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Sovereignty and Responsibility

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Sovereignty and Responsibility

5 minuten leestijd Arcering uitzetten

Gods sovereignty and mans responsibility are both truths that need to be experienced.

An unregenerate person tries to avoid one of these two truths. On the one hand, his conscience may agree that the Lord is free and sovereign but in his heart he accuses the Lord of unrighteousness by saying, If I am not elected, I shall never be converted. This is a true statement by itself but it is applied wrongly. This mans conduct shows an indifference whether he will be converted or not. He lives on in sin, is unconcerned and blames the Lord for his graceless life. He acts as Adam who separated himself from the Lord in Paradise and afterward accused the Lord for his transgression. He has no concern about his responsibility.

On the other hand, an unregenerated person may find his conscience agreeing that he has offended the Lord, but in his heart he denies sovereign grace, takes refuge in his responsibility, tries to repair the broken covenant of works and shows in his conduct to be the same as the rich young man. His foundation for eternity is his good works; he can always believe and is assured in himself that by doing his best, God will do the rest. This error is widely practiced in our days. It is a resting in the works of man and not in the Lord. This person has no realization what free and sovereign grace is.


The law does not fail from any lack of power in God to command, but from lack in man to obey.


The principal part in the heart of a regenerated person is altogether different. A complete renewal of heart and a supernatural change has taken place by the irresistible power of the Holy Spirit. The righteousness and justice of God, the responsibility and wretchedness of man are clearly placed before him. The holy law of God, which demands perfect obedience, is transgressed and condemns him. The regenerated person also sees that the Lord cannot clear the guilty. His responsibility accuses him before a holy God, and he sees that he is a lost sinner.

As a result of this struggle, such a soul is led to flee to the throne of grace and mercy seat of God, just as the Canaanitish woman was led to beg and plead for mercy. At this place she is now taught in principle what we read in Romans 6:14, For sin shall have no dominion over you, for ye are not under the law but under grace. There is no power against sin unless grace be given. Facing Mount Sinai with all its demands and weighty requirements, man cannot conquer it. Despite these insurmountable demands, Paul says that the law is weak, and the consequence of this weakness is that it cannot meet two necessary requirements. Unless these requirements are met, not one single soul could be saved, and the whole human race would perish under the wrath of God.

The first requirement the law cannot meet is to save. It can send us to hell, but it cannot take us to heaven. It can bring bondage, wrath, guilt, fear and terror of conscience, but it cannot communicate peace and pardon. The second requirement the law cannot meet is sanctification. There is no provision in it to communicate holiness to the soul, namely, that holiness without which no man can see the Lord (Heb. 12:14). Being a ministration of death it cannot communicate life, for we know that the apostle says it was weak through the flesh and here we sum up the real cause of the law being weak. It is not weak in itself for it is armed with all the strength of God. The flesh in human nature in its fallen condition is unable to obey the law and thus the law fails for that sinner. The law does not fail from any lack of power in God to command, but from lack in man to obey.

This brings the sinner to the end of the law: Christ and Him crucified for everyone that believeth. The regenerated sinner tastes the water of the good pleasure of the Lord, but he never drowns in it (Ez. 47). What a transition for that person! Christ has taken his sin, met the impossible demands of responsibility, and he receives Christs righteousness, Christs free sovereign grace. The bride of Christ exclaims, I am black but comely. The renewed sinner realizes that he is saved through Gods eternal good pleasure. While in such a condition, he may sing as we read in Psalter 429:4: Yea, Thou wilt finish perfectly, what Thou for me hast undertaken, and his confession shall be Thou art, O God, our boast, the glory of our power. Thy sovereign grace is eer our fortress and our tower. O the depths of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out.

Elder J. DeBruine serves as elder in the Netherlands Reformed Congregation of Grand Rapids, Michigan.

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Bekijk de hele uitgave van vrijdag 1 november 1985

The Banner of Truth | 28 Pagina's

Sovereignty and Responsibility

Bekijk de hele uitgave van vrijdag 1 november 1985

The Banner of Truth | 28 Pagina's