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Ask Pastor John

Is God Sovereign over My Free Will?

Ask Pastor John

Desiring God

John Piper, Unknown, 163859, Pastor, Ask, Theology, Desiring God, Religion & Spirituality/christianity, Christianity, Religion & Spirituality, Questions

4.83.8K Ratings

🗓️ 18 January 2016

⏱️ 10 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

We do not have ultimate self-determination, but we will all give an account to God for our choices.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Welcome back to the Ask Pastor John podcast and we begin the week with a question from

0:09.0

Tyson.

0:10.0

Hello Pastor John, we met a couple of months back at a conference in Dallas very happy to

0:15.0

have met you.

0:16.0

My question, we know the God is sovereign.

0:18.9

How does God use his sovereignty for the greater good when our free will is in place?

0:23.8

In other words, will God use his sovereignty to overwrite our free will at times to exemplify

0:29.5

his perfect will?

0:31.4

And if so, how do we truly have free will?

0:34.0

Pastor John, how would you explain this to Tyson?

0:37.4

I'm not sure what Tyson means by free will and so I may not be able to answer the question

0:47.5

if he means something by free will that I don't believe in.

0:50.8

So let's try out a definition and let the scriptures shed light on this problem.

0:56.9

I think, I think Tyson will get the answer he's after at least the best I can give it.

1:04.2

The technical definition of free will that creates the controversies with those like

1:10.7

me who believe in the sovereignty of God over the human will, not just a general statement

1:17.0

about the sovereignty of God, but God's sovereignty over the human will.

1:23.0

That definition is this.

1:25.6

Once will is free if he has the power of ultimate self-determination.

1:33.9

And what I mean by ultimate self-determination is that no power outside of man himself

1:42.2

has ultimate or decisive control over what a man chooses.

1:48.6

At least not when he's acting as a moral agent who must give an account to God, neither

...

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