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Providence and Natural Human Willing and Acting · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome to reformed thinking. You know it usually happens on a
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Sunday evening. Oh, I know that routine well.
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Right, you sit down on the couch, you pull out your
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smartphone, and you open up the calendar app.
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And you see all those neat color-coded time blocks
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stretching right across the week ahead of.
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You. It is visually so satisfying.
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I mean blue is for your morning project meetings.
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Green is for those gym sessions you desperately hope to actually
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make. Yeah, and yellow is for family
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obligations, dinner dates, whatever it is.
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And looking at that glowing screen, you get this subtle,
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really intoxicating feeling. Like you are the undisputed
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master of your reality. Precisely.
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You built the schedule, you slide it in the tasks, and you
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just assume the week will naturally fall in line
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accordingly. Until Tuesday morning hits.
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Yes, Tuesday hits and a pipe bursts in your kitchen,
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completely flooding the floor. Or your boss moves a massive
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deadline up by three days out of nowhere.
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Or your car battery just dies in the driveway and suddenly that
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neat digital calendar feels like a huge, ridiculous joke.
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Because we live our entire lives in this constant, agonizing
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tension between the precise plans we make and the chaotic
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reality that actually unfolds. So true, and today we're taking
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a deep dive into a theological concept that touches every
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single decision you make. Every plan you draw up and
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really every unexpected set back you face.
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We are looking at comprehensive historical and biblical texts
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analyzing the intersection of divine sovereignty and human
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autonomy. And our mission today is to
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reconcile our daily planning, choosing and acting with a
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Creator who governs all things. Right.
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And we want to see why understanding this truth is
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actually the absolute best source of comfort you could
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ever. Rather than a reason for dread
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or anxiety. But to do that properly, we
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really need to establish a clear baseline.
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Like how do the historical confessions define the scope of
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God's involvement in the world? Well, a lot of modern people,
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even though sitting in church pews every week, they operate
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under a sort of deistic framework.
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The whole hawk maker idea. That is right.
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They assume God wound the universe up like a giant
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grandfather clock, set the physical laws in motion, and
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then took several giant steps back to just watch it all
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unfold. The texts we are evaluating
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today flat out reject that hands off approach.
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The baseline definition we find in the Westminster Confession is
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that the Creator upholds, directs, disposes and governs
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all creatures, actions and things.
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From the greatest even to the least.
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Right. He does not just observe from a
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distance, you know, wringing his hands and hoping we decide to
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cooperate with his suggestions. He is actively directing every
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atom and every human action toward an appointed definite
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end. And that phrase, from the
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greatest even to the least, is staggering when you consider
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what it means. It means his governance applies
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to the orbit of Jupiter just as much as it applies to the dust
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flooding in a shaft of sunlight in your living room.
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Wow. But instead of starting with
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cosmic macro level theology regarding the rise and fall of
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empires, we should start where we all live.
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Our daily schedules. Yeah, if we look at the letter
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of James, specifically the 4th chapter, we find an incredibly
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vivid illustration of this exact conflict between human planning
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and divine reality. James is writing to early Jewish
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Christians who are scattered throughout the Greco Roman
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world. And he zeroes in on a very
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specific demographic within that community.
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Affluent itinerant merchants operating within the Pax Romana.
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And the historical context here is crucial for us to grasp.
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This was an era of unprecedented Mediterranean peace and
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infrastructure. The Romans had paved thousands
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of miles of roads. They cleared the shipping lanes
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of pirates. Right, They created an economic
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environment, environment where international commerce could
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just thrive across vast distances with relative safety.
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So these merchants, they're basically the 1st century
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equivalent of modern corporate executives.
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Racking up frequent flyer miles moving from city to city closing
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deals. Yes, and just quotes the kind of
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boardroom speech they were just tossing around, he writes.
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Come now, you who say today or tomorrow you'll go into such and
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such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a
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profit. When you isolate the specific
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verbs in that statement, the sheer arrogance of it jumps
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right off the page. Oh, absolutely.
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I mean, they claim complete unchallenged authority over time
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by saying today or tomorrow they.
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Claim absolute authority over geographic location with the
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phrase such and such a town. They dictate the duration of
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their lives by saying they will spend a year there.
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They assume the ability to perform the activity, which is
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trade. And they totally guarantee the
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economic outcome, declaring they will make a profit.
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But what is most revealing about their speech is what is entirely
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absent from it. God.
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Spot on. There is zero mention of God.
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The issue James is attacking here is not that they are
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involved in commerce. Right.
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He's not condemning free enterprise.
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Oregon, the act of diligent, careful planning.
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He is attacking their posture. They're operating as practical
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atheists. Yes, they might attend synagogue
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or church. They might confess belief in a
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Creator on the Sabbath. But on Monday morning in the
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marketplace. They live and speak as if God
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does not exist. That is the core issue.
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I was actually thinking on an analogy for this kind of
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practical atheism. It reminds me of a six year old
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child sitting on the floor of the house.
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OK. With a box of crayons drawing up
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elaborate architectural blueprints to knock down the
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load bearing walls and completely remodel the family
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living room. Oh, that is a great image,
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right? The child's planning isn't the
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problem. Having an active imagination is
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great. But the problem is the total
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disregard for the true authority of the House.
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Exactly. I mean spot on.
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The child is completely ignoring the fact that the parents
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actually own the property. They hold the mortgage.
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They understand the structural engineering.
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And they control the entire budget.
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Yeah, the child assumes an ownership and a capability they
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simply do not possess. That captures the delusion
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perfectly. The child is claiming A
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sovereignty they do not have the capacity to wield.
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And James confronts these ancient businessmen by attacking
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their assumption of ownership over their own biological
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existence. He initiates a complete
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linguistic tear down of their pride.
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In verse 14, he asks them a blunt question.
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What is your life? And he answers it using the
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Greek word at miss. Which translates to a mist or a
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vapor. It is the steam rising off a hot
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cup of coffee that vanishes into the cold morning air, right?
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These businessmen are acting like they possess concrete
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permanence. They speak as if they are fixed
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in movable mountains of industry.
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They act like their calendars are etched in stone.
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But biologically, fundamentally, James says, they are a vanishing
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vapor. They do not even know what
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tomorrow will bring. Let alone what their profit
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margins will be a full year from now.
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This is a devastating critique of human self-sufficiency.
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It really is, James demands, a complete psychological and
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grammatical shift in how they view their existence.
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He tells them instead you ought to say, If the Lord wills, we
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will live and do this or that. The order of that sentence is so
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fascinating to me. He does not just say, if the
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Lord wills, we will make a profit.
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No, he backs the dependence all the way up to biological
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existence itself. If the.
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Lord Wills, we will live. The conditional clause governs
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the next heartbeat before it governs the success of the
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business trip. It shifts the base level
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assumption of tomorrow from being a guaranteed right to
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being a borrowed gift. You cannot guarantee your next
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breath. The natural human action of
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waking up tomorrow is completely dependent on the sovereign
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decree of the Creator. And to plan without
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acknowledging that absolute dependence is a severe offense.
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James delivers a very harsh verdict in verse 16.
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He does not call it a mild oversight.
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Or bad manner? No, he calls it arrogant
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boasting and declares that all such boasting is evil.
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It is evil because they are attempting A coup.
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They are trying to steal the throne of the universe.
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They're trying to claim a level of sovereign control that
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belongs exclusively to the Creator.
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That is right. So we have established that
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God's sovereign sway covers our mundane travel plans, our daily
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commerce, and our biological existence.
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The micro level stuff. Right, but this immediately
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forces us to ask how this scales up.
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It is one thing to say God manages A merchant's calendar.
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Does he also direct the highest echelons of human authority?
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Does he control the dictators, the emperors and the massive
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geopolitical movements of history?
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Yeah, if he governs the merchant in the market, logic demands we
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ask if he governs the monarch on the throne.
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To answer that, we have to look at the wisdom literature,
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specifically Proverbs chapter 21 verse.
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One which says the King's heart is a stream of water in the hand
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of the Lord. He turns it wherever he will.
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We really need to build out the historical context for the
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original readers to grasp the weight of that statement.
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Because in the ancient Near East, a king was not a modern
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politician. No, they didn't have to worry
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about approval ratings or term limits.
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Or a system of checks and balances.
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Kings like the Pharaohs in Egypt, or the emperors of
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Assyria, or Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon.
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They were unrestrained autocrats.
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Their spoken word was absolute law.
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They held the terrifying authority of life and death over
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thousands of people in a single breath.
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In many of those cultures, the king was practically worshipped
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as a living deity. The subjects believed the King's
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will was the ultimate determining force in the
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universe. In the entire hierarchy of human
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agency, there was number will more autonomous, no decree, more
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final. And no power more intimidating
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than that of an ancient absolute monarch.
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So think about the massive logical tension here.
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Put yourself in the shoes of an ancient Israelite reading this
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proverb. You are a small, vulnerable
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nation surrounded by these massive, bloodthirsty empires.
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The Assyrians were famous for fleeing their enemies alive.
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And stacking skulls outside conquered cities, Yes.
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So if an Assyrian dictator had that kind of unbridled,
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terrifying authority, how on earth does the original reader
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reconcile the sheer terror they feel toward that approaching
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army with the idea that God is somehow holding that wicked
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dictator's heart? The answer lies in the specific
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mechanism Solomon uses in his metaphor.
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OK, let's look at that. When the problem says the King's
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heart is a stream of water, the Hebrew word used is pillig.
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Pillig. Now, a modern reader might
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mistakenly picture a wild, raging, uncontrollable river
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bursting its banks and destroying everything in its
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path. But Peleg does not refer to a
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wild river. No, it specifically refers to a
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small manually cut irrigation canal.
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Oh wow, that drastically changes the imagery.
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A king thinks he is a tidal wave, but the text calls him an
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agricultural ditch. That is an amazing way to put
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it. In ancient farming, a worker
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would dig these small parallel channels in the dirt to water a
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field and to direct the water from the main source to a
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specific row of crops. The farmer did not need heavy
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machinery. He didn't need massive dams.
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He would just walk out into the field.
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And use his barefoot to kick some dirt to block 1 channel and
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drag his heel to open another. And the water flowed
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effortlessly and precisely where the farmer intended.
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The king is convinced he is a sovereign force of nature,
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completely independent, but the text reveals he's just an
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irrigation canal in the bird. And the foot of Yahweh is
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effortlessly directing his course.
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That is a staggering demotion for the ego of a king.
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And the text says God turns it wherever he will.
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It is complete unilateral control.
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The Hebrew syntax drives that home too.
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Right, it does. The phrase wherever he will is
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coal Asher yacht pots. This is a technical theological
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phrase denoting the unrestricted absolute delight and sovereignty
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of God. It means all that he pleases.
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The direction of the most intimidating human will on earth
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is determined entirely by the unilateral pleasure of the
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Creator. God does not negotiate with
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kings, He directs them. And we do not just have this as
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a poetic theory. We see concrete historical
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proofs of this directed heart throughout the ancient records.
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Look at the Exodus narrative. Yeah, the Egyptians had enslaved
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the Israelites for centuries, subjecting them to horrific
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cruelty and genocide. The resentment and hatred toward
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the Israelites was entrenched. Yet God declared to Moses that
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He would grant Israel favor in the sight of the Egyptians.
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And what happens when it was finally time to leave?
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The Egyptians willingly handed over their silver, their gold
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and their clothing to the departing slaves.
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God took the hostile hearts of bitter enemies and incline them
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to become compliant benefactors to fund the building of the
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Israelite Tabernacle. It's incredible.
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Or consider Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon.
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He was a ruthless, arrogant Pagan conqueror.
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But the biblical texts actually refer to this tyrant as God's
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servant in his hammer. God used Nebuchadnezzar's own
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sinful lust for geopolitical conquest as a disciplinary tool
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against the rebellious nation of Judah.
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Nebuchadnezzar thought he was building his own glory, but he
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was actually executing the precise judgment decreed by
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Yahweh. In generations later we see the
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exact opposite action with Cyrus the Persian.
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Right. Cyrus was another Pagan
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conqueror who overtook the Babylonian Empire.
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Yet, to fulfill the prophetic words spoken decades earlier by
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Isaiah and Jeremiah, God stirred the spirit of Cyrus.
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God inclined this Pagan King's heart to release the Jewish
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captives. He returned the plundered gold
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vessels of the temple. And decreed that the House of
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God be rebuilt in Jerusalem using royal funds.
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A man who did not even worship Yahweh opened his imperial
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treasury to fund the rebuilding of Yahweh's temple.
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Because his heart was a canal, and God directed the water
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exactly where it needed to go. These historical events prove
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that human political might is an illusion of control on a massive
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scale. Whether it is Pharaoh's
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stubbornness, Nebuchadnezzar's pride, or Cyrus's generosity,
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the natural human will is consistently bent to achieve the
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divine purpose always. OK, so I buy that God can shape
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a King's geopolitical borders like an irrigation canal.
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He can move armies and change the course of history through
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external circumstances. But this brings us to a massive
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logical wall. Moving an army or granting favor
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is one thing, but if God is actually inside the human mind
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determining the internal choices we make.
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Doesn't the whole concept of human agency, love and willing
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just collapse? Yeah.
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Yeah. Are we just talking about God
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changing circumstances so people react differently, or does he
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actually direct the internal mechanism of human choice
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itself? You have just hit the
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theological deep end, right? To address the internal
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mechanism of the will, we really have to look at the letter to
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the Romans, specifically Chapter 9.
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The Apostle Paul is addressing a massive, heartbreaking
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theological crisis in the 1st century.
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Here, the widespread unbelief of ethnic like Israel.
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The Jewish people possessed the covenants, the giving of the
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law, the temple worship, and the promises of the patriarchs.
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Yet as the gospel spread, the vast majority of ethnic
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Israelites were rejecting Jesus as the Messiah, while Pagan
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Gentiles were flooding into the early church.
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And the obvious question Paul is anticipating from his readers is
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this has the Word of God failed? If the chosen people are
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rejecting the Messiah, did God's massive redemptive plan somehow
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derail? Did the human will of Israel
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successfully thwart the divine decree?
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Paul's answer to that is a resounding aggressive no.
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He reaches back into the patriarchal history of Genesis
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to prove that God's electing purposes are not and have never
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been bound by human lineage. Or tradition.
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Or human effort. And this argument climaxes in
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Romans Chapter 9 verse 16, which states so then it depends not on
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human will or exertion, but on God who has mercy.
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Let's analyze the logic Paul is employing here.
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Yeah, because how does he structure this argument
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regarding the internal will? Paul builds this argument using
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an inferential conjunction in the original language.
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He says consequently or therefore OK.
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He is stating A watertight, undeniable, logical conclusion
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based on the historical evidence of how God chose Isaac over
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Ishmael. And Jacob over Esau before they
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were even born or had done anything good or bad.
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And to drive the point home, Paul uses a double negation to
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completely strip away any ground for human boasting.
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A. Double negation?
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What specific things is he denying?
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He explicitly denies the 2 core components of human agency.
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First, he says, salvation is not of the willing one.
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OK. So that targets our internal
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desire, our volition, our cognitive choosing.
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Second, he says it is nor of the running 1.
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Which targets our external effort, our moral striving, our
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religious actions. Paul takes both internal desire
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and external effort, places them on the table, and explicitly
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removes them from the driver's seat of salvation.
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And the pivot he makes immediately after that double
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negation is total. He replaces human action with a
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single divine attribute. He says it depends entirely of
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the mercy showing God. The active sovereign mercy of
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the Creator is the sole determining factor in who
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receives grace. Yes, the text is unambiguous.
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The decisive factor in human redemption is not the human
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exercising his will to choose God.
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It is God exercising his mercy to choose the human.
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I have to step in here and formulate the absolute strongest
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objection to this, because this is the exact spot where someone
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listening is going to feel a spike of frustration.
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It is a hard concept. If my internal willing and my
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external running are explicitly denied as the decisive factors
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of my own salvation, then how are human beings anything more
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than unthinking machines, right? If God's mercy is the sole
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uncaused cause of my choosing, where is my responsibility?
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How can a judge condemn a criminal if the judge wrote the
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script for the crime? That is the most common and
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vital philosophical objection, and Paul actually anticipates
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that exact push back a few verses later.
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He writes, You will say to me, then why does he still find
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fault? For who can resist his will?
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To answer this, we have to understand the biblical doctrine
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of total depravity. We make the mistake of assuming
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the natural human will is a neutral faculty.
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Right, we picture the human mind as this perfectly balanced set
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of scales. Standing in a neutral room.
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Objectively weighing the options between choosing God and
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choosing sin, completely free from any bias.
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But that neutral room does not exist.
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The texts are clear about the natural state of the human mind
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after the fall. In First Corinthians chapter 2
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it states that the natural person does not accept the
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things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him.
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And he is not able to understand them.
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In Romans chapter 8 it says the mindset on the flesh is hostile
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to God. For it does not submit to God's
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law. Indeed it cannot.
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So the will is not neutral, it is actively hostile.
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It is bound by its own corruption.
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Correct. The natural human will is in
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bondage to its corrupted nature. A person always chooses
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according to their strongest desire at the moment of choice.
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Left entirely to itself, the Natural will freely, happily,
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and constantly chooses rebellion against its maker.
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It chooses exactly what it desires, and what it desires is
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sin. Therefore, God does not violate
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A pristine neutral will when He intervenes.
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He overcomes A hostile rebellion.
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This brings us to the philosophical concept of
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compatibilism. For the listener trying to grasp
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how God can determine the outcome while man makes a real
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choice, we really need to break down the mechanism.
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Because orchestrating a choice and forcing a choice feel like a
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distinction without a difference to a lot of people.
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So how are they actually different?
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Compatibilism is the position that God's absolute, meticulous
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sovereignty and human moral responsibility are fully
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compatible. Even if our finite minds cannot
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perfectly map the intersection. The mechanism is vital to
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understand. God does not violate the human
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will mechanically. He does not force a person to
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choose against their own desires.
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Dragging them kicking and screaming into a decision they
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hate. Instead, he is the master of
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secondary causes. Let me test an analogy here.
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Think of a brilliant author writing a complex novel, say
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Shakespeare writing Macbeth. OK, good example.
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Shakespeare determines the exact beginning, middle and end of the
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play. The outcome is predestined by
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the author. But within the world of the
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play, Macbeth acts entirely according to his own ambitions.
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His own paranoia, his own fears. No.
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Macbeth makes real choices. He commits real murders.
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And he is morally culpable for his actions within the
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narrative. Shakespeare wrote the betrayal,
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but Shakespeare did not commit the betrayal.
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The character acted freely according to his nature, while
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the author sovereignly ordained the story.
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That feels like a very helpful way to frame it.
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It is God's sovereignly orchestrates the desires, the
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historical circumstances, the environments and the
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inclinations of individuals. So that they freely, without any
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external coercion, choose exactly what his hand had
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predestined. We make real choices, we
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experience the weight of those choices, and we are held morally
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accountable for them. But God's sovereign decree is
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the ultimate umbrella under which those secondary causes
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operate. We have to move this from
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abstract philosophy to concrete history though.
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Right. Where do we see this flawless
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execution of compatibilism in actual historical reality?
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Because if this staggering claim is true, that God orchestrates
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circumstances so hostile humans freely choose what he
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predestined, there has to be a monumental demonstration of it.
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The absolute, irrefutable demonstration of this Providence
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is the trial and crucifixion of Jesus Christ.
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If you look at the historical record in the book of Acts,
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specifically chapter 4, you see this exact dynamic explained by
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the early church. Let's set the scene in Jerusalem
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during the final hours of Christ's life.
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You have a massive collision of political, religious and social
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forces. You have King Herod who is
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disappointed that Jesus won't perform a magic trick for him.
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He mocks him and sends him away. You have Pontius Pilate, the
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Roman governor who examines Jesus and declares him entirely
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innocent of any crime. But Pilate is terrified of a
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Jewish riot ruining his political career, so he cowardly
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sentences an innocent man to a brutal death.
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You have the gentile soldiers executing the physical violence,
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driving the nails out of sheer callous duty.
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And you have the religious leaders in the mob screaming for
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blood out of deep seated theological envy and hatred.
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Look at the psychological motivations you just listed.
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Herod's flippant mockery. Pilot's political cowardice.
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The soldiers brutal apathy. The crowd's vicious hatred.
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Every single one of those actors operated freely.
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Pilot was not possessed. He made a calculated,
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self-serving political choice. Judas betrayed Jesus freely out
22:45
of his own natural greed for 30 pieces of silver.
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No one held a metaphysical gun to their heads forcing them to
22:51
sin. They chose exactly what their
22:53
wicked hearts most strongly desired in that moment.
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But listen to the theological synthesis the early believers
22:59
arrive at when they pray about this event in Acts Chapter 4.
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They lift their voices and note that Herod, Pilot, the Gentiles,
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and the peoples of Israel were gathered together against Jesus.
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But then they say this to God. They gathered to do whatever
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your hand in your plan had predestined to take place.
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That statement completely dismantles the charge of
23:19
fagalism, or that God is the author of evil.
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The worst, most heinous sin ever committed in human history, the
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torturing and crucifying of the completely innocent, spotless
23:28
Son of God, was carried out by free, natural, uncoerced human
23:33
choices. The humans were fully
23:35
responsible for their wickedness, yet in their free
23:38
willing and acting, they accomplished the exact
23:40
meticulous redemptive plan of God ordained from eternity past.
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God did not inject fresh evil into pilot's heart.
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God simply arranged the historical circumstances so that
23:51
Pilot's natural cowardice would result in the exact decree God
23:55
intended. He used the secondary causes of
23:58
human sin to achieve the primary cause of global salvation.
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That is brilliant. And when you look at the posture
24:04
of Christ himself during those hours in the Garden of
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Gethsemane, the contrast with the affluent merchants from
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James chapter 4 is absolute night and day.
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Walk us through that psychological contrast.
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Well, think about the merchants sitting around a table in a
24:18
comfortable inn, boasting about their future profits.
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We will go, we will spend a year, we will make money.
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It is total self-sufficiency. They are claiming tomorrow as
24:27
their property. But then look at Jesus in the
24:30
garden. He is facing unspeakable
24:32
physical agony and the horror of bearing divine wrath.
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He is sweating drops of blood. He have the authority to call
24:39
down legions of angels to stop the process, but what does he
24:42
say? Not my will, but yours be done.
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Jesus is the only man in history who lived his entire life under
24:49
the correct, flawless posture of Providence.
24:52
Where Adam grasped for autonomy and control in the Garden of
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Eden, Jesus completely surrendered his autonomy in the
24:58
Garden of Gethsemane. He is the perfect exemplar of
25:01
the teaching of James. He entrusted tomorrow entirely
25:05
to the Father, even when tomorrow meant the Cross.
25:08
And because he did, He secures the grace necessary for us to be
25:11
rescued from the bondage of our own autonomy.
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Which brings in the interaction Jesus has with the rich young
25:17
ruler in the Gospel of Luke. Right, the ruler comes to Jesus
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asking how to inherit eternal life.
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Jesus tells him to sell all his possessions.
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The text says the ruler walks away very sad because he was
25:27
extremely wealthy. He loves his money more than he
25:30
loves the Messiah. Yeah, His natural will cannot
25:33
and will not choose Christ over his bank account.
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The disciples are watching this. Incredible moral failure happen
25:39
and they are terrified. They ask then who can be saved?
25:43
They recognize that if a moral, law abiding, earnest young man
25:47
cannot overcome his own corrupt desires to choose God, no one
25:51
has a chance. And Jesus looks at them and
25:53
delivers the definitive statement on divine grace.
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What is impossible with man is possible with God.
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That is the core of redemptive governance.
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It is a biological and spiritual impossibility for the natural
26:06
human will to save itself. It is like trying to force a
26:09
literal camel through the microscopic eye of a sewing
26:13
needle. The camel cannot do it and the
26:15
needle cannot accommodate it. But God's sovereign Providence
26:18
is the only force capable of overcoming the bondage of our
26:21
natural will. He does not wait for the Heart
26:24
of Stone to start beating on its own.
26:25
He removes the heart of stone, replaces it with a heart of
26:28
flesh, and places his spirit within us.
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The rebel to willingly, freely, and joyfully embrace the savior
26:36
they previously hated. He changes the fundamental
26:38
nature so that the strongest desire becomes Christ.
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So we have covered the macro level of kings and the micro
26:44
level of the human will. But we need to land the plane
26:46
for the listener right now. Right.
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If the King of Kings holds the hearts of modern dictators, the
26:51
hearts of difficult employers and the minds of angry mobs in
26:55
his hands today, how should this radically alter the way you live
26:59
this coming Monday morning? We must bring this into the
27:01
daily application of our lives. The historical texts demand a
27:06
concrete response. And the very first application
27:09
is the total dismantling of the modern idol of control.
27:12
We touched on this at the very beginning with the calendar app,
27:15
but the psychological obsession goes so much deeper in our
27:18
contemporary culture. We are utterly obsessed with
27:21
mastery. We genuinely believe that if we
27:25
gather enough data, we can eliminate vulnerability.
27:28
We try to control our biological health through wearable
27:32
technology that tracks every heart rate spike and REM sleep
27:36
cycle. Hoping we can outsmart
27:37
mortality. We try to control our social
27:39
perception through carefully curated personal brands on
27:42
social media, managing our image like a PR firm.
27:45
We try to insulate our finances with complex algorithms and
27:48
diversified portfolios. We act as if enough technique
27:51
and enough planning can render us bulletproof.
27:54
But James demolishes that fantasy.
27:56
He says you do not know what tomorrow will bring.
27:59
No financial spreadsheet can secure your life against a
28:01
global market crash. No fitness tracker can prevent a
28:04
sudden cellular mutation. And acknowledging that we are a
28:07
mist, that we are fundamentally vulnerable and dependent, is
28:11
actually incredibly liberating. Liberating.
28:15
I think for a lot of people listening, the idea of losing
28:18
control sounds terrifying, not liberating.
28:21
How is recognizing our powerlessness a good thing?
28:24
It is liberating because you are freed from the exhausting,
28:27
crushing psychological burden of pretending to be self sovereign.
28:32
Wow, if you believe you are entirely responsible for
28:35
securing your future, the anxiety will eventually eat you
28:38
alive. You will lie awake at night
28:40
wondering what variable you forgot to calculate.
28:42
But if you recognize that your life, your actions, and your
28:45
timeline are governed by a wise, holy and fatherly God who
28:49
numbers the hairs on your head, you can lay that massive burden
28:52
down. You still plan, you still work
28:54
hard at your job, you still exercise, but you do it with
28:56
open hands, trusting the ultimate outcome to him.
28:59
OK. I can see how that applies to
29:01
business plans or health anxieties.
29:03
But let me ask a very specific, painful question regarding
29:06
suffering when someone is wronged by another person, say a
29:10
boss who maliciously slanders them and ruins their career, or
29:14
a spouse who betrays them in the worst, most intimate way
29:17
possible. It is incredibly easy to feel
29:19
entirely victimized by someone else's autonomous free will.
29:23
The pain feels random and senseless.
29:26
So how does this doctrine of meticulous Providence act as a
29:29
healing balm in those specific moments of agonizing betrayal?
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That is where the rubber meets the road in Christian theology.
29:36
When we look at the historical account of Joseph in the Book of
29:38
Genesis, we see this exact scenario play out.
29:42
Joseph was betrayed by his own brothers.
29:44
They threw him into a pit, contemplated murdering him, and
29:47
then sold him into human trafficking.
29:49
He was taken to Egypt, falsely accused of sexual assault by his
29:53
master's wife and left to rot in a dungeon for years.
29:56
All of those horrific events were driven by the wicked
29:59
natural wills of other human beings.
30:01
Joseph had every human right to be consumed with bitterness,
30:05
cynicism and a burning desire for revenge against the brothers
30:08
who ruined his youth. But decades later, through a
30:11
series of providential events, Joseph becomes the second most
30:14
powerful man in Egypt. His brothers are starving due to
30:17
a famine and they come begging for food.
30:20
Joseph holds the authority of life and death over the men who
30:23
trafficked him. And what does he say to them in
30:26
Genesis chapter 50 verse 20? He says, As for you, you meant
30:29
evil against me, but God meant it for good.
30:32
The phrasing there is absolutely critical.
30:34
He did not say you did something terrible and God scrambled to
30:37
fix it after the fact. He did not say God simply used a
30:41
random tragic accident to teach a lesson.
30:44
Right. He uses the same verb for both
30:46
parties. He said God meant it.
30:48
The human agents were fully responsible for their sin, and
30:52
their intentions were entirely malicious.
30:54
But behind their wicked secondary actions stood the
30:58
flawless, loving primary intention of a father
31:01
orchestrating history for Joseph's ultimate good.
31:04
And the physical preservation of a nation during a famine.
31:06
When you are betrayed or slandered, the human agent is
31:09
morally responsible for their sin.
31:11
But they could not lift a single finger against you, they could
31:14
not speak a single lie about you, unless it was granted to
31:17
them from heaven. That truth allows you to process
31:20
deep pain without giving way to hopeless despair.
31:23
Because you know know you're suffering is never meaningless
31:26
chaos. It is a severe mercy.
31:28
That is a staggering comfort for anyone walking through a season
31:32
of grief or betrayal. And this doctrine also
31:35
completely changes how we face a broader culture that feels
31:39
increasingly hostile to the truth.
31:41
We see a strong temptation in modern religious circles toward
31:44
pragmatism. Churches try to manipulate the
31:46
natural human will through slick marketing tactics, emotional
31:50
coercion, concert style lighting, or watering down the
31:53
hard truths the text to make it more palatable to a secular
31:56
audience. Pragmatism assumes that the
31:58
human will is autonomous, and if we just find the right
32:01
psychological sales pitch, we can convince people to change
32:04
their minds and choose God. Relies on human effort.
32:07
But if we truly believe what Romans 9 teaches, that salvation
32:11
depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who shows
32:14
mercy, we do not need to rely on cheap gimmicks.
32:17
We are free to rely on the bold, fearless, clear proclamation of
32:21
the truth. We do not have to manage the
32:23
outcome. We just have to be faithful
32:26
messengers. And if the King's heart truly is
32:28
an irrigation canal in the hand of the Lord, the believer has
32:32
absolutely no logical reason to cower before political,
32:36
cultural, or social opposition. You can speak the truth with
32:39
contrite courage in your workplace, in your community,
32:42
and in your home, knowing that the Sovereign Lord governs the
32:45
minds of those who oppose you. You are immortal until your God
32:49
ordained work on this earth is finished.
32:51
So as we wrap up this deep dive, let's summarize the massive
32:54
amount of ground we have covered today.
32:56
We started in the bustling marketplace of James Charter 4.
32:59
Learning the human planning is a normal activity, but it becomes
33:03
a sinful practical atheism when it is self-sufficient and
33:06
ignores the Creator. We move to the ancient throne
33:09
rooms of Proverbs 21. Discovering that the absolute
33:12
earthly powers, the dictators and the empires, are entirely
33:16
subject to the divine turning of Yahweh's foot.
33:18
Like a farmer directing water in a ditch.
33:20
We investigated the internal mechanisms of choice in Romans
33:23
9. Seeing that salvation relies
33:25
exclusively on grass active mercy, not our own internal
33:29
desire or external exertion. Because our natural wills are
33:33
hostile to Him. And we saw all of this perfectly
33:36
proven at the cross, where the wicked, uncoerced human choices
33:40
of Pilot and the mob accomplished the exact
33:43
predestined redemptive plan of God.
33:46
The call to you, the listener, is to take a hard inventory of
33:49
your own heart and your own calendar this week.
33:51
Hold your plans, your career goals and your anxieties with
33:54
open hands. When you use the phrase if the
33:57
Lord wills, do not let it be a thoughtless verbal titic or a
34:01
religious cliche. Let it be a sincere, deeply
34:04
rooted theological confession that frames your entire
34:06
worldview. Repent of the arrogant
34:08
assumption that you control tomorrow, and rest in the
34:11
immense, unshakable peace that comes from knowing the one who
34:14
actually does. And as we close, I want to leave
34:15
you with one final provocative thought to Mull over.
34:19
We have spent a lot of time talking about God's meticulous
34:22
Providence over your willing and acting today and your anxiety
34:26
regarding your plans for tomorrow.
34:27
But I want you to think back to your past.
34:30
Look at your own history. Think about the doors that slam
34:33
shut in your face. Think about the career
34:35
opportunities you thought you completely ruined through your
34:39
own incompetence. Think about the painful
34:41
relational detours that felt like massive agonizing failures
34:45
at the time. What if those moments were not
34:47
interruptions to your life's plan at all?
34:50
What if they were the precise, unyielding grace of God actively
34:54
barricading you from your own destruction, denying your
34:57
autonomous will and routing you where He pleased so that you
35:00
would be where you are today? The next time you open up that
35:03
digital calendar on your phone and start blocking out your
35:05
week, remember who really holds the pen.
35:08
Thanks for joining us on Reformed Thinking.