In My Utmost for His Highest, June 7th devotional, Oswald Chambers remarks that, ‘The disciple who abides in Jesus is the will of God, and his apparent free choices are God’s foreordained decrees.’
This is, of course, Calvinist theology, which raises the question of freedom of choice or predestination. Does God predestine our very steps or do we actually have free will? My quick and dirty answer to that question is ‘yes’.
After reading the above devotional and while I was praying, I saw in my mind’s eye a complex maze with only one way from the outside to the centre. Then it seemed God was saying to me that that’s not how He works.
In God’s economy there are myriad ways to reach the centre. God is so huge that He is not limited to accomplishing a goal by a single method. He can provide us with numerous choices and still accomplish His plan for our lives and those affected by us.
The ultimate goal is ‘oneness’ with God – we will not be fully prepared for eternity otherwise. If that is not our goal it should be. But is that predestination? Not really, many people die in their sins, which is all one needs as proof that we are not all predestined to a single outcome. God would prefer that none perish but many do every day. Also, many Christians are happy just to get one foot into Heaven and are not willing to suffer the self-destruction and self-denial necessary to be one with God.
What happens to such Christians? Watchman Nee suggested that they would be limited in what they can do in Eternity. John Wesley believed that one would suffer through illness or some other affliction before they die until they have completely surrendered every part of themselves to the Lord. C.S. Lewis wrote that he suspected such people would undergo some unimaginable process between death and Eternity.
Whatever happens, it will cost us something, perhaps something very significant, to be satisfied with mere salvation when oneness with God is the real prize.
This is, of course, Calvinist theology, which raises the question of freedom of choice or predestination. Does God predestine our very steps or do we actually have free will? My quick and dirty answer to that question is ‘yes’.
After reading the above devotional and while I was praying, I saw in my mind’s eye a complex maze with only one way from the outside to the centre. Then it seemed God was saying to me that that’s not how He works.
In God’s economy there are myriad ways to reach the centre. God is so huge that He is not limited to accomplishing a goal by a single method. He can provide us with numerous choices and still accomplish His plan for our lives and those affected by us.
The ultimate goal is ‘oneness’ with God – we will not be fully prepared for eternity otherwise. If that is not our goal it should be. But is that predestination? Not really, many people die in their sins, which is all one needs as proof that we are not all predestined to a single outcome. God would prefer that none perish but many do every day. Also, many Christians are happy just to get one foot into Heaven and are not willing to suffer the self-destruction and self-denial necessary to be one with God.
What happens to such Christians? Watchman Nee suggested that they would be limited in what they can do in Eternity. John Wesley believed that one would suffer through illness or some other affliction before they die until they have completely surrendered every part of themselves to the Lord. C.S. Lewis wrote that he suspected such people would undergo some unimaginable process between death and Eternity.
Whatever happens, it will cost us something, perhaps something very significant, to be satisfied with mere salvation when oneness with God is the real prize.
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