The following was my favorite message I heard at this years Together for the [Underestimated] Gospel conference. I recommend it to you either in video or audio form. In this message David Platt seeks to show how divine sovereignty is the fuel of death-defying missions.
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God
Ligon Duncan on God’s Sovereignty and Human Freedom
Ligon Duncan provides two quality video responses about a topic which always seems to be a hot issue among Christians: God’s sovereignty and human responsibility.
In the first video Duncan affirms that God’s sovereignty and human responsibility are not contradictory concepts but are assumed side by side in scripture. They are not mutually exclusive but are coordinate truths.
In the second video he defines human freedom (often called “free will”) from a correct understanding of the human condition in light of man’s utter sinfulness (total depravity).
God and Hell
Hell for many is an uncomfortable topic. We typically focus on attributes of God such as His love and mercy, but less and less on His holiness, justice, and yes, I’ll say it, wrath. The issue I would like to discuss here is God’s relationship to hell.
I often feel that contemporary Christianity has a distorted view on hell in relation to God. Allow me to lay out some basic truths regarding God’s relation to hell and the damned.
First off, God does not delight in the damnation of souls. He does not enjoy condemning individuals to hell. This is one truth that most do accept and hardly any misunderstand.
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A Lowered View of God: Some Words on “Divine Selfishness”
Often times a plainly strange thinking finds its way into our perception of how humans/we relate to God. This false thought (although not often purposed) is thinking that instead of man being made for God, God was made for us, that God is for man, not properly vice versa. And of course the first problem with this statement is the word “made,” for God is eternal. He is the Creator, the maker, not “the made.” But not only is this the first problem, from here other issues develop.
We are told in Romans 1:25 that we have worshiped the created and neglected our “worth-giving” to the Creator. Why? Because in this mindset of ours, God has been lowered to our level. He has become just as much created as we are because we have made Him to be as if He was made for us. But this is completely false. Allow me to explain.
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Some Thoughts on “Divine Selfishness” from the Mind of C.S. Lewis
C.S. Lewis provides a great explanation to the accusation that God’s love must be selfish if God seeks it for His own glory when Lewis says,
What is called selfish love among men is lacking with God. He has no natural necessities, no passion, to compete with His wish for the beloved’s welfare. . . . A man can no more diminish God’s glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word ‘darkness’ on the walls of his cell. But God wills our good, and our good is to love Him.[1]
Lewis’ point is not that God needs our worship, but that God’s desire in making us is for worship.
God of mere miracle has made Himself able so to hunger and created in Himself that which we can satisfy. If He requires us, the requirement is of His own choosing.[2]
Kirk E. Miller 