Freedom and divine sovereignty can coexist

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Lipstick on the mirrors.

That’s the problem that officials at one school were facing a few years ago. Girls were putting on lipstick in the bathroom then pressing their lips to the mirrors, leaving dozens of lip prints on mirror after mirror. Appeals and threats had been made time and time again – but all to no avail. In fact, the problem was growing worse. Maintenance crews were becoming demoralized. Clearly, something had to be done.

And that’s when an ingenious principal called all of the girls in the school to the bathroom. Also present was the maintenance supervisor. The principal explained once again that all of these lip prints were causing a big problem for the custodians. To demonstrate just how difficult it was to restore the mirrors to their natural state, she asked the maintenance supervisor to clean one of the mirrors. He grabbed a long-handled squeegee, dipped it in the nearest toilet bowl, and headed for a mirror.

From that day to this, lip prints have never again been found on the mirrors in that school.

Brilliant theologians have debated for years about whether it is possible for human choice and divine sovereignty to coexist and, if so, how. Who ultimately makes the decision about how we humans behave here on Earth?

No metaphor is perfect, but perhaps this theological riddle is resolvable to some extent by examining the dynamics at play in that girls bathroom. Who chose not to kiss the mirrors? Who influenced the choice not to kiss the mirrors? Who was actually and ultimately in control of the situation?

Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) was arguably the sharpest religious thinker in American history. After graduating from Yale University, he served a church in Northampton, Mass., and then, in 1757, became president of what is today Princeton University.

In his essay, “Freedom of the Will,” Edwards maintains that an individual will always act in accord with what he perceives to be his strongest motive, or most favorable option, in any given situation.

That is to say, no one of us is really capable of making choices “in a vacuum.” We are unable to somehow magically, autonomously, self-determine our way.

Our choices are always necessarily conditioned by who we are, what we believe, our external circumstances, and our own motives. And because it is God who directs all of those factors in all of our lives, he alone is sovereign in our lives.

Does this mean that we are merely mechanical automatons? No. We are fully alive and fully human. We can understand. We can think. And we can choose. But our choices are always fully predictable to a God who knows every factor involved in human choice-making.

All of this is rather effectively illustrated in the words of an intriguing little song that was popularized by the Palermo Brothers when this writer was a boy. It was titled “The Hornet Song.” The author is unknown.

“When the Canaanites hardened their hearts against God,

And grieved Him because of their sin,

God sent along hornets to bring them to terms,

And to help His own people to win.

“If a nest of live hornets were brought to this room,

And the creatures allowed to go free,

You would not need urging to make yourself scarce,

You’d want to get out, don’t you see?!

“They would not lay hold and by force of their strength,

Throw you out of the window, oh, no!

They would not compel you to go against your will,

They would just make you willing to go.

“God does not compel us to go, oh, no!

He never compels us to go.

God does not compel us to go ‘gainst our will,

He just makes us willing to go.”

The implications of this theology are nothing short of liberating! This means that God is able and willing to deliver us even when we aren’t thinking straight enough to know that we need to be delivered. It means that he can make us want to do the right thing even when we ourselves aren’t sure that we want to do the right thing. It means that God can jump-start our willpower. It means that there is finally a way out of the vicious cycle of our own human condition.

Grab this rope next time you’re feeling too weak or too bitter to go on. Reach out for the God who can “work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.”

The Rev. Daryl E. Witmer is founder and director of the AIIA Institute, a national apologetics ministry, and associate pastor of the Monson Community Church. He may be reached at the Web site AIIA.ChristianAnswers.Net or by e-mail at AIIAInstitute@aol.com. Voices is a weekly commentary by Maine people who explore issues affecting spirituality and religious life.