What is the doctrine of divine concurrence?
Theology uses the term "divine concurrence" for the way God works alongside and through the actions of His creatures, so that a single event is both truly ours and truly His. The writers in this collection rarely use that word; they treat the same ground under the name providence, asking how God can direct everything without becoming the author of evil or reducing us to machines.
What Providence Means
The clearest definition here ties God's power to the outcome of every event, while admitting we often cannot trace the method.
J. N. DarbyBy providence I mean the ordering of the course of all things by divine power, in such a way that all results which happen in the world are according to the divine purpose and will. Often we cannot understand its reasons, or even the means it uses, and it leaves the government of God obscure, yet it is certain to faith… Faith will recognise the hand of God in many things, and believes it in everything; but to the world all of it is hidden.
God Never Steps Back From His World
Concurrence rules out the idea of a God who starts the machine and lets it run. His involvement is continuous, and the parts that look like they are fighting each other are not.
Hamilton SmithProvidence is God's ordering all issues and events of things, after the counsel of His will, to His own glory… The wheels in a clock seem to move against one another, but they help the motion of the clock forward and make the alarm strike. So the providences of God seem to be cross wheels, but for all that they will carry on the good of the elect… God is not like a builder who puts up a house and then leaves it, but like a pilot He steers the ship of the whole creation.
Every Kind of Agent Is Usable
The point becomes practical in the story of Joseph, sold by his brothers and imprisoned in Egypt. God did not bypass the human actors; He worked His purpose out through them.
C. H. MackintoshGod was behind the scenes. His finger was guiding all the springs of the vast machine of circumstances, and when the due time came, He brought forth the man of His purpose… He is above all, and can use all for the accomplishment of His grand and unsearchable designs… all sorts of agents are at His sovereign disposal; angels, men, and devils — all are under His almighty hand, and all are made to carry out His purposes.
God Is Not the Author of the Evil He Uses
This is the line the writers guard most carefully. Evil serves God's ends, but it does not come from Him — and the fact that it serves Him is why it was ever allowed in.
James BoydBut although God is not the author of sin, but its Judge, He allowed it to enter His dominions for His own wise purposes. He will make it serve Him… and in the end banish it from His sight forever; and we may be sure of this, that if it were not going to serve the purposes of His heart, it could have gained no entrance.
Responsibility Is Not Cancelled
If God works through people, the obvious worry is whether their choices are real. The book of Esther, where God's name never appears but His hand is everywhere, gives one writer his answer.
Ernst-August BremickerGod'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).
Concurrence Inside the Christian
The same pattern runs through the believer's own effort. Paul tells the Philippians to work out their salvation because God is working in them.
F. B. HoleWe are to work out our own salvation, but it is God who works in us, to the willing and doing of His good pleasure. Let us note that. God works the willing as well as the doing, and the willing comes first. So God's work and our work are considered as moving harmoniously together. God's work must always take precedence of ours, both in time and in importance. Yet the thing is not presented in a way that would turn us into fatalists. Rather our working is mentioned first, and the responsibility for it is pressed on us.
The Point Where Explanation Stops
Commentators here agree that the two halves are not to be squared by us. Some go further and say the job is already done.
C. H. MackintoshTo attempt to reconcile divine sovereignty and human responsibility is worthless labour. They are reconciled already, being both set forth with equal clearness in the divine Word.
Summary
- Behind — God is not an absent builder but a pilot steering creation; all results happen according to His purpose and will.
- Through — He works by means, not around them: angels, men and devils alike are instruments at His disposal.
- Not from — evil serves Him but never originates with Him; He is sin's Judge, not its author.
- Still yours — man is no puppet; those who fulfilled God's counsel at the cross bore full responsibility for it.
- Within — He works the willing and the doing in you, which makes effort urgent rather than pointless.