“I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.” I Timothy 2:1-4

Here in Paul’s first letter to Timothy, we read of God’s desire for us to live a life of peace and godliness. We also read of His overarching desire for all mankind, His will that they may accept His salvation provided through the sacrifice of His Son Jesus. That’s the heart of God, and His plan for man that was put into action before the first sin was committed. Yes, in His omnipotence God preplanned our redemption, predestined it if you will, and it’s that predestined plan of salvation that we celebrate during this holiest of weeks for believers in Jesus. Thank God He cared enough about us to see into our future and make a way for us to return home again!

So, we see in Scripture that God desires for “all” men to be restored to a right relationship with Him, yet, in reality, and again, according to Scripture, we see that not all have, and not all will. How is this possible? How could an all-powerful and, according to some, all-controlling God desire a thing to happen and it not come to pass? Friends, that’s a seriously important question to answer if we are going to be able to make sense of the world around us today, while keeping our trust in the love and goodness of the God described in the pages of our New Testament.

The last several weeks we have written in response to some tough questions concerning the seeming contradiction between the declared goodness of God and His undeniable sovereignty. To find the answers to these questions we went to the only absolute truth in this world, the Bible. We looked in Genesis 1 and in Luke 4, and we saw evidence that man was originally given the task of managing this planet according to God’s design, but when Adam fell, Satan crept in and stole that authority and its resulting control from man. Our Creator was in exclusive control but turned the “keys” over to us, and we went right out and wrecked the car! Enter Jesus, his sinless life, his ultimate sacrifice, his resurrection, and our redemption! Authority was restored; it’s Jesus’ now, and as part of his Body we can exercise that authority according to the Lord’s will.

So that’s the Biblical narrative in a nutshell—Restoration of control, management of this planet according to God’s desire given back to His Son, yet in practice we don’t see that in our world today. Why? Because it’s a false narrative? No, because of another gift God has given us—free will. This world is, and has been, in crisis since the Fall of man, not because it was God’s desire for man, but because we have chosen to reject His predestined plan for our lives generation after generation.

You see, God is all-powerful, and He could force us to do His will if He so desired, but He has decided to give us the power of faith and choice to reject the path of our ultimate enemy, Satan, and to follow Him instead.

Brothers and sisters, it is this power to choose that is the determining factor in God’s influence in our lives and in this Earth. Is God sovereign? Is He in control? He is, but He can only be in complete control of our lives when we choose to yield that control to Him.

Greg Crum is the pastor of Calvary Temple in Lovely.