The Sovereignty of God and Human Responsibility
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Last week:
The testimony of Holy Scripture is clear. God is completely sovereign over all things. The evidence is so overwhelming, that anyone who wishes to disagree on this point must disagree with the clear teaching of the Bible and therefore disagree with God Himself.
But what then of human responsibility?
Doesn’t this turn human beings into mechanical robots, who are simply accomplishing the will of the one who created them?
If God is totally sovereign as Scripture teaches, to the point that nothing comes to pass that has not been ordained Him, then how can we also be ultimately responsible for our choices?
Nevertheless, the fact that both of these things are in fact true, and that we find them together, living in perfect harmony all throughout Scripture cannot be denied.
Scripture portrays no disagreement between these two things, they are shown to be twin truths and realities that cannot be separated.
Adam and Eve in the garden.
8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 So the Lord God called out to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”
10 And he said, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.”
11 Then he asked, “Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”
12 The man replied, “The woman you gave to be with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate.”
17 And he said to the man, “Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘Do not eat from it’:
The ground is cursed because of you.
You will eat from it by means of painful labor
all the days of your life.
18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field.
19 You will eat bread by the sweat of your brow
until you return to the ground,
since you were taken from it.
For you are dust,
and you will return to dust.”
2. Joseph and His brothers
15 When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said to one another, “If Joseph is holding a grudge against us, he will certainly repay us for all the suffering we caused him.”
16 So they sent this message to Joseph, “Before he died your father gave a command: 17 ‘Say this to Joseph: Please forgive your brothers’ transgression and their sin—the suffering they caused you.’ Therefore, please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father.” Joseph wept when their message came to him. 18 His brothers also came to him, bowed down before him, and said, “We are your slaves!”
19 But Joseph said to them, “Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God? 20 You planned evil against me; God planned it for good to bring about the present result—the survival of many people. 21 Therefore don’t be afraid. I will take care of you and your children.” And he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.
3. The Cross of Christ
1 Who has believed what we have heard? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? 2 He grew up before him like a young plant and like a root out of dry ground. He didn’t have an impressive form or majesty that we should look at him, no appearance that we should desire him. 3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of suffering who knew what sickness was. He was like someone people turned away from; he was despised, and we didn’t value him. 4 Yet he himself bore our sicknesses, and he carried our pains; but we in turn regarded him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted. 5 But he was pierced because of our rebellion, crushed because of our iniquities; punishment for our peace was on him, and we are healed by his wounds. 6 We all went astray like sheep; we all have turned to our own way; and the Lord has punished him for the iniquity of us all.
10 Yet the Lord was pleased to crush him severely. When you make him a guilt offering, he will see his seed, he will prolong his days, and by his hand, the Lord’s pleasure will be accomplished.
22 “Fellow Israelites, listen to these words: This Jesus of Nazareth was a man attested to you by God with miracles, wonders, and signs that God did among you through him, just as you yourselves know. 23 Though he was delivered up according to God’s determined plan and foreknowledge, you used lawless people to nail him to a cross and kill him. 24 God raised him up, ending the pains of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by death.
36 “Therefore let all the house of Israel know with certainty that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah.”
God’s Sovereignty and Prayer
If God is sovereign, why pray?
1. God has commanded us to pray.
17 pray constantly,
2 Devote yourselves to prayer; stay alert in it with thanksgiving.
1 First of all, then, I urge that petitions, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone, 2 for kings and all those who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. 3 This is good, and it pleases God our Savior, 4 who wants everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
2. Prayer is the means through which God has chosen to accomplish His perfect will.
Prayer matters because God says it matters.
16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is very powerful in its effect.
22 And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.”
If our idea of prayer is that we are somehow coercing God to do what we want, that we must change His mind about a certain situation, then we do not have a biblical understanding of prayer.
Prayer, if it is anything at all, is us saying to God, thy will be done!
3. We pray because God is sovereign.
The question we should be asking is: If God is not sovereign, then why pray?
God’s sovereignty is the only logical grounds on which to base our prayers.
Jerry Bridges
“Prayer assumes the sovereignty of God. If God is not sovereign, we have no assurance that He is able to answer our prayers. Our prayers would become nothing more than wishes, But while God’s sovereignty, along with His wisdom and love, is the foundation of our trust in Him, prayer is the expression of that trust.”
In conclusion: There is no discrepancy between God’s sovereignty and human responsibility in Scripture.
They coexist together in perfect harmony, as God created it to be.
Our choices matter and they have very real and eternal consequences, and should never be taken lightly.
We are all accountable to God.
9 Therefore, whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to be pleasing to him. 10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may be repaid for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.
30 “Therefore, having overlooked the times of ignorance, God now commands all people everywhere to repent, 31 because he has set a day when he is going to judge the world in righteousness by the man he has appointed. He has provided proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.”
It is God’s sovereignty that has brought you here today, and ultimately you will be responsible for how you respond.
