This is the conclusion we would have to come to if men are pre programmed with a sin nature that governs our choices so that we must sin. And unable to do otherwise because having a sin nature excludes free will.
This is the scenario we are given in the sin nature/total depravity doctrine of Calvin and Augustine. So that the question becomes is there a belief system in which Jesus would not have had to die.
The answer is yes… that is if… God would have made us without free will. Then Jesus wouldn’t have had to die. If God had only made us pre programmed automatons whose every choice was pre determined as Calvin and his mentor Augustine proclaimed Jesus would never have had to die.
And if Calvin was right about sin nature then in that scenario Jesus would never have had to die. And if his mentor Augustine was right about necessity so that men are held guilty by God for what they were pre programmed by Him to do then Jesus would not have had to die.
Because then it would be God’s plan that men go to hell. And accountability for sin would be a moot point. Because having no free will to choose otherwise the person who goes to hell did what they were programmed to do. Nothing else.
And if God is capricious holding man accountable for something he had no power to do otherwise. But, condemned man for doing what God made them to do. It would be God’s plan that most men to go to hell, and only a few to go to heaven, without choice being a factor.
If this were true then Jesus did not have to die. Because where every man would spend eternity would have already been determined by God in eternity past before He made them. And in this case free will would not be a factor in choosing to trust in Jesus and His resurrection. So there would be no need to trust in Jesus and His resurrection as Paul says we must to be saved.
If God’s love is conditioned upon a predetermined outcome that most go to hell and the few to heaven then Jesus paying a penalty for men’s sins as Calvinism proclaims He did would be unnecessary. Because without free will there is no possible way for men to do otherwise.
And if God’s love had for its main ingredient wrath against His creation for doing what it was programmed to do then Jesus would never have had to die. Because those who God made for heaven will go there without ever choosing to. And those God made for hell the same.
But, because of free will that is one of the things that makes men in God’s image Jesus did have to die. Because His death provides for man the choice to choose deliverance from his mortality.
Even those who have been deceived by the sin nature doctrine are adamant about that fact. Their problem is they can’t see their own cognitive dissonance. They can’t see the contradictions in their own beliefs.
Contradictions like without free will there can be no love. Because God’s kind of love must be freely given and freely received. And to do this free will must be present in both the giver of that love, and its receiver. An impossibility where there is no free will.
Another contradiction is that God tells us in His word that it is the soul that sinneth that shall die. And that the son will not bear the iniquity of the father. Because the death that comes must be the result of a free will choice to sin for those who were under the law.
If men are punished for what someone else does then God is not just. He would be like the erroneous claim made of Him in Rom.9 that asked, “Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?” The only possible answer to this question is free will. Because only free will can resist God’s will for us.
Jesus’ own words to the Father when He said “Nevertheless not my will but thy will be done” is evidence to this fact. He could have chosen to resist the Father’s will. In His own will He did not want to go to the cross. But, since He chose to submit to the Father’s will He went.
We also know this because 2Peter3:9 tells us that God’s will for every man that has ever existed or will exist is “that none should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”
This helps us understand what Paul says in Rom.9 that “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.
16 So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.” He is telling us that it’s according to man’s free will choice to either trust in God or not trust in Him that brings God’s mercy. And those who will not are hardened toward God by that choice to resist His will.
James says it this way, “God resists the proud but gives more grace to the humble.” You think pride is preprogrammed in most by God? Or that in the few humility is? This would be absurd to the uttermost. And would nullify any need for Jesus to die for us.
Because if they were preprogrammed Jesus’ death is superfluous. Because by ending up where God wills us to apart from any choosing of our own what would be the point? In that case Jesus would have died for nothing.
But, because of free will Jesus’ death makes perfect sense. Because then the preaching of Jesus’ death and resurrection is the way to the Father. A way that would be unnecessary if not for free will. Because with free will our part is to choose to trust in Jesus and His resurrection.
And God’s part was sending Him to join with man in our mortality and death. So that by His resurrection we can be joined with Him in immortality and eternal life.
Having done His part it is left to us to say yes to the gospel God sends His children out into the world to preach when we hear it. Paul says when we hear the gospel we must confess with our mouth the Lord Jesus. And believe in our hearts that He has raised from the dead, to be saved.
This is an act of our own free will that changes us from natural to spiritual by being born again. An act made possible by God’s love that made man in His image. Desiring fellowship with His creation because of this love He gave to man the 2 things he would need to make such a decision. Free will and the knowledge of good and evil.
So you can ask all the what ifs that you want to about why Jesus had to die if we have no free will to accept or reject His sacrifice. You can choose to believe that you don’t have free will. (I hope you see the cognitive dissonance in that statement). But, the only way you can believe that is if you believe in a god that made you for him to hate enough to put you into the lake of fire to burn in torment for eternity. Simply by doing what you were basically forced to do from the beginning.
And in that case God is not love. He is hate. But, John says “God is love.” Not hate. And John says “For God so loved the world…” So there is no precedent in the Bible for the belief that God is the kind of hate needed in order to create most men for eternal damnation.
But, the truth that alone can make you a spirit child of our Creator who is Spirit is that we must be able to choose of our God given free will to believe God in order for us to be saved. And we can only do that through the God given ability that only free will can give us.
So… if you will choose to trust in Jesus today by confessing with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and believing in your heart He has raised from the dead. You shall be saved. Not you might be, not you will probably be, but you shall be saved.
Do this and you will be made a child of God and heir to His kingdom. Do this and you will have eternal life now by a spirit God creates in you. And immortality at the resurrection unto life. Do this… and I will see you there or in the air!..
