Jeremiah 7.9 “Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods whom you do not know, 10 “and then come and stand before Me in this house which is called by My name, and say, ‘We are delivered to do all these abominations’?”
There is a very subtle, but dangerous theology that inadvertently places the blame on God for man’s sin. It goes something like this. Since man is so depraved, he is unable to do anything that is right in the sight of God apart from His grace allowing it. That does indeed contain biblical truth, for apart from the grace of Christ, we can do nothing. But, that is spiritual double talk that lessens or diminishes human responsibility for sin. While there is no doubt that God is absolutely sovereign in His universe, it is also absolutely true that God establishes spiritual principles In the same way that He has established laws of nature. Within the sovereign purposes of God there is human responsibility.
God rebukes His people in Jeremiah 7 for placing the blame of their sin upon Him!
Beware of any teaching or theology that diminishes human responsibility or says that man sins because God has not given him the ability to obey Him. Can you imagine a Christian parent rebuking a disobedient son or daughter, only to hear them reply, “Unless God gives me the will, strength and power to obey you, I cannot.” Really? Is that what Scripture teaches? Sin, and then place the blame on God for withholding the will, power and strength to obey? Listen once more to what God says to His people a bit later in this chapter.
23 “But this is what I commanded them, saying, ‘Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be My people. And walk in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well with you.’
24 “Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but followed the counsels and the dictates of their evil hearts, and went backward and not forward.
25 “Since the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt until this day, I have even sent to you all My servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them.
26 “Yet they did not obey Me or incline their ear, but stiffened their neck. They did worse than their fathers.
27 “Therefore you shall speak all these words to them, but they will not obey you. You shall also call to them, but they will not answer you.
28 “So you shall say to them, ‘This is a nation that does not obey the voice of the LORD their God nor receive correction. Truth has perished and has been cut off from their mouth.
Beloved, Neither the devil nor God Can make us sin. We sin because we are sinners by nature and by choice. Don’t mock God or misrepresent Him in this matter. Any extreme position on God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility misrepresents God’s character and paralyzed man from the responsibility to obey Him as Lord and Creator. Fear God and obey Him, for this is the whole duty of man.
