I’m always being asked questions regarding God’s sovereignty with respect to man’s free will. There are many different opinions regarding this issue and whole denominations have been built around disagreements and perspectives attempting to explain this mystery. I believe the scripture teaches us that God is sovereign over everything. He’s the only ultimately free being. Man’s free will is part of God’s sovereign choice. We all live in a world in which we can choose to help an old lady across the street or run her over (an example often used by existentialists).
A.W Tozer explains it well. He says, “Here is what I see: God Almighty is sovereign, free to do as He pleases. Among the things He is pleased to do is give me freedom to do what I please. And when I do what I please, I am fulfilling the will of God, not controverting it, for God in His sovereignty has sovereignly given me freedom to make a free choice.
Even if the choice I make is not the one God would have made for me, His sovereignty is fulfilled in my making the choice. And I can make the choice because the great sovereign God, who is completely free, said to me, “In my sovereign freedom I bestow a little bit of freedom on you. Now ‘choose you this day whom ye will serve’ (Joshua 24:15).”
Joshua answered that question by saying “as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord!” I was struck by the obvious use of the idea of “service” in this passage. Really, all our choices come down to the ultimate one of who we’re going to serve. Will we serve the gods of the world around us, the gods of fleshly pleasures, the gods of material wealth, the gods of success and power and prestige? O will we serve the Lord. Paul’s letter to the Galatians is often the letter referred to as the Declaration of Independence for Christians. It’s all about the freedom we have been granted in Christ in contrast to the confines of the law. But as he begins to wrap up his letter on Freedom he reminds his readers, he reminds us that true freedom is found in serving others. He writes in Chapter 5, verse 13, “For you were called to freedom …Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.” I guess we could look at this exhortation as the New Testament parallel to Joshua 24:15, “choose you this day whom you will serve…as for me and my house (my home, my family) we’ll serve the Lord.”