Does God Really Have a Plan?

"God has a plan" is an assertion many Christians make, especially during times of crisis and pain. Sadly, it is what is sometimes said when another has experienced a tragic loss. It is a popular answer to the question, "why did God let this happen?" Jeremiah 29:11 is often identified as a favorite verse, "for surely I know the plans I have for you, says the LORD, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope." Those who proclaim "God has a plan" are expressing faith (1) in God and (2) in God working in life's events. The statement is used to bring reassurance in the face of anxiety and fear.

But does God really have a plan?

To speak of God's plan is to speak of God's sovereignty. It means that God is all powerful and in control. Thus, everything that happens must be God's will and God's doing ... even the tragic, painful experiences of life ... because God is sovereign. 

But is everything that happens God's will?

We cannot speak of God's sovereignty without also speaking of human freewill. Freewill refers to our ability to make choices. Freewill is what distinguishes us from the rest of the animal kingdom. Our ability to choose gives us the ability to influence what happens. As my professor used to say, freewill allows us to be the partial architects of our own lives.

Freewill says we have some degree of control over what happens. God's sovereignty says God determines what happens. Which is it: freewill or God's sovereignty?

Freewill requires that we receive what we choose ... even when what we choose is outside of "God's will." Choices have consequences or they are not really choices. Because God is sovereign, God could force our choice, but then we would be mechanical puppets, not humans with freewill. Because God is sovereign, God could override the consequences of our choices, but that also nullifies our freewill.

So which is it: human freewill or God's sovereignty?

The question is a typical Western question. Our scientific-based, dualistic thinking makes us think in terms of either-or. It must be one or the other. Therein is the problem.

Why must the answer be either human freewill or divine sovereignty? Why can't it be both? What would it look like for life to be shaped by both our freewill and God's sovereignty?

The ancient rabbi's taught that, in granting humans freewill, God shriveled up. The word they used is the same word used to describe a raisin. The idea was that God restrained his divine sovereignty (power) to respect freewill. God could override our will but chooses not to do so. God gives us what we choose, even when what we choose is destructive to us.

Let me say the same thing using different terms. Because God is sovereign, God is not limited in what God can do. After all, God is all powerful (omnipotent). But God chooses to limit the use of Divine power to respect what we choose. In other words, God chooses to limit God's Self. God chooses to be self-limited in order to respect our freewill. 

God's self-limitation does not mean that God sacrifices God's sovereignty. Rather, it means that God exercises that sovereignty differently from what we commonly think.

As I said above, God's sovereignty, in our thinking, means everything that happens is God's will. This is the idea embodied in the belief that God has a plan. Freewill means God does not make everything happen. What we choose is a major factor in what happens. God respects our choices, giving us the consequences of what we choose. So God exercises his sovereignty in some way other than making things happen.

In the rabbi's thinking, God's sovereignty means God works in the midst of what we choose, even when what we choose is not "God's will." God does not abandon us. God promises to work in whatever happens for our good. The Apostle Paul expressed this idea in Romans 8:28, "For we know that in all things God works for good for those who love him." The good for which God works is identified in verse 29, "to be conformed to the image of his Son."

God's sovereignty is expressed in transforming our experiences, especially the painful ones. God works to transform the impact on us of what happens to us. God redeems life's pain into an occasion for us to grow spiritually into the likeness of Christ. Nothing is outside of God's sovereign power. That means, nothing is outside of God's ability to transform and redeem for our good. Nothing is wasted. (Is not this truth reflected in Jesus' death on the cross?)

But here's the key. We must choose (human freewill) to be open to what God would teach us and to how God would work through the situation (God's sovereignty). God does not automatically transform and redeem our experiences. We must choose to accept how God would transform them. We must be willing to grow through our experience of pain. The two - freewill and God's sovereignty - work together.

So, does God have a plan? I suggest that God has a purpose rather than a plan. God's purpose is to grow us up spiritually into the likeness of Jesus. And nothing will keep God from fulfilling that purpose in our lives. That's God's sovereignty at work!

Thanks be to God!