When I was a boy one of my favorite books was "Where the Red Fern Grows." When I showed the movie to my kids I tried to stop it before the end, right after his dogs win the hunting contest.
"Well, what a good story. A kid gets some dogs, loves them, and they win a contest."
But they could see there was further to go on the little red line at the bottom of the Netflix screen, and insisted that we watch to the end. I tried to warn them. I will try not to spoil it for you.
Anyway, there is a line in the book when the boy is struggling to get the money to buy these dogs that he wants more than anything in life. His grandpa tells him that he has to meet God halfway, that if he will do his part, then God will do his. This helps the boy own his responsibility and work hard to get his dogs.
The advice is practical, and it helps the boy to work hard, but there is one problem... it isn't really true.
This gets us to a theological question that works out in our lives in all sorts of daily kinds of ways. In theological terms, we refer to this as the interplay between God's sovereignty and human responsibility. And so we often ask, where does God's sovereignty end and my responsibility begin? Is it halfway?
It isn't halfway, but neither is it 90/10 or 99/1. This is the wrong way of looking at the situation. When we look at it this way, we wonder how much we have to do before God's sovereignty kicks in. How much planning do I need to do before God's will starts operating? How many times do I need to tell the gospel to my unbelieving friend before I pass the baton to God? How much did I bring this bad thing upon myself, and how much was it God doing it? How far do I need to walk before he meets me?
This question gets ramped up when someone becomes a Calvinist, because they begin to see that the Bible ascribes absolute sovereignty to God. Our God sits in the heavens, he does whatever he pleases. God works all things according to the counsel of his will. The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord. Who has spoken and it came to pass, unless the Lord commanded it? Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that good and bad come? Etc.
So then we start to wonder where our responsibility fits at all. What percent is mine? Is it zero?
But these questions are looking at the whole thing wrong. God's sovereignty and man's responsibility are not on the same plane, so both are complete. They do not limit one another. God's sovereignty undergirds man's responsibility, it upholds it. This is why it says that you should work out your salvation with fear and trembling because it is God who is at work in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure. God is completely sovereign. Man is completely responsible. There is no place where your responsibility ends and his sovereignty begins, or where his sovereignty ends and your responsibility begins.
Does God keep you alive or do you have to eat to live? Yes.
How much planning do I need to do before God's sovereignty kicks in? You don't stop planning because of God's sovereignty. He works in and through your planning and your lack of planning.
But there is something that is opposite God's sovereignty; your worry. Plan, be responsible, preach, love, serve, pray, and trust God. He is working all things for your good if you are in Jesus through faith and rebirth. Even the bad things. Do your responsibility and rest in God's sovereignty completely.
If the boy really believed his grandpa in the book, the end would be utterly devastating because it would show that he didn't go his halfway enough after all. Try harder next time, this one is on you, not God.
We have a better hope, a better message, a better God than one who meets us halfway. And rather than destroy our responsibility, it enables us to take it in hand freely while still resting fully in God.
No comments:
Post a Comment