God's Will for Your Life
Part of True North
September 3, 2023

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God’s Will for Your Life

Our understanding of God impacts our relationship with God.

“Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect…”
1 Peter 3:15

Certain parts of Theology are worth:

  • “Dying” For
  • Debating
  • Discussing

Systematic Theology is a discipline of Christian theology that formulates an orderly, rational, and coherent account of the doctrines of the Christian faith. It addresses issues such as what the Bible teaches about certain topics or what is true about God and His universe.

Theologically speaking…

  1. Do you affirm Calvinism or and Arminianism? Calvinism, Arminianism, unsure, something else?

If you answered not sure:

  1. Does God write your entire life script before you are born?

  2. Does God know every possible answer to every possible question?

  3. Does God change his mind?

Calvinism and Arminianism are two classical examples of systematic theology that attempt to explain the relationship between God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility in the matter of salvation.

Calvinism

5 Theological Points of a Classical Calvinist

1. Total Depravity: Total depravity is the belief that every aspect of humanity is tainted by sin, therefore humanity is unable to come to God on their own accord.

2. Unconditional Election: Unconditional election is the view that God elects individuals to salvation based entirely on His will, not on anything inherently worthy in the individual. God knows who will be saved and who won’t and there is nothing we can do about it.

3. Limited Atonement: Limited atonement is the belief that Jesus death and resurrection is sufficient for everyone but is limited to the elect, those who are predestined to be saved.

4. Irresistible Grace: Irresistible grace argues that when God calls a person to salvation, that person will inevitably come to salvation. They have no choice because God’s grace is irresistible, much like home cooked apple pie.

5. Perseverance of Saints: This is the belief that once you are saved, you are always saved regardless of what you do or don’t do with your faith. Calvinists say that those who are saved will persevere and those who walk away from God were never really saved.

“It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God’s mercy. For Scripture says to Pharaoh: “I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden. One of you will say to me: “Then why does God still blame us? For who is able to resist his will?”
Romans 9:16-19

Calvinism has its problems:

  1. If God is the all-powerful then how is God not the author of evil?
  2. Are people truly responsible for their sin if everything is predestined?
  3. If God controls all things why does he make us suffer?

Arminianism

5 Theological Points of an Arminian

1. Partial depravity: Partial depravity states that every aspect of humanity is tainted by sin, but not to the extent that human beings are unable to place faith in God of their own accord.

2. God is perfectly omniscient: God knows all past, present and future events. But just because he has the ability to know all events he doesn’t necessarily control every aspect of every situation. God is sovereign, but in a limited sense because humanity has freedom of choice.

3. Human beings are free in a libertarian sense: They can make their own decisions because they truly have free will. Arminianism says that an individual can resist the grace of God and therefore resist God call to salvation. God calls everyone into a relationship with him but many people resist and reject this call. And because humans have free will they can give up their salvation or even possibly lose it if they chose to ignore Gods will.

4. Distinction drawn between God’s ordaining and permissive will: This is a big one. Arminianism affirms that there is a distinction between God’s ordaining will and his permissive will. This means that its not God’s will when something bad happens, but he permits it to. Because he allows free will to exist he is willing to allow the consequences, whatever those consequences may be. This is not to say he won’t intervene at times for his reasons.

5. God’s providence is general rather than meticulous: Arminianism affirms that God doesn’t control every detail of every actual situation. He knows the big picture and is in control but he doesn’t dictate every little detail of every little thing.

“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing.”
Matthew 23:37

Arminianism has its problems:

  1. Is God omnipotent if he doesn’t stop suffering?
  2. If God can’t force things to happen then is he really all powerful?
  3. Is God is limited by free-will?

Open Theism

4 Theological Points of Open Theism

1. God is sovereign, but his sovereignty is limited to what is possible: God cannot change the future because it has not happened yet.

2. God doesn’t have certain omniscience of the future because the future isn’t real: God knows where the future is headed and has an impact on it but he cannot know all of the variables because they have not happened yet.

3. God is partially reliant on human/angelic creatures: God relies on people and angelic creatures to accomplish His will. He doesn’t force things to happen, he steers them by using his creation. Human beings are truly responsible for their actions and can change events.

4. God’s action is constrained by the complexities of the world he created: God set up the laws of gravity and doesn’t change them. And if he does it’s a not the normal. God knows sinful people will do sinful things and because he allowed sin to enter the world he has chosen to allow sinful people to do sinful things.

“Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”
Matthew 26:39

Open Theism has its problems:

  1. Is God limited by the constraints of human freedom and the complexities of the world he made?
  2. Why would God be willing to comfort but not change anything to ease our suffering?
  3. Is God always surprised at what is happening?

Biblical Theology

Shows the unfolding of God’s revelation as it progressed through history.
Biblical theology is dynamic not static. It follows the movement and process of God’s revelation in the Bible. Biblical theology seeks to understand the relationships between the various eras in God’s revealing activity recorded in the Bible. It deals with the progressive unfolding of truth.

Biblical theology helps us see the Bible as a unified whole, rather than as a collection of unrelated doctrinal points. In turn that helps us see that our lives, hopes, and plans for the future are all rooted in a much bigger story. Our story is part of the larger story of redemption–the story of creation, fall, redemption, and new creation. This helps us understand the bible as God’s story and how our story fits within the Word of God.

1. You can’t put God in a box.
Calvinism, Arminianism, Open Theism are all examples of systematic theology. Systematic theology tries to put God in a box. This is why I tend to lean toward what is called Biblical theology. Biblical Theology seeks to discover what the biblical writers, under divine guidance, believed, described, and taught in the context of their own times.

2. Free will is God’s will.
We have free will and God can intervene if he wants to. God can change circumstances in a supernatural way, that’s one reason why I pray. You can see examples of this everywhere in the scriptures.

3. We will never fully understand God
We live in the tension. Human beings are fully incapable at explaining the unexplainable. All I know is that dogs bark, babies cry, and the Vikings may win the Superbowl this year. That would be a miracle. I can’t explain gravity but I know it works. Nobody really knows how electricity works yet we use it all the time. I believe that God is all knowing and all loving and that evil exists.

Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world, he lived, died, and is risen. He is our living hope. Your perception of God needs to be accurate because it shapes your worldview and your worldview impacts everything you do and care about.