Reconciling Election & Free Will

by Michael Wrenn

It’s obvious to any diligent student of the Bible that both “election,” and “free will” are taught in the Scriptures.  Some would say that we cannot have both, yet the Bible clearly defines both as a theological truth and reality. The Apostle Paul states:

 “God chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to the adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind attention of His will” (Ephesians 1:4-5).

Here we see the clear biblical doctrine of election and predestination. The problem with which many may struggle is defined in reconciling this doctrine with free will, which is also clearly demonstrated in Scripture.  What do those who prescribe and adhere to the so-called “Limited Atonement” do with the words of John as noted next? Did Christ die only for the “Elect,” or “for those of the whole world?”

“And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; AND NOT FOR OURS ONLY, BUT ALSO FOR THOSE OF THE WHOLE WORLD”

 (1 John 2:2).

 If you come to Christ according to God’s direction, God has chosen to save you; He has elected you to salvation, and at the same time given you an option of accepting or denying His offer.  God chooses and we respond!  It would be impossible for us to respond to Him, unless He first chose us.  “We love Him, because He first loved us;” likewise, if we choose Him, it’s because He first chose us. Jesus said: “you have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you.”  It would have been impossible for anyone to respond to Christ, if He had not first chosen us.

Now, let’s take a look at the issue of free will which is clearly defined in Scripture as well, and perhaps we should begin with the issue of how salvation is acquired according to the Word of God.

“That if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead, you will be saved”

(Romans 10:9).  

Please note that Paul places no qualifications, no limits on who may “confess with the mouth, and believe in the heart.” He does not clarify by explaining this only applies to an elite few, a special few.

Perhaps at this point we should also point out what I believe to be a very important statement made by Jesus, who said; “And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, WILL DRAW ALL MEN TO MYSELF’ (John 12:32). Get this!  Notice that Jesus does not say “I will draw only the elect to Myself,” no, He says He will draw “ALL MEN.”  Therefore, the call of God has gone out to “ALL MEN.”

 Jesus also said, “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him” (John 6:44).  We just read in John chapter twelve where Jesus said He word “draw all men.” Was Jesus mistaken when He said He would “draw all men?” Should He not have said, “I will only draw the elect?”  So we see here that God indeed did “choose us.”  And yes, God is the one who draws all men and initiates the work of salvation. 

Free will enters into the equation when man decides to accept God’s offer, which has clearly been offered to “whosoever will.”  God “draws all men,” and those who respond to Him are not turned away, as Jesus said; “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out” (John 6:37).  Who does the Father give to Jesus?  Those who come to Him, those who respond to Him when He draws them.  How do they come?  By free will, they respond to God’s drawing, but they may also choose to turn aside and reject God’s drawing. They have to capacity to say no, just as Adam and Eve had the capacity to disobey God’s command to not eat of tree. 

When the phone rings, you have two options: you can answer it, or ignore it.  “Many are called, but few are chosen.”  God has chosen those who will answer the call, and those who answer the call, “God has predestined to the adoption of sons.”  Those who answer the call of their own free will are predestined to be “conformed to the image and likeness of Christ.” Predestination only applies to those who accept God’s offer of salvation, and they are predestined to Christ likeness.

Now, let’s look at this issue of free will as taught in Scripture.  We have established that Christ died for the “sins of the whole world,” that is according to John. The issue of free will is vividly displayed in the “whosoever’s” and the “everyone’s” of Scripture:

“Therefore EVERYONE who confesses Me before men, I will also confess before My Father in heaven. But WHOEVER denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 10:32-33). 

God has clearly given man a free will, the will to confess or deny Him, and man does one of the two when he is drawn to Christ.

“So that WHOEVER believes in Him has eternal life. For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that WHOEVER believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:15-16). 

Notice here again, no qualifications, no declaration which says only “the elect who believe will not perish.”  No, it’s WHOEVER answers the call and responds positively to the drawing, they are defined as the elect, and they are predestined.  God does not make the choice for them, He chose to call them and save them, IF they so respond to His drawing. He chose to elect and predestine those who accept the offer.

“Of Him all the prophets bear witness that through His name EVERYONE who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins” (Acts 10:43).

Who receives forgiveness of sins?  “EVERYONE” who believes, and we believe by accepting God’s offer, of which He has made to “EVERYONE.”

“For WHOEVER WILL call on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Romans 10:13). 

Notice that word “WILL,” the “WHOEVER” here must exercise their “WILL;” their free will to receive God’s free gift.

“The Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let the one who hears say, come. And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one WHO WISHES take of the water of life freely” (Revelation 22:17).  

Are you thirsty for life, do you wish to be saved?  God has made the offer, God has made the call, God has “chosen you from the foundations of the world.”  But you must CHOOSE TO COME by responding and answering the call.

Let us close with a very powerful Scripture from the Word of God:

  

“The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for ALL TO COME TO REPENTANCE” (2 Peter 3:9). 

My friend, you should very well know what “ALL” means.  John said that Jesus died for the “whole world,” that’s “ALL” my friend.  Also notice here what God wishes “that none perish, and ALL come to repentance.”  Now if election and predestination are defined as some seek to define them, this verse presents a real problem, and many of them do everything, even twist Scripture, to find a way around this in order to dispute the free will of man.  God “WISHES” that none would perish, and as we just read from Revelation 22:17, God makes the offer of the water of life free to those “WHO WISH, to whosoever will.” 

I conclude with my own convictions.  After studying the various theories, theologies, suggestions, and philosophies on this issue, and wrestling with it over the years, I have come to this conclusion.  Just as I do not fully understand, and cannot fully comprehend the Trinity, neither can I fully understand nor comprehend this complicated issue of reconciling Election and Free Will.  In my own quest to find a resting place, I have found rest in this:  God in eternity past chose to send His Son Jesus Christ to die for the sins of the “whole world,” and Jesus accommodated by accomplishing His mission.  God chose and determined to draw all men unto salvation via the lifting up of Jesus Christ.  God also determined that those who respond to the drawing would be defined as the elect, and therefore predestined to glorification. 

The offer stands to ALL, for Jesus died for ALL, and WHOSOEVER responds to the call can be defined as the Elect, and can rest in the assurance of eternal life because the saved have been predestined to perfection, and what God begins, He finishes.  

CHAPTER 1
A Personal Testimony

I had lived the life of an addict for nearly ten years when Jesus Christ set me free from its hellish nightmare. The resurrection power of Christ is greater than any weakness, habit, or sin plaguing man. Unable to free myself, I humbly asked God for deliverance, made a promise, and followed up with my commitment to Him. He would require me to forsake the world and all it offered. I would submit to His will and diligently pursue truth with all my heart, mind, and soul. I had to abandon my own life, desires and ambitions for His will. I came to realize I was “bought with a price” 
(1 Corinthians 6:20). I would be willing to accept whatever
cross He would call me to bear and I delightfully carry it today. What the world thinks is of no longer any concern to me, I am called to please God, not the world. No addict is beyond God’s redemptive, saving, delivering power. God is never the problem. In his refusal to yield complete control to God, forsake self, and give up the world, man creates his own failures, digs his own holes, creates his own darkness and destroys himself. At twenty five years of age I had been through three rehabilitation programs for drug and alcohol addiction. My life was a miserable wreck, a total loss, and medical professionals had given me little hope of recovery. This is a brief story of the sinful lifestyle and a miraculous deliverance from the bondage holding me captive. I was introduced to the Bible and Jesus Christ at the age often. As a child, I invited Jesus Christ into my life. Entering my teenage years I rebelled against the truth and turned toward fulfi lling the sinful desires of the flesh. This was the beginning of a ten year adventure into the dark world of alcoholism, drug addiction, gambling and sexual promiscuity. Upon graduation from high school, I enlisted in the United States Air Force. A military tour in the Philippines fueled the flame of sinful desire raging within the heart of my youth. Life was one party after another, centering on having a good time and living in the fast lane. It was a lifestyle which would eventually create conflict with military authorities. I entered my fi rst addiction treatment facility as a twenty year old at Clark Air Base in the Philippines. This was only an attempt to appease superiors and save my military career. I was living what I thought to be the good life, having a great time, and “enjoying the pleasures of sin for a season” (Hebrews 11:25 KJV). I had no intention of leaving the party and denying my fleshly appetites. Three years later I would enter a second rehabilitation facility at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida. At this stage of my addiction, life had become a mere miserable existence. Th e end of the road seemed to be closing in with no light at the end of the tunnel. The party lifestyle of habitually chasing after the pleasures of the world had taken its toll. I lived for another high, another drunk, always seeking and searching for one more good time. Bound by the ravages of alcoholism and drug addiction, there appeared to be no escape. Th e anger, bitterness, hurt, pain, sorrow, loneliness and resentment drove me deeper into a life of despair. Continuing to revel in sin, I would soon be confronted with the option of voluntary resignation from the military, or face a court martial for failure to rehabilitate. As a stipulation of my discharge agreement, I would enter a third recovery program at the age of twenty five. Th e medical professionals at Veteran’s Hospital in Hampton, Virginia, wrote in my medical records; “there is little hope for recovery.” I would eat, drink, smoke, or snort anything in an attempt to experience and maintain another high. Speed, cocaine, LSD, valium, Quaaludes, hashish, alcohol and marijuana were in control. I had contributed to the destruction of a marriage and destroyed other personal relationships along this path of ruin. My military career was finished, and I was left with a few clothes and some miscellaneous items. Life had become unbearable and there seemed to be little reason to continue living. Eventually, I came to recognize God was my only hope of survival and recovery. Th ree rehabilitation facilities, visits with psychologists and psychiatrists had failed to repair the consequences of my sin. I was at the end of the road and a total wreck. My life had been shattered and broken into a thousand pieces. I had prayed and diligently
sought after God, while rapidly reaching a point of giving up any hope of recovery. What would eventually prove to be the ultimate answer and victory was a spiritual seed that had been planted in my heart at the tender age of ten. Recovery would come as a result of this seed of hope in the God I had been introduced to as a child. On the brink of suicide, I made a desperate plea to Jesus Christ for deliverance from the addiction that brought destruction upon my mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual health. I took a good look at myself in the mirror and came to understand I had brought all this misery and woe upon myself. There was no one else to blame!
In humble prayer I acknowledged to God my hopelessness, despair
and unbelief, while asking Him to make His presence known and provide me deliverance from this life of darkness. I pleaded with God to restore a vessel that had followed the wrong path and was reaping the whirlwinds of pain. I accepted full responsibility and accountability for my own actions, while understanding I had brought this upon myself in living a sinful lifestyle. I promised to completely surrender and commit my life to God without reservation. I determined to no longer be the master
of my own destiny; I would utterly surrender my own will, ambitions, dreams and desires to the will of God. I was sincerely seeking and asking God for help. My determination was to make a complete surrender to the sovereign will and plan of God as He would lead, guide, instruct and counsel. This same evening I had a dream that has remained fixed in my mind throughout the years. In this dream I was taken back to my childhood and found myself standing in the backyard of my grandmother’s home.
This was a favorite place of refuge during my childhood years. In the dream, I stood as a child looking toward heaven. I watched as clouds appeared and rolled across the sky. Palm branches were darting across the heavens, and as I watched, they turned into doves. Continuing to look toward heaven, I watched as a man came down with his hands extended toward me. As the man approached, I lifted my hands toward him; our hands met and gripped one another. The man who came down from
heaven lifted me slightly off the ground and immediately returned me to my grandmother’s backyard. I then turned and stepped into the back porch of my grandmother’s home, where I immediately noticed an old man laying on the floor. Th e old man was dead and the appearance of bodily corruption was evident. Th is man was a miserable wretch to look upon. Staring at the appearance of the old man brought the dream to its conclusion. I do not claim this to have been a vision, nor do I claim to have seen Jesus Christ. Th is was a very unusual dream that came to have personal meaning, and due to its vividness, I have never forgotten it. Several months later Jesus Christ would miraculously deliver me from drug and alcohol addiction. The deliverance was miraculous to the extent that I was finally free and knew it. Joy, peace, and victory were
the result of a glorious deliverance from that which almost succeeded in destroying me. Because of the vivid nature of this dream, it continued to weigh heavy upon my mind.
Many theologians refuse to believe the Spirit of God would minister
to someone in dream today. I have found nothing in the word God that would forbid Him to minister to someone in this way personally, should He choose to do so. As a minister and believer of God’s word, I do not believe God speaks to people in dreams on a regular basis as a means of communication, and one should be extremely careful with this issue. I do not claim to have received any new revelation beyond what is already written in the Scripture. This dream has remained vivid in my mind for over thirty years. I believe God personally ministered to my particular need, heart, situation and circumstance. Th is is what I have gleaned and believed over the years regarding the dream. At the age of ten, I had invited Jesus Christ into my life to be my personal Lord and Savior. To this very day I can remember sitting in a church pew as the Spirit of God ministered to my heart through a message which brought tear inducing conviction. I can remember where I was sitting when I arose, walked the church aisle, and prayed with pastor J.C. Brooks to receive Jesus Christ. I also followed up in obedience with water baptism as directed by Scripture. It was as a child around the age of ten that I appeared to be in this
dream. I believe the significance here is that I met Jesus Christ and was introduced to Him as a child. I believe the palm branches seen in the dream were symbolic of the victory over sin I so desperately needed and the doves represented the peace I was diligently pursuing. I believe the man who came down from heaven was representative of Jesus Christ who is depicted in the gospel of John, “For the bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven, and gives life to the world” (John 6:33). I believe the old man on the 
floor of my grandmother’s home is depicted in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. If indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus, that you put off the old man which is corrupt according to the deceitful lust and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness (Ephesians 4:21 KJV).
The man who came down from heaven had lifted me up slightly off
the ground and immediately set me back down? At this time in my life, I had been contemplating suicide, ready to end it all. I had cried out and prayed to God, asking Him to save my life from destruction and ruin. I now understand that God was not yet ready for me in heaven. Months later I would be called to preach the gospel and share the good news of Jesus Christ. I would be left on this planet to go and proclaim the good news that Jesus saves and delivers from sin. I would remain in my earthly sojourn for the express purpose of sharing hope with others who  find themselves in the snares of despair, pain, misery and addiction. At a point of total desperation in life, I had pleaded for the reality of Christ and made a request for God to make His presence known. I believe this is what the Holy Spirit has spoken to my heart over the years regarding the dream. Jesus Christ left His home in heaven over two thousand years ago and died for my sin, as He did for the “sin of the world” (John 1:29). When Jesus Christ came to earth as God in human flesh, He revealed Himself to all of mankind. When the Holy Spirit convicted my heart of sin as a child, God made His presence personally known to me. Once again, He made Himself very real to me in this dream. Throughout the years God has continued to be very real and present with me. In various ways He has proven His revelation in Jesus Christ to be true. He has likewise made Himself known to multitudes of others who have accepted Him as their personal Lord and Savior. In the months following this dream, Jesus Christ miraculously delivered me from the nightmare of drug and alcohol addiction with a mighty hand. A small glimpse of God’s glory changed my life forever, when I truly realized who Jesus Christ was, who I was in Him, and what He had done for me. As I once watched sin progressively seek to destroy my life, I have watched God restore and renew it. He has blessed me and brought about complete recovery from addiction. The victory over sin I longed for was discovered and found in Jesus Christ. I now understand and possess “the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension” (Philippians 4:7). Th is peace resides deep within my heart and mind. I have experienced the joy provided in a meaningful and personal relationship with the Creator.
I have a meaningful and purposeful life in Christ that takes me to
bed in peace each evening, and awakens me every morning to a new, glorious, and exciting day. As each day passes, I experience a greater appreciation and love of life. Above all else, the inner reality of eternal life has destroyed the old man who once produced misery, woe and pain. God has brought to surface the resurrected spiritual man who yearns and desires to walk with God. What Jesus Christ has done for me, He has done for multitudes of others. He will do the same for anyone who sincerely cries out to Him for salvation and deliverance. Jesus Christ longs for you to invite Him into your life as Lord and Savior. He yearns to meet the genuine desires and needs of your heart. He desires to give you
a fruitful, productive, meaningful, and joyful life. He would love nothing more than to adopt you into His family and reserve you a home in His eternal kingdom. God’s will is to deliver the addict from the nightmare of his addiction. True peace and victorious living can be found in the “King of Kings, and Lord of Lords” (Revelation 19:16). Th e Bible clearly illustrates what we must do in order to be saved. That if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation (Romans 10:9-10). If you have never done so, I would encourage you to call on the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation and deliverance. Don’t delay, don’t put it off ! Invite Him into your life as your personal Lord and Savior. As of the writing of this book, some forty six years have transpired from the moment I received Christ as Lord and Savior. It has been over thirty years since God miraculously delivered me from bondage to alcoholism, drug addiction, gambling and sexual promiscuity. I no longer have to profess I am a recovering addict. I have fully recovered from the bondage that once haunted my daily living. Today, I am able to comprehend the words of Scripture when it proclaims, “he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come” (2 Corinthians 5:17). God’s Addiction Recovery Plan is a program through which I believe God brought deliverance, recovery, peace, joy, and victory to my life. I believe God would have me share this victorious message with you. I long for you to experience the living reality of a God who loves you, who is concerned about you, and wants the best for you. The purpose of this book is to present Jesus Christ as the only true path of salvation, deliverance, victory, recovery and true freedom. My prayer is that God will use this book as an instrumental tool in leading others to His saving grace. I pray through this testimony God will instill within you the hope and promise of the risen Christ.