My mentor Don Carson told me a story about a time he counseled a husband and wife who were wrestling with whether the Bible teaches complementarianism or egalitarianism. They finally said something like this: “We concede that the Bible teaches complementarianism, but we still don’t like it.” They believed it only grudgingly.
Carson replied something like this: “You’re halfway there.” His point was that although it is good to believe what the Bible says, it is better to delight in it, to begin to see it how God sees it, to have our hearts aligned in delight with what God’s word teaches.
We shouldn’t be satisfied with dutifully going along with what God has revealed to us in his word even if it doesn’t make sense to us. That’s immature obedience. That’s better than disobedience, but a mature obedience is ideal. A mature obedience understands the underlying reasons God gives for what he commands. When our obedience is mature, we love and praise God for how he brilliantly designed everything—including how he created and designed men and women.
We should also love and praise the triune God for his meticulous sovereignty and predestination:
- God’s sovereignty is not merely general. According to that view, God is in charge of everything, but he does not ordain everything. For example, God does not ordain sin; he allows sin to preserve man’s free will. In contrast to that view, the Bible teaches that God’s sovereignty is meticulous: God is in charge of everything, and he ordains everything—even sin.
- Predestination means that God predetermined the destiny of certain individuals for salvation (election) and others for condemnation (reprobation).
(If you want to study this more, check out John Piper’s Providence and my book Predestination.)
Most Christians don’t start out affirming God’s meticulous sovereignty and predestination. Some try to avoid talking about it because they find it kind of embarrassing and too controversial. They’d rather not talk about it. They’d prefer not to emphasize it or celebrate it. They might hold to it reluctantly because that’s what the Bible says even though it might not make sense. They practically apologize for it. They claim to affirm it, but they don’t love it.
That’s not how we should think about what God has revealed. We must not only believe whatever God reveals to be true; we should cherish it. It’s not okay to say, “The Bible teaches that, but I don’t like it.”
It’s a bad sign if we want to ignore or apologize for what God has revealed in the Bible. If we have a problem understanding the nature and rationale of what God has revealed in his word, then the problem is with us—not with God and not with the truth he has revealed.
We shouldn’t reluctantly affirm God’s meticulous sovereignty and predestination. We should love and celebrate it as good and beautiful and true.
One of the joys of my life is to be a professor and pastor whom God uses to help people affirm what is good, beautiful, and true. But I don’t stop there because at that point we’re only halfway there. The goal is to glorify God by celebrating what is good, beautiful, and true.
Andy Naselli, Ph.D.
Professor of Systematic Theology and New Testament
Prayer requests:
- Pray that God would use our professors to prepare our students to be faithful and fruitful men and women.
- Pray for our students and faculty as they enter the final weeks of the semester.
- Pray for the full funding of the Serious Joy Scholarships yet needed by June 30.