Does Man Ever Choose God?
We’ve all heard the statement (or something like it). The vast majority of people in the world believe in god in some form or fashion. But is that really true? For instance, if I told you that I believe that God is a fat man; a fat man that lives in the back of a pizza parlor eating pizzas all day long. And I tell you that if you eat two million slices of pepperoni and anchovy pizzas in your lifetime that you will go to heaven and sit next to him in the back of the pizza parlor for eternity. I ask you this question: In that scenario, do I really believe in God? My point is that believing in God is different than make-believing in a god of our choosing. And so, my real question is this: Left to our own devices, would we ever choose the real God? While some of us want to believe by our own free will that we would eventually choose Him, the truth is that we don’t, won’t, and never will.
When I first began to evaluate the five key points of Calvinism, more appropriately titled the Doctrines of Grace, free will was one of the first obstacles I ran into. I had been raised to believe that God was sitting there, waiting, hoping that we would believe. Obviously, if Calvinism is true, my perceptions were entirely wrong. And further, if Calvinism is true, then God does not choose everyone. And thus, I had larger questions rolling around in my head about how to best answer that dilemma. And yet, there is something about Calvinism that was attractive. Unlike much of what comes out of evangelical pulpits these days, the preachers that were Calvinists were the ones preaching with authority, holding up the Bible as truly inspired and something to be treasured, speaking about the wonders of the cross, and finally, proclaiming both the absolute truths of the Bible and at the same time, the mysteries of the magnificent God that is beyond our understanding. It was not the preachers themselves that drew me, but the foundational truths that shook me.
And so there I was. My notion of free will had been shaken and I needed to know if Calvinism was true. And so I had to revisit the idea of whether we actually in and of ourselves choose God. In fact, I had to evaluate whether or not I myself actually chose God. To fully understand the predicament that I was in, you must understand that I was raised in a church. However, despite the outward religion, I was not particularly committed on the inside. In fact, I held up outward appearances quite well without ever being truly changed on the inside. By the time I was in my late teens and early twenties, I had made a hodgepodge of my religiosity, combining standard secular thoughts, beliefs, and culture with evangelical exterior and lingo. I did not read my Bible. I was not transformed. I went to church on occasion. And yet, I believed that I was saved. I was a Pharisee.
So, here is the truth. We as humans are incapable of coming to God. In John 6:44, Jesus makes clear that only those that the Father draws will come to him. Why? Paul explains why in Romans 3:9-20. There we learn that we all are condemned by our breaking of the law and that not a single one of us does good. And further, Paul quotes the psalmist, who states that we do not seek God. Paul makes clear that we all are under the same condemnation. In such a condition of total depravity, we cannot come to God because our love of sin will never allow us to choose God. Left to our own devices, we always choose sin. We choose ourselves over others. We choose sexual desires over moral purity. We choose anger over love. We choose lies over truth. We choose the way that seems right to us, but that way leads to death.
Consider John 6:63-65:
63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But there are some of you who do not believe.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.) 65 And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.”
If you notice here, Jesus links unbelief back to his earlier statement in this chapter, saying again that no one can come to him unless it is granted by the Father. The Father sovereignly chooses who will believe and who will not. And this is why arguments against Calvinism ultimately fail. This is also why the Bible can say that “whoever” believes will be saved and at the same time proclaims that we will not believe on our own. “Belief” is a free gift from God by His own choosing. And so the final answer to the question that we started with (Does man ever choose God?) is no.
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