²⁷“For truly in this city there were gathered together against Your holy servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, ²⁸to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose predestined to occur. ²⁹And now, Lord, take note of their threats, and grant that Your bond-servants may speak Your word with all confidence, ³⁰while You extend Your hand to heal, and signs and wonders take place through the name of Your holy servant Jesus.”

The apostles acknowledge God’s sovereignty and also human responsibility, but thoughtful believers today experience tension over these two truths and how they can coexist. Nowhere do we see both concepts more out in the open than in the crucifixion of our Lord Jesus Christ. The book of Acts makes it absolutely clear that the crucifixion went according to God’s predetermined plan. Phrases like “predestined to occur” are not standalone occurrences (see Acts 2:22–23, 3:18, also Luke 22:22). Yet we also read that those rejecting Jesus are accountable for their actions. We assume that the words the believers prayed were divinely approved; Jesus’ rejection and crucifixion were planned by God. But how then should He hold the rejecters responsible? That is the dilemma.

However, God does not answer that question. Efforts on our part to soften this dilemma by asserting that God did not “cause,” but through His foreknowledge saw that it would happen and then used the sin of mankind to accomplish his purpose, begs the question: what is the difference? If God foresees something will happen, then there is no possibility for that thing not to happen. The same objection then arises: why does God then hold people responsible for rejecting Christ? What is of immense interest is that Luke leaves the question aside, and simply treats both God’s sovereignty and human responsibility as true. The fact that Luke includes this aspect of their prayer tells us that both are important for us to know, even though it causes us tension to reconcile them.

Our minds reel at this theological tension because our minds are finite. Whole theological systems have rallied against each other because each emphasizes one side of the tension at the expense of the other. Yet the Bible teaches both are true: God is sovereign and we humans are responsible (“culpable” in theological-speak). We can rest in what God said through the prophet Isaiah:

“For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.” (Is 55:9)

It makes sense, then, that there would be things about God and His ways that will confound us.

Lord, help me to speak boldly regardless of resistance to the gospel I encounter.