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Isaiah, Prophet of Salvation, Book 6, part 22

The Bible speaks of the will of God and the will of man, but nowhere does it use the term “free will.” Men adopted the idea of free will after sin entered the world. The “old man” (as Paul would call naturally-born people) was self-centered and desired self-determination apart from God. The old man imagined that salvation was by the will of man, forgetting God’s sovereignty. Such people have not comprehended John 1:13 and many other Scripture passages.

The Old Covenant pattern of salvation, which is set forth in Exodus 19, is that man is saved by his own vow to be obedient. Once saved by his own vow/decision, he would then pray that God would help him to fulfill that vow so that he could live a godly life. The same method of salvation is evident today in most church teaching.

Yet we know that the Old Covenant cannot save anyone unless they are truly able to keep their vows and be perfectly obedient. I know of no one who has ever been saved by that method. Those who are honest can be severely tormented by the knowledge of imperfection.

We ought to reorient our thinking in accordance with the New Covenant, where God vows to save mankind. He alone is able to keep His vows. He alone is able to lead us by the right path of salvation, a few in this age and the rest later. In the end He will succeed and not fail. When we have faith in His promises, vows, oaths, and covenants, we will be the children of Abraham who follow his example.

Authority

Rather than claiming “free will,” we ought to be focusing upon exercising our authority. Authority is authorized by a higher power. Proper authority does not usurp the power of the sovereign God but remains subservient to it. Authority is not freedom to act as one wishes but is subject to the will of the Sovereign who gave that authority to men.

We must pray that God will impart to us the knowledge of His will, so that we may exercise our authority properly. That is where our own will is relevant. But to claim “free will” implies that we are yet functioning by Old Covenant faith. Old Covenant prayers of faith say, “God, help me fulfill my Old Covenant vow of obedience.” New Covenant prayers of faith say, “God, show me Your will and accomplish Your purpose in my life, for it is ‘not I but Christ’ who lives in me” (Galatians 2:20). In other words, I have replaced my “free will” with Christ’s “free will.”

Free will was an attempt from the beginning to usurp God’s sovereignty, making us the masters of our own destiny. When you add up all the “free will” in every man, God is left with very little sovereignty, and men tend to resent it when God overrules men’s will, as if the Creator has no right to do so. But we ought not to feel violated but comforted by this. Our inadequacy is overcome by the adequacy of our heavenly Father who loves us.

God has taken the responsibility of correcting all wrongs that began with the sin of Adam. If this were left to man, it would be impossible to accomplish this. For this reason, it is usually assumed that only a few will be saved. God may coax or bribe men to follow Him, they think, but God has made it a sacred law not to mess with “free will.” Such theology is certain to be a failure. For this reason, not many have understood how God could possibly save all of mankind.

God gave Israel the Old Covenant in order to make it clear that man cannot be saved by the power of his own will, no matter how sincere he was in vowing obedience. When its failure was fully evident, God then sent the Messiah as the Mediator of the New Covenant to show us the only successful path to salvation.

Yet we should understand that the New Covenant has been with us from the beginning to counter Old Covenant teaching. God’s covenant with Noah was a promise to save the whole earth (Genesis 9). God’s covenant with Abraham was to bless all families of the earth (Genesis 12:3). These covenants were decreed long before Israel made their Old Covenant vow at Mount Sinai. Both types of covenant ran concurrently, and those who believed that God was able to fulfill those vows were the overcomers in their day—the remnant of grace.

Did Jesus have free will? Jesus Himself said that He did nothing of His own initiative (John 5:30; 8:28). In other words, He exercised the free will of His heavenly Father. That is our own goal as well. When we are fully in the image of God, we will cease to usurp God’s sovereignty and we will no longer think in terms of having a free will. Instead, we will think only in terms of exercising authority properly.

The day will come when we are perfected and our minds are renewed. Then we will be like Jesus, doing only what we see our Father do. At that point alone will we have free will, because then our will and the will of God will be one. Being in full agreement, God will then entrust us with free will, so to speak. In the end, all authority over other men will be irrelevant, for all will know God from the least to the greatest, and all will know the will of God instinctively, or by nature. The New Covenant says in Hebrews 8:11,

¹¹ And they shall not teach everyone his fellow citizens, and everyone his brother, saying, “Know the Lord,” for all will know Me, from the least to the greatest of them.

Authority itself will be irrelevant, once God has established harmony in the earth, where all are in full agreement with Him. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:24,

²⁴ Then comes the end, when he hands over the kingdom to the God and Father, when He has abolished all rule and all authority and power.

Authority is important in the age of sin, but it is temporary. It is even more temporary when we, as believers, give it up in favor of God’s will. I do not want free will, because I see it as an utter failure in bringing me into the image of God.

The Rain from Heaven

Isaiah 45:8 says,

⁸ Drip down, O heavens, from above. And let the clouds pour down righteousness; let the earth open up and salvation bear fruit, and righteousness spring up with it. I, the Lord, have created it.

The prophet, speaking only what he has heard from his heavenly Father, compares the rain from heaven to the righteousness that God is bringing to the earth by His Spirit. The origin and source of righteousness is God in heaven. Without such “rain,” it is impossible to “bear fruit” unto salvation. Thus, God claims to “have created it.” The Holy Spirit descends from heaven and is not generated by men. Whatever comes from heaven is sent by the will of God, not of men.

God takes full credit for the origin of righteousness, while men normally think it begins with their own will. We need to think in terms of the earth responding to heaven. If we are called by God, our will responds to God, even as the earth’s vegetation responds to the rain from heaven. It is not that our will has been set aside, but rather that it has come into divine order.

It is only when God speaks that faith is possible, for “faith comes by hearing” (Romans 10:17). But it is the mercy and kindness of God (i.e., His will) that leads men to repent (Romans 2:4). Without the decision that God has made, we would remain in darkness and blindness, differing little from the brute beasts. We are helpless to bring forth fruit without the rain from heaven.

The Potter’s Will

Isaiah 45:9 says,

⁹ Woe to the one who quarrels with his Maker—an earthenware vessel among the vessels of earth! Will the clay say to the potter, “What are you doing?” Or the thing you are making say, “He has no hands”?

Adam was made of the dust of the earth (Genesis 2:7). He was a vessel of earth, formed by the great Potter into the shape of a man. Neither Adam nor his descendants can form themselves into a vessel fit for the Kingdom. The Creator has the right to make whatever He chooses by the power of His own will. Paul affirms in Romans 9:18-21,

¹⁸ So then He has mercy on whom He desires [thelema, “wills”], and He hardens whom He desires [“wills”]. ¹⁹ You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will [boulema, “plan”]? ²⁰ On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God. The thing molded will not say to the molder, “Why did you make me like this,” will it? ²¹ Or does not the potter have a right over the clay to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use?

Paul’s viewpoint was taken directly from Isaiah 45:9. He compares God to a Potter and man to the clay. It is the will of God that shapes clay, and the will of the clay is not relevant except afterward, when it is being used according to its purpose and calling. God enjoys the right of a Creator which we do not have. This is a natural right that only God possesses, although we ourselves have rights whenever we form or shape what God has created into a useful vessel. This is a basic law of labor rights. We own the labor that we expend in shaping something.

Hence also, it is absurd for the clay to question a potter or to insult the potter saying, “He is handicapped,” i.e., “He does not know what he is doing.” Isaiah understood well that carnal men tend to think that God is incompetent and has failed in His creation project. In fact, that is the core belief of Luciferianism, which believes that the great angelic rebellion is a just cause against an incompetent and evil God. This is how they justify their decision to follow “Lucifer,” thinking that they can win the war against God Himself. It is only when they encounter the power of God, usually through one of the sons of God, that they are enlightened.

Unfortunately, only a few Christians are able to demonstrate the power and love of God to them. I pray that more sons of God will come to know who they really are so that they may exercise the authority that they have been given.