Comments on: C.S. Lewis on Free Will http://moscowcoffeereview.com/carpecakem/2007/12/14/cs-lewis-on-free-will/ A scrapbook of thoughts on arts, culture and the Christian life. Mon, 26 Mar 2012 04:58:18 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 By: Wifey http://moscowcoffeereview.com/carpecakem/2007/12/14/cs-lewis-on-free-will/comment-page-1/#comment-5 Wifey Fri, 14 Dec 2007 17:40:11 +0000 http://moscowcoffeereview.com/carpecakem/2007/12/14/cs-lewis-on-free-will/#comment-5 I love Lewis! He always makes so much sense to me. And this is a pretty good answer to the old questions, "Can God make a rock so big He can't lift it?" I agree about free will though. I just read a verse recently where Jesus says, "I only do the things I see my Father doing." I suddenly saw that with new eyes as applied to grace. Jesus wasn't talking about salvation, but He was talking about Free Will. He could have chosen NOT to do the things the Father was doing but instead He chose to do them. In a sense the Father was in control as He demonstrated the actions Jesus was to follow, but in a sense, Jesus was as He chose to follow or not. Definitely not two mutually exclusive things. Now, this begs the question, "What if Jesus had NOT followed God's leading?" The pragmatic side of me answers simply, "He did. It doesn't matter." Still, I think we have the answer in Hebrews, pointing back to Genesis. Adam, the first Man, was given the same set of parameters. He chose to stray. The result: sin, death and suffering entered the world, trickling down to all later generations. In a way, this is almost as important as Jesus choosing the other route because it shows that the other route can be chosen. Jesus is described as the second Man. He is a parallel to Adam. He was faced with the same choices. He was tempted by the same snake as he sat starving in the desert. There the similarity ends. Jesus used his own free will to choose to follow God and in His divinity, He reversed the effects of the choice made by the first Man. So what would have happened? More of the same. More sin, more death. Instead, what DID happen? Life. God's sovereignty did not change through all of that. In a way, Jesus completed the free will that is given to us. We now have more options. We have the option to choose to be covered with the Blood He shed, to take upon ourselves the choices He made and to be free from the choices Adam made. So is that Grace? Yes. Is it Free Will? Yes. I love Lewis! He always makes so much sense to me. And this is a pretty good answer to the old questions, “Can God make a rock so big He can’t lift it?” I agree about free will though. I just read a verse recently where Jesus says, “I only do the things I see my Father doing.” I suddenly saw that with new eyes as applied to grace. Jesus wasn’t talking about salvation, but He was talking about Free Will. He could have chosen NOT to do the things the Father was doing but instead He chose to do them. In a sense the Father was in control as He demonstrated the actions Jesus was to follow, but in a sense, Jesus was as He chose to follow or not. Definitely not two mutually exclusive things.

Now, this begs the question, “What if Jesus had NOT followed God’s leading?” The pragmatic side of me answers simply, “He did. It doesn’t matter.” Still, I think we have the answer in Hebrews, pointing back to Genesis. Adam, the first Man, was given the same set of parameters. He chose to stray. The result: sin, death and suffering entered the world, trickling down to all later generations. In a way, this is almost as important as Jesus choosing the other route because it shows that the other route can be chosen. Jesus is described as the second Man. He is a parallel to Adam. He was faced with the same choices. He was tempted by the same snake as he sat starving in the desert. There the similarity ends. Jesus used his own free will to choose to follow God and in His divinity, He reversed the effects of the choice made by the first Man. So what would have happened? More of the same. More sin, more death. Instead, what DID happen? Life. God’s sovereignty did not change through all of that. In a way, Jesus completed the free will that is given to us. We now have more options. We have the option to choose to be covered with the Blood He shed, to take upon ourselves the choices He made and to be free from the choices Adam made. So is that Grace? Yes. Is it Free Will? Yes.

]]>