The Mystery
30 Days in Ruth and Esther - day 8
There is an ongoing debate within Christianity—one that will not be settled this side of eternity—about the nature of salvation. What role does human responsibility play?
To be clear, I’m not going to settle that question here. That isn’t my goal.
I also don’t find myself lining up neatly with either side when they are pushed to their extremes. When asked if he was a Calvinist or an Arminian, Charles Spurgeon once answered in a way that has always stuck with me. When pressed on how he reconciled God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility, he said he didn’t try, because he never felt the need to reconcile friends.
He also compared them to two parallel lines. From our vantage point, they seem to run side by side, stretching into the distance, never quite touching. But in eternity, he said, they meet—right near the throne of God.
What does that have to do with Ruth?
We have already seen that God was working providentially to bring about Ruth’s redemption. What looked like chance—her “happening” to glean in the field of Boaz—was anything but. God was quietly, steadily arranging every detail.
And not just for Ruth and Naomi.
From the union of Ruth and Boaz would come the line of King David, and ultimately, Jesus Christ. No human could have planned that. No one could have orchestrated it, even if they had imagined it.
God was clearly at work.
But when we come to chapter three, we see something else: Ruth and Naomi are not passive.
Naomi recognizes what God is doing and acts decisively. She cannot force Boaz to act as a kinsman-redeemer, but she also refuses to sit back and do nothing.
Ruth follows her counsel. She goes to Boaz, not to demand, not to manipulate, but to place herself humbly in a position to receive mercy.
God was working.
And they were acting.
That is the mystery.
In our own redemption, these same two realities meet: God’s sovereignty and our responsibility. We may not be able to fully explain how they fit together, but Scripture is not embarrassed by either one.
And we shouldn’t be either.
There is wisdom in being content to know that God is at work, and then to respond in faith, obedience, and humility.
We do no offense to the sovereignty of God when we act responsibly according to His providential leading.
In fact, that may be exactly how His sovereignty is most clearly seen.
