THE LIVES OF THE PATRIARCHS #13 | GOD'S SOVEREIGNTY AND MAN'S RESPOSIBILITY
Pastor Christopher Choo
Lesson 3694
THE LIVES OF THE PATRIARCHS #13
GOD'S SOVEREIGNTY AND MAN'S RESPONSIBILITY
The lives of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph are illustrations of this difficult theological concept of the balance between God's sovereignty and Human responsibility.
God’s sovereignty is a natural consequence of His omniscience, omnipotence, and omnipresence.
It means that He is absolute in authority and unrestricted in His supremacy.
At the same time, the Bible describes God as offering humanity choices (Deuteronomy 30:15–19), holding them personally responsible for their sins (Exodus 20:5), and being unhappy with some of their actions (Numbers 25:3). The fact that sin exists at all proves that not all things that occur are the direct actions of God, who is holy. The reality of human volition (and human accountability) sets the maximum boundary for God’s sovereign control over the universe, which is to say there is a point at which God chooses to allow things that He does not directly cause.
In so many words, everything that happens is, at the very least, the result of His permissive will.
This holds true even if certain specific things are not what He would prefer. The right of God to allow mankind’s free choices is just as necessary for true sovereignty as His ability to enact His will, wherever and however He chooses.
The four father figures of faith in the book of Genesis could have easily walked away from their calling to establish a nation from which the Messiah would come from. They had a God-given freewill to even say no to God's plans and purposes for their lives.
Adam failed God at the outstart by his act of willing disobedience. And because of his sin, God gave his descendants over to a reprobate mind to do what they will.
"And because they did not think it worthwhile to acknowledge God, God delivered them over to a corrupt mind so that they do what is not right." ( Romans 1: 28 ).
In easier English, this meant that since they thought it foolish to acknowledge God, He abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do things that should never be done.
But in the person of Abraham, God found a man who chose to be faithful to Him in acts of obedience. And his faith impacted his family down to the 12 tribes of Israel from whom Christ came from the leading tribe of Judah in accordance with God's will.
What is our spiritual lesson today?
Abraham unlike Adam did not fail God in his choice to be obedient to God's calling upon his life despite the many sacrifices, discomfort, and inconvenience he had to suffer as a wandering nomad for the rest of his earthly life. In following God he had to die for his self-life.
Hebrews 11:10 tells us he was confidently looking forward to a city with eternal foundations, a city designed and built by God, a place of real permanence.
His life of faith in God's promises showed us the path from here to eternity is by trusting and obeying God a step at a time.
He may have stumbled by fathering Ishmael by Hagar but he otherwise walked his talk and became a towering figure as our Father of Faith.
As the Amplified Bible tells us in Genesis 15:6
"Then Abram believed in (affirmed, trusted in, relied on, remained steadfast to) the LORD; and He counted (credited) it to him as righteousness (doing right in regard to God and man)."
In this, we see the balance of God's sovereignty and our human responsibility.
