Sabbath: Free Will, Love, and Divine Providence
Daily Lesson for Sabbath 15th of February 2025
Image © Pacific Press
Read for This Week’s Study: Luke 13:34; Jeremiah 32:17-20; Hebrews 1:3; Deuteronomy 6:4-5; Ephesians 1:9-11; John 16:33.
Memory Text:
“ ‘These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world’ ” (John 16:33, NKJV).
Providence is the term used to describe God’s action in the world. How we think about God’s providence makes a huge difference in how we relate to God, how we relate to others, and how we think about the problem of evil.
Christians hold various understandings of divine providence. Some believe that God exercises His power in a way that determines all events to happen just as they do. He even chooses who will be saved and who will be lost! In this view, people are not free to choose other than what God decrees. In fact, people who believe this way argue that even human desires are determined by God.
In contrast, strong biblical evidence shows that God does not determine everything that happens. Instead, He grants humans free will, even to the point where they (and angels) can choose to act directly against His will. The history of the Fall, of sin, and of evil is a dramatic and tragic expression of the results of abusing this free will. The plan of salvation was instituted in order to remedy the tragedy caused by the misuse of free will.
*Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, February 22.
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At Steavenson's Falls in Marysville, Victoria there is a little plaque memorialising the death of four teenagers who were visiting the falls in 1968. They were tragically killed by a falling tree. The plaque began with "It was an act of God ...". I took an exception to this wording and since I had a piece of chalk in my pocket (I was a high school teacher at the time) I added the correction "^not" in the appropriate place. It probably washed off within an hour - the high country of Victoria is very wet.
Insurance companies used to use the expression "Acts of God" to describe random natural events - I think they have now dropped that terminology in our secular society. However in Christian conversations, we often hear attributions to God for both good and bad things that happen to us.
Most of us have to admit that our explanations of the providence of God sound good when we talk about them in theory but become riddled with exceptions and "maybes" in practice.
This is an area where we will generate a lot of words and it reminds me of a conversation I had with a theological friend. We were discussing some theological issues when I asked him a question and he replied. with a wry grin, "I have written a book on this because I don't know the answer!"
We are often in danger of verbal obscuration when we talk about the providence of God!
John 16:33 reassures us that, despite the tribulations of the world, Christ has already overcome, offering peace to those who trust in Him. This victory does not mean God controls every detail of human action but rather that He works within human freedom to bring about His ultimate purpose.
The contrast between determinism and free will is crucial. A God who dictates every action, including sin, would contradict His just and loving nature. Instead, Scripture overwhelmingly supports the idea that God grants free will, allowing both humans and angels to choose—even when those choices lead to suffering. The Fall, sin, and evil result from this freedom, yet God's providence ensures redemption through Christ.
This understanding shapes how we relate to God: not as robots executing a predetermined script, but as free moral agents who can choose to love and follow Him. It also influences how we see suffering—not as God's will, but as the consequence of a world where free will exists. Ultimately, divine providence is not about control, but about God's unwavering presence and His redemptive plan unfolding despite human rebellion.
Only within the context of a great controversey, or cosmic conflict between God and Satan can we human beings understand the real battle that wages for our allegiance. God uses truth, transparency, trust, and freedom of choice, to lead us to abundant life both physical, and spiritual leading to an eternal existence of life and bliss. Meanwhile, Satan uses lies, deception, distrust, and distortion of choice leading to eternal death, both physical and spiritual.
At the core of the question is who are we going to believe. Are we going to believe the lies of the serpent that insinuates that God cannot be trusted, that he must manipulate his subjects to accomplish his goals and ideals, or is that merely projection of the devil's tactics and devices, which the Bible refers to as schemes? (Ephesians 6:11)
For God to truly be "love," then he must give his creation freedom to choose which side of the "great controversy" they will be on. To say that God manipulates or distorts free will is to agree with the accusations of the serpent to Eve in Eden, "God cannot be trusted, he's holding something back from you!" An illusionary freewill, is no freewill at all.
Romans 6:16 encapsulates the free will issue to both choosing sin, leading to death, or obedience leading to righteousness. If there were no free will we wouldn't have a choice in the matter.
God's character is on trial here. Can he be trusted or not? Can he win humanity over through love rather than force? If God is truly love then he must surely give humans and non humans (angels), the right and freedom to say no to his love. Anything less is a manifestation of the evil one masquerading as an "angel of light." God is hoping that we will choose his side in this cosmic conflict. (Deut. 30:19)
"But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will (freely choose to) serve the Lord.” (Joshua 24:15)