God’s Will (Thelema) and God’s Plan (Boulema)
The will of God is in a way subordinate to His plan, or the blueprint of history. The Greek words to describe each in the New Testament are thelema (“will”) and boulema (“plan”).
The word thelema is used about 60 times in the New Testament. It is usually translated “will.” It denotes the will in the sense of the desire or wish. However, the word boulema refers to one’s resolve. It goes beyond a mere desire. It denotes the actual plan, the intention, or the outworking of the will. It is only used twice in the New Testament, but in both cases we can note its distinction from thelema.
For example, in Acts 27:43 Paul was being taken prisoner to Rome. A storm had arisen, and the ship was grounded on a reef. The soldiers wanted to kill the prisoners in order to prevent them from escaping.
43 But the centurion, wanting to bring Paul safely through, kept them from their intention [boulema], and commanded that those who could swim should jump overboard first and get to land.
Fortunately for Paul, the Centurion had more than a willing desire to save Paul. He also had the power to command and to carry out his plan (boulema). This indicated more than a mere desire to save Paul’s life. He carried it out as part of his plan. The second passage where boulema is used is much clearer, for we already quoted it in Romans 9:19, in regard to Pharaoh:
19 You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will [boulema, ‘plan, or intention’]?”
You see, the will (desire) of God was expressed in Moses’ statement: “Let My people go.” Pharaoh was able to resist God’s thelema will, or desire. The story of Pharaoh makes that obvious. But there was a boulema plan, or intention, that Pharaoh knew nothing about, and this he could not resist, for this was in the mind of God, not in the will of man. It was bound up in the sovereignty of God, not in the authority of man. And this plan is perfectly expressed in verse 17, where Paul quotes from Exodus 9:16 below:
16 But, indeed, for this cause I have allowed you to remain, in order to show you My power, and in order to proclaim My name through all the earth.
It was God’s will that Pharaoh let Israel go. But it was in God’s plan that Pharaoh should resist God’s will. Thus, God hardened Pharaoh’s heart in order to carry out that plan. This may seem like a terrible contradiction. Why would God create His own opposition and harden Pharaoh’s heart, causing him to resist the will of God? It is no more contradictory than with the two covenants. The Abrahamic covenant gave men the inheritance by unconditional promise, while the Mosaic covenant made it conditional. This is not contradictory, but rather a paradox, as we saw in chapter eight.
As a consequence, man is judged only on the level of his obedience to the thelema of God, for this is the level of his authority. God takes full responsibility for that which He does according to His boulema plan. Yet because the boulema of God is a primal force which directly determines man’s ability and desire to obey God’s thelema, God holds himself ultimately responsible and liable for the actions and salvation of His creation. That is one reason why He came to pay the penalty for sin Himself, and we will deal with that topic later.
The Paradox of Soul and Spirit
The question of whether man’s will is free or if “fate” determines events has been a matte of debate for thousands of years. Persia, Greece, and Judea all had different “denominations” which reflected both extremes as well as a middle-of-the-road view. In Judea the Sadducees, who denied the existence of the spiritual world (Acts 23:8), believed in total free will. The Essenes believed that all things were predestinated by God and denied any free will. The Pharisees stood in the middle, believing a little of each and all of none.
The Pharisees attempted this by watering down the two extremes. Predestination was understood as being mere foreknowledge, and free will was limited by God’s ability to overrule at times. Yet all they did was to make the problem less glaring, but it was at the expense of both predestination and free will.
The main problem Christians face is that the Bible appears to teach all three views. Paul clearly uses the term “predestination” and fully defines it in Romans 9. However, he also makes it clear that man is responsible and liable for his own sins in an eonian (“age-lasting”) judgment.
Paul had studied the rather sour philosophy of the Stoics who taught “fate;” he had learned the “friendly” philosophy of the Epicureans who taught total free will; and he had learned Pharisee doctrine, which taught foreknowledge. He knew all their arguments, which forced him to bring the biblical view into a much tighter focus. Such controversy hardly existed while the Old Testament was being written.
The Bible speaks of man choosing whether to serve God or not. The question is not whether man has a choice, but rather whether God has predetermined that choice. The question is not whether man has a will or not, but rather whether God has left it totally free or if He has coerced it by circumstances outside of his control. It is well known that if a man is a highly intelligent manipulator, he can quite easily predetermine the choices and decisions of those who are weak minded or less intelligent. God is the ultimate Intelligence, having ultimate power to bring creation to its intended end. God could easily have converted all men to Himself immediately, if He had chosen to do so. A few simple demonstrations of power would have done the job.
But God decided to make it more difficult, because the greater the challenge, the greater the glory in victory. He decided to win the world by His love, rather than by fear of His mighty power. This would take longer, of course, but in the course of history, men would love Him in return when they saw His love manifested in His people. Religions tend to convert men through fear. God converts men by love.
The authority God has given to men on earth is limited by God’s sovereignty. Sovereignty is self-derived power; authority is authorized by a higher power and is therefore limited and subjected by that power. Man does not have sovereignty. Therefore, his authority is limited, and his liability for his actions are limited according to his level of authority.
God disciplines men and judges them according to their level of authority. God holds Himself liable in the highest sense, because He alone is sovereign. As creator, He is ultimately responsible for His creation and its actions. It was therefore built into the plan of God from the beginning that Jesus Christ would come to die for the sins of the world. God held Himself liable for our sins and for the sins of the whole world.
In our daily lives we must act as if we have total free will. And yet, if we are to understand the mind of God, we are to see God in all things. The real question is that of liability for sin at the great judgment. Our liability is limited by the limited nature of our authority. Only unlimited authority can be judged with unlimited liability. This is the justice and mercy of God. What began in Eden shall end at the Great White Throne.
