This Sunday, in the Christian Essentials class, we’ll be covering the What is Election? chapter. In my preparation for the class, I came across a great resource that deals with an issue that is at the heart of the debate over God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility as it relates to the often divisive issue of election.
Are There Two Wills in God? Divine Election and God’s Desire for All to Be Saved is a chapter that John Piper contributed to Still Sovereign: Contemporary Perspectives on Election, Foreknowledge, edited by Thomas Schreiner and Bruce Ware.
It is a long chapter but well worth the time to read. For those in the Christian Essentials class, it will be great preparation for our discussion on Sunday.
Here is Dr. Piper’s opening paragraph…
My aim in this chapter is to show from Scripture that the simultaneous existence of God’s will for “all persons to be saved” (1 Tim. 2:4) and his will to elect unconditionally those who will actually be saved is not a sign of divine schizophrenia or exegetical confusion. A corresponding aim is to show that unconditional election therefore does not contradict biblical expressions of God’s compassion for all people, and does not nullify sincere offers of salvation to everyone who is lost among all the peoples of the world. Read on…
“Are there two wills in God?”
Yes and no. 🙄
(Hey, it’s always a new one for somebody.)
Piper’s conclusion that God’s desire to save all is restrained by his desire to elect some and condemn the rest is very, of course, Edwardsian…and biblical. We as humans often have two or more desires that may seem to conflict, yet we choose the stronger desire without neglecting the existence of the weaker desire, and we do so without seeing a moral dilemma.
For example, I desire to spend time alone with my wife. Yet I also strongly desire to spend time with my wife and my son. Nevertheless, I will get a babysitter to watch my son so my wife and I can go on a date. I do not somehow feel as though I have neglected my son. Rather, I am expressing the fullness of my character as a husband and a father.
In a similar way (and I know the analogy breaks down eventually) God expresses the fullness of His character as both Savior and Judge by saving some and condemning others while not neglecting the existence of a relatively weaker desire to see all people saved. Once again, it seems as if we are dealing with an issue of God’s displaying the fullness of His glory.
“What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory–even us whom he has called” (Rom 9:22-24)
Ultimately God’s goal in saving and in condemning is to make His glory known. That is is His strongest desire to which all other desires (which when compared are relatively weaker) must submit. And it is a joyous and glorious thing!
So, Will, how did you stumble across our website – or do you know someone in these here parts??
I was searching for reformed Baptist churches in GA. When I came across Grace’s website, I was thrilled! I talked to Kevin Hosner on the phone last week and had a great conversation with him. I’m excited about what God’s doing there!
This chapter definitely helped organize my thinking regarding God’s seemingly opposing wills that are contained in the Bible. It was well written and well explained.
I have always struggled with the apparent contradictions of God’s will, desires, and commands. When I finally got to the closing section of the chapter, it occurred to me I had heard the concept of the two lenses before, but stated differently. I’ve heard it said artists help us understand life and our world, so I offer this lyric from Steven Curtis Chapman’s God is God:
But I will continue to seek understanding, as God permits!
Stevie C. gets it right most of the time – of course, as long as two or more are gathered together in His name….
🙂