Deutero Q

I have been preparing a Bible study on the topic of God's two wills and have benefited greatly from John Piper's work on this subject. (See the link at the end of this article.) On the one hand, there are places in Scripture that refer to the universal saving will of God. First Timothy 2:4, for example, speaks of God wanting all men to be saved.

On the other hand, Scripture also teaches the limited nature of God's saving will. The Bible describes Jesus as: justifying many rather than all (Isaiah 53:11); dying for His sheep (John 10:15); and dying for His church (Ephesians 5:25). In this regard, consider the words of Reformed theologian Charles Hodge: "When mankind is divided into two classes, the Church and the world, the friends and the enemies of God, the sheep and the goats, whatever is affirmed distinctively of the one class is implicitly denied of the other.... Every assertion that Christ died for a people is a denial of the doctrine that He died equally for all men."

Theologians have used different terms to describe the two wills of God, including: decretive will and preceptive will; secret will and revealed will; sovereign will and moral will; efficient will and permissive will; etc.

Does the Bible contradict itself? In a word, no. The words of I. Howard Marshall, a New Testament scholar in the Arminian tradition, can help us here: "We must certainly distinguish between what God would like to see happen and what he actually does will to happen, and both of these things can be spoken of as God's will."

The Bible says in Ezekiel 18:23 that God does not delight in the death of the wicked. Conversely, we read in Deuteronomy 28:63 and 1 Samuel 2:25 that it was God's will to destroy and even put people to death.

To be sure, God is not schizophrenic and the Bible is not a book of contradictions. Rather, Scripture teaches that there are two wills of God. The death of Christ at the hands of sinful men gives further evidence of this: "This man was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross" (Acts 2:23). That Judas betrayed Jesus was clearly a morally evil act. And yet God used the evil deeds of Judas and others to fulfill the divine plan (Acts 4:27-28).

It seems to me that when we look at Scripture (and all of history, too) against the backdrop of divine sovereignty, much of what seems to be unclear comes into clearer focus. After all, the Bible testifies that God is working "...out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will" (Ephesians 1:11).

--Deutero Q

# posted by Deutero Q @ 1:48 PM