Philosophy

Its considered necessary and healthy for a person (Christian for that matter) to know if his will has or does not have any influence to salvation matters. There is a need to find out the capacity that free-will has in its association with the subject of divine action together with its relation to Gods grace. According to Luther, if a person lacks the slightest knowledge of these perspectives, he then cannot be able to comprehend anything in Christianity and could probably be worse off as compared to the heathen. Luther notes that there are two parts of Christianity the idea of ones contribution to salvation and the question regarding the presence of uncertainty in Gods foreknowledge and if what people do could be done in a different way. There is  concern thus as to whether by contingency, God has foreknowledge on events and if a persons will has any relation to the things associated with eternal salvation or if its just passive occurrence under the influence of grace. It also is a question of concern as to whether people do what they do evil or good as a result of necessity or passiveness.

According to Luther, God is immutably kind and just and that just like His nature, His kindness and justice remains unchanged. It thus follows that what is considered of this justice and kindness should also be considered for his wisdom, knowledge, divine attributes and will. This implies that God foreknows everything by necessity. There exist a connection between Gods both immutable will and foreknowledge and thus according to Luther, God wills what he foreknows such that his will is eternal as His nature is changeless.

It follows that what people do is undeniably with respect to Gods necessity and immutable will. God cannot therefore be blamed for Pharaohs actions since Gods will does not involve doing what people do optionally and freely (Luther 58). Gods will was to deliver the Israelites from the Egyptians hand under Pharaoh and though he foreknew this, he did not wish that pharaoh act resistively to his will. From the Bondage of the Will, Gods will is beyond any ones power to impend and is effective since power belongs to Him. His wisdom is beyond deception (Hall 71). With this respect God is not liable for the actions of Pharaoh in that during the process of delivering the Israelites, Pharaoh deceived Moses a number of times that he would let go the Israelites  only to fail these promises later. Gods wisdom is beyond such kind of mind games that Pharaoh played and basing on the knowledge that God knows about the future, his will could not allow evil to prevail. It is important to note that God necessitates all things as he foresees them as Louis (63) notes that an ignorance of this knowledge implies that Pharaoh was ignorant of God and lacked faith and worship of God. Pride as depicted by Pharaoh to acknowledge Gods foreknowledge and will as immutable and necessary in everything rather than being contingent, means God had no part in Pharaohs work. Pharaohs will occurred freely without any power from Gods grace. In psalms 135 6, free will is only ascribed to people, with no much propriety than how divinity would be with no account of blasphemy exceeding it (Luther 73). God knew beforehand about the pervasiveness and evil nature of Pharaoh that would challenge his work to deliver His people. He cannot take Pharaohs blame as His work was to fulfill His will by defeating the free will power of Pharaoh and manifest his divine power to the world.        

Despite being driven by natural necessity to perish and the fact that man is basically sinful in nature, God has his way of justifying people. This can only be explained through Gods incomprehensible divine nature. God knew of that Pharaoh free will acting through his own power would persist basing on his pervasive and evil nature. The extent of blasphemy and evilness that pharaoh practiced did not warrant Gods justification and hence the reason why he remained to oppose God. Pharaoh lacked the understanding that salvation does not come from free will and that he committed none of his efforts to seek Gods justification (Luther 87). The phrase as the lord has spoken as used in exodus 912, 815 and 713 implies that God foreknew what would be the turn of events during the time when the Israelites would be delivered. From Luthers argument that God has foreknowledge and will of every occurrence it thus means He knew what kind of hesitation and resistance would be exercised by pharaoh. Pharaohs actions qualify him to be condemned (Woodbridge 93). According to Luther, a persons actions are the function of deliberations. The biblical example of the two builders depicts this concept of deliberation in that one has to have a deliberate idea to do something. Pharaoh thus was conversant with his actions and thus stands to be condemned for these actions.

Luther puts it that if people do  not know what they have ability to do, they have no idea of what to do and they have no time for repentance whenever they sin as they do not know what they ought to do. It is thus not superfluous or irreligious but rather necessary and essential to for individuals to know the relation between the will and salvation (Luther, 104). This calls for an enquiry into what the free-will can potentially do in terms of passiveness and with respect to the grace of God. This understanding implies that people should understand the foreknowledge and will of God to be able to know God and understand how much one ought to ascribe to themselves and how much to ascribe to God. This helps in understanding the nature of sin as people try to justify sin or blame God due to their misunderstanding of these principles. Its clear that God cannot lie particularly to himself since he is the one who promises. This means that a persons evil actions cannot be justified by such acts as free will. God cannot be obstructed in his predestination and foreknowledge and that all happens at his will such as to disqualify the issue of free will and manifest his power and not to justify sin in man.