God's Sovereignty is No Excuse from Man's Accountability

Iain Murray's captivating book 'Spurgeon vs. Hyper-Calvinism' describes the great preacher's stand for Bible truth against the truncation of the Word wrought by hyper-calvinists of his day.

Spurgeon's opponents denied that unbelief is a sin, because they knew that unregenerate man could never believe.

But the Scriptures teach us that man is held responsible to obey and believe God even though he has no ability to do so without the special work of the Holy Ghost in his heart.

Our God ordains all things and works all things after the counsel of His own will, yet He holds man accountable for his conduct and beliefs. Although these ideas may seem incompatible, yet they are clearly taught by the Word of God.

Man in his wickedness will always fulfill the providential purposes of God. Some would say that God is unjust to punish that wickedness.

In Romans 9, the Apostle Paul asserts God's right to pick and choose whom He will have mercy upon and whom He will harden and destroy. That right of God lies in the fact that He is the creator, and the creature has no right to complain as He exercises His sovereign rule according to His good pleasure.

Our Lord Jesus affirmed the sovereignty of God and the simultaneous accountability of man when He grieved over the judgment of Judas whose betrayal was determined beforehand by God's eternal purpose.

The early disciples and apostles embraced these two truths.

In Peter's great Pentecost sermon, he declared that by wicked hands the people crucified Christ as God had before determined. Though God's will was accomplished by their actions, they were subject to wrath unless they repented and believed in Jesus.