The biblical writers share some, but not all, of our theological dilemmas. Job, David, Habakkuk, and others raise the problem of evil and suffering. But they seem to struggle less with the notion that God’s sovereign control would jeopardize human choice. To them, God has unlimited freedom.

It’s biblically accurate to say that God’s choices vastly outweigh human choices, since he is all-powerful and we are very limited in power. If this view represented only God’s intrinsic power in contrast to that of his creatures (who have no intrinsic power, only what God has granted them), it would be perfect. But this view could also lead us logically to negate what the Bible says about meaningful human choice. It’s absolutely true to say the Creator’s choices are far weightier than his creatures’ choices. But you cannot read the Bible without concluding that human choices really do matter.

In this 11-minute video, I speak from Acts 4, Philippians 2 and Colossians 1, about God's sovereignty and meaningful human choice, related to my book hand in Hand:

Photo by Sebastian Unrau on Unsplash