What follows is part of an ongoing series of articles that discuss places in Scripture where the sovereign plan and working of God are clearly seen to intersect with time. Rather than trying to fit these descriptions into a pre-determined theological understanding, I aim to let these revealed descriptions stand for themselves. See other articles in this series here.
When we discuss the sovereignty of God in salvation, an objection is usually quickly raised. “If God has determined who will be saved, why should we bother to evangelize and preach the gospel, if it’s going to happen anyway?” Such a question, while understandable, exhibits a deficient knowledge of both the Bible’s teaching and the doctrine of sovereignty itself.
As the 1689 London Baptist Confession states, “As God hath
appointed the elect unto glory, so He hath, by the eternal and most free
purpose of His will, foreordained all the means thereunto.” (Chapter 3, “Of
God’s Decree,” paragraph 6, emphasis added) God has ordained that he will save
the elect by the preaching of the gospel, and not apart from it. We read in
Romans 10: 14-15a, “How then will they call on him in whom they have not
believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And
how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach
unless they are sent?”
Paul final question in that series takes the sovereign work
of God back to the very sending of the messenger. We don’t often ponder
this, that the Sovereign Lord is working not only in the calling and saving of
the elect, but also in the sending of those through whom the gospel is
proclaimed.
When Jesus saw the crowds that his preaching and healing
were drawing, he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the
laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send
out laborers into his harvest.” (Matthew 9:37) I’ve often found this
fascinating. Why didn’t Jesus just say that the workers are few, so GO! Why did
he instruct them to pray for the Lord of the harvest to SEND workers? As I considered
this recently, it became clear to me that the emphasis here is that God is the Sovereign
Lord of the harvest, and this includes not only the reaping of elect souls but
also the very sending of the messengers.
Paul echoes these thoughts in 1 Corinthians 3:5: “What then
is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord
assigned to each.” The Sovereign Lord has not only chosen his elect but also
assigned those through whom the Word is preached.
This is an amazing truth and so necessary for our thinking. It is only in this way – that God is sovereign over every step in the chain of redemption – that we can maintain the glory going to Christ. If we only understand the ends being foreordained but not the means, then we rob God of his glory. And God will not share his glory with another. (Isaiah 42:8)
So ponder these truths. Praise the Sovereign Sender, who in
his grace appointed the preachers, the parents, the Sunday School teachers, the
youth pastors, the friends who would boldly proclaim the gospel to you and reap
the harvest.
Question: Who in your life was instrumental in bringing the
gospel to you? Have you thanked them? Have you thanked God for them?