About a month ago I was preaching on the Parable of the Sower in Mark 4. The following week a church member came up to me and said he was troubled by something Jesus said to his disciples about the purpose of the parables:
"To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside everything is in parables, so that 'they may indeed see but not perceive, and may indeed hear but not understand, lest they should turn and be forgiven.'"- Mark 4:11-12; cf. Isa. 6:9-10
This church member remarked, "That sounds as if Jesus purposely hid the meaning of the parables to some and gave it to others." I replied, "Yes, it certainly looks that way, doesn't it? In fact, Matthew's account is even more explicit (see Matt. 13:10-17)."
"But isn't that Calvinistic?" my Christian brother queried. "I like to think that everybody has the same fair shot [opportunity] to receive Christ."
As you can imagine, this opened up the door to what could have been an extremely lengthy, in-depth conversation about the doctrines of grace, the difference between Calvinism and Arminianism, etc. But our time was short, so I attempted to convey just a few salient points on the matter:
- We must allow Scripture to shape our theology, rather than "force" Scripture to fit our theology.
- The Bible clearly teaches both the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man. These two doctrines are utterly compatible and are not contradictory, even though we cannot fully understand how they coincide. Charles Spurgeon asserted,
"These two truths, I do not believe, can ever be wielded into one upon any human anvil, but one they shall be in eternity: they are two lines that are so nearly parallel, that the mind that shall pursue them farthest, will never discover that they converge; but they do converge, and they will meet somewhere in eternity, close to the throne of God, whence all truth doth spring."
- If we are to be faithful to Scripture, we must embrace and proclaim both doctrines in all their fullness. If we emphasize one to the neglect of the other, we will misunderstand and misrepresent God, the human condition, and the gospel.
- "It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, but the glory of kings is to search out a matter" (Prov. 25:2). This encourages us to dig more deeply into those scriptural truths we don't understand, remembering that "we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God" ( 1 Cor. 2:12).
When Paul says that you have the hope of glory because you were "predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will," he's not trying to stir up debate about esoteric doctrines and philosophical riddles. He's not picturing an icy fate to make us fatalistic. From within the illogic of the shadowlands, we think that one must emphasize either God's sovereign will or the freedom and responsibility of human choices. But standing out in the daylight of God's logic, one needn't err in either direction. God is utterly in control. Any other view would be absurd--this God spins galaxies and holds atoms together, after all. This God raised spiritual corpses to new life in Christ. Salvation is warm and bright because God planned it. He had your name in mind in Christ. He holds us in his hand, bringing about his purposes. And we choose at every point.Human life is absolutely significant; every fleeting thought, every choice, and every experience matter. This God calls you to faith, obedience, and responsibility. Because his purposes will not be thwarted, you can leap to the call, learning to be courageous, optimistic, persevering in love through troubles. His purposes sustain you through it all. His rule establishes the significance of our choices. Any other view would be absurd--human life counts, God's will controls. His will of control (Eph. 1:11) is to be trusted as the frame of reference behind every experience; his will of command (5:17; 6:6) is to be obeyed with all our heart.The supremacy of God's purposes is not a debating point. It is the foundation of indestructible confidence and ravishing delight. God is in control, and you can bend all your energies to your calling, trusting that God's plans are working out.
Amen. Can we all agree to that?