Presumption and Sovereignty

In an earlier post, I made an attempt at addressing the difference between having faith in the grace of God and presuming upon the grace of God. Looking at Romans 2:4, I tried to demonstrate that trusting in the grace of God leads to repentance, but presuming upon God's grace leads to more sin. It is important to distinguish between the two because presumption pretends to be faith, yet as faith leads to life, presumption leads to wrath. It is fearful to think that someone could have confidence that they have Biblical faith, when all they truly have is presumption. But the evidence of true faith is repentance, and it is only in having a repentant heart that we can be confident that our faith is real.

I began to think about this a little further, and I began to question how presumption might take the place of faith in other areas. When presuming upon God's grace, presumption leads to more sin. But what about presuming upon God's sovereignty? I do believe there is a difference (one that should be noted) between trusting in the sovereign hand of God and presuming upon His sovereignty. I began to ask this question particularly as I was having a conversation with my Pastor about evangelism. I've found that every time the topic of evangelism and God's sovereignty comes up, the same questions are asked. How should we understand God's sovereignty in evangelism? How should we understand our own role in evangelism? Do what I say and do even matter? Is God going to save who He is going to save no matter what? These are legitimate questions, especially for someone who believes that God is sovereign over all things, including salvation. I won't attempt to answer them here. What I am more concerned about is the state of mind, or condition of heart that we have when we consider God's sovereignty. If we consider that God is sovereign over all things, is it presumption, or is it true faith? The distinction between presumption and faith is difficult here for the same reason that it was difficult in the previous discussion. Just as presumption upon the grace of God pretends to be faith in the grace of God, so presumption upon the sovereignty of God pretends to be faith in the sovereignty of God. And here too, presumption looks like faith on the exterior. The reason for this is that presumption can easily be mistaken as trust, and trust is a vital part of faith.

As I was thinking through this, I realized that the answer to this question is the same as the answer to the earlier question. We found earlier that faith in the grace of God leads to repentance, but presumption upon the grace of God leads to more sin. There is a contrast in the evidence concerning God's sovereignty as well. For faith in the sovereignty of God empowers one to obedience, but presumption upon the sovereignty of God leads one to be idle. In other words, the person who truly trusts that God is sovereign over all things, has no need to fear when sharing the Gospel. He is empowered to be obedient in evangelism, knowing that God is the Author and Finisher of faith. He does not need to worry that he might stumble and say the wrong thing, or be too ignorant to share with someone else and so condemn them to eternal Hell. He only has to trust that God has commissioned him to make disciples, and God is sovereign over it. But the person who presumes upon God's sovereignty is idle. He is empowered to laziness, for he says in his heart, "God is going to save who He is going to save, and what I do doesn't matter." This is the heart of presumption, not of faith.