Let God Cook

The Quiet Ambition has been out for six months already. Have you gotten yourself a copy? How about one for a friend whom you think could benefit from its message? Today I’m sharing an excerpt from the chapter entitled “God’s Business and Ours.”

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God is in the business of redeeming, renewing, and restoring His creation. For us to tend our own business, then, means first and foremost to step back and allow Him to carry out His. Let God cook.

Think of the story of the exodus, and in particular the crossing of the Red Sea. To this point the LORD has been single-handedly bringing the Israelites out of Egypt; their only contribution is their stubbornness. They have dragged their feet and stiffened their neck. Even so, true to his promise, God has laid low Pharaoh and blazed a trail to freedom for his “firstborn son” (Exodus 4:22), the children of Israel.

But for all this—the plagues, the Passover, the escape from Egypt—Israel is not convinced and Pharaoh is not dissuaded. It all comes to a head on the banks of the Red Sea. With the jilted king of Egypt and his army breathing with hot breath down their necks, the people start crying out and turning downright nasty.

“Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt?...It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness” (Exodus 14:11–12). It’s a remarkable bit of hubris, not to mention amnesia.

Be that as it may, Moses’ response tells us everything about God’s business:

“Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again. The LORD will fight for you, and you have only to be quiet” (Exodus 14:14).

I appreciate the subtle dig at the end there: “Can you please just shut your traps?” But it carries a profound point: God doesn’t need help delivering you. He’s fighting on your behalf. He’s responsible for your rescue. And what do you have to do? “Be silent.” Behold his salvation. Receive from Him.

God’s business is deliverance, mercy, and rescue. This is his proper work; it is right there at the top of his job description. Divine monergism is the fancy theological term: “one-work-ism.” Theologian Paul Zahl calls it God’s “one-way love.”1

The Apostle Paul proclaims it again and again in his New Testament Epistles, in particular Romans and Galatians. For instance, Romans: “But God demonstrates his love for us in this, that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). I never tire of preaching that Jesus’ dying words from the cross were not, “It’s mostly done—can you take it from here?” but “It is finished.” Complete. Done. For you.

So where things get muddled is when we humans fail to stay in our spiritual lane, so to speak. Earlier generations of the Church repudiated heresies such as Pelagianism, which touted a bald-faced synergism (“work-together-ism”) that mingled God’s business and ours. “Well, yes, God does a lot to save us,” Pelagians said, “but we’ve got the power to save ourselves, too!”

To the contrary, responded great theologians like Augustine: There are no arms on earth strong enough to lift ourselves up by these sin-riddled bootstraps. Mercifully, the most flagrant forms of this heresy were formally denounced by orthodox Christians. Variations nevertheless spring up from age to age like stubborn weeds.

This was what got Martin Luther and the other reformers all riled up in the late Middle Ages. They saw in the increasingly complicated machinations of the Roman church a kind of “semi-Pelagianism” that had human merit laying claim to the gift of salvation. It was “half-way love.”

To the contrary, Luther insisted, salvation comes ever and always sola gratia, by grace alone. Hence, in the story that opened this chapter, he’s just a beggar with an empty sack. In the immortal words of the hymn “Rock of Ages”: “Nothing in my hands I bring, / simply to Thy cross I cling.”

God’s business is unilateral rescue and salvation. He is “the Father of lights, from whom comes every good and every perfect gift” (James 1:17). Every last one. And Jesus has followed in the family train. As He posed the question to His surprised parents: “Didn’t you know that I must be about my Father’s business?” (Luke 2:49 NKJV). Yahweh and Son is up and running, and business is good. Let Him cook!

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