What Then of Free Will?

As a member of the Ministry Committee of the Northwest District of the Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ (LCMC), it was my pleasure yesterday to participate in the interviewing of two prospective members of our clergy roster. In this process I encountered a new first principle, viz. the Sovereignty of God. The argument would proceed that if God is truly sovereign He must know ultimately who will be saved, whose name is written in the book of life. With a selective use of scripture one can then develop John Calvin's view of double predestination. Because of His sovereign nature God must know in advance who will be saved and who will be damned. Our's is merely to work out our salvation in fear and trembling.

My recollection of seminary training in the 1960's focused more heavily on Christology and the Atonement than on Theology. Christ is our primary window into understanding the nature of the Father. As Christians, our commission issues from the words of Christ as recorded in Matthew 28:19-20, Go therefore and make disciples of all nations... And further in Paul's first letter to Timothy 2:3-4 ...God our savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

We, in Lutheran circles, know of the amicable and contentious relationship between Erasmus of Rotterdam and Martin Luther. Erasmus held that the individual must have a hand, however small, in choosing to have faith. In attacking Luther, Erasmus issued his A Disquisition on Free Will in February 1524. In it he declared the teaching of the bondage of the will to be among the useless doctrines we can do without.

In Bondage of the Will, Luther provided a different view. In regard to his salvation, there is no good work that sinful man can do. While Erasmus would argue that the deed defines the doer, Luther would counter that the doer defines the deed.

Luther did defend the freedom of the will with regard to daily life, but when it came to saving faith it was a gift. For by grace have you been saved through faith and not by works of the Law, so that no one can boast. It is the free gift of God (Romans 1:17 & 3:21-24 paraphrase).

For Luther this finds its clearest expression in his explanation to the third article of the Apostle's Creed. I believe that I cannot by my own understanding or effort even believe in Jesus Christ my Lord or come to Him, but the Holy Spirit has called me through the gospel...

Precisely because God the Father is Sovereign, Lord of All, He is neither on trial here nor does he require our defense. Our's is to wrestle with the shape of His shadow as he passes by. We are like the committee of blind men attempting to describe the elephant according to each part they were holding. Theologically and Christologically all of the parts must be kept in tension in order to have the fullest picture.

As Luther would ask, What does this have to do with daily living? Everything! For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I shall know fully just as I also have been fully known (I Corinthians 13:12).

Sola fide!
Joe