It's either or...

Salvation either originates in God or in man:

I mentioned in an earlier post that some friends and I were in the middle of a discussion on the relationship of God's sovereignty and men's freedom. Recently the discussion came to somewhat of a climax with several of my friends posting lengthy rebuttals to each others comments and what not. There was some discussion of middle knowledge but in the end it was unhelpful for the discussion (not to mention just altogether unhelpful).

One friend recently posted one of the most poignant statements on the issue thus far. I think it will not be bested insofar as it iss thoroughly biblical in its spirit as well succinct in its summary of the main issue. The rub for "everydayscott" is that Salvation is not a both and thing. That is not the picture we get from Scripture, at least. If it is truly of grace and we understand the biblical picture of grace then it is all of God's sovereign grace, and non of man's will. There is no capitolization but it is fairly easy to read. Please excuse the crazy formatting. It looks fine in the preview but doesn't look so hot once published.

between you and me, take "middle knowledge", find a good trash can, and
throw it away. middle knowledge doesn't help support free will and it's no
bridge to the truth. or as chevy chase would say, "it's not a bridge it's
termites holding hands". The idea that God preordains a few things (like
creation, fall, fulfillment of prophecies, resurrection of Christ) and lets the
rest of the chips fall where they may is, for lack of a better term, wrong.
either God knows every hair on your head because he put them there, or perhaps
it's a random selection DNA from each parent that somehow combines into a code
that your body interprets and uses to then grow the hair on your head. either
God provides for the sparrow, or perhaps it's some natural cycle of evolved
symbiosis between plants and animals where birds receive food and plant's spread
seed. either God brings every man his wife, or perhaps it's a learned
partnership between two people who share the same basic life necessities,
desires, and emotional needs. or perhaps, it's both. is it so hard to see
God being the ultimate as well as immediate cause of everything? are you still
rejecting that a man's will, his desire, his ability to make decisions, is not
subject to God? that God has created it and using it for his glory? that a man's
will is outside the need for God's redemption? that when Paul said "it is for
freedom that Christ has set us free", that it's actually some other kind of
freedom than the freedom of the will? that God could create a will so free he
couldn't preordain it's future good works, or even that sin has never met a will
so free it couldn't enslave, so we end up doing the very things we don't want to
do. i'm no expert, but... wait, i am an expert, and i'm pretty sure that God is
over us all, dictating every event of human history for his glory, and that his
middle knowledge of the actions of some sinner in the future didn't dissuade him
from entering history, bringing me the gospel, and giving me faith to believe.
if it were up to my sinful nature, i'd spend my evenings at a topless joint
downtown. and so would you. bless God it's not up to us and bless God we're new
creatures with a transformed mind that God chose to save.

So "everydayscott," whoever you are, thank you for your willingness to throw down the theological gauntlet, or as another good friend would say, "bring out the theological howizters!"

Now let us, as ones who are saved by the glorious grace of our God, offer all praise and honor and glory to the one Son, Jesus the Christ. And let us be humbled by the gracious moving of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

Soli Deo Gloria!