The integration of God’s sovereignty and human responsibility has always been a difficult one for Christians, however the transcendence of the work of the Holy Spirit has been easier for many to grasp. Christians understand that the Holy Spirit dwells in believers to point us to Christ and help us follow him, without reducing the imperative for us to focus on Christ and follow him. The Son and the Holy Spirit have been said to be the two hands of God. Just as God’s sovereignty and human responsibility meet in the person of Jesus, so here God sovereignly works through the Holy Spirit without reducing our responsibility to do that which the Spirit moves us to do.
The primary role of the Holy Spirit is one of sanctification (Romans 15:16, 2 Thessalonians 2:13, 1 Peter 1:2). The Spirit dwells in believers to make us holy (set apart), that we would be less like the world and more like the one in heaven – God’s will being done on earth (in us) as it is in heaven. This is the very thing that we pray for in the Lord’s prayer, and that we work towards in the Christian life – to be holy because God is holy (1 Peter 1:13-16). The bible describes sanctification as Christians purifying themselves (1 Peter 1:22), and as Christians being born again through the work of God (1 Peter 1:23) side by side. According to the New Testament, God sets us apart for himself and so we are to live lives set apart for God.
In Romans 8, Paul contrasts the man whose mind is “controlled” by the Spirit (Romans 8:6), with the man who is “controlled” by the sinful nature (Romans 8:8). Despite such strong language of God’s sovereign work through the Spirit, Paul’s conclusion is that we therefore have an “obligation”, not to the sinful nature but to the Spirit. How can we have an obligation when we are controlled? Augustine said “What the heart desires, the will chooses, and the mind justifies.” Paul is saying that our hearts desire sin and so our wills chose sin (in Adam). But God has sanctified us by his Spirit so that we desire him, and our wills now choose righteousness (in Christ). The beginning of both of the two ways to live lie in our desire (in Adam or in Christ), but we all bear the responsibility for whichever path our will chooses.
Christian experience testifies to the work of the Holy Spirit in believers. God, through his Holy Spirit, radically transforms lives of those who follow Christ, despite the observation that many have made that “people don’t change”. Some have said that the devil doesn’t change, the devil changes you. The bible certainly teaches that Jesus doesn’t change (Hebrews 13:8), Jesus changes us (Romans 8:10-11). The heart wants what the heart wants. We’re never free from the desires of our heart, true freedom is the freedom to follow your heart’s desires. Our desire gives birth to sin (James 1:15) as our will chooses it, but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their mind set on what the Spirit desires (Romans 8:5) as our will chooses righteousness. Whichever path your will takes you, your mind will always justify following the desires of your heart, so that even the worst criminals can justify their actions (Proverbs 14:12).
Whether we are following the sinful nature or the Spirit of God, we realise the freedom that we have and the responsibility that comes with it. No one ever pleads “the sinful nature made me do it.” We instinctively know that it is our will that chooses to follow the sinful nature. We all follow our desires, whether they are “in Adam” or “in Christ”, and we are responsible for our wilful choices to follow these desires. Righteousness is wilful obedience, sin is wilful disobedience (Romans 1:18-23). As humans, we are sovereign over our sin; this is what we chose in Adam and we bear the responsibility for it. God is sovereign over his grace; changing people’s hearts is what God chose to do in Christ through the Spirit.
The difficulty comes if we draw a false dichotomy between our will and the work of the Holy Spirit, as if he works in us despite our will and/or against our will. When we choose to follow Christ the Spirit works with our will; transforming our hearts to desire good instead of evil, but never contrary to our will. As Christians, we are to work out our salvation with fear and trembling because God works in us to will and act according to his good purpose (Philippians 2:12-13), not instead of God working in us. God’s sovereign will is achieved by the Holy Spirit transforming our will to be aligned with God’s moral will. This doesn’t happen behind our back or without our knowledge, but as we seek to be transformed by the renewing of our mind to seek God’s good, pleasing and perfect will (Romans 12:2).
The Lord works out everything for his own ends, even the wicked for a day of disaster (Proverbs 16:4). Just as God is sovereign over our wilful obedience (righteousness), so he is sovereign over our wilful disobedience (sin). God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy and hardens whom he wants to harden (Romans 9:18), but their hardening is never against their will, it is their will unleashed as God hands them over to their sin – the sinful desires of the heart (Romans 1:24-32). In the book of Exodus, we see the paradigmatic example of Pharaoh hardening his heart (Exodus 8:15) and then the Lord hardening his heart (Exodus 9:12), of Pharaoh and his officials hardening their hearts (Exodus 9:34) and then this event being described as God hardening their hearts (Exodus 10:1). Whether it is by the sinful nature or by the Holy Spirit, God is sovereign over the choices that we make. Whether it is through our wilful obedience or our wilful disobedience, God’s sovereign will is achieved through our will, not instead of our will.
