Late at night, when most of the world is asleep, the mind sometimes refuses to rest. In one such hour, a simple question opened into something much larger: How do we hold together the truth that God is utterly sovereign and yet calls us to real, active responsibility as His witnesses?
I was reading in John 17:20–21, where the Lord Jesus prays not only for His immediate disciples, but “also for those who will believe in me through their word.” Here is the pattern laid bare: faith comes through hearing a message delivered by human witnesses (Romans 10:14–17). The disciples did not sit passively waiting for God to zap hearts; they went, they spoke, they suffered, and through their testimony the gospel spread. God sovereignly opens hearts (Acts 16:14), yet He has chosen ordinary people as the ordinary means.
Some voices insist: “No, no—it’s all God. We do nothing. Let go and let God.” They rightly emphasize divine initiative (Ephesians 2:8–9; John 6:44), but too often they stop there, as though grace were the end of the story rather than its beginning. Yet the very next verse refuses silence: “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10). Grace saves. Grace also equips and commands us to walk.
“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10).
The tension is real, but it is not a contradiction. Scripture does not force us to choose between God’s absolute sovereignty and human responsibility—it holds both truths in the same hand. The potter has authority over the clay (Romans 9:21), yet the same Scripture urges us, “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:12–13). God initiates, God empowers, and still He calls us to act.
“Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:12–13).
𝚃𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚒𝚜 𝚗𝚘𝚝 𝚊 𝚖𝚘𝚍𝚎𝚛𝚗 𝚒𝚗𝚟𝚎𝚗𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗 𝚘𝚛 𝚊 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚘𝚕𝚘𝚐𝚒𝚌𝚊𝚕 𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚙𝚛𝚘𝚖𝚒𝚜𝚎.
It is the heartbeat of the biblical witness from Abraham (called to go, Genesis 12:1–4), to the prophets (sent to speak, Jeremiah 1:7–9), to the apostles (commissioned to proclaim, Matthew 28:18–20), and to every believer today. The Reformers themselves—while fiercely defending sola gratia—never taught a passive faith. They preached a grace that transforms, that moves the will, that produces fruit.
So why does the mind wrestle at 3 a.m.? Perhaps because the soul knows the stakes are high. If grace is only the ticket in and not the engine that drives us forward, then witnessing becomes optional, obedience becomes negotiable, and the great commission becomes someone else’s job. But if grace is both the root and the fruit—if God sovereignly works in us so that we might actively work for His glory—then every slow, stumbling attempt to speak, to write, to live faithfully matters eternally.
If God sovereignly works in us so that we might actively work for His glory
Two billion people may profess Christ, but how many still sit in the quiet dark, chewing on these truths without rushing to one comfortable side? That wrestling is not a sign of weakness. It is a sign the Spirit is still moving, still refusing to let us settle for slogans.
Grace is not the finish line. It is the starting line, the road, and the power to keep running.
“Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you…” (Philippians 2:12–13).
