God is on the throne, so work hard

But Joseph said to them, “Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God? You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. (Genesis 50:19–20)

Christian theology is full of apparent paradoxes: God is three and yet one. Jesus was fully man and fully God. The Bible is God’s Word written by humans. And God is sovereign, yet we are fully responsible for our actions. In the story of Genesis, we see a perfect illustration of this final paradox. As Joseph looks back at the turbulent events of the past years, he tells his brothers “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is not being done, the saving of many lives.” In other words, you are fully responsible for your evil actions in selling me into slavery, but somehow through it all, God was sovereignly at work, bringing me to Egypt and ultimately elevating me to second in command so that I might save your lives.

The important thing to remember with these Biblical paradoxes is that you must hold both in tension as true. Elevate one over the other, and you end up either in theological heresy, faulty thinking, disordered living, or all of the above. Think about the tension between divine sovereignty and human responsibility. If we emphasize divine sovereignty too much and downplay human responsibility, we end up believing that our lives are fated and that our actions have no real meaning, since God has already ordained what will happen. Case in point: in the 18th century, overseas missions had greatly slowed down because many Protestants believed that “when God pleases to convert the heathen, he’ll do it without consulting you or me,” as one Baptist minister reportedly told William Carey. In response, Carey wrote a treatise called The Enquiry, arguing that God’s desire was and always would be to use His people to convert others, as Jesus said in Matthew 28:18-20. Carey helped form the Baptist Missionary Society, became a missionary in India, and became known as the father of modern missions.

If we overemphasize God’s sovereignty, we end up becoming passive or viewing the world fatalistically. But if we overemphasize human responsibility, we end up attributing too much weight to our decisions and circumstances. Our fear of evil or harm will increase, and any errors we commit can leave us feeling as if we have shipwrecked our life or faith. We forget what Paul assures us in Romans 8:28. That “in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”

We need to keep the tension between God’s sovereignty and human responsibility, not just for theological accuracy but for spiritual health. Notice this tension in what Paul writes in Philippians 2:12-13 – “Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill His good purpose.” Yes, God is at work in us, but only as we work out our salvation. And yes, we must work out our salvation, but never forget that it is God working in us that empowers us to live for Him. As Charles Spurgeon put it, “I believe that when I preach, I ought to prepare and study my sermon as if its success altogether depended on me, but that when I am thus thoroughly furnished, I have to trust in God as much as if I had done nothing at all. The same view should be taken of your view and your service for God. Work as if you were to be saved by your works, and then trust Christ only, because it is only by him that you are capable of a single good work.”

Take heart, for God is still on the throne and sovereign over everything. And give yourself fully to the work of the Lord, for everything you do matters eternally.