When it comes to formulating the relationship between God’s sovereignty and human responsibility, one of the greatest difficulties lies in the giant chasm between God and man. The perceived tension between divine sovereignty and human responsibility is often formulated as a battle of wills (actions and events are achieved by either God’s will or human will), and part of our difficulty in synthesising both truths comes in imposing the relationship between two human wills onto the relationship between a person’s will and God’s will. While humanity is made in the image of God, there are fundamental differences between the divine and the non-divine, between the creator and what is created. (e.g. transcendence, omnipotence, perfection etc.)
Is this a bridge to far? How can we begin to understand a divine will that’s unlike any will that we know? Fortunately we do not have to speculate in the dark, for God has revealed himself to us in his son Jesus Christ, he is the one who bridges the gap between God and man. According to the orthodox articulation of Christology, Jesus is fully God and fully man in such a way that his divinity does not compromise his humanity and vice versa. Jesus is the exact representation of God’s being (Hebrews 1:3) and yet made like his brothers in every way (Hebrews 2:17). And therein lies the rub, we can begin to understand the relationship between God’s will and human will by understanding the will of Christ, for he is both human and divine.
The will of Christ never departs from the will of God the father, Jesus himself states that his work is to do the will of the father (John 4:34, 6:38). Even as he approaches the horror of the cross Jesus prays for his father’s will to be done (Mark 14:36 // Luke 22:42). Here we see the sovereign will of God embodied in a man who like us, is held responsible for the exercise of his will, Jesus bears the responsibility and consequences of his choice to go to the cross, and God is sovereign in bringing about this awesome act of salvation. God’s will is realised through human will, not instead of it.
Moreover, Christians are transformed so that their will aligns with God’s, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose (Philippians 2:13). However, far from becoming like robots, we are called to be active participants in this transformation: Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. (Romans 12:2). God achieves the purposes of his will through the transforming our wills to be like his, and even through the will of evil men to bring about the good purposes of God, most clearly seen in the cross (Acts 2:23). In both cases God works through the will of people, it isn’t a battle of wills but a realisation of wills where God’s sovereign will is achieved in, by and through human will.
While this is only beginning to scratch the surface of the so called antinomy between God’s sovereignty and human responsibility, it’s an important entry point into the theological synthesis. For understanding the dual authorship of Christ’s will (and the dual authorship of the bible) can and should help us to understand the dual authorship of history – the synthesis of God’s sovereignty and human responsibility. The actions of the man Jesus are never explained as arising from either his divinity or humanity, but always arising from both. So too when it comes to God’s sovereignty and human responsibility, the shape of history (and the shape of the bible) cannot be explained by one at the expense of another, but only by one (God’s sovereignty) being realised in, by and through the other (human responsibility).
There is a certain transcendence about this duality of causation that we need to appreciate, for in his heart, a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps (Proverbs 16:9). But there is also a certain immanence to appreciate as well, for Moses says to Israel that God will drive out your enemy before you, saying ‘Destroy him!’ (Deuteronomy 33:27). God’s sovereignty and human responsibility are held together even when there is an emphasis on either one of them in the Bible. They cannot be used to water down one another or explain the other away, it would be like saying God sends the rain and so trying to understand and predict the weather is futile. Only a one dimensional view of history demands that we pin events on God or people, but the Bible gives us the horizontal dimension of human responsibility and the vertical dimension of God’s sovereignty. The point of intersection between these two dimensions is perfectly revealed in the person of Jesus Christ.
