What is the connection between predestination and free will?

from the old testament

• The foundation for understanding the connection between predestination and free will is knowing who God is. We learn that God establishes everything and does not rely on human input. For example, Isaiah 46:10–11 is God speaking, and He says, “declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose,’ calling a bird of prey from the east, the man of my counsel from a far country. I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass; I have purposed, and I will do it.”
• Some free will proponents solve this difficulty by arguing that God considers human input by seeing what they will do in the future. However, Isaiah 40:13–14 asks, “Who has measured the Spirit of the LORD, or what man shows him his counsel? Whom did he consult, and who made him understand? Who taught him the path of justice, and taught him knowledge, and showed him the way of understanding?” It says that God doesn’t consult anyone in making His decisions, which implies that He includes their future decisions in His eternal plans.
• While God is sovereign and without explanation, Scripture also teaches that humans are entirely responsible for their sin. Speaking to His people, whom God chose (Deuteronomy 7:6), God said, “I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live” (Deuteronomy 30:19). It’s clear that despite God’s predestination that He still considers humans as entirely responsible for what they do.
• All humans are evil at heart (Jeremiah 17:9). From this sinful heart, choices spring like water from a well (Proverbs 4:23). Though God is sovereign, humans are the ones who sin, not God. Thus, He holds them responsible.
• Even Israel, despite being chosen and given the Law (Exodus 19:5–6), was unable to please Him because they were sinful like the rest of humanity. God knew this and explained that to save them, He would one day change their hearts. He said, “I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules” (Ezekiel 36:26–27). Notice that their obedience would come from God changing them and giving them His Spirit. By nature, we do not have the freedom to choose God because we love our sin. He must change us so we love Him and desire to obey.

from the new testament

• Passages such as Ephesians 1:3–5 define God’s predestination as the reason anyone can be saved. It reads, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will.”
• Chosen “before the foundation of the world” refers to predestination as occurring before creation. This is the doctrine that makes strong free will proponents uncomfortable. However, Paul explains using God’s statement to Moses (cf. Exodus 33:19): “[God] says to Moses, ‘I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.’ So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy” (Romans 9:15–16). While Scripture doesn’t mention free will, he is saying that salvation doesn’t depend on human will but on God’s.
• Yet, after saying that, Paul addresses the obvious counterargument: “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?” (Romans 9:19). If it’s only by God’s will that some are saved, then why does He hold us at fault for our sin and for not believing in Him? Paul’s answer: “Who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, ‘Why have you made me like this?’ Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use?” (Romans 9:20–21). At one point in his argument to explain the connection between predestination and free will, Paul doubles down on God’s sovereignty as decisive and that He has the freedom to do what He wants. Paul doesn’t say that God’s sovereign will makes us robots or removes our responsibility (cf. Romans 1:20), but that we are responsible because God tells us we are.
• Because we are all sinful (Romans 3:23), we are unable to please God in our efforts because “the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God” (Romans 8:7–8). By default, we are unable to make choices that please God. Paul explained this as unbelievers being slaves to sin (Romans 6:17), with their choices bound by their sin. Being a slave means there is no freedom to do anything outside of that slavery.
• This is why Jesus said, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him” (John 6:44a) and that “no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father” (John 6:65). Salvation is not a matter of a slave freely willing to chose life but God intervening to break the chains of the slavery (Romans 6:18). He does this by changing one’s nature (2 Corinthians 5:17). God changes hearts (desires) and people can choose Jesus because they start desiring Him. Their will is still bound by their sinful desires, but their desires have been changed.
• Scripture never explains how God’s predestination doesn’t override human responsibility. What it does teach is that all are responsible. Thus, “now he commands all people everywhere to repent” (Acts 17:30). Whether God predestinates one to salvation or not, all are commanded to repent because all are responsible for their sin. For those whom God has not predestined to salvation, He doesn’t cause them to sin. Rather, He allows them to continue their desired path, which ultimately leads to eternal condemnation (e.g., John 3:18).

implications for today

We like satisfactory answers. Indeed, that is a result of God creating us in His image (Genesis 1:26–27) and giving us logic and wisdom (Proverbs 2:6). However, God has not made every answer within our grasp. This is one way God's wisdom is distinguished from ours.

When it comes to questions about predestination and human will, we quickly find that Scripture doesn’t give us the answers we want. That has led many to turn outside of Scripture and use human logic to try to solve the apparent contradictions. While it is clear that we have responsibility for our sin (Romans 3:23), Scripture insists that God is sovereign and His will is decisive (Psalm 115:3).

Why then does he still find fault when we sin (Romans 9:19)? We must be satisfied that because God is transcendent and unlike us (Isaiah 55:8–9), His will does not force us to sin (James 1:13). Rather, our desires bring sin (James 1:14–15), and thus we are responsible to repent of our sin even if He hasn’t predestined us for salvation.

The reason people are uncomfortable with this unanswered question is that it places us at unequal footing with God. But this is as it should be. God is entirely different from us (Isaiah 40:18, 25).

Rather than trying to solve what we can’t, we are commanded to repent (Acts 17:30). If we don’t repent, God will hold us eternally responsible. If we do genuinely repent, Jesus has promised never to reject us (John 6:37). Don’t worry about the mechanics—believe and be saved!