Sovereignty and Responsibility
Paul endured enormous hardships during his life. Stories of persecutions, imprisonments, beatings, criticisms, and shipwrecks could have filled the pages of his writings. And while he does write about these experiences, he leaves out the graphic details, and, in most cases, we are left to fill in the blanks the best we can. Acts 27 is an exception to this rule.
This particular experience is given a good deal of space within the book of Acts. It has more detail recorded than most of Paul’s troubles do. When I find some anomaly like that in the pages of Scripture, I always ask the question “why?” While I’m not claiming to have the complete answer to that question, asking it has allowed me to notice some important details in the story.
One of those is the way the story conveys the tension and relationship between the sovereignty of God and human responsibility (an idea that has always fascinated me). On the one hand, Paul speaks confidently of God’s sovereign decision to save the lives of everyone on the ship. Paul encourages the people with these words: “God has granted you all those who sail with you…” and “Not a hair is to perish from the head of any of you.” (Verses 24 and 34).
Yet, at the same time Paul tells them, “But we must run aground on some island,” and “Unless these men stay in the ship, you cannot be saved,” and “I urge you take some food. For it will give you strength.” (Verses 26, 31, and 34).
In another part of the story, toward the end of their ordeal, Luke notes that “The soldiers’ plan was to kill the prisoners, lest any should swim away and escape. But the centurion, wishing to save Paul, kept them from carrying out their plan.” (Verse 42).
The chapter concludes with, “And so it was that all were brought safely to land.” In other words, God’s promise and purpose were carried out exactly as He had decreed.
What we see in Paul’s words and actions during this life-threatening experience on this ship was his faith in the promise of God did not lead him to conclude that human action and personal responsibility were unimportant and unnecessary. Paul did not make the mistake of concluding that since God was going to save their lives, they needed to do nothing but sit and wait for it to happen.
God would save, but He would save through the soldiers making sure the sailors didn’t abandon the ship. God would deliver, but He would deliver through the sailors running the ship aground. God would keep them from death, but He would keep them from death through the centurion thwarting the soldiers’ plans to kill the prisoners. God would bring them all safely to shore, but He would do so by having those who could swim do so, and those who couldn’t use planks of wood from the ship to float them to the island.
God rules and His decrees will be done. God uses means to do his will. Knowing it is God’s will to accomplish some end, should not lead us to make a false conclusion that we have no responsibility to act. Paul speaks and acts in ways that show he sees no contradiction between believing God has made a sovereign decree to act in a specific way and he had others were responsible to act with wisdom and purpose in response to the will of God.
We still have to row the boat, even while we trust God to get us safely to shore.
