Getting Job-ed
Now to him who is able to protect you from stumbling and to make you stand in the presence of his glory, without blemish and with great joy, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, power, and authority before all time, now and forever. Amen. Jude 1:24-25 CSB
We don’t always like to think of God having the ability to keep us from sinning because we feel this is Him infringing on our ability to choose (which I don’t agree with, but that’s another topic). However, in Scripture, we actually do see that God does, in fact, directly intervene to keep people from sinning. That is huge and has big implications for how we should pray to Him to keep us from temptation (Matthew 6:9-13).
Look at this section from Genesis 20. Abraham was meeting with a king, and in order to save his own skin, he offered his wife as his sister to the king so that the king may be attracted to her and for the king not kill Abraham (bad move and a great example of what not to do in marriage counseling). However, God speaks to the king in vs 4-7, take a look:
Now Abimelech had not approached her, so he said, “Lord, would you destroy a nation even though it is innocent? Didn’t he himself say to me, ‘She is my sister’? And she herself said, ‘He is my brother.’ I did this with a clear conscience and clean hands.” Then God said to him in the dream, “Yes, I know that you did this with a clear conscience. I have also kept you from sinning against me. Therefore I have not let you touch her. Now return the man’s wife, for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you and you will live. But if you do not return her, know that you will certainly die, you and all who are yours.”
Did you catch it? “I have also kept you from sinning against me.” That is huge… This should be our prayer every day: keep me from sinning against You. You can see there are unconditional and conditional elements that have to be met here: God kept him from sinning and yet also, the king has to return Abraham’s wife or else he will die! That is crazy! If God kept him from sinning, why doesn’t God force him to return her to Abraham? Because there is also a responsibility on the King’s part as well. This is God’s mysterious Will panning out: God can keep us from sinning and also give us a responsibility to choose, all still falling within His sovereign will. His Sovereign Will can not be thwarted, not even by our choices. Our choices, whether righteous or sinful, still fall within His Sovereign Will. This is absolutely amazing.
Once we can grasp that notion, we can begin to understand the section in Philippians 2:12-13 CSB:
…work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who is working in you both to will and to work according to his good purpose.
We have a responsibility to choose God and when we do, it is actually God who caused that desire for Him in us. This is highly controversial within the church, however, I challenge you to dig deep into Scripture and do a survey of the entire Bible and see how God is the acting agent initially. Read the following sections: Genesis 2-3 (God should have annihilated mankind, however, covers their sin from His wrath), Genesis 6:5-8 (Noah finds grace with God, and that is counted as righteousness to him), Genesis 12:1-3 & Joshua 24:2-3 (Abraham is called by God despite being a pagan worshipper), Exodus 2:11-3:15 (Moses is a murderer called by God to lead the Israelites out of slavery), Proverbs 16:4,9,33 (God’s sovereignty), Isaiah 46:9-10, John 6:44, Acts 16:14, Acts 13:48, Romans 9, Ephesians 1:4-12, Ephesians 2:1-9, Revelation 13:8, and so many others.
This should not cause us to be fatalists, as in, our choices don’t matter, it will all just happen on its own. That is wrong and unbiblical. Our choices matter, and yet these always fall within the Sovereign Will of God. We are held accountable to those decisions and also God is just at intervening at any point to keep us from sinning. So, we should always pray, “God keep me from temptation, keep me from stumbling. Keep me close to You…” That’s a plea to an All-Powerful God to sovereignly keep us close to Him, and that is a great way to pray.
-Austin
