I almost laughed out loud this morning as I got stuck in a moment of traffic. Right in front of me was a car driven by someone who chose to send two important messages to those in her wake. I snapped a photo just as quickly as I could, but you may have to struggle a bit to catch the details. Anyway, here are the two messages …
1. (license plate holder) “With God all things are possible.”
2. (bumper sticker) “Relax, nothing is under control.”
It was the bumper sticker that first caught my eye. I’ve never seen that particular line before, and it’s clearly worthy of a chuckle. Every one of us can relate. Somedays at least, the more we try to control what’s going on around us, the more out-of-control life seems. It doesn’t take much to remind us that you and I aren’t calling many of the shots.
And then my eyes shifted leftward, and I noticed the two black crosses on either side of the license plate holder. That inspired me to read the text, which is of course a quote directly from Jesus (Matthew 19:26). Though the words are quite comforting, my inner laughter was provoked by the juxtaposition of the two messages. “God is in control … no, He really isn’t.”
Now I need a good dose of inspiration as much as anybody else, but I never thought that mine would come today from the rear-end of a Lexus. But here we are, and I am inspired.
At first I thought about the funny and seemingly incongruent relationship between the two thoughts … but that’s not where I’ve landed today. My mind has been spinning … and now I regret not honking the horn and at least giving a strong thumbs-up sign! I think I get it, friends. I, even I, just might get it. Here’s what I think that my fellow traveler may mean by her mixed messages …
From one perspective (we might call it the human angle), nothing seems under control. Politics … weather … morning traffic … societal harmony … you name it! So we might as well relax, as the bumper sticker humorously reminds us.
From another perspective (we might call it the divine angle), nothing is out of control. That’s why Jesus said what He said to His disciples who were struggling with His teaching about the difficulty of riches. (“It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needed than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”) So many things simply can’t be accomplished by us, and salvation is one of them. But … God can do anything! “With God all things are possible.” So, faced with whatever out-of-control situation that’s before us today, you and I can simply do our best and breathe a sigh of relief. We are not the Sovereign. But we know Him, and in fact He has invited us to call Him “Father.” And He loves us with an everlasting love.
Notice that I mentioned that we ought to do our best. An acknowledgment that God is in control does not relieve us of all responsibility. You and I must still answer to Him for what we do, and how we live. It’s just that we’re not ultimately trusting in ourselves. We’re trusting in Him. God is fully in control of all things, and yet I’m still accountable to Him. Reconciling both sides of that equation may create some tension in my finite mind, but that’s perfectly O.K.
Perhaps the first step toward understanding the compatibility between God’s absolute sovereignty and our freedom as human creatures (limited as that freedom may be) is to recognize that the two truths are not mutually exclusive. At times the complex relationship between the two may leave us scratching our heads, but Scripture affirms both, so both must be true. In God’s wise design, human responsibility is clearly not eliminated by God’s sovereign control over His creation. That’s true even though evil was included in God’s perfect design for the universe even before He created the world, and He uses His creatures’ sin for purposes that are always and only good (e.g., Genesis 50:20). Hallelujah! In our Sovereign’s infinite wisdom, He is able to use all things for our good, and has promised to do just that (Romans 8:28). Surely Calvary’s cross is Exhibit A (Acts 2:23).
A. W. Tozer said it like this: “Every soul belongs to God and exists by His pleasure. God being who and what He is, and we being who and what we are, the only thinkable relation between us is one of full Lordship on His part and complete submission on ours.” Jesus is Lord. I think I can live with that. What say you?
Maybe the messages aren’t mixed after all. Chin up, fellow traveler!
Pastor Charles
Finishing the last lesson of our study of Ecclesiastes there were several comparisons that came to mind but these were the main ones. When I saw the bumper sticker my mind immediately went to Solomon’s thesis that all life is vanity/futile/empty. All our attempts to figure it all out is just as futile. His wrestling with wanting to know all the WHYs of life; righteousness and wickedness, riches and poverty, good times and bad time, through all he sees, end up with…Eccl. 5:18-20 “Here is what I have seen to be good and fitting; to eat, to drink and to enjoy oneself in all one’s labor in which he toils under the sun during the few years of his life which God has given him; for this is his reward. Furthermore, as for every man to whom God has given riches and wealth, He has also empowered him to eat from them and to receive his reward and rejoice in his labor; this is the gift of God. For he will not often consider the years of his life, because God keeps him occupied with the gladness of his heart.
The final conclusion is close to the license plate holder… Eccl 12:13-14 “The conclusion, when all has been heard, is: FEAR GOD AND KEEP HIS COMMANDMENTS, because this applies to every person. For GOD WILL bring every act to judgment, everything which is hidden, whether good or evil.
His final conclusion
Awesome explanation of these verses in our Holy Bible!!