In our series — "Got Theological Questions?" — we're taking big theological topics as we talk about God and trying to address them the best we can by taking the Bible as our basis of truth. This past spring, we asked you questions about God and faith and shaped this series, at least in part, around your answers.

This is a subject that probably 80% of you asked about. Many of your questions had something to do with free will and God's sovereignty: "Do we choose God or does God choose us?" "Is our salvation up to God or up to us?" The fact is that you can't be a Christian — or even a student of the Bible — for too long before you are faced with questions like these. There's a lot of stuff in the Bible about God's sovereignty in choosing us, and there's a lot of stuff in the Bible that seems like it's our free will to choose God.

A Few Examples

People start to realize that there are some passages about God choosing us and controlling the things in the world:

1. Ephesians 1: 4-5. Read that passage. You will see that it makes it seem like God chooses who he will save – with an election that happens before the foundation of the world.
2. Romans 9:16-18. Read it. It ends with a verse that says God has mercy on whoever he wants to and saves whoever he wants to save. And… he hardens whoever he wants to.

But, a lot of people will then say, "Haven't you heard about the verses in the Bible that make it seem like we have a free choice?"

1. John 3:16. What does that verse make it seem like? Whoever believes in Jesus will have eternal life. So it looks like it's not up to God's election but whoever makes the choice to believe in Jesus.
2. Deuteronomy 30:19. Moses in this verse lays before God's people life and death; following God or not following God. Then he tell them to choose life!

Here's the big question — What do we do with these two ideas? The Bible talks about everything in creation, including our own salvation, in two seemingly different ways.

I want you to avoid two extremes. The first extreme is those of you who think you have it all figured out. You are saying, "Whatever you say, I already know it. I've got this free will and predestination thing figured out." Avoid this extreme because God is mysterious, and we will not fully understand it until Heaven.

The other extreme is thinking, "Why are we talking about theology? I just want to follow Jesus and not get into this mumbo-jumbo." That's not taking seriously God's Word; we are called to believe it and seek to understand his revelation to us.

A Biblical Path Forward

There are two truths in Scripture that we have to embrace tonight:

1. God is absolutely SOVEREIGN. God is the one who is ultimately in control of everything that happens — including our own salvation.
2. Human beings are RESPONSIBLE. We are rational creatures who make real choices for which we can be held accountable.

Also in the Bible, one of those truths never rules out the other. Nowhere in the Bible does God make those things clash. One does not trump the other.

Because the Bible holds both of those things to be completely true, we need to be people who get used to a tension between them... and in our understanding of the world God has made.

Let me give you three examples of what this looks like in the Bible:

1. Genesis 50. Joseph is the second youngest of a bunch of brothers. He is sold into slavery. All throughout the story, the brothers are making real choices to sell Joseph into slavery. They are totally responsible for what they do. Yet, at the end of the story, in Genesis 50:19-20, Joseph says to his brothers that they intended it for evil, but God intended it for good. See how he is affirming two things that we often think are contradictory?
2. Exodus 7. This is the story about Moses telling Pharaoh, "Let my people go," when God's people are enslaved in the land of Egypt. Pharaoh ultimately rejects God and his Word. Look at how the author of Exodus uses tons of different ways to describe how Pharaoh's heart is hardened. In 7:3, God says "I will harden Pharaoh's heart." Later, the text says that Pharaoh hardens his own heart. 7:13 says Pharaoh's heart "was hardened." 7:22 says Pharaoh's heart "remained hardened." In 8:15, "he hardened his heart." The point is that the hardening of Pharaoh's heart (or his rejection of God and salvation) is described as God's work and Pharaoh's decision; these are both true and valid ways to describe it!
3. Philippians 2:12-13. This is a classic way of the Bible talking about our salvation. There is a sense in verse 12 that we have to work hard at our salvation — in obedience, faith, and sanctification. But, God is the one who works within us, according to verse 13. The experience of salvation is described as our work and God's work. It's amazing. God saves, but we are called to work out our own salvation.

An Illustration

Imagine that I am standing next to a five year old boy and a brilliant scientist. I ask them both, "Why are my eyes green?" The scientist would explain that eye colors range in color because it's an inherited trait derived from particular genes. The actual number of genes that contribute to eye color is unknown, but there are many theories as to how this occurs. The five–year–old would answer quite differently: "Your eyes are green because God made you that way." Now, here's the question: Which of those answers is true? Both are true. Now, which one is more fundamental? The child's. I want to argue that the child's answer is the more fundamental truth. In other words, as human beings, it is more important for us to know that my eyes are green because God created them that way and ordained even the complicated science behind it.

To relate this story to our topic tonight, it is true that the Bible affirms human responsibility and God's sovereignty together. Yet, there is a sense that we should give a certain weight to God's sovereignty as a more fundamental truth than our human responsibility and free will. It is more important to rest upon God's sovereignty as the reason for everything, including our own salvation, even as we affirm with the Bible real human responsibility.

You will wrestle with these questions and tensions for the rest of your lives. The most fundamental thing you need to understand about how we are saved is that it is God's work from beginning to end. It's Jesus dying for me when I could never save myself. It is God taking the initiative to save us when we were dead in our sins (Ephesians 2). Do we make a conscious decision to repent of our sins and put our faith in Jesus Christ and his work on our behalf? Absolutely. But when we take a step back and consider our salvation in the most fundamental way, we must acknowledge God's sovereign choice of us — that he enabled us to believe and chose us for Him before the world was created.

I heard an interesting description of the gospel this week. It might be helpful to you tonight if the gospel hasn't "clicked" for you yet. The gospel says that we are more sinful than we could have ever imagined, but we are more loved and accepted through Jesus than we ever could have dreamed. Isn't that amazing? We are more sinful — falling short of the glory of the God who made us — than we even realize. But, our salvation in Jesus — his death for our sins on the cross and the fact that we are clothed in his righteousness and given eternal life — is more glorious than we ever could have dreamed! That's the gospel. And this is God's work, ultimately, from beginning to end.