It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God’s mercy. For Scripture says to Pharaoh: “I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden.
Romans 9:16-18 (NIV)
As we have discussed before, God causes all things to work together for our good, and he does so sovereignly. This means that there could be a myriad of immediate reasons why a thing is taking place in our lives (e.g. our own choices, the devil), but that God, who is above it all, is ultimately causing it all to work together for our good.
I have addressed before the importance of understanding the difference between an immediate cause and God ultimately causing a thing to happen before, and how failing to understand this difference gets us into all sorts of problems theologically. But I want to focus on a beautiful promise embedded in the fact God is the ultimate cause behind all that takes place in our lives; namely, there is no such thing as us ever finding ourselves in a situation without hope because it is “all our fault.”
Whenever we walk through something difficult, it is easy for us to blame ourselves. At the very least, it is easy for us to fear the reason we find ourselves in this mess is because of us. A child is having difficulty, so we feel guilty we have done something wrong as parents. We suddenly find ourselves without a job, and feel guilty it is because of our job performance. Or a loved one dies, and we feel guilty there was something we could have done to prevent it. This way of thinking – tying a difficulty to our conduct and performance – is more that just recognizing the principle of cause and effect. It is believing God’s actions toward us are tied to our conduct and human effort. When we think we are in the mess we are in because of what we have done, especially if we are left with the feeling because of this there is no hope, we are actually thinking God’s grace is achieved through works and human effort. We are still living under the Law.
But God is not. From the moment we have received him, he has made a commitment to us that everything that takes place in our lives will be working together for our good, whether we had a part to play in where we find ourselves or not. His words to us are similar to those he spoke to Pharaoh: “I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” The difference, however, is not by bringing judgment upon us and our household, but by making all of us a public spectacle of his extravagant grace.
Photo by Jeroen van Nierop on Unsplash
D. Patrick Collins 