God’s Sovereignty and Human responsibility. A conversation with Don
27 May 2006
“You can’t have it both ways” jokes my Arminian boss “You can’t hold them in tension it just doesn’t make sense.”
I’ve been reading through Don Carson’s book A Call to A Spiritual Reformation with JK. Chapter 9 was particularly helpful. Carson writes…
Firstly God is absolutely sovereign, but his sovereignty never functions in scripture to reduce human responsibility. Secondly human beings are responsible creatures-that is they choose, they believe, they disobey, they respond, and there is moral significance in their choices; but human responsibility never functions in scripture to diminish God’s sovereignty or make God absolutely contingent.
“But it’s like taking a bet each way.” My bosses cheeky words echo.“Aarrh yes” says Don moving into the seat beside me, in the window cleaning Corolla. “I think you can hold the two concepts in mystery.”
“But it doesn’t make sense,” says my Boss unperturbed by the fact Don Carson has just appeared in his rust ridden bomb.
“Well,” says Don “I think the mysteriousness is tied to God’s nature. There are a number of Christian mysteries. Take for example the trinity. It’s a difficult concept. How can God be both one and three at the same time surely that’s a mystery? Yet we see God’s Trinitarian nature is clearly portrayed in Scripture.”
“Secondly and more closely tied to God’s nature is the mystery of how he can be both transcendent and immanent at the same time?”
“You mean” I interject “The fact that God can be distant in that he is the king of the world and creator of the universe and yet can also be interested in hairs on my head and sparrows falling to the ground.” I finish cutting though Don’s scholarly jargon.
“Exactly” he says. “It’s another mystery clearly portrayed in scripture.”
“Despite all the mysteries bound up with the nature of God, I perceive, on the basis of scripture that he is simultaneously personal and transcendent. He is utterly sovereign over his created order yet he is nothing more than personal as he deals with me. Sometimes it more important to worship such a God than to understand him”.
“Wow Don” I say “Thanks for the help.”“No worries Mike”
“Um Don… how’d you get here by the way?” I ask.
“It’s a mystery Mike.”
tags christian, friends, ministry, pictures, rant, thinking
6 comments:
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
do me a favour Mike, fix up your spelling. I take it your boss is Arminian, not Armenian.
- Seumas
Done I blame stupid Word for getting the spelling wrong
Actually, I'd been thinking lately about the issue you raised, Mike. You see, maybe tension is a bit over-rated. Can we hold to both Divine sovereignty and human responsibility without tension?
Spurgeon was once asked how to reconcile the two, and he replied "I do not try to reconcile friends."
Thanks Dekker I'd heard that before very clever :)
Nice idea with the dialogue.
JD, would be interested in hearing how you hold both without tension?
I like conversation and magic realism effect.
--Luke