To write on this subject could be very easy. We could paint a word picture of a man in an Eastern street working his wheel with his feet: by his side a mound of wet clay. Spinning his wheel, he puts the clay on and his fingers dance magically up and down. Entranced, we watch a creation grow before our eyes, perhaps beautiful, perhaps ugly, for noble purposes, for ignoble purposes. We could tell how the potter has the influence on every part of the form of the vessel, and when he takes it to his oven how that certain clays will crack and be rejected, certain will be deformed, and others, the majority, will be as the potter wants. We could then show how we are all as clay in the hands of our Maker, both people and nations, and that God works with us as He wills.
We could extend such remarks at great length and yet, let us face up to it, we could evade the main issue altogether. Whenever we hear this subject discussed we say to ourselves, “Yes, I agree with everything said, but…” When we start delving here we are in deep waters, but can we agree to challenge ourselves with some of the difficulties?
First, we may say to ourselves that the analogy is imperfect. True we are dust of the ground like clay; but we are warm, sentient beings. We are capable of manifesting love or hate, greed or beneficence, pride or humility. We are human active men and women, one moment obeying, the next rebellious.
Secondly, if the control of our lives is as complete as that, then it is already known what we shall be; it is decided, and nothing we do can alter it. Whether we shall inherit eternal life is known; if we do action X tomorrow that also is known, and action Y the day after; and further acts that alienate us from God, those are known. Nothing we do now could avert them.
Thirdly, if some are chosen to be hardened, since they are mortals capable of feeling pain and anguish, is it not unjust that they should have to bear this burden?
Fourthly, does our own free will (if such a thing exists) play any part at all? It certainly does not in the relation of the clay and the potter.
Baldly stated, these are some of the things that have worried us and, let it be admitted, from a human logical standpoint they are almost unanswerable. Yet since we do not even deserve the breath we breathe, since we stand condemned to die from the moment of our birth, we can only wonder at God’s mercy in allowing us to ponder such questions. We are made to feel that all we can do is to cast ourselves on God’s mercy, (for known to God are all things from the beginning) … and hope for His grace.
But to answer some of our queries, we must look at the end of God’s plan and ask to what purpose is this foreknowledge of God working? Paul explains: “For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son;”1 that is, to be made like Jesus, called to inherit immortality. John adds; “It doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is:2 so that we are being shaped to assume a special relationship to God. The whole plan of Creation, the whole of the history of the world, God has allowed to happen with one end in view, that certain ones should become His sons and daughters. If it were not for this there would be no purpose in allowing the world to continue as it is with the sin, so obnoxious to God, abounding. This end, however, of calling men and women to this glory cannot be reached in any other way. Perhaps at the risk of being misunderstood and with the limitation words impose, we could put it this way. There is one thing God cannot do. He cannot make men and women love Him of their own freewill . . . but that is what the calling to be sons and daughters demands. To put a very poor analogy; we are parents; we plan a career for our children or we wish to put them in a certain way of life. We send them to the correct schools for that purpose, or we cause them to mix with a certain class of people, or we surround them with all they need, or we make them work. Knowing to an extent their propensities, we “destine” them for a certain state; but in spite of all we do we cannot make them love us, and wish to return the love we have spent on them.
We may pray and hope for it; we may do everything possible to make the growth of that love favorable, but it is not a thing we can make them do. So it is with God. Knowing our propensities, He can place us in circumstances that are most likely to produce that love of Him . . . He can predestinate us to glory . . . but we have got to play our part. These points, I think, are best understood by a consideration of two pattern men.
Of the first man, Adam, we may reasonably presume that God had this same end in view of creating a being who could share His glory. May we say God desired companionship; one to share the beauties of His Creation? Such a being, however, to give pleasure to his Creator, had to love God, and be grateful to Him for allowing him the priceless possession of life. That had to come from the Creator’s own Self. God could have created millions of perfect beings, but He sought one who could reciprocate His love of his own accord. To do this, He had to present that man Adam with a choice. The only way of cultivating the man’s love was by giving him the opportunity of doing his Creator’s will. God destined him for glory; He surrounded him with everything that was conducive to the growth of love . . . and yet Adam fell. He preferred to serve his own self rather than God; he loved himself rather than God. Such an one could not inherit eternal glory with profit either to himself or God.
Let us face up to it, there is here a point where human logic completely fails. From the human standpoint, it seems incompatible in predestinating Adam to glory that God should have given him a freewill, well knowing that he would fail. From the human point of view it would have seemed better not to have created him. The idea of God keeping from Himself the future is just abhorrent to the reason. But you see there is a way beyond human logic in which God gives free choice—and real free choice, yet foreknows the end, for it is the only method by which He can create beings who are going to love Him.
We see this in a consideration of the Lord Jesus. Sometimes, however, we are inclined to think that because God was his Father he had superior powers of resistance to temptation . . . . No! Jesus had a choice . . He was predestined to glory. All the prophets spoke of his suffering and the glory that would follow, but it was only in the resignation of his whole life to His Father’s will that he expressed his love of God. We may disagree, but it does seem possible that Jesus could have turned his back on the prophecies of His Father’s servants and become a second Adam that sinned. Instead he overcame sin and laid down a pattern of life for those who want to be sons and daughters of God. He showed that love of God was expressed in doing God’s will.
An interesting lesson, in addition, is to be found in this fact that Adam who had every material want satisfied and was in surroundings which to the human eye are most conducive to happiness, yet became the author of sorrow. Jesus, whose life was spent in the midst of adversity which none of us have known and who plumbed the depths of sorrow and suffering, found true happiness.
We are all in the same position. We are called to be a special people to God. We are predestinated to that end. But, because it is the only way, we have been given free will. Because we are not lifeless clay but sentient thinking men and women, those attributes of human existence, if allowed to be ruled by God’s will, will cause us to love God, and build something now that God will desire to have with Him for ever. And God will see to it that the very best circumstances possible are given for that growth. Says Paul:
“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them that are the called according to His purpose.”3
This is a test of our faith. It means that, whatever our circumstances or position, these have been chosen specifically by God to bring out the best in us. This may be a comfortable doctrine if we are well-to-do, a heartrending one if we are not ! We can take the matter further, and say that whatever bereavement, whatever affliction comes to us, it is the most likely to influence our will to love and serve God. The Father does all He can —everything to make circumstances bring His children to love Him. But a conviction like this calls for the faith that removes mountains. To resign ourselves to tragedy from the human standpoint as Job did, feeling certain it is for the bettering of ourselves, is indeed to show great faith.
To a very limited extent I think we have resolved our two first difficulties. that free will is essential to the working out of God’s purpose, and that all our human faculties are necessary to that end. The third difficulty remains, or rather it is bound up with another . . . this matter of choosing one to glory and another to dishonor. Paul cites the case of Pharaoh:
“For the Scripture saith unto Pharaoh, even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might show My power in thee, and that My Name might be declared throughout all the earth.”4
From time to time in the bringing out of God’s purpose it is necessary that evil shall occur; it is necessary that this should occur through the agency of evil men and nations. There is a tendency to question whether this is fair. Subject to correction, I think we may say this, that no man who evinced a desire to serve God in sincerity ever had his heart hardened. Our minds go to Pharaoh and perhaps to the Pharisees who by worldly standards were religious men, and Jesus said this to the latter:
“All these things are done in parables: that seeing they may see, and not perceive; and hearing they may hear, and not understand; lest at any time they should be converted, and their sins should be forgiven them.”5
Why did God predestinate these men for destruction to the extent of keeping the Gospel from them? This is the answer: the thing that God hates is a mixture of His worship and self-service. . . those who serve God with their lips and in some of their acts, yet in their hearts hate Him and because of their nature will never do otherwise. In other words, those to whom, if every allowance is made, and every circumstance favourable, those whom God in His foreknowledge knows would never serve Him : those are the ones He uses to be instruments for His purpose. He hardens them; He does not raise them up hardened; but when He sees men such as Ahab’s prophets, Pharaoh, or a people whose heart is waxed gross—those who cannot be changed, then He says to them, “Since you never will serve Me, I will use you.”
Finally, we turn to another point, that of those who are fore-ordained. Why are they so chosen? We can only look at the problem again through the eyes of Scripture in the writings of Paul. In Romans, chapters 9 and 10, he is writing of the pre-ordination of a people. Why was it God said of Israel, “You only of all peoples have I known”? It was not for any virtue inherent in them—that was the delusion of the Pharisees. We suggest it is like the potter who, on seeing clay of good texture, destines it for a noble vessel. God by divine foreknowledge, while this nation was still in the loins of Abraham, knew that they alone had the potentialities inherent that would produce men and women capable of coming to glory. Whatever a man’s views, he must admit that in practice this has been so. The Jewish Nation in its time has produced the finest men from God’s point of view. God knew that the clay was capable of producing a good vessel, just as in our previous point He knew that the material of Egypt could not possibly do so.
That is the only way we can view ourselves. God has selected a man here . . . a woman there, or a family, not for any virtue they may possess, but because He sees in them certain qualities which under the influence of His word will produce sons and daughters for glory.
There is nothing to be proud of in this, but to be humble and fearful, because to whom much is given much is demanded.
“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”6
These then, are some of the thoughts that occur in the consideration of the potter working at his clay. Speaking for myself it produces a reaction almost of terrified humility, for this free will which God has given to us is very capable of leading to our own destruction. We can, therefore, only wonder at God’s forbearance that He has allowed men to have it so long. As we meditate, we see something further—that freewill is not sufficient; we must be helped by God. Adam could have turned to Him in his moment of temptation; he chose not to do so. . . we can and we must ask God to help us to submit not only our lives but our wills to Him. Then we can only cast ourselves on His mercy and try to cultivate our love for Him.
The Solution