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How Sovereign is God….Really? The Test of Evangelism
Posted by Chris Johnson in Baptist Life, Bible & Theology, Church & Missions, IMPACT Features
What does the following phrase really mean? “Do the work of an evangelist” . Is this what we are called to do in our new life? So why is it so foreign to our minds, and why do we struggle with understanding the substance of this command?
God is Sovereign
One of the best little books I know about God’s sovereignty in evangelism is written by J.I. Packer. He does a wonderful job of describing “Divine Responsibility” and “Human Responsibility” relative to evangelism that is given to the church. This is a difficult thing for most of us to understand. But, an important matter none the less…. Because as J.I. would say “Man is a responsible moral agent, though he is also divinely controlled; man is divinely controlled though he is also a responsible moral agent”. I love that line because both God’s sovereignty and Man’s responsibility are both in play.
The term that Packer uses to describe this difficulty is an “antinomy”…and he uses the definition of the term to help us do our thinking about evangelism and the important work associated with the calling.
Packer put it this way “To our finite minds, of course, the thing (sovereignty and responsibility) is inexplicable. It sounds like a contradiction, and our first reaction is to complain that it is absurd. Paul notices this complaint in Romans 9. “You will say to me then, ‘Why does he (God) still find fault? For who can resist his will?’” (Romans 9:19). If, as our Lord, God orders all our actions, how can it be reasonable or right for him to act also as our Judge, and condemn our shortcomings? Observe how Paul replies. He does not attempt to demonstrate the propriety of God’s action; instead, he rebukes the spirit of the question. “But who are you, O man, to answer back to God?” What the objector has to learn is that he, a creature and a sinner, has no right whatsoever to find fault with the revealed ways of God. Creatures are not entitled to register complaints about their Creator. As Paul goes on to say, God’s sovereignty is wholly just, for his right to dispose of his creatures is absolute (Romans 9:20-21). Earlier in the epistle, he had shown that God’s judgment of sinners is wholly just, since our sins richly deserve his sentence (Romans 1:18ff., 32; 2:1-16) Our part, he would tell us, is to acknowledge these facts, and to adore God’s righteousness, both as King and as Judge; not to speculate as to how his sovereignty can be consistent with his just judgment, and certainly not to call the justice of either in question because we find the problem of their relationship too hard for us! Our speculations are not the measure of our God. The creator has told us that he is both a sovereign Lord and a righteous Judge, and should be enough for us. Why do we hesitate to take his word for it? Can we not trust what he says?”
What a gem! Our church reads Packer’s small book (Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God) at least once a year as he reminds us of what God has already said to us, over and over… again and again.
Signs of Difficulties with God’s Sovereignty
1. Surely God doesn’t expect me to evangelize….that’s for the preacher and evangelist.
2. My mind hates antinomies….so I fall into one of two ditches. God is doing the work, so why should I intervene and mess it up, or; Give me fifteen minutes (with my proven technique) and I can get you a decision for Christ.
3. I selfishly expect my proclamation to get results….and quickly forget God’s sovereignty in salvation.
4. I think it is my responsibility to produce converts.
5. I enjoy relying on and listening to myself, I’m helping God with his work.
So tell me…. Are you an evangelist? Who should be?
Therefore …. What is evangelism? Are all Christians called to be an evangelist? Must you be an ordained evangelist to be qualified to do the work of an evangelist?
Help me out here!
Blessings,
Chris
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I believe every Christians are called to be involved in the ministry of evangelism (Jn. 15:16; 1 Pe. 2:9). In the first place, that is why the Church was built by the Lord — to tell the world of His glorious Gospel.
And Amen to that J.I. Packer quote.
Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?” “Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?” For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen. (Rom. 11:33-36)
J,
Excellent reply…. Jesus did give us a clue, didn’t he.
Joh 15:16-20 “You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you. (17) “This I command you, that you love one another. (18) “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. (19) “If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you. (20) “Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also.”
Jesus’ words here give us a view of the changed heart. Why do you think the changed heart is encouraged to speak the good news? If Baptist’s have any reputation at all…I think it should be to speak the good news of Christ, remembering that “the slave is not greater than his master.”
Thank you for the post,
Blessings,
Chris
None of us are perfect evangelists, not even Billy Graham as Steven Miller as his work on Nixon, Race and the Rise of the Southern GOP attests.
As many of you have noted who follow my comments, I have issues with Timothy George as an evangelists and culture critic. But so far I have to give his wife Denise credit for her work with Ms. McKinstry on the Bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church.
My apologies if my thoughts seems random here; but as part of larger ongoing discussion on this board with David Rogers in particular, aspects of your Sovereign God notions may run up against the inflections of the thinking of Charles Kimball in his latest book When Religion Becomes Lethal.
Even so glad you are thinking about such matters.
And again; Marilynne Robinson can solve a lot of your curiousities with a careful reading of her Pulitzer, Gilead.
Stephen,
I think it is very obvious that there are no perfect evangelists alive today. In fact, that may be the best thing of all,…since we are not called to be perfect, since we do serve a perfect and sovereign God.
You seem to question God’s sovereignty, which may be representative of the continued love affair with the works of Ms. Robinson. She appears to be a talented writer, yet it is clear that she may be more comfortable with nibbling around the corners of theology, while gaining success with fiction. She is a good writer.
The question here is …. does evagelism still exist in this current culture? or,…has it only become a professionalized calling?
Blessings,
Chris
No you don’t have to be a professional but you cant be afraid of hard, dirty smelly work.(Anyone who has ever fished can tell you it’s stinky work) Evangelism is hard work and that work begins with prayer. Chafer wrote years ago that the first work of evangelism is prayer. I agree unless we pray and God gets a hold of us we most likely won’t be sharing the good news anyway. He commented on our Lord’s word when he said, “Pray the Lord of Harvest” thus prayer comes first ok then pray what? “that He would send laborers in to the field.” So Paul is telling us it’s work and the Lord is saying it takes labor. Our labor is to pray, sow, cultivate then as the miracle of salvation occurs we reap.
Great point Bruce! Evangelism is work…. and it is not like going to Six Flags. It does appear that the fads that encircled the SBC and evangelism during the past 30 years have calmed down during recent years…and there is a turn to understanding it is work….. and dirty work as you have framed.
Leaders need to continue to beat the drum that Paul communicated to Timothy… “do the work of an evangelist”.
Blessings,
Chris
I have served in two (2) churches that had a very strong, if not imbalanced, drive toward evangelism and I have served in two (2) churches that had almost no focus on evangelism; all thrived on evangelism and grew. The one thing that I see in the strongest evangelistic churches is the lack of discipleship, though it is mentioned. When I was a part of a very evangelist church I felt “pushed” in lieu of “led”. I think that is the difference.
This Sunday, we studied Philippians 2:13 “for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.” With the understanding that the law has been taken from tablets of stone and written on the fleshly tablets of our heart we must realize that in our obedience there must be a “drive” from within. That drive is not produced from constantly reminding people of their evangelistic responsibility. Mechanical evangelism, though it gets the message out, wears the vessel out and eventually the vessel experiences burn out. Strumming the strings of the heart with grace will create that drive in every step of the believer’s life, including evangelism. There are some who have the gift of evangelism and are driven 100% of the time to evangelize, on the other hand, those of us who are gifted differently will be evangelistic in different ways. Of course, it is all based upon a believer being in right relationship with God and empowered by the Spirit.
To me, evangelism and the sovereignty of God has to be separated in time and space. We can only trust God who dwells in eternity with things that seem so far apart; like time and eternity.
Great post, Chris.
Clarification: When I say “evangelistic church” above I mean “evangelistic driven church”.
Wonderful illustration Bruce. I think the Bruce’s get it on this post….pray and serve out of a changed heart full of grace.
I like the wisdom you have led us to…. that of knowing that by grace we are saved,….and realizing that God calls, and brings that wonderful grace through faith that is substantive and full of glory.
Good Stuff!
Blessings brother,
Chris
Back in the days of long ago (40 years or so), Norbert Ward and I had a discussion regarding the term with which to identify the phenomenon of Divine Sovereignty and human responsibility. He suggested diaelectric (if memory recalls the spelling at this date), while I cdame up with, eventually, the term crisonist, from the theory of creative dissonance (cf. Paul Halmost, The Faith of Counsellors)and Christ. It was in my researches in church history that I came upon the phenomenon of two-sided and apparently contradictory truths (e.g., trinity-unity of God, formal and informal worship, Verbal inspiration – human and Divine aspects, the deity and humanity of Christ, etc., et.al. One of the things I discovered was that the presence of both sides of an apparently contradictory truth in the human mind set up a tension which enable the believer to be balanced, flexible, creative, and magnetic, that this condition usually attended which we called a period of an awakening, and that polarization generally followed with a consequent loss of balance, creativity, flexibility and attractiveness. Packer’s antinomy was the term that Norbert (who was a recording engineer with Columbia Records in Nashville at that time – if memory serves correctly)and I discussed along with diaelectric and crisont in his journal, Inquire, which he published for several years prior to his death. It is in the intellectual challenges presented to us in the Bible that we find the key to open doors to future blessings as yet undreamt. Such was the case when the Carey and others followed leadership of Edwards in pleading the promises in the latter’s Humble Attmpt which led to the launching of the Great Century of Missions and the experience of the Second Great Awakening. I dare such will be the situation, when we begin again to examing and consider the open-nature of the biblical teachings and their effect on human condcut and behavior. The greatest challenge the Book has for us today is in the intellectual realm, and, if someone insists tht it is spiritual, I will not quarrel over jargon so long as it is recognized that the ultimate spiritual aspect comes after the intellectual.
The only thing we can take to Heaven with us is others. Of course we are all supposed to evangelise. As hard as it may be for some, it is necessary!