Revisiting the Biblical tension between divine sovereignty and human responsibility – thoughts from D. A. Carson

Heard a sermon today that left me pondering, among other things, the long-felt tension between God’s sovereignty (and the extent of his sovereignty, but we’ll leave that one alone) and man’s responsibility, primarily in the sphere of salvation.  A book on the subject that I’ve turned to over the years is D. A. Carson’s Divine Sovereignty & Human Responsibility: Biblical perspectives in tension.  For my sake, and perhaps yours, I’ve decided that it’s my responsibility today to record here in this blog several sections from this book.

And lest you, the reader, think that this is one very dry topic and you’ll now turn elsewhere to find something more refreshing, Carson’s handling of the topic is really good, his writing really is interesting, and the topic really is relevant to every moment of your life and mine.

The first quotation comes from the introduction:

Three dollars worth of gospel

I was reading this evening from Mark Dever’s book The Gospel & Personal Evangelism and I remembered this paragraph from Don Carson’s exposition of Philippians called Basics for Believers.  It’s classic, timeless, and oh-so-telling of what many today want from Christianity.  Can anyone else relate to ever feeling like this?

I would like to buy about three dollars worth of gospel, please.  Not too much – just enough to make me happy, but not so much that I get addicted.  I don’t want so much gospel that I learn to really hate covetousness and lust.  I certainly don’t want so much that I start to love my enemies, cherish self-denial, and contemplate missionary service in some alien culture.  I want ecstasy, not repentance; I want transcendence, not transformation.  I would like to be cherished by some nice, forgiving, broad-minded people, but I myself don’t want to love those from different races – especially if they smell.  I would like enough gospel to make my family secure and my children well behaved, but not so much that I find my ambitions redirected or my giving too greatly enlarged.  I would like about three dollars worth of gospel, please.