God Is Sovereign, Yet I Share?

I have wrestled with the concept for many years now.

This afternoon, I was reading in Romans. Chapter 9 is, in my opinion, one of the heaviest parts of the entire Bible. The Apostle Paul outlines God's sovereign purpose in election, saying that "God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden" (9:18).

In the very next chapter, Paul goes on to talk about our initiative in sharing the gospel: "And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, 'How beatuiful are the feet of those who bring good news!'" (10:15).

So God is fully sovereign in writing His word on our hearts, yet I am also told share the gospel? If God is sovereign, then why would he need me to share--or would my sharing even matter? And if I share, am I somehow assuming that God is not sovereign enough to change hearts himself?

This was my honest wrestling back and forth. It left me frustrated and bitter.

Then I read a book by my now favorite theologian, J. I. Packer. In his book Evangelism & The Sovereignty of God, he address this antimony (the apparent contradiction between equally necessary and correct principles).

He writes, "The Creator is incomprehensible to His creatures. A God whom we could understand exhaustively, and whose revelation of Himself confronted us with no mysteries whatsoever, would be a God in man's image, and therefore an imaginary God, not the God of the Bible at all. For what the God of the Bible says is this: 'My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways... as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.'"

Suddenly it made sense that it didn't make sense. It left me humbled and awed. Even now, as I think on the words of the Apostle Paul, J. I. Packer and the God who spans the history between them, I am humbled and awed yet again.