To what extent are we free? When it comes to reconciling God’s sovereignty and free will, it all depends on what you mean by free will. Freedom is necessary for people to be responsible for their actions, you can destroy a machine that constitutes a threat, but you cannot punish a robot for doing what it’s programmed to do. Retributive justice requires that the perpetrators act be of their own volition. Free agents are responsible, but the mechanisms they use cannot be blamed for doing what they could not avoid doing. An agent is responsible to the extent that they were free to act, and free from blame to the extent that they were compelled by another. While some significant theologians (Augustine, Calvin, Carson) have suggested that our freedom does not include the power to contrary (the ability to avoid doing what we’re free to do), this I believe, leads to the inescapable conclusion that God punishes people with an eternity of suffering for things that they’re unable to avoid doing. God’s revelation of his justice and our responsibility drives me to defend human freedom.
Jesus says “Everyone who sins is a slave to sin” (John 8:34). Does this mean that we offer ourselves willing slaves or that we are compelled to sin against our will? Romans 6 describes people as either slaves to sin or slave to righteousness without exception. Can someone who’s a slave to sin blame their sin on their slavery? Paul anticipates this question in Romans 9, if God is sovereign, “Then why does God still blame us? For who is able to resist his will?” (Romans 9:19). Paul reminds us that we cannot blame God for our sin against God, “Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, Why did you make me like this?” (Romans 9:20), and then suggests why God may have “bore with great patience the objects of his wrath” (Romans 9:22). Whatever we make of Paul’s suggestion as to the reason why, what is clear is that God bears with those who are under his wrath with great patience. It makes little sense for God to bear with them with great patience if he is actively causing them to sin. He is patient with them, not with himself. God passively allows us to sin, he doesn’t force anyone’s hand.
Some object with the observation that “God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden” (Romans 9:18). If we read the account in Exodus on which this is based, we find that Pharaoh hardens his own heart (Exodus 8:15) and then God hardens his heart (Exodus 9:12), Pharaoh’s officials harden their own hearts (Exodus 9:34) and then God hardens their hearts (Exodus 10:1). Paul describes this process as God giving people over to their sin (Romans 1:24, 26, 28). God doesn’t harden people who would otherwise have soft hearts, his punishes sin by giving people over to their sin, passively and without compulsion, but ultimately and eternally in hell. God chooses to save some by sheer grace, and this certainly implies that he chooses not to save others. But this doctrine, known as double predestination, sometimes carries an assumption that people are somewhat neutral before God, who chooses some to go up to heaven and others to go down to hell. However, we cannot blame God for our sin, we freely choose the path to destruction and make our own way to hell. God graciously rescues some along the way and puts them on the path to life. Jesus’ death and resurrection made the way to heaven.
If it’s impossible for sinners to avoid sinning, then in what sense are such people without excuse (Romans 1:20)? Who is Paul describing as they who “show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts sometimes accusing them and at other times even defending them”(Romans 2:15)? In Romans 3 Paul brings together a number of Old Testament passages to demonstrate that there is no one righteous, not even one, all have turned away (Romans 3:10-18). If we as a race had no option to do otherwise, then this is less of a condemnation of us, than it is a description of the power of that which has enslaved us. This passage however, has immeasurably more force if it is possible to be righteous and yet there is no one who is, if we are able to seek God and yet no one does. Left to ourselves, no one does choose God, but that doesn’t mean that no one can choose God. Jesus was fully human and he did. To say that only he can is to deny that he was tempted in every way that we are (Hebrews 4:15). I’m extremely confident that I won’t choose to murder someone today, but that doesn’t mean that I can’t. The fact that people don’t choose God on their own, doesn’t mean that they can’t.
Augustine wrote that “what our hearts desire, our will chooses and our mind justifies”. The bible tells us that “Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires” (Romans 8:5). There is a real sense is which our will is a constant slave to what our hearts desire, but this is saying nothing more than affirming that we choose to do what we want. The key issue in the discussion of free will is, how free are our hearts? We seek to be free to follow our hearts, not to subjugate our hearts to follow something else. To say that we’re not free to want whatever we want, is a misunderstanding of the word “want”. Our hearts desires are our own, to blame your choices on your heart is to blame yourself.
In Genesis 6 “The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time” (Genesis 6:5). We have no one to blame for this but ourselves, God didn’t incline our hearts that way, we did. The gospel however changes our heart so that we no longer desire sin but desire God instead. We no longer seek to be free to sin but to be free from sin. Both sin and faith are driven by the heart: sin is willful disobedience, faith is willful obedience. The bible says that “There is no one who seeks God. All have turned away” (Romans 3:11-12). It’s not that something else turned us away from God, we are the ones who turned away. It’s not that we’re unable to seek God, the force of the words is in the fact that there is no one who seeks God. God seeks us and turns us back to him, not despite our inability to do so, but despite our unwillingness to do so.
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
Sunday, October 14, 2012
Agency and Mechanism
In demonstrating the harmony between Genesis 1 and the Big Bang theory, John Lennox distinguishes between explanations of agency and explanations of mechanism: ‘Now the idea of a “Big Bang” is a point of concern for some people who have been influenced by Richard Dawkins’ simplistic insistence on our choosing either science or God. However, these are false alternatives, on the same foolish level as insisting that we choose between Henry Ford and a car-production line to explain the origin of a Ford Galaxy. The fact is that both of these explanations are necessary: they do not contradict but complement each other. Henry Ford is the agent who designed the car; the car-production line is the mechanism by which it is manufactured. Similarly, we do not have to choose between God and the Big Bang. They are different kinds of explanation – one in terms of God’s creational agency and the other in terms of mechanisms and laws’ (John Lennox, Seven Days that Divided the World, p153).
This is an extremely helpful distinction to maintain in describing how God works through his invisible hand of providence. The explanation that God sends the rain (Matthew 5:45) is not in competition with the scientific explanations of the cause of rain which we can now predict (Luke 12:54). God the agent, uses his creation as the mechanism to cause it to rain. The creator of the universe doesn’t have to work against his creation in order to be sovereign over it, he often works in, though and by his creation. God is of course free to use his visible hand of miracles to achieve his purpose, but he is also free to use his invisible hand of providence. The scientific explanation of what caused the rain explains the mechanism, but the theological explanation of God sending the rain explains the agent. Both agent and mechanism are required for it to rain.
It gets a bit harder when God’s mechanisms also have agency. God uses not only clouds and winds as instruments, but people as well. And people are agents in and of themselves; unlike the clouds and the wind, we make choices and are responsible for them. Isaiah describes the Lord wielding the king of Assyria like an axe (Isaiah 10:15). On the macro level, God is the agent, the king of Assyria is his mechanism. Compared to God’s agency, our agency is mechanistic (Proverbs 21:1). But if we zoom in to the micro level, the king of Assyria is the agent of Israel’s exile and his army was the mechanism that brought it about. Like everyone else, the king makes real choices that he is held accountable for.
Ultimately, God holds the king of Assyria accountable because of his evil intent (Isaiah 10:7). God is not concerned about what we do with our hands, but the intentions of our hearts (Matthew 15:1-20; Mark 7:1-23), for the Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart (1 Samuel 16:7). God can achieve his good purposes in and through the harmful purposes of his instruments. God is glorified as good and those with evil intent are condemned as wicked in the same event with the same consequences (Genesis 50:20). The ultimate example of this is demonstrated in the cross, where the most wicked act of humanity is the most gracious act of God (Acts 2:23).
Forgetting God’s sovereignty or pitting his sovereignty against ours can be a tragic mistake. The king of Assyria is judged because his arrogance led him to believe that he was the ultimate agent of the Assyrian conquest (Isaiah 10:12). This is precisely what happens to Nebuchadnezzar who declares “Is not this the great Babylon I have built as the royal residence, by my mighty power?” Nebuchadnezzar is then judged because he does not “acknowledge that the Most High is sovereign over all kingdoms on earth and gives them to anyone he wishes” (Daniel 4:28-32). Understanding the place of our will in God’s sovereign will is crucial if we are to let God be God. Knowing who we are before the creator of the universe is the essence of the fear of the Lord, and denying it is the essence of sin. As James so powerfully warns: ‘What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil’ (James 4:14-16).
Thinking of God’s sovereignty in terms of human sovereignty is a very natural thing to do because we can relate to human sovereignty, but it is something that the bible expressly forbids. As Paul wrestles with God’s sovereignty in election, anticipating the question “Then why does God still blame us? For who is able to resist his will?” Paul makes it very clear that God is the potter and we are his clay (Romans 9:19-21). Instead of acknowledging God’s sovereignty over everything, we can too easily reduce God to one who is sovereign in the same way that we are sovereign, working for or against the will of others, as opposed to through the will of everyone. Either our will is raised to the level of God’s or his will is reduced to the level of ours. Either way, we can too easily view the achievements of our will as something that God didn’t bring about (Assyria and Nebuchadnezzar) and/or viewing any tension between our will and God’s as something that we can put God on the witness stand for and call him to account (Job and his three friends). This is the nature of God’s rebuke to Job, how can the one who was created talk back to the one who created him? Are we in the place of God?
This is an extremely helpful distinction to maintain in describing how God works through his invisible hand of providence. The explanation that God sends the rain (Matthew 5:45) is not in competition with the scientific explanations of the cause of rain which we can now predict (Luke 12:54). God the agent, uses his creation as the mechanism to cause it to rain. The creator of the universe doesn’t have to work against his creation in order to be sovereign over it, he often works in, though and by his creation. God is of course free to use his visible hand of miracles to achieve his purpose, but he is also free to use his invisible hand of providence. The scientific explanation of what caused the rain explains the mechanism, but the theological explanation of God sending the rain explains the agent. Both agent and mechanism are required for it to rain.
It gets a bit harder when God’s mechanisms also have agency. God uses not only clouds and winds as instruments, but people as well. And people are agents in and of themselves; unlike the clouds and the wind, we make choices and are responsible for them. Isaiah describes the Lord wielding the king of Assyria like an axe (Isaiah 10:15). On the macro level, God is the agent, the king of Assyria is his mechanism. Compared to God’s agency, our agency is mechanistic (Proverbs 21:1). But if we zoom in to the micro level, the king of Assyria is the agent of Israel’s exile and his army was the mechanism that brought it about. Like everyone else, the king makes real choices that he is held accountable for.
Ultimately, God holds the king of Assyria accountable because of his evil intent (Isaiah 10:7). God is not concerned about what we do with our hands, but the intentions of our hearts (Matthew 15:1-20; Mark 7:1-23), for the Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart (1 Samuel 16:7). God can achieve his good purposes in and through the harmful purposes of his instruments. God is glorified as good and those with evil intent are condemned as wicked in the same event with the same consequences (Genesis 50:20). The ultimate example of this is demonstrated in the cross, where the most wicked act of humanity is the most gracious act of God (Acts 2:23).
Forgetting God’s sovereignty or pitting his sovereignty against ours can be a tragic mistake. The king of Assyria is judged because his arrogance led him to believe that he was the ultimate agent of the Assyrian conquest (Isaiah 10:12). This is precisely what happens to Nebuchadnezzar who declares “Is not this the great Babylon I have built as the royal residence, by my mighty power?” Nebuchadnezzar is then judged because he does not “acknowledge that the Most High is sovereign over all kingdoms on earth and gives them to anyone he wishes” (Daniel 4:28-32). Understanding the place of our will in God’s sovereign will is crucial if we are to let God be God. Knowing who we are before the creator of the universe is the essence of the fear of the Lord, and denying it is the essence of sin. As James so powerfully warns: ‘What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil’ (James 4:14-16).
Thinking of God’s sovereignty in terms of human sovereignty is a very natural thing to do because we can relate to human sovereignty, but it is something that the bible expressly forbids. As Paul wrestles with God’s sovereignty in election, anticipating the question “Then why does God still blame us? For who is able to resist his will?” Paul makes it very clear that God is the potter and we are his clay (Romans 9:19-21). Instead of acknowledging God’s sovereignty over everything, we can too easily reduce God to one who is sovereign in the same way that we are sovereign, working for or against the will of others, as opposed to through the will of everyone. Either our will is raised to the level of God’s or his will is reduced to the level of ours. Either way, we can too easily view the achievements of our will as something that God didn’t bring about (Assyria and Nebuchadnezzar) and/or viewing any tension between our will and God’s as something that we can put God on the witness stand for and call him to account (Job and his three friends). This is the nature of God’s rebuke to Job, how can the one who was created talk back to the one who created him? Are we in the place of God?
Sunday, September 23, 2012
The Complexity of Causality
Historical events almost never come about solely through the actions of one person. At the beginning of WW1, the proximate trigger for the war appeared to have been the assignation of the heir to Austria-Hungry. At the end of WW1, if you had of asked the allies what caused the war many would have said that it was the Germans greed for power. But historical hindsight has exposed a plethora of contributing factors such as the arms race, imperialistic foreign policies, political agendas and superiority complexes (some scientists have even suggested the selfish gene theory as an underlying factor of conflict and racism). Causality is often irreducibly complex: removing any one of an event’s contributing factors would have stopped the event from happening. Just think of how many things had to happen for you to have been born, if any one of the events that led to your parents (or their parents) meeting each other had not have happened then you wouldn’t exist.
And yet when it comes to the contributing factors of human decisions, people often demand that we put causality down to the will of a single person. To a degree, this is necessary so that we can hold people responsible for their actions, but every decision is influenced by an uncountable number of factors and influences, some from our genetic makeup (nature), and some from our past experience (nurture). Some philosophers press this point too far and conclude that people are basically robots who can only do what our nature and nurture has programmed us to do, denying the unpredictable human factor of conscious decisions. Others however swing too far the other way in reducing causality to the choices of one, often in order to have someone to blame or reward.
The bible introduces another agent of causality, namely God. In the bible God is consistently referred to as the sovereign Lord. He is the ultimate cause of everything in the sense that if he had not of created the universe nothing would ever have happened, ever. God began and is sovereign over human history, nothing happens outside of his sovereign control; “who resists his will?” (Romans 9:19). God does however, stand behind good and evil asymmetrically; goodness comes from the hand of God (Gen 1:31, 1 Tim 4:4), evil from the desires of our hearts (Matthew 15:18-19 // Mark 7:21-22, James 1:15). When it comes to sin and evil, God allows what he hates in order to achieve what he loves. Thomas Aquinas described God as the first cause (or the uncaused cause). Human decisions cannot be viewed as being made behind God’s back as if he is completely removed from them. We cannot draw a dichotomy between God’s will and our will as if it’s one or the other. If God is truly sovereign then his sovereign will is achieved through human will, not despite human will.
The transcendency of God’s sovereign will is often a stumbling block for Christians. We would much prefer to reduce causality to human decision, but this is an over simplification. Consider the causality of rain, as our knowledge of weather patterns has increased we have been able to understand more and more of the natural processes that cause it to rain. Water evaporates from an ocean or lake, the sun heats up the air over the land causing it to rise, the cooler air containing water vapour rushes in to take its place, and when these clouds gather and cool down the water condensates into rain drops and gravity pulls it down to us as rain. However, Christians don’t see this as in any way detracting from the fact that God sends the rain (Matt 5:45). God’s sovereign will transcends the processes that we observe on earth, whether they are scientific processes controlling the weather, or the processes of human will controlling our decisions.
Consider also what people describe as random chance. If God is sovereign over all things, then everything that we perceive as random or chance or luck is under God’s sovereign control. “The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord” (Prov 16:33). A dice roll is about as random as you can get, and most Christians don’t have any qualms with God controlling dice. But even without considering the sovereignty of God, it isn’t too difficult to see that “chance” and “luck” have nothing to do with determining the roll of the dice. It all depends on the height from which the dice is thrown, its three dimensional angular velocity (spin), and the surface on which it bounces. If these values are known then the roll of the dice can by predicted by mathematical equations (fairly quickly using computers). To make it easier to visualise, think about tossing a coin, most people consider a coin toss to be random but if you knew its vertical speed then you can calculate its time in the air, if you also knew how quickly the coin was spinning then it’s not too difficult to calculate whether it will be heads or tails (time in the air × speed the coin is spinning = number of spins). When the math gets too complicated (like the three dimensional angular velocity of the dice, and then subsequent trajectories as it bounces on the surface), we call it “chance”. I submit that “chance” and “luck” are terms we use when we don’t know the cause; they are not causes in and of themselves.
Causality is often irreducibly complex, whether we are talking about dice or rain or people. To a certain degree we can often explain the causality of each in terms of natural causes and/or human causes, but God’s sovereign will transcends them all. Being able to explain how things happen scientifically doesn’t undermine why they happen theologically. God is the uncaused cause who is not affected or influenced by anything except his own character. Nothing happens outside of his sovereign will, God’s sovereignty transcends the sovereignty human decisions just as it transcends the decisions of the lot and the weather. God doesn’t need to work against his creation to bring about his sovereign plan, God works in and through his creation to liberate it from its bondage to decay and bring it into the glorious freedom of the children of God (Rom 8:21).
And yet when it comes to the contributing factors of human decisions, people often demand that we put causality down to the will of a single person. To a degree, this is necessary so that we can hold people responsible for their actions, but every decision is influenced by an uncountable number of factors and influences, some from our genetic makeup (nature), and some from our past experience (nurture). Some philosophers press this point too far and conclude that people are basically robots who can only do what our nature and nurture has programmed us to do, denying the unpredictable human factor of conscious decisions. Others however swing too far the other way in reducing causality to the choices of one, often in order to have someone to blame or reward.
The bible introduces another agent of causality, namely God. In the bible God is consistently referred to as the sovereign Lord. He is the ultimate cause of everything in the sense that if he had not of created the universe nothing would ever have happened, ever. God began and is sovereign over human history, nothing happens outside of his sovereign control; “who resists his will?” (Romans 9:19). God does however, stand behind good and evil asymmetrically; goodness comes from the hand of God (Gen 1:31, 1 Tim 4:4), evil from the desires of our hearts (Matthew 15:18-19 // Mark 7:21-22, James 1:15). When it comes to sin and evil, God allows what he hates in order to achieve what he loves. Thomas Aquinas described God as the first cause (or the uncaused cause). Human decisions cannot be viewed as being made behind God’s back as if he is completely removed from them. We cannot draw a dichotomy between God’s will and our will as if it’s one or the other. If God is truly sovereign then his sovereign will is achieved through human will, not despite human will.
The transcendency of God’s sovereign will is often a stumbling block for Christians. We would much prefer to reduce causality to human decision, but this is an over simplification. Consider the causality of rain, as our knowledge of weather patterns has increased we have been able to understand more and more of the natural processes that cause it to rain. Water evaporates from an ocean or lake, the sun heats up the air over the land causing it to rise, the cooler air containing water vapour rushes in to take its place, and when these clouds gather and cool down the water condensates into rain drops and gravity pulls it down to us as rain. However, Christians don’t see this as in any way detracting from the fact that God sends the rain (Matt 5:45). God’s sovereign will transcends the processes that we observe on earth, whether they are scientific processes controlling the weather, or the processes of human will controlling our decisions.
Consider also what people describe as random chance. If God is sovereign over all things, then everything that we perceive as random or chance or luck is under God’s sovereign control. “The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord” (Prov 16:33). A dice roll is about as random as you can get, and most Christians don’t have any qualms with God controlling dice. But even without considering the sovereignty of God, it isn’t too difficult to see that “chance” and “luck” have nothing to do with determining the roll of the dice. It all depends on the height from which the dice is thrown, its three dimensional angular velocity (spin), and the surface on which it bounces. If these values are known then the roll of the dice can by predicted by mathematical equations (fairly quickly using computers). To make it easier to visualise, think about tossing a coin, most people consider a coin toss to be random but if you knew its vertical speed then you can calculate its time in the air, if you also knew how quickly the coin was spinning then it’s not too difficult to calculate whether it will be heads or tails (time in the air × speed the coin is spinning = number of spins). When the math gets too complicated (like the three dimensional angular velocity of the dice, and then subsequent trajectories as it bounces on the surface), we call it “chance”. I submit that “chance” and “luck” are terms we use when we don’t know the cause; they are not causes in and of themselves.
Causality is often irreducibly complex, whether we are talking about dice or rain or people. To a certain degree we can often explain the causality of each in terms of natural causes and/or human causes, but God’s sovereign will transcends them all. Being able to explain how things happen scientifically doesn’t undermine why they happen theologically. God is the uncaused cause who is not affected or influenced by anything except his own character. Nothing happens outside of his sovereign will, God’s sovereignty transcends the sovereignty human decisions just as it transcends the decisions of the lot and the weather. God doesn’t need to work against his creation to bring about his sovereign plan, God works in and through his creation to liberate it from its bondage to decay and bring it into the glorious freedom of the children of God (Rom 8:21).
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
Active and Passive Sovereignty
In understanding God’s sovereign reign over everything, Christians have often pointed out that God stands behind good and evil asymmetrically. That is, the way that he stands behind good is different from the way that he stands behind evil. Indeed, God created everything good (Genesis 1:4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25 and especially 31), “for everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving” (1 Timothy 4:4). This however, still leaves us with the question of who created evil. The problem with this question is that evil is not something that’s created, it’s something that’s chosen. Everything that God created was good, but good things (like tools) can be used for evil (like murder).
The account in Genesis describes God creating people with the ability to choose between good and evil (Genesis 2:16-17). For many this doesn’t solve the problem at all, it only moves it to another place. We are still left with the question of why God would put a forbidden tree in the garden. The most satisfactory answer that Christians have suggested, is that one needs to be free in order to love. The tree itself isn’t evil (Genesis 1:31), evil comes through Adam’s choice to sin against God (Romans 5:12). God tells Adam and Eve to obey him because it’s him, not because it will help them in their marriage or their work, but because of who God is and because of their relationship with him. God gives them the freedom to love him and the freedom to turn against him.
Moreover, the bible tells us that God didn’t just create humanity with the ability to sin, but that he created them knowing that they would sin (Romans 11:30-32). However the bible goes out of its way to say that we are responsible for our sin. We cannot blame our rejection of God on God, he never forces anyone’s hand to sin. Our sin doesn’t take God by surprise (Genesis 6:5; 8:21), Jesus was not plan B following the fall (1 Peter 1:20, Ephesians 1:4). God is sovereign over our sin, but he is passive over our execution of it, that is, God allows us to sin. Some people think that this is enough to condemn God; if sin is the cause of suffering and death and God has the power to stop it then he is evil for allowing it to continue. However, our sin is not so easily divorced from us, in the parable of the weeds, God’s angels ask him if they can put an end to sin but God allows the evil to grow up with the good because he is merciful (Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43). Putting an end to all sin, suffering and death would mean putting an end to all of its causes, namely us.
God is extremely patient in allowing us to continue to rebel against him in order to give us more time for more people to repent. God doesn’t make it impossible for people to rebel against him, instead he uses our rebellion to display his awesome justice and mercy (Romans 9:22-23). God allows people to do evil, but he uses even evil to achieve his good purpose (Genesis 50:20, Acts 2:23). Evil wasn’t created by God, it sprang from our desire (James 1:15), specifically, our desire to take God’s place, being like God, knowing and deciding good and evil (Genesis 3:5-6). We are actively sovereign over our sin, that is, we are the perpetrators responsible for it. God is passively sovereign over our sin; in control, allowing us to sin and even using it to magnify his grace towards us (Romans 5:20-21).
The gospel brings a beautiful symmetry to an otherwise dark and gloomy picture. While we are active and God is passive in our sin, God is active and we are passive in his grace. We actively author our sin and God actively authors his grace. God passively receives our sin and we passively receive his grace. Just as sin sprang from our desire to climb our way up to God, God’s grace to us in Christ sprang from his desire to come down to us to save us (Ephesians 1:5-6). The role that we play in accepting his free gift of forgiveness is passive, faith is coming to God with empty hands, the only thing that we bring to the table is the sin that we need to be saved from.
We all choose to sin (Romans 3:23, 1 John 1:8) and are therefore deserving of death (Romans 6:23). God allows us to sin because he is patient, giving us more time to repent, and he even uses our evil deeds for his good purpose (Acts 4:27-28). God is sovereign over his grace and mercy, calling those whom he wills to receive his forgiveness in Christ. Those who accept God’s grace accept it with empty hands in humble thanks. For we are the active agents in our sin which God passively allows, he is the active agent in his grace which we passively receive.
The account in Genesis describes God creating people with the ability to choose between good and evil (Genesis 2:16-17). For many this doesn’t solve the problem at all, it only moves it to another place. We are still left with the question of why God would put a forbidden tree in the garden. The most satisfactory answer that Christians have suggested, is that one needs to be free in order to love. The tree itself isn’t evil (Genesis 1:31), evil comes through Adam’s choice to sin against God (Romans 5:12). God tells Adam and Eve to obey him because it’s him, not because it will help them in their marriage or their work, but because of who God is and because of their relationship with him. God gives them the freedom to love him and the freedom to turn against him.
Moreover, the bible tells us that God didn’t just create humanity with the ability to sin, but that he created them knowing that they would sin (Romans 11:30-32). However the bible goes out of its way to say that we are responsible for our sin. We cannot blame our rejection of God on God, he never forces anyone’s hand to sin. Our sin doesn’t take God by surprise (Genesis 6:5; 8:21), Jesus was not plan B following the fall (1 Peter 1:20, Ephesians 1:4). God is sovereign over our sin, but he is passive over our execution of it, that is, God allows us to sin. Some people think that this is enough to condemn God; if sin is the cause of suffering and death and God has the power to stop it then he is evil for allowing it to continue. However, our sin is not so easily divorced from us, in the parable of the weeds, God’s angels ask him if they can put an end to sin but God allows the evil to grow up with the good because he is merciful (Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43). Putting an end to all sin, suffering and death would mean putting an end to all of its causes, namely us.
God is extremely patient in allowing us to continue to rebel against him in order to give us more time for more people to repent. God doesn’t make it impossible for people to rebel against him, instead he uses our rebellion to display his awesome justice and mercy (Romans 9:22-23). God allows people to do evil, but he uses even evil to achieve his good purpose (Genesis 50:20, Acts 2:23). Evil wasn’t created by God, it sprang from our desire (James 1:15), specifically, our desire to take God’s place, being like God, knowing and deciding good and evil (Genesis 3:5-6). We are actively sovereign over our sin, that is, we are the perpetrators responsible for it. God is passively sovereign over our sin; in control, allowing us to sin and even using it to magnify his grace towards us (Romans 5:20-21).
The gospel brings a beautiful symmetry to an otherwise dark and gloomy picture. While we are active and God is passive in our sin, God is active and we are passive in his grace. We actively author our sin and God actively authors his grace. God passively receives our sin and we passively receive his grace. Just as sin sprang from our desire to climb our way up to God, God’s grace to us in Christ sprang from his desire to come down to us to save us (Ephesians 1:5-6). The role that we play in accepting his free gift of forgiveness is passive, faith is coming to God with empty hands, the only thing that we bring to the table is the sin that we need to be saved from.
We all choose to sin (Romans 3:23, 1 John 1:8) and are therefore deserving of death (Romans 6:23). God allows us to sin because he is patient, giving us more time to repent, and he even uses our evil deeds for his good purpose (Acts 4:27-28). God is sovereign over his grace and mercy, calling those whom he wills to receive his forgiveness in Christ. Those who accept God’s grace accept it with empty hands in humble thanks. For we are the active agents in our sin which God passively allows, he is the active agent in his grace which we passively receive.
Thursday, July 26, 2012
The Duality of Authorship
We often struggle to understand the relationship of divine causality and human causality. When you do something, did you freely choose to do it or did God sovereignly cause you to do it? Several reconciliations involve God’s primary causality and our secondary causality, like God primarily sending the rain and the secondary scientific explanation of condensation. However, framing the two as one after the other reduces our decisions to be like that of a pre-programmed machine. Ironically, several secular philosophers have pursued this line of determinism, but the bible’s portrait of humanity is not at all robotic. We make free choices for good and for evil and bear the consequences. People are not robots but have real agency to which they are held accountable. People ponder the decisions they face and often change their mind after they have taken some action in one direction. Moreover, good is to be rewarded and encouraged and evil is to be punished and condemned.
How then do we reconcile God’s agency in his providence with our agency in our choices? One example that can help us is the dual authorship of the bible. The bible is very much a human text and has human fingerprints all over it, and yet “prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:21). This does not mean that the bible is one long dictation from God like the Quran (though some parts of the bible include dictations: “This is what the Lord says...”). Each book of the bible has distinct characteristics of its author, but the bible as a whole has the distinctive characteristic of being authored by God, “All Scripture is God-breathed” (2 Timothy 3:16).
The transcendence of God’s authorship in parallel with the bible’s human authorship can help us to understand the transcendence of God’s providence in parallel with human decisions. Just as we can understand the inspiration of scripture as the dual authorship of the bible, we can understand God’s sovereignty and human responsibility as the dual authorship of history. At one level, human history is a composition resulting from free human decisions, but none of it is outside of God’s sovereign will and plan. “In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps” (Proverbs 16:9). God’s sovereignty is not on the same existential plain (or in the same ball park) as our sovereignty (i.e. in a tug of war between primary and secondary causality), God’s is sovereign over our sovereignty. That is, God’s plan transcends our plans, it’s not an either or between God’s choice and our choice or even a one after the other, but one (God’s) through the other (ours).
Further parallels can be drawn between God’s dictation in the bible and his intervention in history. Just as the bible is made up of God’s invisible inspiration of the prophets and his visible inspiration in his dictation: “this is what the Lord says...”, so too God works in human history using an invisible hand of providence and a visible hand of miracles. Sometimes God achieves his purposes despite his creation (people or nature), though often he achieves his purposes through his creation. This does not reduce people to God’s puppets, for God brings good out of evil (Genesis 50:20; Acts 2:23) and even uses sin to achieve his glory (Proverbs 16:4; Isaiah 10:12-15; Romans 9:17). God cannot disown himself (2 Timothy 2:13) but he can and does use those who disown him to execute his justice (Romans 13:1-5).
Parallels can also be drawn between God using our evil to achieve his good and his word tearing down in order to build up. One of the most developed theologies of the word of God is in the book of Jeremiah. In Jeremiah’s call to ministry, God puts his words in Jeremiah’s mouth “to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant” (Jeremiah 1:9-10). This dual intention of tearing down and building up shapes the rest of the book as the word of the Lord becomes a double edged sword that comes to many as the stench of death, before it is received as the fragrance of life. The canonical shape of the book thus makes clear that God “watches over” the sovereign word of God, first to pluck up and tear down, then to plant and to build. The dual theme of judgment and promise is reflected in the shaping of the canonical text. In Jeremiah we see a story arc of the word of the Lord to tear down (Jeremiah 1-25) and to build up (Jeremiah 30-52), pivoting on a narrative of sin and grace (Jeremiah 26-29).
Similarly, God has been sovereign over the narrative of human history which has taken the shape of fall (a tearing down) and redemption (a building up). This is not the best possible world, the best possible world is heaven, but we can only get there by going through earth. Only then will we be able to taste and see how good God’s grace really is, having experienced how devastating our sin really is. “For God has bound everyone over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all” (Romans 11:32). “Scripture has locked up everything under the control of sin, so that what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe” (Galatians 3:22). Both human history and our understanding of God’s word have been darkened by our choice to live without God, and yet in history Jesus came as “the light of all mankind, the light shines in the darkness” (John 1:4-5), and illuminated our understanding of God’s eternal word, “for God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness’, made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ” (Galatians 3:22).
How then do we reconcile God’s agency in his providence with our agency in our choices? One example that can help us is the dual authorship of the bible. The bible is very much a human text and has human fingerprints all over it, and yet “prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:21). This does not mean that the bible is one long dictation from God like the Quran (though some parts of the bible include dictations: “This is what the Lord says...”). Each book of the bible has distinct characteristics of its author, but the bible as a whole has the distinctive characteristic of being authored by God, “All Scripture is God-breathed” (2 Timothy 3:16).
The transcendence of God’s authorship in parallel with the bible’s human authorship can help us to understand the transcendence of God’s providence in parallel with human decisions. Just as we can understand the inspiration of scripture as the dual authorship of the bible, we can understand God’s sovereignty and human responsibility as the dual authorship of history. At one level, human history is a composition resulting from free human decisions, but none of it is outside of God’s sovereign will and plan. “In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps” (Proverbs 16:9). God’s sovereignty is not on the same existential plain (or in the same ball park) as our sovereignty (i.e. in a tug of war between primary and secondary causality), God’s is sovereign over our sovereignty. That is, God’s plan transcends our plans, it’s not an either or between God’s choice and our choice or even a one after the other, but one (God’s) through the other (ours).
Further parallels can be drawn between God’s dictation in the bible and his intervention in history. Just as the bible is made up of God’s invisible inspiration of the prophets and his visible inspiration in his dictation: “this is what the Lord says...”, so too God works in human history using an invisible hand of providence and a visible hand of miracles. Sometimes God achieves his purposes despite his creation (people or nature), though often he achieves his purposes through his creation. This does not reduce people to God’s puppets, for God brings good out of evil (Genesis 50:20; Acts 2:23) and even uses sin to achieve his glory (Proverbs 16:4; Isaiah 10:12-15; Romans 9:17). God cannot disown himself (2 Timothy 2:13) but he can and does use those who disown him to execute his justice (Romans 13:1-5).
Parallels can also be drawn between God using our evil to achieve his good and his word tearing down in order to build up. One of the most developed theologies of the word of God is in the book of Jeremiah. In Jeremiah’s call to ministry, God puts his words in Jeremiah’s mouth “to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant” (Jeremiah 1:9-10). This dual intention of tearing down and building up shapes the rest of the book as the word of the Lord becomes a double edged sword that comes to many as the stench of death, before it is received as the fragrance of life. The canonical shape of the book thus makes clear that God “watches over” the sovereign word of God, first to pluck up and tear down, then to plant and to build. The dual theme of judgment and promise is reflected in the shaping of the canonical text. In Jeremiah we see a story arc of the word of the Lord to tear down (Jeremiah 1-25) and to build up (Jeremiah 30-52), pivoting on a narrative of sin and grace (Jeremiah 26-29).
Similarly, God has been sovereign over the narrative of human history which has taken the shape of fall (a tearing down) and redemption (a building up). This is not the best possible world, the best possible world is heaven, but we can only get there by going through earth. Only then will we be able to taste and see how good God’s grace really is, having experienced how devastating our sin really is. “For God has bound everyone over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all” (Romans 11:32). “Scripture has locked up everything under the control of sin, so that what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe” (Galatians 3:22). Both human history and our understanding of God’s word have been darkened by our choice to live without God, and yet in history Jesus came as “the light of all mankind, the light shines in the darkness” (John 1:4-5), and illuminated our understanding of God’s eternal word, “for God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness’, made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ” (Galatians 3:22).
Thursday, June 28, 2012
The Pneumatological Key
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.
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.
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
The Christological Key
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.
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.
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