God's choices come first, and ours second... True?
Bami Betiku
God’s choices come first, and ours second
I do think it’s reasonable to look at God’s choices as being more foundational than our own. Why? Because we are made in His image, and His choice-making precedes and empowers ours. The universe is first and foremost about the purposes, plan, and glory of God. Because He is infinite, His choices naturally hold more sway than those of His creatures. As Hs power exceeds ours, so does the power of His choices.
That doesn’t mean our choices don’t matter – they certainly do. He gives us room to make choices according to the prevailing disposition of our will and within the limits He imposes in His Sovereign plan. My perspective is simply that everything about God, including His choices, is greater than everything about us.
A.W. Tozer said, “Every soul belongs to God and exists by His pleasure. God being who and what He is, and we being who and what we are, the only thinkable relation between us is one of full lordship on His part and complete submission on ours.”
We must be eager to acknowledge His lordship and wiling to submit to whatever He has revealed in His word to us.
Bami Betiku
The Navigators Ibadan
P.O.Box 30729, Secretariat
Ibadan. Oyo State, Nigeria.
Men will not be lost because of their sins,
but because they have failed to make use of God’s remedy for sin…
Bami Betiku
Good response Dayo! Thank you always for your thoughts…I always make sure I read them keenly… lol… Thanks also for that quote by James S. Stewart, he couldn’t have said it any better…
Dayo, you are right and I think we are saying the same thing. God’s choice/plan is supreme and ultimate, and ours is nothing near – putting them on a scale, because actually, it cannot be measured. But still, He is writing us into His story, embedding our choices in His. In all, His choices/plans could still be the determinant.
Three questions brought out this thought: firstly, which choice should take precedence, God’s or mine? Secondly, if God is always the determinant over my choices, does that make me a zombie or a Robot who don’t even have a mind of his own? (I’ve heard this statement a few times). Thirdly, if God will always stoop so slow into respecting my choices all the time, will the sanity of His Sovereignty (which makes Him God) still be maintained? Nothing to acknowledge Him as God then.
But I like the dimension you brought into it. With or without me (my choices/plan), God holds His Sovereignty and His choices/plans cannot be seconded by mine (man’s responsibility). Even in my poor choices/plans (like the first man Adam), all is still in the overall picture/story of God, and He will always work out His purposes in and through them.
May our response to the Victory God has given us in Jesus and His Sovereignty move us to acknowledge God’s choice/plans for our lives so that we can think and act better.
Romans 12:2
Bami.
From: Dayo Mofikoya [mailto:dayomo...@gmail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, September 16, 2015 12:34 PM
To: Bami Betiku
Cc: readthro...@googlegroups.com; Idumeka Asiribo; enwezoru...@gmail.com; adelaja olukayode; Yemi ajayi; Dayo Richards; dayo Agoke; Seun Ojedeji; Ayoade Abisayo; OJO Temitope; dejide...@gmail.com; Deji and Debbie Olatunji; Onalaja 'Funmi; Gboyega Abel
Subject: Re: God's choices come first, and ours second... True?
Some good thoughts here Bami. I think I will review the title though.
While God's 'choice' (I prefer to use 'plan' because even the concept of choices is subject to God), is infinitely higher than man's. I don't think man's choice is necessarily second to his. They are two different things.
Man's choice like we saw in the garden can be completely devoid of God's plan. It never catches God unawares though, (the lamb was slain before the creation of the world 1 Peter 1:20, Revelations 13:8). God's choice is not greater than ours. It's beyond the concept of choice itself. They can't even be measured on the same scale!
I like to think of it as a delicate interplay between the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man. For example Luke 17:1 Things that cause people to stumble are bound to come (sovereignty of God), but woe to anyone through whom they come (responsibility of man).
God's plan is not only able to come to pass in spite of man's poor choices, sometimes his sovereign plan actually comes through man's poor choices. Like James Stewart puts it:
It is a glorious phrase – “He led captivity captive.” The very triumphs of His foes, it means, He used for their defeat. He compelled their dark achievements to sub-serve His end, not theirs. They nailed Him to the tree, not knowing that by that very act they were bringing the world to His feet. They gave Him a cross, not guessing that He would make it a throne. They flung Him outside the gates to die, not knowing that in that very moment they were lifting up all the gates of the universe, to let the King come in. They thought to root out His doctrines, not understanding that they were implanting imperishably in the hearts of men the very name they intended to destroy. They thought they had defeated God with His back the wall, pinned and helpless and defeated: they did not know that it was God Himself who had tracked them down. He did not conquer in spite of the dark mystery of evil. He conquered through it.
At the end of the day, God wins. He has called me and you to be a part of that triumph, my place in the story of his victory depends on how I respond to his call.
Thank you for sharing.
Dayo