Well, how does God's sovereignty over every life not make each of us robots? Where is the place for human willpower and for decision-making? And how does God govern over all of those decisions that we make? It is a great question from a listener named Max in Lincoln, Nebraska, my home state, shout out to Scott Frost and the Huskers.

All right. Here's the question from Max in Lincoln. Pastor John, thank you for all your episodes over the years. This podcast nourishes my soul, but I am also thick headed and a lot of important theological points come to me very, very slowly. Can you explain again how God's sovereignty over human decisions and actions comes through his control over our affections such that we are not robots responding moment by moment to individual commands and prompts in situations, but that he is in control of our decisions as we freely choose what we want?

I think I'm on the verge of understanding you and Edwards and the reform tradition on this, but can you make this all clear in 10 minutes so Tony doesn't scold you for going long again? What would you say to Max? Well, the likelihood that I could put in 10 minutes what 2,000 years of church history has not succeeded in completely clarifying for the best of minds is not very likely, but there aren't many things more important than the sovereignty of God in our personal lives and how we make choices.

And the way we think about this does have implications for how we worship and serve and persevere as Christians. So let's make a stab at it. I'm going to lay out seven points in what I think is a biblical view of the relationship between the human will and God's sovereignty.

Each one could have a book written about it. So these are simply pointers with biblical passages to think about. Point number one, until they are born again by the power of God's spirit, all human beings ever since Adam are spiritually blind, 2 Corinthians 4, 4, darkened in their understanding, hardened in their heart, Ephesians 4, 18, unable to grasp spiritual truth, 1 Corinthians 2, 14, rebellious against God, Romans 8, 7, spiritually dead in trespasses, Ephesians 2, 5, enslaved to sin, Romans 6, 6, unable to please God, Romans 8, 8.

That's point one. Pretty devastating bondage. Point number two, all people are still responsible in that condition, accountable to God, liable to judgment, because this darkness that they are in, this slavery that holds them, has its power over them, not against their will or against their desires, but precisely because of their will and because of their desires, they love sin so much.

Jesus said in John 3, 19, "The light has come into the world and people loved the darkness rather than the light, because their works were evil." The problem is not that we lack light, but that we love darkness. This is not a bondage against people's will. This is a bondage because of their will.

Point number three, this deep evil in all human hearts does not limit the complete sovereignty of God over all things, including the fallen human will. Proverbs 21, 1, "The king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord. He turns it wherever he will." Ezra 6, 22, "The Lord made them joyful and had turned the heart of the king of Assyria to them so that he aided them in the work of the house of God." Genesis 26, "Then God said to Abimelech," this is the pagan king who had not committed adultery with Sarah, Abraham's wife, "He said to Abimelech, 'It was I who kept you from sinning against me.'" In other words, God was ruling in the will of a pagan king.

Genesis 20, verse 6, Proverbs 16, 1, "The plans of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord." Acts 4, 27, "In this city, Jerusalem, Herod, and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, gathered together to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place." God is profoundly, thoroughly in control of the fallen will of man.

Point number four, by the sovereign, regenerating, life-giving, blindness- removing, hardness-replacing, light-shining work of the Holy Spirit, God replaces blindness with the light of reality and breaks the deceptive bondage of sin and sets people free. That's what it means to be saved, what it means to be converted, born again.

Second Corinthians 4, 6, God said, "Let light shine out of darkness," and He's shown in our hearts with that light to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. That's the meaning of conversion. Romans 6, 20, "For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.

But now that you have become free from sin and have become slaves of God, the end you get is eternal life." So this slavery to God now in the regenerate, in the born again, this slavery to God is the same kind of slavery that we had to sin in this sense.

It's not a slavery contrary to our will. We were enslaved to sin because sin looks so good and desirable to us. Our will was all in with sin, and we are enslaved to God because God looks so good and so desirable to us, and our will is all in with God.

That's what happened in the new birth. Point number five, this new slavery to God is true freedom for three reasons. One, like slavery to sin, it is completely willing. We are not controlled or coerced against our desire, against our will, but by means of new and powerful desires. Second, these new desires, unlike the desires for sin, accord with, agree with, are in harmony with what is true and beautiful and lasting, God's righteousness, God's way, John 8:32.

We're not being deceived. We have been set free from deception. And third, this new slavery to God is true freedom. Thirdly, because our former so-called freedom ended in everlasting death, and our new freedom, our slavery to God, ends in eternal joy. You're not really free if you're doing what you want to do and you are miserable for it for eternity.

You're free if you do what you want to do and don't regret it a million years. Point number six, this new freedom does not limit the complete sovereignty of God over all things, including the redeemed human will. Hebrews 13, 21, "God is working in us that which is pleasing in his sight." God is doing this through Jesus Christ, "to whom be glory." Yes, not to us, but to him forever and ever.

This doesn't mean we can't grieve the Spirit of God, Ephesians 4, 30, but it does mean that God lets himself be grieved as part of his larger purpose, which always comes to pass. For it says in Ephesians 1, 11, "He works all things according to the counsel of his will." So in this new freedom, God is still sovereign over our wills.

Lastly, point number seven, "Nevertheless, God's way of ruling the redeemed will not compromise our responsibility or nullify the freedom which is true freedom." How can this be? I think that's probably the nub of the question that's being asked. How can this be? And I doubt that we will fully understand that until we get to heaven.

But there is a glimpse, I think, of how it might be in 2 Corinthians 3, 17 and 18. Think carefully. Now, the Lord is the Spirit. Jesus is the Spirit. And where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed.

This is what freedom looks like. Being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. And then he adds again, "This comes from the Lord who is the Spirit." So he begins with, "The Lord is the Spirit." And where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

That's where he begins in verse 17. And then he ends, "This comes from the Lord who is the Spirit." In other words, it seems like he's saying this. When the Spirit of God transforms us to God's will, to love God's will, to conform to God's will, and thus reflect the glory of God, this is true freedom.

And the reason it is true freedom is that this transformation is happening through beholding the glory of the Lord. Not by any kind of coercion, but by beholding the glory of the Lord. The compelling savor of Christ, we're compelled by savoring Christ. That compelling savor is awakened by seeing Christ.

That seems to be at the heart of what freedom is in Paul's understanding. When you see Christ for who he is, it awakens such an authentic, freeing, savoring of Christ that he says, "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom." Of course, there are many more questions.

And for some of them, I doubt that we will have answers until we see Jesus face to face. But I think these seven points are biblical and crucial for enjoying our freedom in Christ and living under and living worshipfully under the glorious sovereignty of God. Beautiful. Amen. Thank you, Pastor John, for that 11-minute answer.

Thank you for listening to the podcast. Max, thanks for the question. Great question from Lincoln Raska. Stay current with our new episodes on your phone by subscribing through your preferred podcast app or through the APJ app or even now through the DG YouTube channel. You can search our past episodes or browse our most popular episodes or send us a question.

You can do all those things through our online home at DesiringGod.org/AskPastorJohn. I'm your host, Tony Rinke. We'll be back on Friday. We'll see you then.