God’s sovereignty and human freedom: how can we reconcile these themes?
Since at least the period of Augustine (ca. 354-430 AD) Christians have debated this topic. How can we say that God is sovereign and in control of all things while human beings enjoy freedom of will? Doesn’t complete divine sovereignty require incomplete freedom on the part of human beings? And doesn’t complete human freedom require incomplete sovereignty on the part of God?
It would be arrogant and naïve (to say the least) to think that I could resolve this dilemma in the span of one blog post. I do not expect to do this. What I’d like to do, rather, is present a different way of framing this debate, informed chiefly by the field of Christology (the study of Jesus Christ).
What follows then is an adaptation of a sermon I delivered at First Baptist Church of Freeport on Genesis 37 and 45, entitled “No Contradiction”:
In Genesis 37, we see a wishful, bordering-on-arrogant, young Joseph, who dreams that he’ll rule over his brothers. We see a father, Jacob, who favors his younger son. And we see some jealous brothers who go on to betray him. In the end, we see human beings freely acting in accordance with their makeup. We see choice after unfortunate choice, not forced, or out-of-character, but completely explicable via emotions, personalities, fears, etc.
Then, we get Genesis 45, and a lot has happened in between: Joseph has risen in the ranks and is now second in command in Egypt. His brothers travel down from Canaan looking for food and they don’t recognize him. Over the course of the chapter, however, one sees the purposes of God fulfilled.
Despite a myriad of bad choices made by human beings, God’s purpose to lift Joseph up, to preserve the 12 tribes, to multiply the people of Israel, are all fulfilled. Amidst the toxic favoritism of Jacob, amidst the youthful arrogance of Joseph, amidst the greed and jealousy of his brothers, God is still in control.
In these stories, then, we see human agency and divine activity existing together with no contradiction. And I’d like to explain how this can be the case. What I’d like to do first is give you an overview of the debate, in very, very broad strokes. What follows then are two directions or two poles you often see featured in this age-long debate.
The first solution claims that God causes humans to do what they do in order to accomplish his divine purpose. This solution is put forth by many; I won’t name names, denominations, or traditions. The idea, however, is that for God to be truly sovereign, he must directly control all activity in the universe. The primary criticism leveled against this view is that humans are not truly free agents, since God, it seems, tinkers with their will. Solution one.
The second solution, proposed in response to the first one, is that God knows what humans will do and articulates his plan accordingly. God, in other words, allows humans to make free decisions and upon seeing what free choices they will make, designates his plan accordingly. This solution, some form of it at least, is put forth by many; again, I won’t name names, denominations, or traditions. The idea is: for humans to be truly free, their actions must be undertaken with no external influence whatsoever. The main criticism of this view, however, is that God, in the end, is not truly sovereign, since humans in their freedom determine his will. Solution two.
This is a debate that’s being going on for centuries and is one that’s been huge in my own life. I remember debating it in college (yes, that’s what students talk about at Christian college), a little during graduate school, and more in the past three years of ministry in a local church.
However, only upon reading a recent work of Christology (Christ the Heart of Creation by Rowan Williams) did I discover that both positions rely on an unstated (and invalid) assumption.
Both of the above solutions assume that God and human beings exist on the same level of reality; that their actions, their wills, compete for space.
To illustrate this assumption, I want you to picture a chair, an empty chair. You want to sit in it, so you walk toward it, but your friend Tom sits down before you. Tom is sitting in the chair.
For you, a physical human being, to sit down in that chair right now, what has to happen first? How does Tom’s sitting-in-the-chair relate to or inhibit your desire to sit in that chair?
For you to sit in that chair, Tom needs to get up and leave. I think we can agree on that. You can’t both fully sit in that chair at the same time without some contradiction of laws of nature. This is how some tend think about God’s sovereignty and human freedom.
For God to be sovereign, some say, for him to sit in the chair, humans must lose their free will, just a little bit. For humans to be free, some say, for them to sit in the chair, God must lose his sovereignty, just a little bit. This assumes, however, that God and human beings exist on the same level of reality, that their wills, in other words compete for space. But this simply is not true.
Let me give you another illustration. I want you to imagine a dishwasher has been installed. It’s combination of metal, plastic, and rubber. It’s new, paid for, and set up. All it needs is to be plugged in.
When you plug in the dishwasher, how much space does the electricity take up? How much of the dishwasher must you remove to make space for the electricity? The racks? The frame? The silverware-holder? Does all that have to come out? For electricity to fill the dishwasher, how much of the dishwasher needs to leave?
This is an absurd question, I know. Electricity and dishwashers do not compete for space, because they don’t exist in the same way. One is not a physical thing like the other is a physical thing. More of this doesn’t mean less of that.
And here enters Jesus.
In the person of Jesus, Christians profess there to be full humanity, and full divinity, 100% there at the same time. Many throughout history have struggled with this, claiming that Jesus must be less than fully human to be fully God (or vice versa). But anything less than 100% of both would qualify as heresy in the history of the church.
Jesus can be both fully divine and fully human at the same time, just like a dishwasher and electricity can be fully present to each other at the same time. Divinity and humanity, like electricity and matter, do not compete for space.
In Jesus Christ we see that more of God doesn’t mean less of humanity. In Jesus Christ what we see is a genuine human being with a personality, DNA, certain drives and desires, who is completely and fully active at the same time as the eternal Son of God himself.
What this means then is that God can be acting completely while human beings act freely with no contradiction whatsoever. Only because divinity and humanity exist differently, can this be the case.
Jacob can thus freely show favoritism, Joseph can freely flaunt arrogance, the brothers can freely vent jealousy, and God’s purposes are still fulfilled. To pose that God’s will butts against or competes with the will of human beings is to pose that both exist in the same way or on the same plane, but they don’t. If they did, you could never have 100% of one and 100% of the other, as we confess to be present in the person of Jesus Christ.
While you and I, then, can exercise our complete and utter free will, making deliberate choices on the basis of personality, experience, and reason, God can still be said to be completely sovereign throughout; both are true.
I, then, would discourage you from claiming that all of Jacob’s, all of Joseph’s, all the brother’s, all the traders’ actions were directly caused by God and not freely undertaken by those actors. This assumes that the only way for God to be in control is for him to hijack the will of human beings (even a little). This is false.
At the same time, I’d discourage you from claiming that all of Jacob’s, all of Joseph’s, all the brother’s, all the traders’ actions, were so free that they were exempt from God’s guiding hand or un-usable in his plan. This assumes that the only way for humans to be free is for God to look into the future and call what he sees there his plan or his will. This is false.
You have the freedom to make good, thoughtful, Godly choices, you do. God is not forcing your hand. Yet God is sovereign and in-control (somehow), which means that even when we make the worst choices, choices which cause real people to suffer, God’s mission is still fulfilled.
I want you to be encouraged by these truths. As you go about your lives making all kinds of choices, then, know that God and human beings can be fully active, fully present to one another with absolutely no contradiction.
Jonah Bissell
Pastor