53. Does God determine all human actions?
No. Influenced and empowered by the Holy Spirit, humans are responsible in freedom to exercise their wills for good.
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While Wesley insisted that God’s interventions made it possible for us to experience our first awareness of God, of our fallen condition, and of our need for repentance, he also insisted that God did not force our choice. God’s prevenient grace enables all people to respond to God while compelling none to respond in any particular way.
In an analogous way, the book of Deuteronomy recalls for the Israelites, as they stand on the threshold of the promised land, the fact that God had been working on Israel’s behalf before they entered into a covenant with him, here expressed in terms of God selecting them for the sake of their ancestors (Deut. 4:37; 7:6–8; 14:2). God acted on their behalf, but it still lay with the people of Israel to respond to God’s initiatives through their exclusive loyalty and their wholehearted obedience. Similarly, God made his dwelling among the Israelites, represented first by the tabernacle in the desert and then by Solomon’s temple in Jerusalem. God promised to be present to hear the prayers of repentance offered therein, but the people were still responsible to humble themselves and pray (2 Chron. 7:12–16). The temple is a provision of grace, inviting—but not compelling—human response.
The path of disobedience and death is always before us by reason of our natural birth and our “bent to sinning.” God creates the possibility of choosing the obedience that honors our Creator and that leads to life in God’s presence forever (Deut. 30:15–20; Josh. 24:14–15) or, in the context of Jesus’s own ministry, the possibility of leaving behind one’s old life and beginning the new life into which Jesus invites his disciples with the words “Follow me” (Mark 1:17; Matt. 16:24). But the choosing resides with each person.
The words that the glorified Lord spoke to the congregation in Laodicea in the book of Revelation contain a wonderful image of God’s prevenient grace, God’s invitational activity, in our lives. Christ stands at the door and knocks, but it remains to us ever to open the door (Rev. 3:20). And, tragically, it is possible to ignore the knocking long enough that it ceases to register at all in our consciousness. The hardening of the heart, such that it becomes insensible to God once again, is a real danger (Heb. 3:12–13).
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This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. (Deut. 30:19–20a NIV)
The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. (John 1:9–12 NIV)
“Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts” . . . Take care, brothers and sisters, that none of you may have an evil, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” so that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. (Heb. 3:8, 12–13)
“Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.” (Rev. 3:20 NIV)
See also Gen. 2:16–17; Deut. 30:15–18; Josh. 24:14–15; 2 Chron. 7:12–16; Isa. 55:6–7; Matt. 16:24; Mark 1:17; John 7:17; Rom. 10:8–9; 1 Cor. 10:13; 2 Peter 3:9; CoF VII
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This is an excerpt from Christian Faith and Doctrine: An Annotated Catechism for the Global Methodist Church. Seedbed is pleased to partner with The Global Methodist Church to offer this companion resource to A Catechism of Christian Faith and Doctrine for the Global Methodist Church.
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