How does God's sovereignty work with free will?

Men may reject this salvation. Regretfully, they do reject it, but that can never touch the question of the wide aspect of that grace which shines with undimmed luster in the gospel and brings a full and free salvation to all. Their guilt in rejecting it flows from the fact that it is freely offered. If they could not get it, where would be their guilt in not having it? Where the righteous judgment in punishing men for not receiving what was never intended for them? (2 Thess. 1:6-10). True it is that God is sovereign, but it is equally true that man is responsible. Are we called to reconcile these things? No, they are reconciled already inasmuch as both are taught in the Word. All we have to do is believe them.

So in the spiritual realm God is sovereign. He elects the believer to eternal blessing, He predestinates him to spiritual blessings in Christ; that is sovereignty. Man is divinely called to repent and trust Christ if he is to be saved. Man is responsible.

While man is responsible, God is sovereign: ‘in him we live and move and exist’ (Acts 17:28). It is impossible for us to do anything against His determined will (although, as discussed above, this does not negate man’s responsibility, nor should we use it as an excuse for inaction, weakness or failure). We should never underestimate God’s sovereignty. He is so great that He gives man liberty to make his own decisions and at the same time directs all things in a way that corresponds with His purpose. God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility are like two sides of a coin. We can never see the two sides at the same time. Only God can. Human philosophy tries to explain this mystery but always fails. ‘The hidden things belong to Jehovah our God; but the revealed ones are ours and our children’s for ever’ (Deut. 29:29). We should distinguish these two matters but not seek to separate them.

On the one hand, God is sovereign, else none were saved. On the other, man is responsible, else none could be judged. You may not be able to explain God's sovereignty in relation to man's responsibility, but you are called upon to believe both, for both are clearly stated in Scripture. Romans 11 is the plainest, strongest statement as to God's sovereignty. Responsibility is emphasised throughout the entire Word of God.

Sometimes God emphasises responsibility in His Word — we have to believe! Sometimes He emphasises His own sovereign work — He has to intervene so that men receive a new nature and eternal life. In some cases, like this one, both sides are presented. However, God’s Word never mixes up the two. Each is true in itself even though we cannot reconcile them because our human minds are limited. In thankfulness, we accept them both as they are.

Two lines of truth are in view, human responsibility and divine sovereignty. Our finite minds often fail to grasp the wonderful way in which these truths blend together in the dealings of God with mankind. Yet both are clearly taught in the word of God, and we must have some understanding of them if we are to know and enjoy the fulness and the security of the blessing into which God has brought us. While Israel as a nation is in view in these chapters, we have nevertheless truths set out which have reference to all those who have been brought into blessing by God. "All flesh shall see it together," Isaiah 40:5. As sinners we all needed salvation, and God has provided this salvation in such a way that He can righteously bring us into blessing consistent with His own righteousness and holiness. Along with this He has wrought in our souls in sovereign grace in order to establish that salvation upon an indestructible foundation.

Throughout the word of God two mighty truths run side by side - God's sovereignty and man's responsibility. Man, in the narrow grasp of his little mind, is ever prone to lose sight of one or other; or, deeming them irreconcilable, to fill his eye with the one to the exclusion of the other; it is faith's office to maintain the balance; accepting truth in its completeness, as given forth by God, without pausing first to bring all down to the level of man's own small standard. From the plan of God's revelation; as from His counsels, neither of these truths is ever omitted; while in the fulness of His sovereign power and far-reaching wisdom, He governs all, orders and shapes according to the counsel of His will, giving no account of His matters unto any; triumphing over all the workings of evil; bringing forth higher and higher blessings out of the deepest falls and failures of the creature; everywhere gracious and righteous. At the same time, He ever gives to the responsible creature his full place in responsibility, throughout his actings; never treats him as a mere machine, nor fails to leave scope for the freedom of his choice; and for us to do other wise, in the interpretation of His Word, is of necessity to miss its teaching and go astray.

God not only uses circumstances or events in order to accomplish His purposes, He also uses people — whether godly people like Mordecai and Esther or ungodly and wicked people like Haman. Even king Ahasuerus (the mightiest man on earth at that time) was just an instrument in His hand. God’s dealings with people never contradict or take away man’s responsibility. Man is not a puppet in His hand. He has created us in such a way that we can make our own decisions, and we bear the full responsibility for what we do. Those who killed the Lord Jesus fulfilled God’s counsels, yet they bear full responsibility for what they did (Acts 4:27–28). In the book of Esther this is seen in connection with the great enemy and hater of the Jews called ‘this wicked Haman’ (7:6). At the end, his wickedness resulted in his own destruction and their salvation. Man may call this irony, but this is far from the case. It was God’s hand and purpose but also the consequence of the free decision of Haman, who was fully responsible for all of his decisions and actions.

The foundation of our salvation is also linked with God's purpose and counsel, centred in Christ and in His sacrifice, whereas at the same time, in an unfathomable way, man's responsibility is maintained: "Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain." This passage in Acts 2: 23 should be compared with 4: 28 where God's hand and counsel is emphasized and with 5: 38f in the same book. We find a beautiful Old Testament example in David who served the will (purpose) of God in his own generation, and in this there lies a challenge for every believer who has a heart for God's will (Acts 13: 36).

Undoubtedly the purpose of God does stand, and there is no creature which does not in the end subserve His will: yet Satan, little as he intends it, only clenches it most when he seems most to succeed by his lies and destructive power in thwarting and persecuting those who are precious in the Lord's eyes. Take the cross itself as the plainest and most unanswerable example. But should this enfeeble our moral judgment of creature wickedness? Does it deny the fact that Satan and man are responsible for all they do against Him, or that both must be punished for it? Hence Peter taxes the men of Israel with the guilt of crucifying the Messiah: "Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God ye have taken and by hands of lawless men have crucified and slain." How different is the holy and perfect word of God! Everything is in its place, not one side only but both. God has His determinate counsel and foreknowledge. The Jews played their evil part, the Gentiles theirs. They together, however at variance in thoughts and feelings, manifested their characters and their guilt; but in the very same fact they fulfilled the prophets and gave occasion to the display of the holiest judgment of God and the accomplishment of the work of His grace.