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The Potter’s Freedom

Over the years (even centuries), Christians have debated (more often heatedly than holily) the matter of God’s freedom or sovereignty. Few would want to say that God is not free or sovereign; the debate has centred on just how free or sovereign he really is. Recently, a friend and I were discussing this. This article is substantially my response to that discussion. I have deleted the more personal comments. However, at points it probably reflects the issues we discussed more than I realise. It certainly is a little less formal than usual. If at times it seems less coherent then you have read my excuse.

From here, the article is really simply my response to some issues raised.

We remove much of the heat from this particular debate by recognising that Scripture frequently approaches issues from two different perspectives – the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man. Sometimes these two perspectives are included in the one text. For example in Phil 2:12,13 when Paul says: work out your own salvation with fear and trembling (human responsibility) for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for his good pleasure (divine sovereignty).

To us, on the face of it, these perspectives often seem irreconcilable, indeed contradictory. And, perhaps to our limited human minds they are. However, because we believe in the unity of the Bible we seek as far as possible to see the breadth of truth and reconcile one truth with another as far as possible, without watering down the meaning of either .

The virtue of a ‘Calvinistic ’ approach to these issues is that it insists firstly on seeing things from the perspective of God’s sovereignty; it is thoroughly God-centred. I like this for it seems to me God’s sovereignty is the major motif of Scripture and rarely the perspective of man. To start from God and work to man seems to me to be healthy. If we must err then I should rather err in allowing God to be God (free and unfettered in his sovereignty) than in some way diminishing God, as modern open-theists tend to do .

Procedurally, your approach is that of biblical theology ; you start from Genesis and trace a pattern developing through Scripture. This is perfectly reasonable; however, I am not sure it is the best way into considering the relationship between sovereignty and responsibility. In my judgement it is better to start from some of the clear statements in the NT. The NT is our key as Christians to understanding and interpreting the OT. It seems also to provide some seminal texts for understanding the issue of God’s sovereignty in history and salvation

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About John

Hi there - I am a member of Greenview and have been for over 20 years. For a number of these years I functioned as an elder, however, indifferent health forced me to take more of a back seat. I see this as an opportunity to do a little writing, often focussing on issues that are a matter of evangelical debate today. Naturally the views expressed are my own and may not reflect the views of the elders or church at large, though differences are likely to be in the detail and not the substance.

These articles and sermons were written partly to clarify my own thoughts and partly with the intention of provoking thought in others who may read them. If you read one I hope you find it stimulating. Please feel free to give me feedback or discuss my articles in the forums.

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