Joseph said to them, "Do not be afraid, for am I in the place of God? But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive. Genesis 50:19
When wrestling with the concepts of God's sovereignty and man's volition, it is essential that we have an understanding of the doctrine of concurrence, how God works out His will in history by working through the human will. Because He is all-knowing and all-powerful, God works through the choices, decisions, and even the machinations of man to accomplish His plan for every person throughout history. At the 2004 Ligonier conference, Sinclair Ferguson and R. C. Sproul used the example of a chess match to explain this concept. Experienced chess players anticipate all their opponent's possible moves and devise a strategy based on each possibility. The player's choice of move is therefore contingent upon his opponent's move. This is not the case with God; He is not waiting for us to make our choices before He decides His course of action. As R. C. aptly stated, God knows all the contingencies, but He knows nothing contingently. There are no "Plan B's" with God. He has primary causality...everything we do depends on the power of our Sovereign God, "for in Him we live and move and have our being." (Acts 17:28)
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