a lot more like school than church.

Calvinists believe that God gives you grace and gives you faith.

Arminians believe that God gives you grace, that we respond to it with faith,

but somehow that's not a work.

That's not something that we do. It's not something we can boast about.

Like I said, it's a very unsatisfactory answer. It's something that we don't know.

Another example that Mike gave me is the idea of knowing God is like a funnel.

It's got a very, very narrow tip so that what you're pouring in goes in the

container you want it to go in.

But if you use it in reverse, he says, this is what God is like.

God is like you're going up and up this funnel and you're learning more and more about God.

And as you learn more and more about God, like you're getting wider in this

funnel, but you're going to come to a point where there's something above the

funnel, where there's air above the funnel.

And when you get to that point, you're going to realize that you can't know everything about God.

He is totally unknowable. And this is a really, really good thing.

Because if God is completely knowable by us, in my opinion, he wouldn't be worth worshiping.

He wouldn't be worth surrendering everything to. But because my mind can't comprehend

everything about God, he deserves my total surrender and devotion.

And so for me, in this question, Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, as I look through the

lens of God's goodness at scripture, I say, okay, this is a mystery and I cannot understand it.

I don't have a satisfactory answer, but I believe that somehow our response

is important in salvation, but it's not a work.

It's not a work. And so to see this fleshed out, let's go to the most famous

passage in scripture. And we're going to read from John chapter three.

In John chapter three.

We read these words. For God so loved the world so much that he gave his one and only son,

so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

God sent his son into the world, not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.

There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him, But anyone who does

not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God's one and only son.

And the judgment is based on this fact. God's light came into the world,

but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil.

All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it, for fear their sins will be exposed.

But those who do what is right come to the light so others can see that they

are doing what God wants.

And so either view, either lens of scripture, Calvinism or Arminianism,

has a different perspective of this verse.

So we're going to start with verse 16, for God so loved the world.

And what Arminians and Calvinists disagree on is the definition of the word world.

You see, for those who believe that God gives them faith and grace,

they believe that the world here means, because it's qualified,

God gave the world Jesus, his son.

It's qualified to all nations, all ages, all races, all languages, all people groups.

That's their definition of world here.

But it's only for those who that God is electing into eternal life.

Only those who God says, I am giving you faith and I am giving you grace and

you are going to be in eternity with me.

This is how they define the word world in this passage, because it ties in with

the death and resurrection of Jesus and the atonement that he provides.

Arminians don't see it that way. They see the world here in this passage,

and they say every 7 billion plus person on this planet.

They see everyone who has ever lived and everyone who will ever live.

They see world here in terms of people, while Calvinists will see the term world

here and think the globe, people from all over the globe.

And that's the difference between looking at it through the lens of Scripture

as through God's goodness or through God's greatness.

Calvinists have to believe somehow, some way that God is great by loving those

who he is electing to eternal life more than those the rest of the world.

It's a natural consequence that comes from believing that view.

And that's why they elevate God's greatness.

They look at scripture and they see how sovereign God is.

They look at scripture and they'll take a look at the exodus out of Egypt and

they will see that God hardened Pharaoh's heart.

And okay, God steps in, God intervenes, God does these things for the people he has chosen.

And the natural occurrence to that is to say the world, it just means the globe,

people from all over this earth.

But Arminians looking through the goodness of God and looking at passages that

say God is just and merciful. He's slow to anger and he's abounding in steadfast, loyal love.

They will look at this and say, God loves every single human being who has ever

lived, who is living and who will live in the future.

And that's how this...

Looking through the lenses of scripture in these two different ways matters.

It matters in how we understand certain passages.

The gist of it is the same, that Jesus came and he died for our sins,

that God is saving us through the blood of Jesus, and that we are reconciled

to God through his son's death.

You can see how we're still in the same Protestant Christian category here.

It's just a different view of how we're looking at Scripture.

Question is, is there like a third option here for understanding Scripture?

And I haven't come across one that is really reliant upon Scripture.

You can make Scripture say anything you want it to, and you can pull different

contexts and verses out of it.

But the gist here is that from what I understand, and I have a very limited

capacity of a mind, but what I understand is that these are the two orthodox ways to view scripture.

And so what Polly was describing with a choice that is, we're making a cognitive

choice, but it's not a work.

And the comment about the God-shaped hole in our hearts that God is putting

that there so that we find reconciliation with him because we know we're missing something.

Those sorts of things tend to look at the goodness of God and his characteristics in that capacity.

I have not come across a third viable option that really exalts scripture to

the place that it deserves to be exalted.

Okay, so there's two ways to look at this world, and it depends upon on how you view scripture.

So I'm going to transition to a verse that I think really points and sits well

with Arminians, but does not sit well with Calvinism.

And the reason I have to acknowledge I'm totally biased in this.

So I made this presentation in terms of focusing on how I view scripture and how I believe it.

But I'm ending with an Arminian scripture because that's just who I am.

So we're going to go to 1 Timothy chapter 2.

1 Timothy 2 · chapter mention

And in 1 Timothy chapter 2, I selected two verses from Paul.

1 Timothy 2 · chapter mention

So you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not a work of your own.

It is the gift of God so that no one can boast.

That is Paul, and it leads us more to Calvinism than Arminianism.

This one also written by Paul, but I think it leans us more towards Arminianism than Calvinism.

And so in 1 Timothy chapter 2, I'm going to read the first six verses.

1 Timothy 2 · chapter mention

I urge you, first of all, to pray for all people.

Ask God to help them. Intercede on their behalf and give thanks for them.

Pray this way for kings and all who are in authority so that we can live peaceful

and quiet lives marked by godliness and dignity.

This is good and pleases God our Savior who wants everyone to be saved and to understand the truth.

For there is only one God and one mediator who can reconcile God and humanity, the man Christ Jesus.

He gave his life to purchase freedom for everyone.

This is the message God gave to the world at just the right time.

And so looking at scripture, this scripture in particular, through these two

lenses, we see that Calvinism has an issue.

Calvinism's issue here is that God wants all people to be saved.

And then in verse 6, we read that he gave his life to purchase freedom for everyone.

These are two passages that will make them have to rationalize some things.

And while I don't have an answer for the question about how our response to

God is not a work, I don't know how that works.

They do have an answer to what Scripture means here. But it's very,

very unsatisfactory to me.

You see, when they look at these passages of Scripture, when they see it.

They are going to say somehow, someway, that in sending people away from God

for all of eternity shows how great he is.

Even though he can save everyone, even though he can impart this to everyone,

and even though he wants everyone to be saved, somehow, someway,

that they don't understand, it brings God glory to send people for eternity away from God.

This does not sit well with people who elevate God's goodness over God's greatness.

And we have here like a real issue for me in terms of Calvinism and looking

at it that just doesn't seem like the God that I serve.

Arminians look at this and they have no trouble explaining it.

God wants all people to be saved. Yeah, because it requires a response from us.

Like he doesn't make us into automatons that do exactly what they're told.

He gives us free will and choice to make this.

But we don't elevate our free will over God.

We don't elevate any other characteristic that we do.

We say God is so good all the time. He desires all people to be saved. And this.

Shows how good and faithful and generous and loving and merciful He really is.

And to me, this is a really, really big point as to why I choose to look at

Scripture and I choose to say, God is good all the time.

And I know there are a lot of us who deal,

are really grieving with Mike and Kathleen, who have our hearts broken for Mike and Brenda.

And sometimes it's not easy to say God is good all the time.

But as I look at Scripture, as I see that God is going to be next to us when

we seek Him, when we search for Him,

I know that in the wrestling that we have, and we all have to wrestle,

wrestle with these issues of grief, pain, loss, disappointment,

ultimately.

I trust that God is good.

And he knows way more than I do what the best things in life are.

And while sometimes I don't have words to say And I just am present And.

Somehow, someway, I believe that God shows his goodness in those seasons and in those times.

And so I just invite you, however you choose to view Scripture.

If you are a Calvinist, I need you to know that you're welcome here.

If you're an Arminian, I need you to know that you're welcome here.

If you choose to view Scripture in one of these two ways, you are a part of

the universal church that is going to be in eternity with God.

I really, really believe that.

Whichever lens that you choose to look through, you are still able to be in eternity with God.

And as we continue to go through our beliefs in the weeks that follow,

I just want to encourage you to really be processing and thinking through these things.

One of the ideas that we really need to wrap our heads around is that what we

learn together about God are things that we can share about God to other people.

Whether it's a neighbor, a co-worker, someone that's really going through a

hard time, a family member.

We have the ability and the capacity to take what we learn and not keep it to

ourselves, but to give it to other people.

And I wanna encourage you to do that.

As we transition into communion, we're going to do something a little bit differently.

As we go through our beliefs, one of the things that the team that put our beliefs

document together used as the baseline for it is something called the Apostles' Creed,

and it tells us what the universal church believes.

And so as we enter into communion, we're going to put that on the screen.

And I just encourage you, if this is something that you believe,

that you will say it with us.

And so we have the Apostles' Creed here. Let's say it together if you believe it.

I believe in God, the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth.

I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,

born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried.

He descended to the dead. On the third day, he rose again.

He ascended into heaven, is seated at the right hand of the Father,

and will come again to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints,

the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body,

and the life everlasting. Amen.

That is our core belief. That makes us followers of Jesus.

The lens through which we see Scripture does not make us, does not determine that.

Everyone, Calvinist and Arminian, believe in this statement.

Thank you again for joining us in our discussion of the key aspects of Protestant faith.

The Bible is a complex book, and as humans with finite minds,

we do have to make some standards to how we interpret Scripture.

The goal with this sermon was to understand the key points in the discussion

of free will versus God's sovereignty.

If you would like more information about Faith Chapel and its ministries,

please visit the website gofaithchapel.org.

Next week, we will continue this discussion by looking at the relatability of God. Have a great week.