Part 4: Posture, Grace, and the Death of Autonomy
I. Introduction: The Real Question Is Not “Are We Free?” But “Are We Submissive?”
After tracing the historical and theological roots of libertarian free will—from its absence in Jewish thought, to its introduction by Origen, to its moralistic expansion by Pelagius—we must now confront its pastoral implications. It is not enough to know where these ideas came from. We must ask:
What kind of posture does this theology produce?
What does it say about how we view God and ourselves?
Theology that does not reshape the heart is not true theology. It may win debates, but it will never form worshipers. And what has been lost in much of modern evangelicalism is not just the doctrine of grace—it is the posture of grace: brokenness, awe, submission, and joy in dependence.
This final part applies the truths of the previous three by calling the Church to kill autonomy and recover the posture of Christ. It draws explicitly from the theological framework laid out in God’s Great Love and Mercy in Making Himself Known to His Creation, particularly the Epistemic Contrast Theodicy (ECT). This framework does not merely answer the logical problem of evil—it reorders our understanding of what it means to be human in the light of divine revelation.
II. The Posture of the Flesh: Autonomy Is the Essence of the Fall
The root of libertarianism is not a philosophical concern for justice. It is the flesh’s desire to be self-governing. From the very beginning, man’s rebellion was not intellectual, but epistemic—a desire to define good and evil on his own terms (Genesis 3:5).
In God’s Great Love and Mercy in Making Himself Known to His Creation, I argue that the Fall was not simply disobedience, but an act of epistemic arrogance. It was a reach to make man the measure of truth, the source of knowledge, the center of meaning. The lie of Eden—“you will be like God”—was not about fruit. It was about autonomy.
Libertarian free will, in its theological essence, is that same lie systematized. It tells the creature that moral independence is required for responsibility. It tells the sinner that ability precedes accountability. It insists that God must limit Himself for man to be justly judged.
But Scripture tells another story. From Genesis to Revelation, the consistent theme is this: Man is accountable not because he is autonomous, but because he is a creature. He was made for dependence. His life, breath, and every decision belong to God (Acts 17:28; Proverbs 16:9). His rebellion is real not because he could have done otherwise in some metaphysical vacuum, but because he refused to worship the God who made him.
“But who are you, O man, to answer back to God?” – Romans 9:20
III. Christ’s Posture: The Glory of the Submitted Will
If the Fall was the exaltation of the will, then redemption is its submission. And the most vivid picture of a perfect human will is found in Jesus Christ.
He who was eternally equal with God took on human flesh—not to assert a competing will, but to submit that will perfectly to the Father.
“For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me.” – John 6:38
“Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.” – Luke 22:42
“Behold, I have come to do your will, O God.” – Hebrews 10:7
This is not bondage. This is true freedom—a will that delights in what is good because it is filled with the Spirit and grounded in love. Christ’s obedience is not mechanical or robotic. It is worshipful, intelligent, and voluntary. But it is never autonomous.
To follow Christ is not merely to imitate His actions. It is to adopt His posture—to entrust our wills to the Father even in anguish, even unto death.
IV. Grace and the Epistemic Contrast: Seeing God by Seeing Our Need
The Epistemic Contrast Theodicy, laid out systematically in God’s Great Love and Mercy in Making Himself Known to His Creation, teaches that God makes Himself known not through abstract speculation, but through contrast with the creature. We know mercy because we are guilty. We know grace because we are weak. We know holiness because we are unclean. We know love because we are unlovable.
God allows evil not because He values choice above all else, but because He values revelation. He does not hide His glory behind a veil of human freedom. He reveals His glory through the veil of our need.
“God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise… what is weak… what is low and despised… so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.” – 1 Corinthians 1:27–29
This is why libertarian free will cannot be the answer. It removes the very contrast through which God is made known. It turns grace into an offer and makes the will into a hero. But God will not allow His creatures to boast (Ephesians 2:8–9). He will be known as all-sufficient, not merely helpful.
V. Pastoral Implications: What Autonomy Has Cost the Church
When the Church loses this posture, it loses its distinctiveness. Libertarianism does not just distort doctrine—it reorients practice, reshapes culture, and undermines worship.
1. Evangelism becomes salesmanship
Rather than declaring, “You must be born again” (John 3:7), we ask people to make a decision. But no one can come unless drawn by the Father (John 6:44). Regeneration is not a choice. It is a rescue.
2. Worship becomes performance
Songs become about what we offer to God rather than what God has done for us. But biblical worship is always a response to God’s initiative (Psalm 96:2–3).
3. Prayer becomes advice-seeking
We pray to process decisions, not to cry out in dependence. But biblical prayer says, “Help me, O Lord” (Psalm 109:26), not “Give me better options.”
4. Sanctification becomes self-help
We train Christians to try harder rather than to abide more deeply. But Jesus said, “Apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5).
5. Suffering becomes meaningless
If freedom is ultimate, then pain is either accidental or unjust. But in the ECT framework, suffering becomes a stage for divine mercy and revelation. We see His power precisely when we have none.
VI. The Posture of the Redeemed: What Submission Looks Like
The truly free will is not the one that can go left or right. It is the one that wants what God wants. And this desire is not natural. It is granted by grace.
To be Christian is not to possess autonomy. It is to surrender it.
To be Christian is not to preserve the will. It is to lay it down.
To be Christian is not to defend our freedom. It is to confess our need.
This is why every act of worship, every sermon, every moment of discipleship must carry the same message:
“Not my will, but Yours be done.”
This is not mere theology. It is doxology.
VII. Concluding Reflection: Theology That Bends the Knee
We are not called to understand freedom. We are called to proclaim grace.
We are not called to preserve autonomy. We are called to magnify mercy.
We are not called to defend ability. We are called to declare dependency.
This is the invitation of God’s Great Love and Mercy in Making Himself Known to His Creation: to live in a world where God’s goodness is not seen in how much He gives us to do, but in how deeply He makes Himself known through our need. The Christian life is not a celebration of self. It is a life of being known, broken, carried, and conformed to the image of Christ—whose greatest act was not to assert His will, but to surrender it.
Let us return, then, not to better arguments, but to better posture.
Let us boast again, not in our freedom, but in our Lord.
Let us fall on our faces and rejoice that our salvation is not in the will of man,
but in the will of God.
“For from him and through him and to him are all things.
To him be glory forever. Amen.” – Romans 11:36

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