Understanding God's Desire for Salvation and Human Free Will
Devotional
Sermon Summary
Bible Study Guide
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"God desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. Now does that conflict with God's omnipotent providential effective bringing some people and not all people out of bondage and blindness and death into salvation through Jesus Christ? If he only does that for some, can this still be true? That's the question. Is there a conflict, or are they somehow coherent?" [00:01:14]
"Most Bible-believing Christians agree that the solution is not that everybody is saved. That would be universalism or universal salvation, and it would discount the reality of hell and all that Jesus talked about it. So that's not the solution. So there must be something else when it says God desires all people to be saved and yet all people are not saved." [00:03:56]
"Almost everyone agrees that between the desire that all be saved and the fact that all are not saved, something is happening, some conviction or some commitment of God is happening that keeps him from doing this, keeps him from saving everybody. And there are two different answers to that question, and the question is which of these two answers is biblical." [00:04:24]
"The answer that I don't think is right says God is committed to giving man ultimate self-determination, free will, ultimate self-determination in the moment of conversion so that at that moment, God having done everything he can do at that moment of conversion, the decisive power of whether a person goes into faith or into hell lies with the person, not with God." [00:04:56]
"What keeps God from going from desiring all people to be saved, which is true, to not saving all but giving repentance to some, is God's commitment to manifest the fullness of his justice and mercy and wisdom and the whole panorama of all of his perfections, which in his wisdom he believes will be more fully manifest for the enjoyment of his people forever if he does it this way." [00:06:07]
"Let me close with this exhortation. There are three things to keep in mind when you face this issue, namely that God grants repentance, Second Timothy 2:25. God grants repentance and not to everyone. Three things: one, none of us deserves the gift of repentance. God owes us nothing. We are treasonous, we are rebellious, we are hard-hearted, we belittle God every day by preferring other things to him." [00:07:07]
"It is sheer grace that anybody is saved, that God would be pleased to not just throw the whole creation away and start over with a new humanity. Instead, he sends his son, bears our guilt, saves millions and millions of people. If any of us is saved, it is owing to pure, sheer, glorious grace." [00:07:47]
"It is not double talk to say that God desires all people to be saved and he doesn't save although he can. That's not double talk. We know it's not double talk because the Bible talks like this over and over again about God's commanding and desiring and what he actually does." [00:08:18]
"For example, God commands us not to murder, right? He desires us not to murder. He commands it, thou shalt not murder in Exodus 20, and God willed and ordained, planned and brought about the murder of his son, and there would have been no salvation without the pre-ordained murder of his son." [00:08:42]
"It is not inconsistent, it is not double talk, it is not divine schizophrenia. It is what the Bible teaches about the way God works, and if we are tempted to criticize God for his way of saving sinners instead of praising him for salvation, I think we should put our hands on our mouths and pray for more light." [00:09:29]
"God's commitment to manifesting His justice, mercy, and wisdom is paramount, and His decisions are rooted in His perfect understanding of what will bring Him the most glory. This understanding calls us to humility and gratitude, recognizing the depth of God's grace and the mystery of His will." [00:06:25]
"Repentance is a gift granted by God, not something we can achieve on our own. Recognizing our undeserving nature and the sheer grace involved in salvation should lead us to humility and gratitude for God's mercy." [00:07:22]
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"Most Bible-believing Christians agree that the solution is not that everybody is saved. That would be universalism or universal salvation, and it would discount the reality of hell and all that Jesus talked about it. So that's not the solution. So there must be something else when it says God desires all people to be saved and yet all people are not saved." [00:03:56]
"Almost everyone agrees that between the desire that all be saved and the fact that all are not saved, something is happening, some conviction or some commitment of God is happening that keeps him from doing this, keeps him from saving everybody. And there are two different answers to that question, and the question is which of these two answers is biblical." [00:04:24]
"The answer that I don't think is right says God is committed to giving man ultimate self-determination, free will, ultimate self-determination in the moment of conversion so that at that moment, God having done everything he can do at that moment of conversion, the decisive power of whether a person goes into faith or into hell lies with the person, not with God." [00:04:56]
"What keeps God from going from desiring all people to be saved, which is true, to not saving all but giving repentance to some, is God's commitment to manifest the fullness of his justice and mercy and wisdom and the whole panorama of all of his perfections, which in his wisdom he believes will be more fully manifest for the enjoyment of his people forever if he does it this way." [00:06:07]
"Let me close with this exhortation. There are three things to keep in mind when you face this issue, namely that God grants repentance, Second Timothy 2:25. God grants repentance and not to everyone. Three things: one, none of us deserves the gift of repentance. God owes us nothing. We are treasonous, we are rebellious, we are hard-hearted, we belittle God every day by preferring other things to him." [00:07:07]
"It is sheer grace that anybody is saved, that God would be pleased to not just throw the whole creation away and start over with a new humanity. Instead, he sends his son, bears our guilt, saves millions and millions of people. If any of us is saved, it is owing to pure, sheer, glorious grace." [00:07:47]
"It is not double talk to say that God desires all people to be saved and he doesn't save although he can. That's not double talk. We know it's not double talk because the Bible talks like this over and over again about God's commanding and desiring and what he actually does." [00:08:18]
"For example, God commands us not to murder, right? He desires us not to murder. He commands it, thou shalt not murder in Exodus 20, and God willed and ordained, planned and brought about the murder of his son, and there would have been no salvation without the pre-ordained murder of his son." [00:08:42]
"It is not inconsistent, it is not double talk, it is not divine schizophrenia. It is what the Bible teaches about the way God works, and if we are tempted to criticize God for his way of saving sinners instead of praising him for salvation, I think we should put our hands on our mouths and pray for more light." [00:09:29]
"God's commitment to manifesting His justice, mercy, and wisdom is paramount, and His decisions are rooted in His perfect understanding of what will bring Him the most glory. This understanding calls us to humility and gratitude, recognizing the depth of God's grace and the mystery of His will." [00:06:25]
"Repentance is a gift granted by God, not something we can achieve on our own. Recognizing our undeserving nature and the sheer grace involved in salvation should lead us to humility and gratitude for God's mercy." [00:07:22]
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