This is a series on the attributes of God.
Purpose: In this lesson we will continue to explore the relationship between God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility, specifically how human responsibility does not make sense unless God is sovereign.
A Dilemma?
- Some people see a dilemma: If God is sovereign and is as in control as the Bible says, then why is man responsible?
- However, a biblical understanding of human responsibility actually presupposes God’s sovereignty
Defining responsibility
- D.A. Carson’s definition: “A personal relationship of obligation and accountability toward (usually) God.”[1]
- John Frame notes two aspect to the term responsibility[2]
- Responsibility as accountability: That is, we are called into account to a higher authority.
- Responsibility as liability: That is, the consequences for our action.
- From the above we note that responsibility entails three aspects: obligation, accountability and liability, something we see below as being taught in the Bible.
- These three aspects are of course inter-related.
- However we can see distinctions between them if we think of the moment of God’s day of judgement being a day of people being called into account while God’s obligation was given in the past before that moment. The consequences and liability of the day of being called into account follows in a future moment.
Biblical Teaching
Goal: Demonstrate that Scripture teaches that man is responsible to God
1. Mankind owe obligation towards God.
- “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” (Deuteronomy 6:5)
- The truth of this is echoed by Jesus in the New Testament in Matthew 22:37, Mark 12:30, Mark 12:33, Luke 10:27. The account of this is given to be applied to the readers which is in the New Testament church era.
- Note God require all our faculty to love God.
- “21 For even though they knew God, they did not [n]honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened” (Romans 1:21)
- Paul here teaches this truth concerning all those under heaven (Romans 1:18).
- Note how the passage assume that humanity should “honor Him as God.”
- This has moral obligations as the rest of Romans 1 shows.
2. Man is accountable to God
- Verses that shows God judging all people would establish that man is accountable to God.
- “But I tell you that every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the day of judgment.” (Matthew 12:36)
- This is the teaching of Jesus.
- God will call us into account for what we do including “every careless word”
- When will people “give an accounting?” It takes place on “the day of judgment.”
- “So then each one of us will give an account of himself to God.” (Romans 14:12)
- This is Paul’s teaching.
- Note Paul identifies himself and other Christians as his referents here when he says “each one of us.”
- Everyone (Christian and non-Christian) will “give an account of himself to God.”
3. Man’s liability
- Verses that talk about consequences and penalty for sins demonstrate man’s moral liability.
- Revelation 20:11-12a
- There is a future Great White Throne Judgment: “Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them. 12 And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another [i]book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the [j]books, according to their deeds.” (Revelation 20:11-12)
- The One who Judges here is God according to the self-description of the person on the throne in Revelation 21:5-7.
- Notice the universal scope of this judgment: The dead “great and the small,” (Revelation 20:12a)
- Judgment were “according to their deeds.”
- There is a future Great White Throne Judgment: “Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them. 12 And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another [i]book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the [j]books, according to their deeds.” (Revelation 20:11-12)
- Consequences follows: “and they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds. 14 Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. 15 And if [k]anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.” (Revelation 20:13-15a)
Man being responsible require the Biblical God who has biblical attributes
- For instance, God is Good. Therefore He obligates His creatures to do good.
- Another example: If God is calling us into account for all our sins He needs to be Omniscient.
- Man being responsible also require a God who is Biblically Sovereign
- Remember the definition of God’s sovereignty such as how Wayne Grudem’s defined it: “God’s sovereignty is his exercise of his rule as ‘sovereign’ or ‘king’) over his creation.” [3]
- All three aspects require God’s sovereignty in order for man to be responsible:
- Obligation: God as ruler means He has the prerogative to demand obligation upon His creatures including human beings.
- Accountability: Remember God being Sovereign means He has universal control and total efficacy over what He wants to accomplish. God’s Sovereignty means everyone will be accountable before God.
- Liability: God is Sovereign means people will be held liable for their sins no matter how powerfully they rebel or avoid Him.
- If God is not Sovereign, then man’s responsibility would undermine the three aspects of man’s responsibility:
- If God is not sovereign, God might want people to be obligated to Him, but He has no right to demand obligations owed to Him.
- If God is not sovereign and lack total efficacy of his His will, then His will to call rebellious creatures to an account for their deeds will not happen.
- If God is not sovereign and lack total efficacy of his His will, then His will to punish rebellious creatures is threatened.
- Illustration:
- How it is often viewed:
- How it really is:
Implication
- We should move from seeing God’s Sovereignty as a problem against man’s responsibility and instead rejoice that God’s Sovereignty is actually the solution and precondition for man being responsible.
- We should understand that we should be responsible to God and not just to ourselves. This means we are comforted even if people don’t make much of personal responsibility to themselves, they are still objectively responsible to a good God who judges sins.
- Also we should see an application in which we appreciate the Biblical worldview as one that explains the existence of human responsibility versus other worldviews that undermine the existence of human responsibility. For instance, if we believe there is no God and man is the result of a chance driven world then humans are nothing more than determined by fatalistic forces and impulses. Man then is not responsible for his action; part of the problems we see in the West today is the tension of who is responsible for an evil deed: Is it the individual, society, the person’s parents, etc? There is a crisis of responsibility not just with people being irresponsible but the meaning of responsibility of an individual is undermined as being intelligible to even talk about in a secular humanistic worldview.
- Having a right view of God’s Sovereignty and relations to man’s responsibility does have practical implications towards sanctification:
[1] D.A. Carson, Divine Sovereignty and Human Responsibility (Atlanta, GA: John Knox Press, 1981), 119.
[2] John Frame, Doctrine of God (Phillipsburg, NJ:Presbyterian and Reformed, 2002), 119.
[3] Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology (Grand Rapids: Zondervan), 217.
So thankful that God is God. Appreciate the great insight. Blessings.
Thank you for this article and the Bible Study lesson, Jim! Definitely as recipient of GOD’s grace, we have a responsibility not to sin, follow JESUS CHRIST, and make Him known. 1) Romans 6:1-14, 2) our sanctification process, and 3) GOD’s discipline for those who sinned but Whom He loves, comes to mind. Blessings to you, Nancy, and the kids!
Thanks for sharing the applications both here as a comment, last night in the chat and audibly post-Bible study discussion! I appreciate you replicated that for those on WordPress! I really enjoyed reading Romans 6 again afterwards. Blessings to you and your new day when you wake up and read this!
You’re welcome and thanks again!
Reblogged this on Talmidimblogging and commented:
Another excellent and thought provoking post from our favorite Pastor!! To those who have an ear to hear, Blessings!!
Thanks for this lesson outline regarding God’s sovereignty. I’ll never wrap my head around man’s free will/responsibility versus…er, rather, in conjunction with…er, rather, subsumed by God’s sovereignty from a Calvinist election/predestination view, but that’s my ol’ IFB discipling. 😊
Lots of snow in ROC today and tomorrow. Already about 2 inches. It’s just like January.
Wow it’s snowing??? That’s incredible. It is beginning to feel like summer here in LA, what a difference of weather! Are you going outdoors today to enjoy the snow?
I could use some LA heat! I did a lot of driving around today, but thankfully there wasn’t any accumulation on the roads.
This is excellent! Thank you SO much for including these graphs!!! I did take a screenshot last night but now I will just save this post. For me, divine sovereignty and human responsibility makes me love God more. I do NOT mean this in a works based righteousness way. By obeying God, being accountable and responsible to Him, I show to God, others and myself that I love God, I respect His Authority, His Dominion, His Rule. Obedience and submission are so taboo in our culture today. Eternity is written in/on the heart of every person (Ecc 3:11). The tension between God’s Sovereignty and Human Responsibility is necessary, without that tension our airplane would crash and burn. It is also a tension that will not be solved in this life. Only when we see our King in His Beauty and are with Him in eternity will we no longer desire to be like God we will desire to truly be with God serving and worshiping Him. Blessings to you for the effort you gave this study and to Nancy and kiddos as well!
I love the two wing plane analogy that you shared last night during Bible study. That was interesting and helpful in capturing the need for both even as they are In tension and in tension in a good way too. Good comment! Thanks for joining us for Bible study and reading this! Curious if it’s snowing where you are at today?
I love being a part of study! It is not snowing here, may get rain; however, we have SERIOUS wind. Spent quite a bit of time at the Township building today making our complaint, not sure if other neighbors have written a formal one; however, the officers totally knew what we were talking about so neighbors have at least called and complained. Are you driving for pastoral visits today?
I like your last chart with the practical implications of both
Great study pastor Jim. Thank you. So comforting to know that God is Sovereign. I saving this study for future reference.
Blessings.
Awesome to hear that! I’m really enjoying doing this series! We will be focusing on sovereignty a little bit longer than some other attributes and to clarify some difficult aspect of this doctrine especially in relationships to man’s volition
Thank you for sharing these series with us.
Looking forward to the next instalment.
Amen and Amen.
And amen! Thanks for your comment on my page on FB too! God bless you and have a lovely Thursday!
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Reblogged this on Guam Christian Blog.
[…] D.A. Carson’s definition: “A personal relationship of obligation and accountability toward (usually) God.”[1] […]
The diagrams really helped
Well that was very well done and helpful
The truth about God is indeed a blessing!
I click on the link for part Part 4 of God’s Sovereignty. It automatically skips to part 5.
Is this on Bruce’s page that you are talking about with the link problem? I am going to still make a post with a table of content on my own blog of the attributes of God series as Bruce’s list is also imcomplete….sorry!
that should say, I cannot click on the link for part 4.