PARSONS: There are certain things in our theology that we know. We know this truth and we know
this truth and we understand that these truths coexist and that these truths are maybe somewhat
mysterious to us. We don't fully understand how it is in each and every way they work together, but
understanding that there is a mysterious aspect of it does not necessarily mean that it is
a contradiction. And I would simply say we begin there. I don't think that's helpful,
because the Lord tells us very plainly that He is sovereign and He also tells us that we have
responsibility, but we have to make sure we are qualifying those things as God qualifies
them for us. We have to understand that God is sovereign over all. He orchestrates all things;
that He foreordains all things that come to pass. Yet He also tells us that He is
neither the author nor the approver of sin. It tells us that God is over all and almighty
over all and sovereign over all, yet it also tells us that God doesn't tempt us.
And so, we have to understand that at least at the outset that God's sovereignty and
man's responsibility are not apparent contradictions. They are not against one another.
I wouldn't even suggest that they are in tension. There's not even a tension that exists
between them, because God ordains the ends of all things and He ordains the means of those ends.
He ordains prayer. He ordains evangelism. He ordains our works, our deeds, what we do,
what we say, what we believe as He ordains the ends of those things and He ordains both. That's
not a contradiction, these things that are working together according to God's perfect plan for His
glory and according to His goodwill. Now, some might say, "Well, that sounds simplistic." Well,
I think, quite frankly, God makes it as simple as we could possibly need to hear it. It's not
that complicated, but I had to work through for many years this whole idea, "Well, this is
just a contradiction in Scripture or at least an apparent contradiction or antinomy in Scripture"
when I don't believe that's how God gives it to us. He is sovereign. We are responsible. He
is ultimately sovereign over all things. We are penultimately responsible in what He calls us to
be responsible for. And so, again a simple answer. I'll leave it to Derek to clean up and make it ...
THOMAS: Well, take Paul in Philippians. You know, "Work out your own salvation with fear
and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to do of His good pleasure."
So, clearly, there is something called "divine sovereignty" and there is something called "human
free agency." We're not robots. We're not automatons. We are responsible creatures who make
moral choices. Now, we don't have free will
in the sense that you can choose all the good that's out there. We are by nature
totally depraved, but we do have free agency and for which we are morally responsible.
But when you talk about God's sovereignty and human free agency, you're not talking about
apples and apples. You know, what is the sovereignty of an omnipotent God to
a free agency choice that you make? And so, then, it's not the bringing together of two
equal things, but it has been important, I mean, very important to Reformed theology
to emphasize free agency and moral responsibility and that we are responsible for sanctification,
we are responsible for growth and advancement in the Christian life. We are responsible to accept
the free offer of the gospel, but we cannot do so apart from God's sovereign prevenient grace in us.
PARSONS: I'll just say this that, you know, in our church we have folks from all different
backgrounds and a number of new Christians and then a lot of people who are coming into Reformed
theology for the first time. And one of the things I've noticed over the years is that men and women,
younger and older, can sometimes fall into this trap where they come to understand the sovereignty
of God and they understand that God is ultimately the One orchestrating all things,
that He is permitting, but He is permitting "not by a bare permission" as our Confession states,
that God is working in and orchestrating and around through all these different causes,
but sometimes what happens is that people develop this bad theology
where when they sin it's almost as if they blame God for their own sin. I think we can fall into
that trap. I think that's the devil's trap for us. I think we can sometimes think that God is sort of
responsible for our sin and that He is the One to blame for our sin. This is
what we have to understand very clearly, that God does not approve of our sin.
Does God sovereignly in some mysterious way permit, though not by a bare permission,
allow us to sin? Absolutely! That does not mean that He is the author of it or the approver of it,
and we cannot blame Him for our sin. We cannot blame Him for our sins of omission or commission,
what we do or what we fail to do. Now, I know that's obvious, but I think it's a trap that
too many people can fall into, especially when they're newer to Reformed theology.
GODFREY: I think this is a very good illustration of a broader issue.
I've always been struck by the irony that Calvinists have been accused of
having a logically driven, rationally driven system, that we sort of force the Bible into a
system that it doesn't itself teach. I think that is absolutely untrue, and I think any number of
Christian theologies that are not Reformed are guilty of precisely that, taking one theological
principle and logically forcing everything else to conform to that one theological principle. So, if
we're humanly responsible for our salvation, then that must limit God's sovereignty.
That's only a logical argument. It's not a biblical argument. Am I being clear here?
And I think Reformed theology has precisely tried to take all of the elements of divine revelation
and, to be sure, tried to see how they cohere, how they form a system, but precisely
in a way that lets each element of the system have its own integrity and truth and not be driven by
some kind of logic. I think it was Derek in his opening address quoted from Ephesians chapter
2 to talk about how we're going to be judged by works, as it's talked about at the end of Psalm
62, that we are created by God sovereignly to do good works, and that the good works are evidence
that God has worked sovereignly in us and that God Himself can use it as evidence to show that
He has worked in us. And those things could be set against each other and there are some theologies
that have been called hyper-Calvinist that would set them against each other, but real Calvinism,
I think, precisely, tries to give each element of biblical revelation its proper weight and due.