What about Human Freedom?

Some people say that because God loves us so much, He limits His sovereignty and allows us to choose salvation out of our own free will.

What about that? If His freedom is limited by my freedom, then I'm sovereign, and He's not. Now God is free, and I'm free, and the point is that my freedom can never, ever, ever limit God's sovereignty. Well, that's a strong statement, and it may go against everything you've been taught. If so, humbly we invite you to stay with us on Renewing Your Mind as we continue our study of the providence of God.

Dr. R.C. Sproul will explain how God is sovereign while we're responsible for the choices we make. When we began our study of the concept of the providence of God, I made mention of the fact that the Westminster Confession has that provocative first line in chapter 3 that God doth freely and sovereignly and immutably ordain whatsoever comes to pass.

And if you recall, I said there was a comma after that. It says, but not in such a way as to do violence to the will of the creature or to eliminate secondary causes and so on, that the theologians that were involved in putting together that doctrinal statement were careful to say that even though we believe in a sovereign providence who governs all things and ordains whatsoever comes to pass, nevertheless that sovereign providential government is not exercised in such a way as to destroy what we call human freedom or human volition, but that human choices and human actions are a part of the overall providential scheme of things and that God brings His will to pass by means of the free decisions of moral agents. And the fact that my free decisions fit into this overarching plan in no way lessens the reality of that freedom. But certainly the question of how my free decisions correspond to God's sovereign providence is one of the most excruciatingly difficult questions that we ever have to struggle with in theology, isn't it? A few years ago I was engaged in a discussion with a professor from Carnegie Mellon University, and at that time he taught in the physics department, and he was somewhat hostile towards theology and considered theology to be more or less a pseudoscience, not worthy of the title science. And he said, you people talk about things that are at the very heart of your belief system that are simply undefinable. And I said, like what? He said, like God.

What is more basic to theology than God? He said, and yet anything that you can say about God is ultimately imprecise. And I said, but surely you can be sympathetic with the struggle that we have in the science of theology because you have to deal with the same problem in physics. And he said, indeed we do not, you know. And I said, well, sure you do.

He says, like what? I said, well, what's energy? How basic is energy to modern physics? I said, well, what is energy?

He said, well, we could answer that question. He said, energy is the ability to do work. And I said, no, I'm not asking for a functional definition. I'm not asking you what energy can do.

I'm asking you what it is. He said, oh, okay, energy is MC squared. I said, no, I don't want its mathematical equivalency.

I want its ontological structure. And he finally sighed and said, I see what you mean. You know, and I started penetrating to the question of the being of energy.

He was totally mystified. He said, how to come up with a definition? And I said, well, you know, I said, the thing is you guys are often using that word as the essential definition for everything that is.

You have no idea what it is. He said, it's a metaphysical concept, but we think that we have solved a mystery by putting a name to it or giving a definition. And we think that by putting a label on something or attaching a technical term to something that the very presence of a scientific term explains everything about it. Now, the reason I've gone into this lengthy point is that we have a word for the relationship between divine sovereign providence and human freedom. But I want to tell you up front, this word, though I think it's useful, is descriptive, but it doesn't explain the deepest mystery of how human actions and divine providence square.

And I don't want you to think that it does, and I don't want you to think that I'm trying to pull the wool over your eyes just by throwing a fancy term at you. But in theology and in the study of the doctrine of providence, we have a word that is very important, concurrence. Concurrence simply refers to actions involving two or more parties that are taking place current with one another. They are flowing, the current in the stream, they are occurring together with somebody else's actions, and they happen to dovetail or converge in history. And the particular role of the parties involved is not necessarily the same as the other party. Now, let me put some flesh to this abstract concept of concurrence.

I think one of the finest illustrations of what we mean by concurrence is found in the Old Testament drama of the book of Job. Satan enters into the scene of heaven after going to and fro across the earth, canvassing the performance of these creatures who allegedly are supposed to be devoted to God. And Satan now is coming back, and he's sort of crowing about the fact that his dominion seems to be far more powerful than the deity's. Look at these people down here that are made in your image. They're all following me. They're not following you. And Satan is mocking God. And in the course of this discussion, God says to Satan, have you considered my servant Job?

Yes, I know that there's all kinds of folks down there who are in your camp, Satan. They follow you. They disobey me. But what about Job? Here's one I'm proud of.

Here's one that's been faithful and loyal to me. And of course, Satan is even cynical about this, and he says to God, does Job serve God for naught? And the question implies this. It's of course the only reason why Job is obedient. The only reason why Job is faithful and loyal to his Creator is because it's what he's getting out of it. God is blessing Job abundantly. He's one of the wealthiest people in the ancient world.

And Satan points this out to God. He said, look, you've built a hedge around. You've given him everything a man could ask for, wonderful wife, terrific family, possessions, leadership, respect.

What else could a man ask for? You've given it to him. He says, you take that hedge down, and he'll be in my camp in five minutes. And so the whole scene now is established as a dramatic contest between God and Satan. And God now gives permission to Satan to attack Job, to go through the fence and to do injury to Job's possessions. He says you can go after his cattle, go after his livestock, after his possessions.

He said you can go after his family. He allows all of these things to take place, he said, but you can't kill Job. Well, you know the story. Now early on in the story we read that Job, who as I said is one of the most fabulously wealthy men in the world, has his wealth by means of livestock. And the Chaldeans rustle his cattle and take away his wealth.

Now let's just stop the story at that point. Here are the Chaldeans who steal Job's cattle. Now how many actors are involved in this tale? The incident of the theft of Job's livestock. There are the Chaldeans, and we read in the Scripture that Satan stirred up the Chaldeans to steal Job's livestock. But why did Satan stir up the Chaldeans to steal Job's livestock? Because God ordained that Satan should stir up the Chaldeans to steal Job's livestock. So in terms of the theft of Job's cattle, we have three agents that are involved – God, Satan, and the Chaldeans. Now how are we to understand this event?

Now sometimes people look at the story and they say, well, here's the thing. The Chaldeans are upright, righteous neighbors of Job. Every night they say their prayers and they say, thank you God for the blessings you've bestowed upon our favorite neighbor Job over there. May he continue to prosper.

He's a pillar of the community, and we esteem and revere him for his influence among us. And that what happens is that these poor innocent Chaldeans are now invaded by demonic forces under the control of Satan, and Satan uses his diabolical power to coerce the Chaldeans to perform this sinful deed of wrestling Job's cattle. And of course, when Satan is called into account for inciting the Chaldeans to this malicious act, Satan throws up his hands and says, well, you know, I was just doing what comes naturally. I mean, God stripped me of my righteousness. It's my Creator who's made me as wicked as I am. So if you have a problem, Job, with the loss of your cattle, talk to the boss.

Don't talk to me. I'm just doing what I'm supposed to do under the providence of God, doing what Satan was designed to do. So it's not my fault. It's God's fault. And there are people who look at this story and say, the whole thing is God's fault.

Now let me ask you again what you've learned so far on providence. Does God ordain that Job's cows be stolen? Yes, that is the providential plan. I mean, somebody came to Job and said, God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life, but it's going to take a while before you see it, son, because in the meantime you're going to lose your cattle. But God is sovereign over the life of Job and his circumstances.

I don't think that we ought to look at it that way. The way the Scripture looks at this story is this. Here is Job.

He is innocent. The Chaldeans, ladies and gentlemen, are cattle rustlers from the beginning. The Chaldeans have this covetous, envious, jealous rage against Job.

And the only thing that's kept the Chaldeans out of Job's corrals for years is this protective hedge that God has placed around Job to keep the intruders out. And Satan comes and meets the Chaldeans and says, you guys like to have Job's cattle. And the Chaldeans don't say, get thee behind me, Satan. They say, Satan, how can we do it? They willingly enter into a coalition with the prince of darkness to go after the cows of Job.

Do you see that? So there is an agreement in purpose between the Chaldeans and Satan, and a totally different disagreement between the purpose of the Chaldeans and Satan and the purpose of God. Chaldeans have a personal vested interest to improve their property by stealing the cattle. Satan's interest in this is not that Satan can get cattle or even win the hearts of the Chaldeans. The only thing that Satan wants to accomplish in this same action is to get is to get Job to curse God.

Satan is doing this action for totally vicious and malevolent reasons to overthrow the authority and the majesty of God. God's purpose is to vindicate Job from the unrighteous accusations that were laid before him by Satan as well as to vindicate God's own holiness. Now I ask you, is it a legitimate purpose to vindicate Job? Is it a legitimate purpose for God to vindicate His own majesty?

It's not that we're saying here that the end justifies the means, but what we're saying is that God's purposes and designs must be considered when you are evaluating the moral import of an action. God is not sinning against Job. Righteousness does not require that God keep Job from ever losing his cattle. Remember, Job is a sinner. He has no claim upon this cattle from God forever. Any cattle that Job ever possessed was through the gift of God's grace, and God has every right under heaven to remove or to repeal that grace for His own holy purposes. So do you see that in this drama God is acting rightly, but Satan and the Chaldeans in the same in the same human action are performing evil.

Of course, after Satan is exposed and Job is vindicated, God restores the property of Job twofold. But if that story doesn't clarify to you what we're talking about by the term concurrence, my favorite illustration, and I think everybody's favorite illustration of it, is the story of Joseph. I'm not going to go into a lengthy exposition of that story, but you recall how that Joseph was favored by his father, Jacob, and Jacob bought Joseph this technicolor coat for his birthday, and the other brothers were fiercely jealous of this favored treatment that Joseph had received, and so while they're out one day, they decide to kill Joseph. But one of the brothers objects to that, and so instead of killing him, they're going to throw him in a pit, and they take him out of the pit, and they sell him to these caravan traders who happen to be going down to Egypt. And so you know the story, Joseph is carried off to Egypt where the caravan traders happen to run into one of the officers of the guard at Pharaoh's court, Potiphar, and Joseph becomes a slave in Potiphar's house, and it just, you know, coincidentally happened to be that Potiphar was married to an unscrupulous woman who made an illicit advance against Joseph, and Joseph refused her advances and said, how can I sin against God in this way? And hell knows no fury like a woman scorned, so she hollered rape, and before you knew it, Joseph is thrown into prison. And while he's in prison, there just happened to be this butcher and baker and candlestick maker in the prison, and they have conversations, and they learn that Joseph has this ability to interpret dreams.

You know what happens. Finally, one of them gets out and tells the Pharaoh about Joseph's ability, and Pharaoh's having nightmares, and Joseph comes out and interprets his dreams and does it accurately, and the Pharaoh was so grateful that he appoints Joseph as the prime minister of Egypt. It happened to happen at a time when famine came upon the land, and Jacob's family then are starving, and so Jacob sends some of the boys down into Egypt to inquire about getting some of the surplus food that the prime minister has been thoughtful enough to keep for the Egyptian people. And by coincidence of all coincidences, the brothers years later happen to meet up with Joseph.

And what happened? Joseph hides his identity for a while, and then finally he reveals that he is their long-lost brother. He embraces them with tears, and in the course of their reconciliation, the brothers have fallen all over themselves in apologies to Joseph, and then Joseph makes the comment what? You meant it for evil. God meant it for good. You meant it for evil. Joseph doesn't whitewash the sin of his brothers.

You meant it for evil. Your involvement, your free, volitional activity in this was indeed evil. The brothers of Joseph, just like the Chaldeans in the story of Job, were guilty of sin, and it was sin that they personally wanted to do. They freely chose it, but God stands above our choices and can work through human freedom to bring about his own providential goal. And this is what Joseph is saying. You chose to do something sinful, but all things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to His purpose.

And my brothers, I'm called according to the purpose of God, and God has meant good through this. You know the story, for one of a nail the shoe was lost, for one of the shoe the horse was lost, for one of the horse the rider was lost, for one of the rider the battle was lost, and for one of the battle the war was lost. What would have happened in the history of the world if Jacob hadn't given Joseph a coat for his birthday?

No coat, no jealousy. No jealousy, no treacherous sale of Joseph to Midianite traders, no sale of Joseph to Midianite traders, no descent into Egypt, no descent into Egypt, no meeting with Potiphar, no meeting with Potiphar, no troubles with his wife, no troubles with his wife, no getting thrown in the jail, no getting thrown into the jail, no interpreting the dreams of Pharaoh, no interpreting the dreams of Pharaoh, no elevation to the role of Prime Minister, no elevation to the role of Prime Minister, no reconciliation with his brothers, no reconciliation with his brothers, no migration of the Jewish people from the north down into Egypt, no migration into Egypt, no exodus out of Egypt, no exodus out of Egypt, no Moses, no law, no prophets, know Christ." Do you think it was an accident in the plan of God that that code happened?

Joseph said, I don't know what the final chapter is going to look like. I know this. In terms of the immediate causal events here, you guys did something that was wrong. You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good. For God is the author of every good and perfect gift. I remember Jonathan Edwards wrote a sermon entitled, God the Author of All Good Volitions and Actions.

I love the title of that sermon for this reason, how unlike the average Christian Jonathan Edwards was. You know what we like to think? Whenever we make good choices, noble choices, virtuous choices, we like to assume all of the credit for the initiation of the righteous deed. And if we do something that is not so good, that is indeed evil, our first excuse is what?

We sound like Flip Wilson, the devil made me do it. We don't want to take credit for our evil choices. We want to blame them on God, just as Eve and Adam did when Adam said, the woman that you gave me talked me into this, tried to blame the fall on God Himself.

That's our tendency, take credit for the good, transfer blame for the evil. The title of Edwards' sermon is, God is the Author of All Good Volitions and Actions. That any good deed that I do, any righteous choice that I made is because God is at work within me, both to will and to do. Ladies and gentlemen, there is a difficulty in understanding the relationship between God's providence and human freedom, because man is truly free in the sense that he has the ability to make choices and to choose what he wants. But God is also truly free. And if I've heard it once, I've heard it a thousand times, that God's sovereignty can never limit man's freedom.

That is not a description of Arminianism, that is a description of atheism. Because if God's sovereignty is limited one ounce by your freedom, again He is not sovereign. What kind of a concept of God do we have that would say that God is paralyzed, frozen within limits, maintained by human choices? Now God is free, and I am free. And He's more free than I am. I'm not more free than He is. If His freedom is limited by my freedom, then I'm sovereign and He's not. Now God is free, and I'm free. And the point is that my freedom can never, ever, ever limit God's sovereignty, because He is divine providence.

I am not. You know, it's easy to struggle and despair when God brings difficulty and pain into our lives. But as we study the providence of God this week, we're beginning to understand that we can trust God in the midst of hardship. Thank you for joining us for Renewing Your Mind today.

I'm Lee Webb. And the message we just heard is from R.C. 's series, The Providence of God.

Questions about God's sovereignty and man's responsibility really go to the very core of the Christian faith. And Dr. Sproul has brought helpful answers this week. We're making the entire series available to you, six messages, on three audio CDs. And we'll send the set to you for your donation of any amount to Ligonier Ministries. You can request it when you go to renewingyourmind.org, or you can call us with your gift at 800-435-4343.

We also have a special offer for you today. If you've never contacted Ligonier Ministries before, we produce a monthly Bible study magazine called Table Talk. It's designed to help growing Christians understand Scripture more completely. And the February issue of Table Talk is on The Providence of God. We'd like to send you a copy. If you're new to the ministry, just let us know you'd like to receive it when you contact us at the number I mentioned before.

It's 800-435-4343. Well, throughout history, there have been philosophers who have helped shape society. Some have had a positive impact on our lives, others less so. And beginning Monday, we will examine some of them. I hope you'll join us for Dr. Sproul's series, The Consequences of Ideas, here on Renewing Your Mind. Thank you.