"The die is cast in the lot..."
The first text I will focus on is Ephesians 1.
" In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.
(Ephesians 1:11-12 ESV)"
This text seems to me to be clear. Paul says that we (those who have obtained an inheritance-i.e Christians) have been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will. So God's predestination of His elect is rooted in His character as the one who works all things according to the counsel of His will. That means that everything-every tragedy or triumph-is worked in accord with the counsel of God's will.
"The lot is cast into the lap,
but its every decision is from the Lord.'
Proverbs 16:33
Why the lot? The author is trying to think of the most random thing he can think of. Yet every decision is from the Lord. So even what seems random to us is sovereignly ordained by God. Lamentations 3:33 says "can a man speak and have it happen unless the Lord has declared it?"
I could quote other verses, but from these it seems clear that God decrees all events. Does this mean God causally determines all events? While He is the ultimate cause of all things,, He's not the direct and immediate cause of all things. I think these verses show that God has a specific intention for everything that occurs. They don't show that He's the direct-rather, everything has a purpose. So God doesn't simply permit an action to occur-all actions are woven into God's design in the creation of the world. (As I've said, this doesn't mean God is the direct cause of such actions)
Man's freedom
So how is this to be understood within the context of the freedom of man? The Bible understand man to be totally depraved (see my post on "Why I am a Calvinist"). That means that every single one of our desires is bent inward-apart from God's grace, we have no good. Our wills are enslaved to our own desires, and we seek to exalt ourselves in all of our actions. God, therefore, restrains our hearts (by grace-i.e unmerited favor...something He does not have to give) by impressing His law on our hearts (Romans 2), and keeping people from sinning (Genesis 20:6). So this is what this means.
Man does good only because God actively produces goodness in him. If God were to fully give mankind over to himself, we'd destroy ourselves in our evil. Thus, God, in decreeing evil events, needs only give man over to himself. This isn't like an adult leaving a child with a gun for two reasons. One: the gun is something outside of the kid that enables the kid to do wrong. Sin is something that is a part of the core of our being. It is something that is a part of us. Two, a parent has a moral obligation to his kid as his parent. God has no obligation to us because He is the Sovereign Creator-as the Creator of life, God has total rights over it. Additionally, because man has willingly rejected (from nothing outside of himself-but of his own volition) God in His entirety, God has the right to destroy them. And He doesn't by His good grace alone.
So the only thing man freely wills in and of himself is sin. Some liken this to being incapacitated-but it's not. If I were to push Stephen Hawking to the floor and then tell him to get up, I'd be irrational to do so. He physically can't. However, suppose some weird dude just LOVES floors! So he hugs it and refuses to get up because he's so in love with floors. No take out "floors" and put in "sin". We have the physical ability-the body parts, the rational faculties-to obey God. However, because our desires are so thoroughly corrupt, the only thing we can do is sin because the only thing we want to do is sin.
So the goodness that is a part of people, then, is what NT Wright calls "glimmers of God". Humans, although fallen, still shine forth glimmers of who God is in them, because God hasn't inaugurated (in full) the new age yet. He still extends grace to people so that more and more will come to be conformed to His image, and show forth His beauty. And if you think that's egotistical, see here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SA9hokDLPo
Christian Liberty
The way the regenerate person (the person who is indwelt by the Spirit) lives is slightly different. The regenerate person's old nature has been crucified with Christ. So there's a reversal that takes place. Whereas the good in someone who is outside of Christ are "glimmers of God" in them-but they in and of themselves are given to sin, the good in a Christian is (more and more, day by day) fundamentally who they are. As opposed to the non-Christian, where any good reflected in them is destined to be overcome by their sinful nature in light of eternity, for the Christian the opposite is true. So sin is "glimmers of the old self" in a Christian person that needs to be (and will be) put to death. The good in a Christian is still the goodness of God being produced in them-but as opposed to the non-regenerate person, God's goodness becomes more and more a fundamental part of who the Christian is. However, this gives the Christian ZERO grounds for boasting in him or herself. Any good we have still comes from God, only the result of the Spirit bringing about conformity to Christ in us. If God hadn't definitively regenerated our wills and caused us to cast ourselves onto Him, we'd be utterly lost. It is all grace.
"Amazing grace, how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me
I once was lost, but now am found
Was blind but now I see"
-John Newton
:) Will definitely be borrowing from the last section. So hard to remember that we are fundamentally not lovers of sin, but lovers of righteousness because we're children of God. And so easy to paint so broadly- "we're just sinners", instead of "we're sons who were former sinners".
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