Glory via Mystery

“It is the glory of God to conceal things…” Proverbs 25:2.

About a month ago at our church we had a rather lively discussion regarding the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man.

The Scripture that day was on the lost sheep, and we discussed how dumb sheep are, how the Shepherd must go out and physically pick up the sheep to bring the sheep back to Himself. The point was that a cat or dog, for example, would be more likely to follow naturally, but sheep must be pursued and brought back in a more direct manner.

Some in our church felt that the illustration given went too far. There is still a choice for man, they said. ‘If God saves us dumb people by simply scooping us up out of our sin and lost-ness, then why does He not do that for everyone?” was the key question for these people. “After all, the Word teaches that God desires all to be saved.”

Had God’s Spirit not been present and given complete freedom and unity in our meeting, I think we would have digressed into one big, frustrating argument.

Questions about the sovereignty of God (for example, how/why does God choose His elect?)  and man’s responsibility (for example, can/does man choose God by his own free will?) have been going on for centuries.  

These are heavy questions that I believe, sooner or later, every follower of Jesus will take into serious consideration, because followers of Jesus want to know His Word, and submit to His Word, and because we see very clearly both the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man throughout His Word.

Here’s what I think you should consider when you begin to look at these two truths (the absolute sovereignty and control of God, and the responsibility/will of people) in Scripture:

1. People don’t like to live with mystery. We enjoy a good mystery novel, or a suspenseful movie, but we don’t want to stop short of reading the final few pages, or to abruptly hit "pause" on the last three minutes of our thriller, never to know how the mystery is resolved.

2. Christians live with mystery every day, however. We know Jesus promised to come again, but we don’t have any clue as to when; we know God is all powerful and loves unconditionally, but we don’t know why He allows suffering; we know there is only one God, yet there are three Persons called “God” in the Bible (God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit), etc. So, while we don’t fully understand these and other mysterious truths from Scripture, we still live with them, for now.

3. Consider the possibility that God gives these tensions for a reason. In the case of Sovereignty and responsibility, He doesn’t want to see either extreme among us, His Body of believers, because He knows if there were either extreme, we would stray from Truth, and He knew that His Body lives in community, not as individuals, and we need BOTH in the Body – those who glorify Him in emphasizing the responsibility of man before God, and those who glorify Him by emphasizing the absolute control of God over all. Consider that He is, in fact, glorifying Himself in concealing, for a time, the “whys and hows” of many of His workings.

4. Consider that any tension or mystery that makes God seem bigger in your life, bigger than you could ever possibly imagine, is a good thing.  Anything that magnifies Him is a good thing.

5. Consider that He is the final Judge of all, and He has all rights and authority, and man does not have the right to dictate to God whom He should be, nor how He should act. We must not make for ourselves an idol or an image of whom WE think God should be, but we should enjoy getting to know Him for who He really is. This is an eternal endeavor.

6. I believe when the Bible speaks of the “mysterious” side of God and His plan, the focus is not on something that is incomprehensible and unknowable. But mystery is that which God has chosen, for a specified time that He has established, to keep hidden from us for His good purpose.

God-fearing, Spirit-filled followers of Christ, who study and know and love the Bible, disagree on quite a number of issues in God’s Word. For example: Did God really create the universe in six days, or over a much longer period of time? What exactly is going to happen in the end times?

I think there will continue to be a sense of mystery about some of these issues until we get to Heaven and all becomes clearer ("for now, we see in a mirror dimly... " - I Corinthians 13:12).  Until then, don't argue about this stuff with people.  God is not glorified in the disunity that results from arguments over many of these areas.  Continue to move forward on the basic teachings He has given us that are very clear in His Word.  All else can prove to be a very costly distraction.