God’s Sovereignty versus Human Responsibility

Throughout the centuries, Christians have consistently affirmed God’s sovereign control over creation. Of course, theologians and denominations have differed on some matters. But broadly speaking, Christians have always affirmed the biblical teaching that God has an unlimited ability and an unlimited right to control the creation in any way he sees fit. Furthermore, because he is a good and responsible king over his creation, he exercises his power and right for the benefit of his kingdom.

Unfortunately, in a variety of ways, both Christians and non-Christians have sometimes argued that God’s sovereign control over his creation is incompatible with the idea of human moral responsibility. They have wrongly believed that both these ideas cannot be true. Either God is sovereign, or we are responsible — but not both.

In recent years, this outlook has been expressed in a movement known as “open theism.” Open theism teaches that in order for God to hold human beings responsible for our ethical decisions and behavior, human beings must have ultimate control over our lives. It insists that if God has sovereign control over the universe, then he has no right to hold us responsible for what we do.

So, in order to preserve human ethical responsibility, open theism teaches that God has either limited his sovereignty voluntarily, or is by his very nature unable to control the entire creation. It concludes that God does not know what will happen, that he has only limited influence over things that happen in creation, and that he is often frustrated by the way that history unfolds. In short, open theism denies God’s sovereign control in order to affirm human responsibility.

Now, historically, Christian theology has always taught that God’s sovereign control is completely compatible with human responsibility. In fact, rather than seeing God’s control as precluding human responsibility, Christian theology has followed the Scriptures by insisting that human beings are morally responsible to God precisely because God has sovereign control over creation.

On the one side, many biblical passages teach that God has an all-encompassing plan for his creation, and that he controls creation in order to carry out this plan. For instance, the Bible sometimes speaks of his unchanging purpose, as in Hebrews 6:17, or of the choices and plans he made before the foundation of the world, as in Matthew 13:35 and Ephesians 1:4.

On the other side, rather than seeing God’s sovereign control as somehow contrary to ethical responsibility, Christianity has seen God’s sovereign control as the basis for ethical responsibility. Listen to the way Paul stated the relationship between God’s sovereign control and our responsibility in Philippians 2:12-13:

“Work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.”

Notice here that the Philippian Christians were to live morally and reverently because God was at work in their lives, causing them to will and to act according to his sovereign plan. In this way, his sovereign control of their lives was the basis of their moral responsibility. Rather than seeing divine sovereignty and human responsibility as mutually exclusive, Paul understood God’s sovereignty to be the foundation for human responsibility.