Theological Term of the Week

 

free agency
The ability to make one’s own decisions as to what one will do, choosing as one pleases in light of one’s own sense of right and wrong and the inclination one feels;1 the ability to make willing choices that have real effects.2 Sometimes called free will.

• From scripture:

  But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. (James 1:14 ESV)

  But I tell you that Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him, but did to him whatever they pleased. So also the Son of Man will certainly suffer at their hands.  (Matthew 17:12 ESV)

• From The Second Helvetic Confession, Chapter 9:

  Of Free Will, and Thus of Human Powers

  [N]o one denies that in external things both the regenerate and the unregenerate enjoy free will. For man has in common with other living creatures (to which he is not inferior) this nature to will some things and not to will others. Thus he is able to speak or to keep silent, to go out of his house or to remain at home, etc. However, even here God’s power is always to be observed, for it was the cause that Balaam could not go as far as he wanted (Num., ch. 24), and Zacharias upon returning from the temple could not speak as he wanted (Luke, ch.1).

• From Concise Theology by J. I. Packer:

  Free agency is a mark of human beings as such. All humans are free agents in the sense that they make their own decisions as to what they will do, choosing as they please in the light of their sense of right and wrong and the inclinations they feel. Thus they are moral agents, answerable to God and each other for their voluntary choices. So was Adam, both before and after he sinned; so are we now, and so are the glorified saints who are confirmed in grace in such a sense that they no longer have it in them to sin. Inability to sin will be one of the delights and glories of heaven, but it will not terminate anyone’s humanness; glorified saints will still make choices in accordance with their nature, and those choices will not be any the less the product of human free agency just because they will always be good and right.

Learn more:

1. Ernest Reisenger: Free Will and Free Agency
2. GotQuestions.org: Do human beings truly have free will? (mp3)
3. Walter J. Chantry: Man’s Will - Free Yet Bound

Related terms:

• sovereignty of God

1Paraphrased from Concise Theology by J. I. Packer, page 85.
2From Systematic Theology by Wayne Grudem, page 1242.

Do you have a a theological term you’d like to see featured here as a Theological Term of the Week? If you email it to me, I’ll seriously consider using it.

I’m also interested in any suggestions you have for tweaking my definitions or for additional (or better) articles or sermons/lectures for linking. I’ll give you credit and a link back to your blog if I use your suggestion.

Clicking on the Theological Term graphic at the top of this post will take you to a list of all the previous theological terms organized in alphabetical order or by topic.

Draw Me a Diagram: Romans 9

See previous diagram and short explanation here.

Recently I spent a couple of weeks working through Romans 9 line by line, and I’d say it contains one of the more difficult-to-follow arguments in Scripture. One of the things I did to help me understand it was to make a simple diagram of the two parallel questions found in verses 21-23:

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? What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory…. (ESV)

I drew a chart lining up the question about the potter with the question about God it illustrates. I planned to scan my chart and upload the image, but I spied a large error in it, so rather than do the whole thing over, I’m going to line things up just like I did with the parallel statements in 1 Corinthians 1.

potter/God

right over the clay/
right over his creatures* (unstated)

make out of/
prepare for

 same lump/
humanity* (unstated)

one vessel for honorable use/
vessels of mercy… prepared beforehand for glory

another [vessel] for dishonorable use/
vessels of wrath prepared for destruction 

You’ll notice that there are parts of the questions that don’t line up perfectly. For instance, the potter doesn’t do any enduring of “the vessels for dishonorable use.” Like everything used to illustrate truths about God, the potter is like God in some ways, but not in every way.

But God is like the potter in that he has rights over his creatures similar to the potter’s rights over his clay. Just as the potter has the right to make different vessels from the same lump of clay, one vessel for a higher purpose than the other, God has the right to prepare his creatures for different purposes—on the one hand, the vessels of mercy for the purpose of glory, and on the other hand, the vessels of wrath for the purpose of destruction.

Stay tuned, because I’ve got one more diagram to show you later this week.

*Considered, I’m thinking, as fallen sinful creature, based on verse 18, where it says that “he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.” Having mercy presupposes sin, and so does hardening, since it’s a judgment on sin.

Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy 16

What do Christians mean when they say the Bible is inerrant? The Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy tells us what leading inerrantist mean by inerrancy. I’ll be posting a section of this statement each week until I’ve posted the whole thing.

You can read previously posted sections of this statement in by clicking here. After a preface and a short statement, the Chicago Statement contains a section called Articles of Affirmation and Denial.

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Article XIV.

We affirm the unity and internal consistency of Scripture.

We deny that alleged errors and discrepancies that have not yet been resolved vitiate the truth claims of the Bible.