Saturday, August 25, 2018

Our hearts: freedom, sovereignty, responsibility?

Christians of an Augustinian or Reformed stamp insist that the Bible teaches both the absolute and complete sovereignty of God (including over the human heart) and human responsibility and accountability (including for the state of our hearts which are subject to original sin).

It is not as if one idea is an Old Testament one and the other is found only in the New Testament. Or that Jesus taught one and Paul another. We cannot pit John against James, here. 

Sometimes the Bible teaches both God's sovereignty and human responsibility in adjacent verses. 

One such example would be Proverbs 21:1-2:

Verse 1:

"The king's heart is in the hands of the LORD; he directs it like a watercourse wherever he pleases."

And, the rest of the Bible would tell us, what is true even of kings is true of all human beings. God is sovereign over all human hearts. 

Verse 2:

"All a man's ways seem right to him, but the LORD weighs the heart."

Human beings are responsible and accountable to God, who will judge the heart. 

No comments: