Inclination, Sovereignty, and Sanctification

There are many topics within the theological realm that are seen to be of a purely academic nature with little bearing on everyday Christian life. For the lay person, the distinctions between infra and supralapsarianism hold little meaning, and probably rightly so. But it might be that in simply passing over many theological topics as discussions for the impractical hermits of the ivory chapels or the bare halls of seminaries, many good-hearted Christians are depriving themselves of truths and glories of God and His creation that are of great benefit to their everyday, practical, earthy Christian life. The nature of God's sovereignty and man's responsibility, specifically in personal choice or will, is almost definitely one of those doctrines that is widely neglected by evangelicals, likely because of the sometimes too (i.e. sinful) passionate disagreements or even bitterness between those of us waving the Calvinist, Arminian, or what-have-you flag. In light of this, it is our purpose to discuss the nature of man's choice (admittedly from a Reformed perspective), and then to see how an understanding of choice might benefit our daily Christian walk in the area of sanctification- or growing in Godliness.

When discussing matters of God's sovereignty and human responsibility, there are numerous opportunities for further questions, side issues, and winding trails of logical reasoning to creep in to the discourse. Much of our time could get lost in the details of how God might create a world that allows for evil, how man might be held responsible for sinful choices and how this could be possible if God foreknew and foreordained all that has happened or will happen, why God might draw some humans to Himself and not others, and other similar matters. However these are topics beyond our scope, and so for brevity's sake our theological focus will be relatively narrow. Our task is to establish only two truths; that we do what we are most inclined to do or what we see to be of the greatest good (or agreeable), and that God clearly has a direct hand in shaping the heart that determines our choices.

Actions and Inclinations

Just one example in Scripture of people choosing to do that which their heart has inclined them to do can be found in Exodus in the building of the tabernacle. This traveling dwelling place of God came with very specific blueprints, and thus Moses needed very skilled and willing servants and givers under his care if he was to lead in this building project. Fortunately for him the LORD provided the workers and funds necessary. In his address to the people- or his fundraising speech, so-to-speak- Moses appeals to the hearts of the Israelites in casting a vision for tabernacle construction; "Whoever is of a generous heart, let him bring the LORD's contribution" (Ex. 35:5 ESV). It seems that Moses understood that if people were to give to the project, then their heart needed to lead them to do so. To put it another way, their inclination to give must have superseded any challenging inclinations to not give. The story of the tabernacle building continues using similar language. "And they came, everyone whose heart stirred him, and everyone whose spirit moved him, and brought the LORD's contribution..." (Ex. 35:21). "So they came, both men and women. All who were of a willing heart..." (35:22). "All the women whose hearts stirred them to use their skill spun the goat's hair" (35:26). "All the men and women... whose heart moved them to bring anything... brought it as a freewill offering to the LORD" (35:29). "And Moses called... everyone whose heart stirred him up to come to do the work" (36:2). It is clear from this section of Scripture that our actions and choices are derived from what is in our hearts; that is we choose and do what is in accord with our greatest desires and inclinations. To be sure, this is partly why Jesus says that our greatest commandment is to "love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength" (Mk. 12:30). If we are to actively obey the teachings of God, our hearts must be inclined to Him and His teachings.

But does this mean that we necessarily do what is in accord with our greatest inclination? Jesus himself seems to answer in the affirmative. In Luke 6:43-45, Jesus explains that just as figs and grapes cannot be picked from thornbushes and brambles, so good works cannot come from a bad heart. A thornbush will always produce thorns, and a fig tree will always produce figs. In the same way, if our hearts are evil and we desire evil, then we will not and cannot produce good. But if our hearts are inclined to good, then we will do good. Our choices are determined by our hearts. Some hold that we have libertarian free will, which is to say that in any given choice we can choose A, B, C, D, or E and so on, and if we are given again the exact same circumstances (i.e. our inclinations are just the same as in the first case) we are free to choose either A, B, C, D, or E without any constraint. According to them we do not have to and will not always choose C, for example, if all things are equal. So according to them if we are at a restaurant we are free to pick any item off the menu; we might choose chicken strips, for example. And if we were to rewind the scene and play it again, this time we might choose the club sandwich. In each completely identical scene, the outcome might be different even though the contributing factors (motivations, inclinations) are identical. But this view completely neglects the factors that play into our choices, for if we can choose the chicken strips, the club sandwich, the salad, the burger, or anything under the sun, and if in each instance the circumstances are exactly identical, then there is no factor or set of factors that truly determined any specific choice because any choice could have occurred. This is saying that our choices have no true cause or motivation, which is to say that our choices are arbitrary and pointless. However, it seems in this text that Jesus is telling us that our choices and actions (i.e. the fruit we bear) are determined by the state of our hearts. So if we are at that same restaurant and our favorite food is chicken strips, then we will always choose chicken strips. On the other hand, if someone tells us that the club sandwich is especially good, that added factor might influence our desires and we might choose the club sandwich because that is now our greatest inclination. It is easy to see how complex our choices rapidly become when multiple factors are tabulated and assessed. In the same line of thought, if our hearts hate chicken strips or we are vegetarians, then we will never choose chicken strips because our hearts will not allow us to do so. Likewise we will not do evil if our hearts are not inclined toward evil. Through a familiar passage we learn a profound truth; that the nature and character of our heart determines what we produce, or what we do.

However, a vegetarian might choose the chicken strips if that vegetarian is forced at gunpoint to do so; their will is bound by an outside factor and the choice is made for them. In this situation, they no longer have the freedom to choose according to their greatest desire of keeping a vegetarian diet. For humanity, our great constraint is sin. Because of the fall, we can only and always do evil unless God Himself intervenes, and in fact we have no desire to do good as we are slaves to sin (Rom. 3:9-12, 6:17-22). This is the doctrine of total depravity, and this is what wars against true human freedom. This is why Ezekiel 11:19 and 36:26 tell us that God will put a new heart and a new spirit in his people that they may walk in His statutes, and it is why Jesus tells Nicodemus that he must be born again if he is to enter the kingdom of God (Jn. 3:3-6). If we are to be given true freedom to choose good instead of only the freedom to do evil, we must come out from under the curse of sin. Our slavery to sin must be overcome by the coercion of God who puts in us a new heart and desire. In Christ we are set truly free, not to choose contrary to our hearts but rather we are given the freedom to choose according to our new and greatest inclination to glorify God, without the constraint and coercion of sin because Christ has conquered sin for us (Rom. 8:1-8).

God's Involvement in Choice

What is shocking in relation to our freedom to choose according to inclination is that the Bible portrays God as having a very direct hand in shaping our desires and actions. Scripture is consistent in teaching that while our choices are very much our own genuine choices, God long ago has ordained the factors that shape the choice, and is currently active in our lives affecting our will. God has exhaustive control over all factors that contribute to our choice, and our choices are genuine choices proceeding from our inclinations. There are many passages that relate this truth (Acts 2:23, 4:27-28, Gen. 50:19-20), but we will only focus on a select few.

Revelation 17 gives us a strange and gruesome picture of a great prostitute Babylon who at times is seated on many waters and at other times a scarlet beast. The text itself tells us that the waters are a multitude of peoples, while the prostitute is representative of Godless society and culture (i.e. Rome- Rev. 17:18), while the beast probably represents the antichrist. Ultimately, the interpretation of these images is not of paramount importance for our purposes. What is pertinent to this discussion is verses 16 and 17, which state that "they will make her desolate and naked, and devour her flesh and burn her up with fire, for God has put it into their hearts to carry out his purpose..." The text is astoundingly clear; God uses his enemies to crush another of his enemies, thus carrying out His plan by actively placing the desire to turn on the prostitute into their hearts. God directs their actions through their volition. In the end, they make a choice to rise against the prostitute, and it is clear that God was the architect behind their genuine decision to do so. This is not the first time Scripture speaks of God using His enemies to crush other enemies, as Isaiah 10:5-15 presents an even more explicit scene of God's control wherein He wields Assyria like a staff in order to do His bidding, in the end even finding them morally culpable for their actions. Both of these texts hold two compatible truths, that we make genuine choices and that God directs these choices.

Of course God wields His authority for the salvation of men as well, as indicated by another passage in Revelation. Chapter 19 depicts the marriage supper of the Lamb, in which the Bride, the universal people of God, is finally presented to the Messiah who saved her. And we know, as being part of this Bride, that we are not of pure heart and motive, and yet that is exactly how we will appear because God will someday complete His work of completely purifying His Church. This is indicated in verses 7 and 8, in which John writes that "his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure..." Two things are of note in this text. One is that the Bride has made herself ready, that is there is a work that she genuinely does of her own will. She is not an automaton with no will or volition, she takes an active part in preparing herself for the marriage supper. Second is that it was granted her to clothe herself. So who did the granting? This is what is called a divine passive, a text in which the recipient of an action is named but the active agent is unnamed and assumed as God Himself. So God gave the Bride the ability to clothe herself with purity. God directed the genuine choices of the Bride. Not only this, but it seems that God planned before creation for His people to be clothed with purity (Eph. 2:10).

Practical Considerations

Surely this whole discussion of choice and God's sovereignty is not cold-hearted intellectual speculation, as we have been dealing with matters of our hearts, and to miss this would be grave error. What all this means is that our actions spring from our hearts; we do what we most want to do. So when we sin repeatedly, when we knowingly and continually commit the same sinful act against God that is clearly taught against in Scriptures, when we keep saying the same hurtful things over and over again that we know will crush others and cause bitterness in ourselves, when we time and again think the same perverted or malicious thoughts involving other humans who are made in the image of God just as we are, when we do all these things which are precisely why the Son out of love came to die on a cross for us, in all these moments we are doing exactly what we most want to do. If we understand this then we can begin to comprehend how far we have fallen from grace, we can begin to comprehend our depravity. And once we are able to see how wicked our hearts are apart from God's grace, we can see just how desperately we need Him to work on our behalf if we are going to in any way please our gracious Creator. We can also see the wickedness of our sin and thank God that one day it will be ended. We can look forward to a time when sin is no more and therefore every inclination of our heart is pure and every action taken is right, good, life-giving, beneficial, and for the glory of God who is creating a new creation that will, with the death of sin and evil, function perfectly. We can only look to this glorious future with proper expectation when we accurately understand how sinful and broken our world and our hearts are now. With a deeper recognition of our sin we can more gratefully appreciate the unshakeable kingdom that we have received and can respond in worship and awe of God and His Son's sin-conquering work on the cross.

Furthermore, if we understand that God is truly sovereign over all things, that He has exhaustive and complete control of all of the details and factors that shape our choices and even puts affections into our hearts, then we can rightly seek Him to change us and others. If God were powerless to shape and change the hearts of men, if He were to dutifully abstain from influencing the desires and affections and we were left to muster up our own will and good natured desires, then we would have no right to plead with Him in our time of need. We would have no right to ask God to save our neighbor, for He had already done what He could in the cross and creation, and now the onus would lie on us to chase after Him. But this standoffish God is absolutely not the God of the Bible. The God of the Bible is involved in our affairs, He breaks into creation and gives us a new heart, disciplines us, grows our mind, shapes our affections, and manipulates our circumstances. The God of the Bible is not an absentee Father. Therefore, we can get on our knees in humility and request that He take action, we can beg Him to change us that we may grow ever more in our love for Him and for others, and we can passionately plead with Him over the souls of men. The only way we can possibly have any hope in our prayers is if we understand that God is the one who saves and causes all good things, and that He is in the business of governing the world with great intimacy. And if we are to grow in our own sanctification and Godliness, then it is absolutely critical that we ask God to change our hearts to more and more reflect His own. Because we will always do what is in accord with our greatest inclination, and because God actively changes and affects the inclinations of humans, we can plead with Him that He change our desires so that our greatest inclination is toward righteousness leading to fruitful actions and choices.

Finally, we can ourselves actively work toward affecting our own hearts so that our actions are in accord with Godliness. Commonly known as the means of grace, these are the practices of the saints that shape our hearts and minds toward affection for God and His glory. So we spend time in the Scriptures so that it takes root in our being and changes the way we think. Especially in the Old Testament, we see the miracles of God and His faithfulness toward His people, and we grow in our trust of Him. We also see the grave consequences of great sin, and just as we incline our heart toward good, when we see despicable sin and its effects we disincline our heart toward evil. For similar purposes we read the biographies of past saints so that we see the glorious works God does through feeble vessels, and we see the sins that complicate and potentially ruin the lives of good men and women. We lift God up in song and praise not only because it pleases Him but also because it stirs our hearts toward Him. We meet as gathered saints on Sunday mornings and mid-week meetings to be mutually encouraged and supported in the body of Christ, and our affections are stirred in seeing the grace of God in and through others. We serve God and people so that we see redemption worked out in a fallen world. Those of us who stand at the pulpit and teach do so not to institute regulations and morality that have no lasting effect, rather by God's grace we ruthlessly engage the heart so that our hearers are perpetually lifted to God in His glory and goodness. Only when the affections are attacked will we ever see lasting change in the members of our churches. Even 'non-Christian' activities can become affection-shaping events; good drink, food, music, rest, entertainment, and company can all be used rightly to enjoy God and His creation, and thus change our affections toward Him. In all these things we seek to see the goodness of God and His Word and to see the horrible realities and effects of evil, so that we choose to act in accordance with Godliness and in repulsion of sin. We do not do all these things in order to mark boxes on a spiritual checklist, but rather we intentionally seek to shape our will so that it is in line with God and His Word, so what in our greatest inclination we perceive to be good is actually objectively good. Then, in the freedom of our inclination we choose good, and we do all that we do to the glory of God, because He has granted us to do so.