What's in a name?

This was originally posted on the Christian Vision for Men blog by Alex Willmott - Post

She can say “peas” which doubles up as the word please, “chocolate” a word which will become imperative vocab as she becomes a woman and the customary “mum” and “dad”.

Fi is just 17-months-old and I have had the honour of being her friend since she was just seven months. I knew we’d be friends when I discovered one of her hobbies was waving her hands at the dinner table and impersonating a wild banshee…an art I have been mastering since I was her age.

Her parents feed me every Wednesday evening which involves me sitting at the table with Fi and her four older siblings. (As you can imagine it’s a peaceful affair). I sat next to Fi and helped her conquer the pasta challenge which saw her decorate my suit with her unwanted mouthfuls once again.

She was humming a little tune as the older folk chatted about Jesus. I too hummed her little tune which she found most interesting. In fact, she lit up at the thought that I could repeat the composition she had created. The family grew quiet as they watched a 25-year-old Welsh man mimic a child. I would have been slightly embarrassed but a 17-month-old gives men the licence to be childish once again. She scanned the table to see all eyes on her. She smiled before saying something which I will remember for the rest of my life.

In the silence, after she had met the gaze of all her family and her Welsh journalist friend, she said: “Alex.”

The whole table took a breath. As a man who cries at certain films, big sporting events, and anytime the Welsh National Anthem is played, I had to work seriously hard not to blub. My name is now one of the few words little Fi can say.

Gents, with this in mind I want to remind you of something which is true. The creator of everything in the known and unknown universe knows your name. He says it when you wake up groggy from your late night. The moment you address him in thought or word he says it. The second you are reminded of his forgiveness, his sacrifice, his unconditional love and grace, he says it. He is the most personal being that has ever been.

He is the most emotional, most alive and most welcoming creator we could ever hope to have authority over this world. The Lord Jesus, the Father, the Holy Spirit who carries out the will of God, knows your name. We do not worship an estranged dictator or a flippant politician who cares for numbers and obedience only. The Lord is not sitting pretty at a distance wondering what your needs in this world are. He does not wait anxiously for you to slip up to impose guilt in a world which preys on the weak. No. He knows your name. He loves your name. (Yes, even yours Clive).

The Lord who spoke to Moses speaks to us. Be encouraged gents. During the Exodus (Chapter 33:17 to 20) “The Lord said to Moses: I will also do this thing that you have spoken; for you have found grace in My sight, and I know you by name. And the Lord said: “Here is a place by Me, and you shall stand on the rock. So it shall be, while My glory passes by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock, and will cover you with My hand while I pass by.”

Peace.

Does God get more glory if people have free will?

This was originally posted on the DesiringGod.com blog by John Piper - Post

A friend thinks allowing men free will, and yet still achieving his purposes, shows a greater view of God's sovereignty. What are your thoughts on this?

Let me define the term first, and then I'll respond. I'm going to assume that by "free will" he means something really controversial, not something obvious. What I'm going to assume the term means is "real, ultimate self-determination," because that's the only kind of free will that is controversial.

I think most lay people, when they talk about free will, just mean, "I really choose," and of course you do. So fine, you have free will. We all do. But those who are theologically thinking and writing about this, what they mean is that I, John Piper, am able, ultimately and decisively, to determine my own will, and God cannot and does not when I chose that he won't. So I have that kind of autonomy in the universe.

I don't think that exists anywhere. There's not one verse in the Bible that says we have such a thing. And the people start grasping for verses: "Whosoever will, let him come!" Well of course whosoever will let him come! But why does one will and not another? That's the question.

So, is God more glorious to somehow ordain that human beings have autonomy (self-determination, ultimately), so that he cannot, once he has made that decree, guide what they do without intruding upon their moral capacities and turning them into robots?

They say that God doing that and still pulling off his ultimate purposes is more glorious. And I would say that they've just created a universe in their head that doesn't exist, and they're pronouncing on it.

I don't create universes that don't exist. I don't find it helpful to imagine a universe that doesn't exist and then say that it's a more glorious one than this one, because I'm given a universe. And then I'm given the Creator's interpretation of the universe, right here in the Bible. And this book says that universe doesn't exist. You could speculate about it all you want, but it doesn't.

Now I'm going to go further than that and say that a universe in which God gives all people that kind of autonomy and self-determination, that universe isn't superior, because God would have made it if it were superior.

If you say, "You're going in a circle here, aren't you?"—saying it doesn't exist and therefore I don't believe it, and then saying that if it were better it would exist—I say "No, because I'm just basing my understanding of this universe on this book." This book says we don't have that kind of autonomy.

Romans 9:16-17: "It is not of man who wills or runs, but of God who has mercy." Our willing and our running are not decisive. "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for God is the one who is at work in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure." Verse after verse in the Bible teaches that my willing—which is real, responsible, accountable—is not decisively and ultimately my own creation. It is God's decisive governing.

My willing is real. My willing is responsible. And this is what's glorious, if you ask me what's the most glorious universe: the most glorious universe is the universe in which we really will things, and we are really responsible for what we will, and we will be held accountable for the choices we make. And God is still absolutely sovereign over those willings.

That's the great paradox. That's the great mystery and the great glory. Not the universe that somebody creates out of their own heads where everybody is endowed with the autonomy that only God has.

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© Desiring God

Where's the blog?

First I found it hard to find the time to keep the blog up to date.

Then I found it hard to write.

While I go through a bit of dry patch I shall use this blog to highlight some of the great contributions from others.

Normal service will resume....