God's sovereignty and my responsibility

-

Understanding the relationship between God’s sovereignty and human responsibility used to be simply an intellectual pursuit for me — just a stunning puzzle of philosophical ideas. Not anymore.
The bitter fruit of laziness, anxiety, and pride have crept into my life whenever I’ve gotten it wrong. And on the flip side, the beautiful fruit of a restful heart and selfless love has resulted from getting it right. This is no distant theoretical or theological discussion. It’s the difference between the full Christian life and spiritual stagnation.
How does our work in this world relate to God’s work? Let’s consider three possibilities, all of which I’ve tried at various points in my life.

1. God does nothing, and we do everything?

Some people live this way by conviction. Believing there’s no God, they’re compelled to take full responsibility. Others simply live this way in practice. Lots of Christians are practical atheists: faced with a problem, we instinctively turn to ourselves to fix it.
It’s what we do with God when we stew and worry, or rush immediately into problem-solving mode, rather than prayerfully surrendering our problems to him and asking for help.
Psalm 127:1–2 proclaims the vanity of attempting to live apart from God’s help:
Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep.
Vain, vain, vain. Solomon doesn’t mean that atheists can’t build houses or keep cities safe (there are lots of good atheistic home builders). But when they do, it’s because of the help of the very God they deny. And Solomon’s message is even deeper and more penetrating: What’s the point of the new house or the secure city if you don’t have God? Life doesn’t flourish apart from him. In the second half of Psalm 127, Solomon shows how blessed life is when we rely on God (Psalm 127:5). Practical atheism is a big mistake. But so is an opposite error.

2. God does everything, and we do nothing?

Christians sometimes disguise passivity and laziness in spiritual garb. We love to “let go and let God.” “God loves that person and I’m trusting he will meet their every need.” We say, “I’ll pray for you,” instead of offering the practical help that will cost us something. 
We may wonder whether the verses in Psalm 127 quoted above endorse laziness. After all, Solomon says it’s vain to “rise up early and go late to rest.” But notice something very important: While it’s true that the Lord must build the house, there are still people building the house. And while the Lord must watch the city, there are still human beings guarding the city. John Calvin was right when he said, “It is not the will of the Lord that we should be like blocks of wood, or that we should keep our arms folded without doing anything; but that we should apply to use all the talents and advantages which [God] has conferred upon us.”
God’s help isn’t meant to make us into couch potatoes. His work never undercuts ours (Philippians 2:12–13). There’s a better way to fit together his activity with ours.

3. God does everything, and we do something.

God calls us to do something in this world: to be active, even abounding, in good works (1 Corinthians 15:58). But even as we abound in activity, we’re to recognize that we’re never doing as much as God does. It’s true that “unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.” But it’s not true to say, “Unless those who labor build the house, the Lord builds in vain.” That’s heresy. We need God, but he never needs us. He is sovereign.
God does everything and we do something. Or, in the words of the apostle Paul, “I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me” (1 Corinthians 15:10).

Popular posts from this blog

Speaking in tongues for today - Charles Stanley

-
Image
There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. … But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all. … And God has appointed these in the church: first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healing, helps, administrations, varieties of tongues. … Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? But earnestly desire the best gifts. And yet I show you a more excellent way - 1 Corinthians 12:4, 7, 28, 30—31 The Lord Jesus Christ had come and gone. The church—newly birthed—was in a transition time. The new covenant was seen as a threat to the Jewish leaders; therefore, there was persecution for those who had chosen to follow Christ. The new religion, in its infant stages, had no Bible, few leaders, and absolutely no support from the government. Astounding that it survived, isn’t it?  How in the world did it survive with so little going for it? Power. Not just a force, but mighty, visible power. Th...
Read more

What is the glory (kabod) of God?

-
Image
2 CORINTHIANS 4:17 "This light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison." Scripture places a high value on God 's glory, and it is not hard to figure out why. Since the inherent glory of the Lord is something that He will not share with others (Isa. 42:8), we know that His glory is something that He prizes highly; indeed, He prizes it more highly than anything else. We should, therefore, set the glory of God as the goal and overarching emphasis of our lives. Whatever we lose for the sake of making the Lord's glory known will be worth it when we see the dazzling light and beauty of; the divine glory (28:5; Rev. 21:23). Glory has to do with light and beauty, but those aspects do not sum up what the Bible means when it speaks of the glory of God. Interestingly, the Hebrew word kabod , which is translated into English as "glory," has the root meaning of "weight" or "heaviness....
Read more

The Holy Spirit causes us to cry out: Abba, Father

-
Image
Pentecostés. Óleo sobre lienzo, 275 × 127 cm. Madrid, Museo del Prado. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) To bring out the same truth in another way, Paul says God sent Jesus (as a Man) to live under the Law in order “to redeem those under law, that we [Jews and Gentiles ] might receive the full rights [adoption] of sons” ( Galatians 4:5).  By “full rights” or “adoption” he means entering into the privileges and responsibilities of sonship. He uses it also of the sonship of Israel (Romans 9:4). Galatians 4:1, 2 indicate that the son and heir of a wealthy family in Paul’s day would be treated as a slave until he became of age.  Then he would receive the adoption, that is, all the rights, privileges, and responsibilities that belonged to an adult member of that family. Adoption was also used in the modern sense, so that Gentiles who were not sons of Abraham became true heirs, true sons of God , by faith.  Jesus died, not just to save us from the fires of hell, bu...
Read more