Sovereignty and Responsibility – Proverbs 20:24

In his book, The Sovereignty of God, A. W. Pink writes, “Those who have ever devoted much study to this theme, have uniformly recognized that the harmonizing of God’s Sovereignty with Man’s Responsibility is the gordian knot of theology. (Gordian knot: 1. An intricate knot tied by King Gordius of Phrygia and cut by Alexander the Great with his sword after hearing an oracle promise that whoever could undo it would be the next ruler of Asia. 2. An exceedingly complicated and unsolvable problem (The American Heritage Dictionary.”  “Many,” he asserts, “have summarily disposed of the difficulty by denying the existence of any difficulty….Others have acknowledged that the Scriptures present both the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man—but affirm that in our present finite condition, and with our limited knowledge it is impossible to reconcile the two truths, though it is the bounden duty of the believer to receive both.”  I am in this camp, but Pink attempts to reconcile the two truths.

A man’s steps are from the LORD; how then can man understand his way? (Proverbs 20:24, ESV)

It is obvious that the proverbs are committed to the belief that every person is responsible for his or her decisions and actions.  The proverbs are constantly challenging us to choose and act in a way that is wise and holy.  Human responsibility is essential to all morality.

But despite this, wisdom of the wise also recognizes that there is a sovereign God, Yahweh, who ultimately decides a person’s steps.  That is, each action a person takes, each step, is from Yahweh.  His plan supersedes all human plans.  How can this be?  Doesn’t this destroy human responsibility?  It does not.  Can we understand why it doesn’t?  No!

We can’t understand our way.  We are responsible for our every choice but we must submit to the reality that the course of our life is not ultimately determined by us, but by Him.  Proverbs does not try to explain this, only to learn to live with this. 

So what does it mean, practically speaking?  Well, the book of Ecclesiastes is taken up with that question.  It means I cannot secure what will happen in my future by my behavior or choices.  I can’t manipulate God to do for me only good if I do only good.  It means I will experience a futility to life that is unexplainable except that God has ordained it.  We may deduce from Genesis 3 and Romans 8:28ff that He subjected the world to futility because if He hadn’t, if He had let the world work the way it was intended originally, and all things worked properly and perfectly, we would most likely find our life satisfied with earthly things rather than with what we most greatly need, a relationship with God.

He has given us the gift of futility in order to direct us toward Him.  And He holds us entirely accountable for our every decision, while every step is directed by Him.