Commentary on First Peter (3)

Now, although the Bible refers to God as the potter and the creature as the clay, there are some people who claim to affirm the doctrines of divine sovereignty and of election, but then proceed to speak as if God has taken his hands off the potter's wheel and evil humanity just spins itself into existence. Only after this does God select certain individuals for salvation.

But this is also false doctrine and a rejection of God and Scripture. It compromises with dualism, deism, and pagan views of the gods. The only and true God never lets go of the potter's wheel, but from it he spins out whatever he wishes, whether good or evil, including those he has designed and chosen for salvation, as well as those he has designed and chosen for damnation.

Nevertheless, God's direct control over evil does not make him evil. Any misunderstanding here is probably due to unjustified assumptions and the tendency to judge God as a creature. "If I were to do this, I would be considered a criminal!" A complaint like this is stupid even on a human level. If I were to stop the traffic and search through the cars, I would be considered a criminal also – but this is because I am not a policeman!

That people would judge God as if he is just a creature betrays their sinfulness and defiance. Those who reject the biblical doctrine of divine sovereignty and those who accept only some of it – that is, those who reject less of it – should eventually come to terms with the fact that they are not God, and God is not a mere creature. God possesses absolute and unlimited rights over his creation.

It is alleged that there is a tension between divine sovereignty and human freedom. But there is no tension at all, because there is no such thing as human freedom – divine sovereignty is complete and absolute. The Bible does not teach both divine sovereignty and human freedom, but it teaches both divine sovereignty and human responsibility. False doctrine results when people confuse responsibility with freedom, or when they assume that responsibility presupposes freedom, so that humans are responsible only if they are free.

However, there is no necessary relationship between responsibility and freedom – the relationship is purely imaginary, and entirely unbiblical and irrational. By definition, a person is responsible if he is accountable to someone for his thoughts and actions. So humans are responsible before God if God has decided and decreed that he would hold them accountable for their thoughts and actions. God has indeed so decided and decreed; therefore, humans are responsible to God for their thoughts and actions.

Human freedom has no logical place in the discussion at all. In fact, the above shows that human responsibility is in reality founded solely on divine sovereignty, on what God has decided and decreed, so that we are responsible precisely because God is sovereign and we are not free. Whether our thoughts and actions are controlled by God, again, comes under the question of human freedom, and finds no logical place to be introduced into the discussion at all.

This biblical and rational view has been falsely accused of undermining human responsibility, but the reverse is true. Our opponents claim to uphold responsibility, but they do so at least partly by basing responsibility on freedom. However, we are not aware of any professing Christian who attributes to man total freedom, in the sense that man is as free and as able as God, and as if he has unlimited freedom and ability to create, transverse, transform, and so on. Of course, a person who holds such a view would not be able to defend it, and neither would he be a Christian. Rather, even in their false doctrine, the freedom on which this responsibility is based is small and relative, not complete and absolute.

On the other hand, our view places human responsibility entirely upon divine sovereignty – that is, upon God's sovereign decision to judge, upon his omniscience to know, and upon his omnipotence to execute his will. Therefore, in our view, humans are as responsible as God is sovereign. Just as God is totally sovereign over man, man is totally responsible to him. There can be no stronger view of human responsibility than this. Since there is no room left for God to be more sovereign, there is no room left for man to be more responsible. By necessity, everyone who disagrees with this has a weaker view of human responsibility.

But our opponents undermine both divine sovereignty and human responsibility. They think that there is "tension" within the Bible, and that we should affirm both sides of this tension, although they feign reverence by claiming that there is no actual contradiction. The real tension, however, is between their false doctrine and biblical teaching. They disagree with God, and blame it on the Bible. And they accuse those who adhere to Scripture as unorthodox, but this is only true if they define orthodoxy by their own opinion and not by divine revelation. The proper solution is for them to exhibit sincere repentance and undergo the renewing of the mind.