Sovereignty and Responsibility

I’ve had an X account for this blog for four months now. The back-and-forth of online trench warfare truly is something to behold and a few subjects in particular always seem to find their way onto my timeline:

Roman Catholicism vs. Protestantism

Dispensationalism vs. Covenant eschatologies

Paedobaptism vs. Credobaptism

Calvinism vs. Non-Calvinism

…along with whatever various hot-button issue of the day happens to be all the rage.

I’ve had a few memorable exchanges myself, but a couple of recent ones provoked me to whip up this post.

A wise mentor of mine once instructed me to, “Let the Calvinist verses be Calvinist and let the Arminian verses be Arminian; trust the Lord to sort it all out however He chooses.”

In the years between then and now, I’ve been reminded time and again of the wisdom of this sentiment. Because the simple truth is the Bible teaches both that God is completely and totally sovereign in regards to the salvation of men and that men are absolutely responsible before God for the choices that they make. God’s sovereign will does not cease the moment it comes into contact with the will of man and men will not be able to provide one single, solitary excuse for themselves when they stand before God in judgment.

Both are true despite our complete inability to make sense of how they work together. The two components of the discussion seem contradictory and so many of us find ourselves constructing paradigms that teach one to the exclusion of the other. We make a priori arguments that fail to give consistent credence to verses that speak against our position.

But, “Let the Calvinist verses be Calvinist and let the Arminian verses be Arminian.”

Hold both sides of the tension and trust the Lord to resolve it.

 In the meantime, we ought to acknowledge the limitations of our own capacities for understanding and remember that we are called to walk by faith and not sight (or comprehension.) In truth, we ought to expect to not understand every element of how the timeless, eternal, unchanging, sinless, holy, omniscient God decides to conduct Himself.

(Interestingly, there are plenty of unresolved and seemingly contradictory ideas in Christianity, including the doctrines of the Trinity and the hypostatic union, as well as principles like losing our lives in order to save them and living as sacrifices. None of these seem to generate the kind of rancor that does the tension between responsibility and sovereignty, however.)

Whenever I have made this statement to people seeking to undermine God’s sovereignty in election, I have been met with absolute silence. I’m not sure why that is, but to that point, I present here a sampling of verses that ought to galvanize our minds about just how integral the sovereign will of God is when it comes to human salvation. Let us not subscribe to paradigms that try to get God off the hook for something He clearly is not bothered by. Let us also not be limited by our own understanding or abilities of explanation. Let us declare what the Bible has to say and let the Spirit of God do the work only He can do.

With all of that said, if you are going to hold to a view of salvation that leaves the ultimate responsibility for man’s eternal destiny in his own hand, then you’ll have to be able to explain not just one or a couple of these verses, but each and every one of them (any emphasis added will be mine):

Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure. - Philippians 2:12-13

(Note here: work out your own salvation… for it is God who works in you. This is the tension distilled in just two short verses.)

God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” - I Corinthians 1:28-31

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. - Ephesians 2:10

I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me forever, for their own good and the good of their children after them. - Jeremiah 32:39

And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live. - Deuteronomy 30:6

And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in my statutes and keep my rules and obey them. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God. - Ezekiel 11:19-20

And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. - Ezekiel 36:26

And the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, - II Timothy 2:24-25

And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. - I John 5:20

One who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul. - Acts 16:14

Then He said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, - Luke 24:44-45

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—… For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. - Ephesians 2:4-5, 8-9

But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to His own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, - Titus 3:4-5

Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures. - James 1:18

For He says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. - Romans 9:15-16

This list could continue on and on, but I hope the point is clear: if God is not directly, powerfully, effectively involved in every step of our salvation, then we are without hope. It is not just that He provided a way for us to be saved; He must work within us for us to ever even begin to want to accept the gift of salvation and repent of our sins. It is God who takes out the heart of stone and puts in the heart of flesh, God who opens hearts and minds to pay attention and to understand, God who *made* us alive, God who has mercy, God who brought us forth, God who grants repentance.

The paradigm of the Bible is that God must not only facilitate salvation, but also initiate and uphold it, as well. “Salvation belongs to our God,” says Revelation 5. That means God gives it to whomever He chooses but is obligated to no one to do so.

None of this means that we do not make a choice. Neither does it mean that we bear no responsibility or will give no account to Him on the day of judgment.

None of it means that we are puppets on a string or preprogrammed robots.

This is the irresolvable tension an honest reading of the Bible requires you to hold: God is absolutely sovereign, man is absolutely responsible.

Any time you think you’ve figured all of this out so that you can set one of those two elements aside in favor of the other, you know you are in error.

Hold the tension and trust God to resolve it.