1Pe_1:2-3. - Because God Knows The Future Does Not Cancel Out Man's Free Will

3. 1 Peter 1:2-3. - Because God Knows The Future Does Not Cancel Out Man's Free Will

“Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied. (2)

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” - 1 Peter 1:2-3. In Nettleton's book he quotes 1 Peter 1:2 on page 33, emphasizing “unto obedience.” He then goes on to explain what he feels these verses mean, and I quote:

“This matter of salvation is a matter of begetting.  In natural physical life the parent begets children: he chooses to have children, follows normal methods and means, and children are born.  In the spiritual realm it is much the same.  God decides to have spiritual children and chooses from among the sons of men certain individuals and saves them.  That is election.  It is a mystery, but a fact to be believed.”

He further goes on in the next paragraph and states:

“It is readily acknowledged that in the spiritual birth the one born makes a choice. He exercises faith, whereas he did nothing in the process of natural birth. Yes, there is a difference between natural birth and spiritual birth, but one truth remains: the choice of the parent plays a part. Physical parents make a choice in the natural birth; God makes a choice in the spiritual birth. We are ‘begotten'.” This is Mr. Nettleton's reasoning. The only problem with this is, this is an allegory chosen by Mr. Nettleton and not used by God! To say that God makes a choice as to who goes to Heaven and who does not, would again contradict His Word that He is “not willing that any should perish” (2 Peter 3:9). Why did His Son die for the sins of the world? Why not just die for the sins of those who have already been elected?

Something that is not brought out in Nettleton's allegory is this--when the children are born and begin to grow, the choice of what avenue of life he wishes to take is left up to the child.  He may want to be a doctor, a carpenter, a dentist or whatever profession he chooses.  That choice is up to him.  The parent may try to make him choose, but still the choice is left up to the child of the natural parent.  So it is with each one of us.  We have a choice about what we are going to do when we reach the age of accountability concerning Christ.  We can either accept or reject Him as our Savior.

Since Nettleton claims election to salvation by stating God made a choice in the spiritual birth--since we are all sinners, on what merit did God make the choice?  Of course, he reverts back to the statement that, “It is a mystery!”  No, it only becomes a mystery when one accuses God of doing something He did not do.  Then--and only then--does it become a mystery and one must hide under this shield because it cannot be explained.  Yet, if we take the Word of God so simply, we can explain that God did love the world and that He sent His only begotten Son--that He is not willing any should perish but that all should come to repentance (a change of mind).  Now, anyone can understand that!

It is when men begin to use allegories and begin to attempt to extract one verse of Scripture and make it mean what they want it to, that we have to insert the word “mystery” because we cannot understand the position we have taken!  It is because of man's philosophy that the so-called “mystery” cannot be understood--not because of the clear teaching of the Word of God.  I understand that God knows everything, Christ died for all, He is not willing any should perish, I have a free will and God will honor my decision when I die (Heaven or Hell).  Only when man, by his wisdom, thinks he can explain these things better than God, do we find a “mystery” and confusion.

While 1 Peter 1:2-3 is used in support of election to salvation, I would like to continue on into the chapter and, again, let the Scriptures speak for themselves.  We find in 1 Peter 1:8-9 that Peter says:

“Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. (8)Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.” (9)

“Your faith” in 1 Peter 1:9 is possessive. It is your faith…the personal pronoun. Yet we find out it does not say, “Receiving the end of the faith God gave you.” It does say, “Receiving the end of your faith.” You have put your faith in Christ and the end of your faith is, of course, “the salvation of your souls.” In 1 Peter 1:22 we are told:

“Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with pure heart fervently.”

We do this out of our own free will.  In other words, we have the right to obey the truth or to reject the truth of the Word of God.

Then we find that the word of God says, “See that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently.”  Why does Peter give that admonition if you do not have a right to do that or to neglect doing that?  He admonishes us, therefore, to do it.  He would not do so if we were already elected to love one another with a pure heart fervently, with no choice of our own.  There would be no reason for Peter to even bring it to mind if we were elected to do it automatically.

There would be no reason to put all of the exhortations in the New Testament to serve Christ and to urge others to serve Christ. There would be no reason for this whatsoever, if we are elected to service, believing that election over-rides our free will. Why would the Scriptures be asking us to serve Christ? We would just automatically do so. Of course, this is erroneous and not the teaching of the Word of God. No wonder those who claim election to salvation have to always throw it back as a “mystery” as to the sovereignty of God. Yes, God does know everything about everything. He knows the things that would have happened if the things had not happened that did happen. He knows everything about everything; but, because He knows the end from beginning does not mean that He makes machines out of people. He wants them to “love Him because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19).