Part 4 - If God Isn't Sovereign

If God isn't sovereign would salvation exist? Is the free-will of man the deciding factor? Many people have a difficult time reconciling their free-will and God's sovereignty in their salvation.

Does man have free-will?
Yes.

Its a road with two ditches. Some will take sovereignty to the extreme, where man has no free-will and God forces man to have every thought and take every action, thus leaving them unaccountable. The other side would be to say man has complete free-will to do things good (in God's eyes) and to do things bad.

Almost seems paradoxical, but the question is:
How can man have free-will and yet not be able to do good or bad by choice?Simply put, man, or really anything for that matter, acts according to its nature. Man cannot do the things which please God (especially regenerate and save themselves), apart from God causing a change in nature in the man. Man is "by nature children of wrath" (Eph. 2:3), man cannot act contradictory to his fallen sinful nature.

Think of it this way. God has a free-will, no one will argue with that, but God cannot do evil. Why not? Because His nature is good.

But God is sovereign, while he does not force us to do good or evil against our free-will, He is the only one capable of the change of nature we so desperately need. The only one capable of resurrecting our souls which are "dead in trespasses and sins" (Eph. 2:1).

Salvation from beginning to end is the sovereign actions taken by God. People don't argue as much that God is working in their lives after conversion, or that he was providentially working before their conversion, but if you tell many people that it was God who gave them life and the ability to even come to Him, they are offended. May God be thanked and praised for his sovereign work in conversion.