Man's Responsibility & God's Sovereignty
Dealing with the free will & God's sovereignty dilemma.
Many Christians debate the argument "free will vs predestination", often times to their detriment. There may be a better way to sum the argument up, getting to what lies at the heart of the matter. Before that however, it is important to acknowledge that the Bible clearly teaches two essential truths:
1) God is sovereign, omnipotent, omniscient and truly in control working his divine plan. (For starters see Ephesians 1, Entire book of Romans, Colossians 1)
2) We humans are still responsible and held accountable for our sins, even in light of the first truth. In the reality that God has placed us in, we make decisions and we do not know their ultimate outcomes. But He does.
So the real question that an understanding believer struggles with is "if God is controlling every detail of our existence how can we ultimately be held accountable for the things we do?"
Or perhaps, "why did God create us with the perception that we're making our own decisions and why does He get angry or pleased by our decisions if He already knows the outcome?"
We must remember that we look at these things merely from the human perspective, the only perspective we understand (maybe not). And unfortunately/fortunately thats the only way we can look at it. We do not look at it from the "God" perspective.
However, if we believe that God is the creator of universe, where not a single molecule is out of His purview, we must also confess that the complexities of His creation and the realities we see before us can not ever do full justice or deliver to us the full understanding of the intricacies of our God and His existence. In other words, as the wisest man (Solomon) confessed: "your thoughts are greater than my thoughts and your ways are greater than my ways". We must acknowledge that the depths of God are beyond our comprehension, whether we like it or not.
While Jesus astonished the Pharisees in their trap regarding taxes saying "render to Caesar what is Caesar's and render to God what is God's" so too we must also, with respect to our confidence in attempting to understand such matters, render to God what is God’s and render to man what is man's.. if anything at all.
If we think we can fully identify God and construct His existence, drawing the full box in which to place Him, identifying what He can and can not do, we are attempting to limit the unlimited, explain the unexplainable and contain the uncontainable. Yes, God has revealed many of His attributes in scripture and generally through His creation, but in no way is that the end of it, but merely the beginning. Our human brains are not even remotely capable of fully understanding the God of the Universe and His creation.
I submit to all eager questioners of the faith to acknowledge these two truths and to be comforted in knowing that we, in our current state, can't know the profound depths of our Lord's design. But rather, let us humble ourselves before our Creator who has atoned for our shortcomings in Christ Jesus and ask for the peace that surpasses all understanding.