What if a creed like the Nicene, Athanasian, or Formula of Chalcedon had been written in the early centuries to determine the boundaries of orthodoxy on God’s sovereignty and man’s freedom? How might it have sounded? Here is one imagined form:
“Whosoever desires to think rightly of God’s governance and man’s response must above all hold fast the mystery of providence and freedom.
For the Lord our God reigns with sovereign power, ordaining all things that come to pass, not by bare permission but by the counsel of His will, to the praise of His glory.
Yet man is created in the image of God, not as a puppet or pawn, but with mind, affections, and will; and his choices are truly his own, proceeding from the heart, and for them he is accountable.
We confess, therefore, that God elects from eternity those whom He will call, justify, and glorify—not because of foreseen faith or merit, but according to the good pleasure of His will.
Yet we also confess that God commands all men everywhere to repent, and that whosoever believes in the Son shall not perish but have eternal life.
The call of God is powerful and effectual, awakening the dead and granting the will to come. And yet many resist the gracious invitations of the gospel and perish in their rebellion, not because God is unjust, but because they would not come.
Thus we must neither divide the will of God as though He were double-minded, nor confound man’s agency as though he were coerced or without responsibility.
For the same God who ordains the end ordains the means, working through persuasion, providence, and the power of His Spirit.
We must not presume to measure the Infinite by finite reason, nor reject what is revealed because it exceeds comprehension.
So we confess: God’s sovereignty is not diminished by human responsibility, nor is human responsibility swallowed up by divine sovereignty.
This is the mystery: that God is utterly sovereign, and man is truly free—not with autonomy from God, but with freedom under God, accountable and without excuse.
He who denies either truth falls into error: either into fatalism that destroys grace, or into Pelagianism that voids the cross.
This is the faith of the church: that God is just and the justifier, sovereign and good, the Mover of all things, and yet never the author of sin.
Therefore, let God be true, though every man a liar. Let us worship in reverent wonder, for His ways are higher than our ways, and His judgments unsearchable. To Him be glory forever and ever. Amen.