Monday, January 25, 2010

Responsible but Dependent

I love paradoxes. Probably because I don't like to make decisions. Like take, for instance, divine sovereignty verses human responsibility: Though I am actually doing the working of my own salvation, it is actually God who is doing the work in me. So I am responsible but totally dependent at the same time. I've read a few books by Jerry Bridges and a theme he repeats in many of his books is 'dependent responsibility'. I always breathe a sigh of relief when I read stuff like that. Plus, it makes me more grateful for my salvation because not only am I justified before God, but I am also sanctified as well. Salvation means that I am both declared righteous as well as progressively made righteous. And both are by God's grace.

All these thoughts were (re)sparked by a blog post by John Piper. Check it out. You too can "abandon any anti-Bible intellectual baggage you have inherited from planet earth, and recalibrate your brain to embrace the paradoxes of real human choice and decisive divine sway". The comment section is worth reading as well and was very influential in my thoughts.

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