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"God sovereignly decreed that man should be free to exercise moral choice, and man from the beginning has fulfilled that decree by making his choice between good and evil. When he chooses to do evil, he does not thereby countervail the sovereign will of God but fulfills it, inasmuch as the eternal decree decided not which choice the man should make but that he should be free to make it. If in His absolute freedom God has willed to give man limited freedom, who is there to stay His hand or say, 'What doest thou?' Man’s will is free because God is sovereign. A God less than sovereign could not bestow moral freedom upon His creatures. He would be afraid to do so." - A.W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy: The Attributes of God
Let's talk about Tozer's statement. First, Tozer abuses the Biblcial statement which he partly paraphrases and partly quotes "who is there to stay His hand or say, 'What doest thou?" In context this applies ONLY to God's own will not to man's or to the freedom or limits or characteristics of man's will. However, that is how Tozer twists it and applies it. So Tozer is guilty of misapplying the very scripture he quotes to prove his point.
Second, Baptists of my flavor do not oppose the idea that God has sovereignly decreed that man was created purposely to exercise moral choice. However, when Tozer says, "
When he chooses to do evil, he does not thereby countervail the sovereign will of God but fulfills it, inasmuch as the eternal decree decided not which choice the man should make but that he should be free to make it" does not provide the correct view of scripture entirely as he fails to distinguish between things that differ.
The Scriptures make it clear that the choice to do evil ALWAYS violate the REVEALED will of God in Scriptures. Hence, one must make a clear distinction between the REVEALED will of God which is always violated by the choice and actions of evil versus the soverign will as spelled out in Isaiah 46:10 and the words:
My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure:
This sovereign will of God does limit the actions of men and their choices to sin as David plainly states:
Psa. 76:10
Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee: the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain.
In other words, what reactions by men are not keeping with the eternal purpose of God which works all things together for his ultimate glory He prevents from occurring. Thus in regard to sin and evil there is clearly the PERMISSIVE WILL of God. Thus this is one aspect of God's sovereign will that places LIMITATIONS upon the freedom of man's moral choices. However, this does not prevent man from choosing to THINK contrary but it does prevent him by PROVIDENTIAL LIMITATIONS to ACT any way he chooses.
This brings us to the PROVIDENTIAL LIMITATIONS of God's Sovereign will that God imposes upon EVERY CIRCUMSTANCE. Every circumstance in time provides only a LIMITED AMOUNT of alternative options, all of which are controlled by God's sovereign wil. Again, these LIMITED OPTIONS provided by divine providence does not limit man from contrary thoughts but it does limit possible actual active choices.
Hence, what God has done by Sovereign choice is LIMITED all possible alternatives through divine providence. Thus the life of every man is something like a maze of dead ends and reroutes that allow for only one possible entrance into life to one possible exit out of life. In between that determined entrance and exit point are a limited number of alternative routes some of which lead to dead ends and forced retreats, to other routes that simply take him eventually back to the only route leading out of life. There may be many numbers of dead end, reroutes but all of which lead to one possible exit point in life. Man's freedom of will is restricted to God's Providential limited alternatives in every single circumstance where choice is made. Man's freedom is limited within this sovereignly designed maze of providentially limited options.
Hence, in this fashion man fulfils God's soverign decree for free moral choice within the limited potential alternatives provided by Divine providence.
However, this deals with only the possible alternative options for moral choice but not with what influences the will to make any given choice and here is where we come to strong disagreement.
The arminian concept of the will is one of an isolated freedom from external or internal MORAL influences. No such will exists in or outside of God's creation. The will has no existence apart from the MORAL NATURE of the being exercising it whether it is God, angels or men. Indeed, the will is not an isolated faculty but merely the expression of a morally inclined intellect or emotions. This is proven by the fact that the Greek New Testament provdes only two possible terms translated "will":
1. Boulomai - intellectual determination
2. Thelomai - emotional determination
It is impossible to make any choice that is not either/or/and intellectual or emotionally driven. You NEVER choose anything other than by intellectual or emotional determination or a combination of both.
God's moral nature is the limitation within which his moral choice operates and cannot possibly exceed. That is why the Bible says HE CANNOT LIE because his power of moral choice forbids it. The Bible does not say God MAY NOT lie but CANNOT lie. The inability is due to his righteous nature.
Contrariwise, the fallen nature of man is the direct opposite of God and when a man is lost he is said to be a "SERVANT OF SIN" and "FREE FROM RIGHTEOUSNESS" whereas a born again man in regard to his REGENERATED NATURE is said to be a "SERVANT OF RIGHTEOUSNESS" and "FREE FROM SIN."
Even in a born again man there exists the fallen nature within the domain of his physical body identified as the "law of sin" which the regenerated man does not have the WILL POWER to overcome:
Rom. 7:18
For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
Even in a born again person the "how to perform" is not found in the power of his will "For it is God that worketh in you both TO WILL and TO DO of His good pleasure" - Phili. 2:13. Thus, the will of the fallen nature is BOUND by sin and a SERVANT of sin without DESIRE and thus without POWER to choose that which is good IN GOD'S SIGHT.
This brings us to the ultimate problem of the will in fallen man. His wicked heart is evil by nature and thus his choices NEVER originate from the right motive, which is whatever you do or say, do all for the glory of God and that is why Paul can say universally "ALL men have sinned and come SHORT OF THE GLORY OF GOD" - Rom. 7;23. They cannot choose anything righteous because every choice originates from the wrong motive and thus they are sinners BY NATURE and that is why they are sinners BY CHOICE.
Important is this point. Man's inability is due to his unrighteous desires. He cannot because his heart is at war with God or as Paul says the carnal mind "IS enmity with God" and thus "IS not subject to the law of God" and thus "indeed CANNOT." Notice that inability is the result of the fallen moral nature not vice versa. He cannot because He will not and He will not because his heart is wicked.
