Theological Ramblings

God has for each of you a DNA - not just a physical DNA but also a spiritual DNA

This quote is from the commencement address at ICS Uijongbu, delivered by Dr. Josephine Kim of Harvard University - a former ICS graduate - on Saturday May 26, 2007 and it blew out the left side of my head! I almost couldn’t contain the outburst that welled up inside me at hearing her say this, and for the whole rest of her speech, I don’t think I hear anything she said because I couldn’t stop mulling over this quote and plumbing the depths of its implications. It is probably going to be the springboard of a long series of discussions as I intend to unpack the doctrines that have most significantly impacted my life over the last few years - that is the doctrines of soteriology as innumerated by John Calvin. Now I say it that way instead of saying Calvinism because it is not as though I believe them for any merit I see in Calvin. I simply believe these doctrines on the basis of the Bible first and foremost and the conclusions of my own logical journey through the philosophical issues - with the Bible as my filter.

The reason I think the quote connects with Calvin is because it is a very good word picture for how I believe the relationship between God’s Sovereignty and our free will works. This of course is the crux of the Calvinism debate. When most people come to this they often see it as a diversion in which I can either go down the road of Sovereignty or Free Will. The trouble is - it’s both! God works Sovereignly through our free will, and I hope to show this through my series of posts - it’s going to take quite some time.

But just to bring us back around. Here’s a brief explanation how I think the quote applies. In our physical DNA we have the make up of how our body will develop and act physically. It is the blueprint (so to speak) of things to come. In a very similar way, God has made a spritual DNA for us that determines our lives and the course of our spiritual growth and it is according to this DNA we make our choices. The trouble with this whole debate is that many Calvinists and Arminians alike (see my next post for a definition of Arminian) see the concept of freedom from an entirely American perspective. They would define freedom as the right to do what one wants - without restriction from outside of oneself. However, this is neither the classical understanding of freedom - nor the Biblical view of man! I’ll talk about the second later as I discuss Enlightenment and Depravity. However, for the first consider what J.P. Moreland has to say in his book Love Your God With All Your Mind:

Freedom was traditionally understood as the power to do what one ought to do.

Now I would expand that a little more broadly to say that freedom is the power to be what you are. God is free because He has the power to be God. We are not free because we do not have the power to be the image bearers God designed us to be until Christ sets us free - which is what I will talk about later.

But this is how I think the DNA analogy plays very well into this. In our DNA God placed a gene for rejecting or accepting Him, and when the time comes for us to make our choice: we choose freely according to that gene, for one choosing freely will always choose according to his nature.

Intrigued? Keep checking the site. I intend to go into great detail. Do I have all the answers? No. Do I think I’m right? Yes, but that’s natural. Do I think I’m smarter than anyone else? Of course not. These are just the results of my many ruminations on this subject. Take them or leave them.

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