God’s Sovereignty and Human Responsibility: An Important Lesson from Acts 27

By John H. Fish III. 

Jack Fish is a faculty member at Emmaus Bible College and is the editor of The Emmaus Journal.

Introduction

The relationship between the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man has been a thorny problem throughout the history of the church. Scripture clearly teaches both truths. Divine sovereignty “embraces everything that comes into the biblical picture of God as Lord and King in His world, the One who ‘worketh all things after the counsel of his own will’ (Eph. i.11), directing every process and ordering every event for the fulfilling of His own eternal plan.” [1] Human responsibility is a truth that is presupposed on every page of Scripture. God commands and exhorts man and holds man responsible for his choices and actions.

There has been a tendency for some Christians to become preoccupied with one of these truths to the detriment of the other. Those who are one-sided emphasizing the sovereignty of God can make men seem to be mechanical robots. Those who overemphasize the freedom and ability of man can make God merely an observer of the events on the earth, one who is forced simply to react to what takes place. The great theological controversies between Augustine and Pelagius and between Calvin and Arminius were essentially over this issue.

Acts 27 is a passage which vividly brings this issue before us. This chapter is the most vivid description of a sea voyage and shipwreck that we have anywhere in ancient literature. [2] In verse 22 in the midst of a terrible storm at sea, when everyone had given up hope of getting through alive, Paul addressed those on the ship and said, “Yet now I urge you to keep up your courage, for there will be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship.” Now why did he say that? Verse 23, “For this very night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve stood before me, saying, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul; you must stand before Caesar; and behold, God has granted you all those who are sailing with you.” This was the promise of God. There would be no loss of life. If God has promised something, it is certain. For anyone on that ship to die would mean that God’s promise had failed.

But later on in verse 31 when some sailors were trying to escape by themselves in a lifeboat, Paul told the centurion in charge of those on board, “Unless these men remain in the ship, you yourselves cannot be saved.” God had said that no one would be lost. But Paul said that if these sailors left the ship, then all on board would be lost. How can we put these two things together? How do man’s actions, the things we do by our own free choices, affect God’s determined promise and plan?

Paul’s Voyage to Rome

Paul’s Desire to Go to Rome

It is clear as early as Acts 19:21 that Paul had a desire to go to Rome. “Paul purposed in the spirit to go to Jerusalem after he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia, saying, ‘After I have been there, I must also see Rome.’” He says the same thing in Romans 1:15, “So, for my part, I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.” Rome was the capital of the world, and it had always been the desire of the great missionary to the Gentiles to preach the gospel there.

Now this was not only Paul’s desire. It was also God’s purpose. In Acts 23:11 when Paul had been arrested in Jerusalem we read, “But on the night immediately following, the Lord stood at his side and said, ‘Take courage; for as you have solemnly witnessed to My cause at Jerusalem, so you must witness at Rome also.’” Paul was told clearly by God that he was going to preach the gospel in Rome. Now God often does things in a way that we do not expect. When Paul thought about going to Rome, he never thought about going there as a prisoner. And when he thought about preaching in Rome, he always thought about preaching in the forum, not in prison. And when he thought about traveling to Rome, he never dreamed it would involve a terrific storm and shipwreck as we have described in Acts 27.

The Journey from Caesarea to Crete, the Warning, 27:1–12

Tough Sailing

In his trial in Caesarea before the governor Festus, Paul had appealed his case to Caesar (25:11). That meant he had to be sent to Rome. The time was the fall of the year and it was almost getting too late to sail on the Mediterranean. The ships had neither compasses nor engines. The sea became stormy in winter. It was dangerous from about September 14 to November 11. [3] After that no ships could travel until the winter was over (March or April). [4] In verse 9 it says, “When considerable time had passed and the voyage was now dangerous, since even the fast was already over….” The fast referred to was the fast of the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur. It would be at the end of September or the beginning of October. [5]

Further they were sailing against the wind, so it would be a difficult journey. They left Caesarea and sailed north up the coast to Sidon, then east of Cyprus and along the southern coast of modern Turkey. The wind was against them, but the currents would push them in the right direction. They changed ships at Myra and boarded a grain ship from Alexandria in Egypt bound for Rome (v. 6). Then in verse 7 it says they sailed slowly and with difficulty. Finally when they could go no farther westward, they sailed south around the east side of Crete and sheltered in a harbor called Fair Havens (vv. 7–8).

Paul’s Warning, 9–10

Paul had considerable experience traveling by sea. He had been shipwrecked three times (2 Cor. 11:25) and once spent twenty-four hours in the water. Knowing the danger, he warned those on the ship. “Men, I perceive that the voyage will certainly be with damage and great loss, not only of the cargo and the ship, but also of our lives.” His advice is to stay where they were for the winter.

The Violent Storm and the Promise of God, 13–26

The Loss of All Hope 13–20

Now this was only the advice of a seasoned traveler, and sailors are not used to taking advice from missionaries or preachers. They rejected his advice and put out to sea in order to reach a more sheltered harbor up the coast. But almost as soon as they left, the wind changed. They were unable to hold their course and were driven out to sea. Luke describes the different measures they took to try to gain control of the ship, but none of them worked. Verse 20 indicates the despair that ensued, “Since neither sun nor stars appeared for many days, and no small storm was assailing us, from then on all hope of our being saved was gradually abandoned.” Seasoned sailors, used to storms on the sea, gave up all hope.

The Promise of God, 21–26

But in the midst of the despair, the apostle spoke up with a word of encouragement.

First he reminded them of his earlier advice. “Men, you ought to have followed my advice and not to have set sail from Crete and incurred this damage and loss” (v. 21). A lot of commentators think that Paul couldn’t resist saying, “I told you so.” I don’t think that is what he is saying. He is reminding them that he was right then, so they should listen to him now.

Then he said, “Yet now I urge you to keep up your courage, for there will be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship.” It was an encouragement. There was going to be no loss of life. Now why did Paul say this? This was not like the advice he had given before. That was just advice based on his experience as a traveler. This was a word based on the revelation of God. “For this very night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve stood before me, saying, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul; you must stand before Caesar; and behold, God has granted you all those who are sailing with you’” (vv. 23–24).

God had sent an angel to encourage Paul and remind him of an earlier promise. “But on the night immediately following, the Lord stood at his side and said, ‘Take courage; for as you have solemnly witnessed to My cause at Jerusalem, so you must witness at Rome also’” (Acts 23:11). God had promised Paul that he would preach the gospel in Rome. He did not need to be afraid. He was not going to die in this storm. But the angel also added that God had graciously granted Paul the lives of all who were sailing with him. No one would lose his life.

Based on this revelation from God he urged them, “Therefore, keep up your courage, men, for I believe God that it will turn out exactly as I have been told.” (v. 25). This was the promise of God. He believed it. It was absolutely certain. This was the sovereign decree, the sovereign purpose, the sovereign promise of God. Nothing could thwart the purpose and the promise of God. Paul said he believed it because God had said it. God’s word was the one thing that he could always rely on.

We should notice that what God revealed to Paul was the final outcome. The outcome was certain, but there would be many things which would take place in the meantime.

The Ship Wrecked, The Passengers Saved, 27–44

The Sailors Attempt to Escape, The Warning of Paul 27–31

The attempted escape. For fourteen days they were driven around the sea by this storm (v. 27). Eventually one night they heard the waves of the ocean crashing against the coast, and the sailors fearing that they were going to run aground against the rocks anchored the boat with four anchors cast from the stern (vv. 27–29). They wanted to point the bow toward the shore and then try to beach the ship the next day.

Then Paul noticed some of the sailors were trying to escape. They were pretending to let down another anchor from the front of the ship, but they were really letting down the ship’s boat. They were going to jump ship and save themselves. “The sailors were trying to escape from the ship and had let down the ship’s boat into the sea, on the pretense of intending to lay out anchors from the bow” (v. 30).

The warning. This is when Paul warned the Centurion, “Unless these men remain in the ship, you yourselves cannot be saved” (v. 31). What he was saying is that these members of the ship’s crew were the only ones who knew how to run the ship. If all of the skilled sailors left the ship, the rest who remained on board would not be able to get the ship safely to shore.

Principles involved

1. It is important to notice that Paul did not have a fatalistic attitude. The end has been decreed and determined by God. “There will be no loss of life among you” (v. 22). Therefore, it really does not matter what anyone does. That is the conclusion of the fatalist. It was not the conclusion of the apostle.

2. God’s promises still involve ordinary human means. God is omnipotent.

He can do anything. He could have stilled the storm here on the Mediterranean instantly just as the Lord Jesus did on the Sea of Galilee (Mk. 4:30–41). He could have caused a channel of dry land to pass through the sea right up to the boat, as at the time of the Exodus when the children of Israel passed through the Red Sea. Everyone could have walked safely to shore. He could have lifted the boat out of the sea, carried it through the air, and set it safely on the ground. God could have done any of those things. But the fact is that He normally works through ordinary human means. Here it was the work of the sailors that was going to be involved in getting the people safely to the shore.

3. In fact we can even say that here the means were necessary for the accomplishment of the end. “Unless these men remain in the ship, you yourselves cannot be saved” (v. 31).

How could Paul say that? God had promised, “There will be no loss of life among you” (v. 22). But Paul said, “Unless these men remain in the ship, you yourselves cannot be saved.” The end was certain because God had promised and decreed it. That is verse 22. But that end was contingent on an intermediate step which involved the free choices of men. What if those sailors had left the ship? Does the “unless these men remain in the ship, you yourselves cannot be saved” cast a shadow of uncertainty over the promise of God?

There is a very important principle of Scripture. The God who ordains the end also ordains the means. God does not just decide the outcome and then let things happen however they will. He is the sovereign God who not only determines the final result, He is the sovereign God who is active at every step of the process making sure that all means necessary are used to assure that His end is accomplished.

All Passengers Were Saved, The Means Employed, 32–44

There are a number of ways we can see this principle illustrated and applied in the rest of this passage.

1. The soldiers cut the ropes of the boat so that the crew had to stay on the ship.
2. Paul then encouraged everyone to eat. It had been fourteen days since anyone had eaten anything (v. 33). But he says in verse 34 that your needing to eat “is for your preservation.” “Not a hair from the head of any of you will perish” (v. 34). That is the end which God had predestined. But the means of accomplishing that was by the passengers swimming for shore. After fourteen days without food they needed food to give them the strength to accomplish that task. The food was the means for physical strength, and the physical strength was the means for the physical exertion, and both were the means God used to accomplish His purpose that no one would be lost.
3. When the sailors attempted to run the ship aground, it got stuck in the inlet (v. 41). The prow was stuck and the stern began to be broken up by the waves. Some of the soldiers realized that if they lost any of the prisoners, they would be held accountable. Their plan was to kill all of the prisoners so that none might swim away and escape. But the centurion who was in charge liked Paul and he vetoed that suggestion. Even here we should not leave God out of the picture. He was involved in making that centurion like Paul. [6] That was the means He used to prevent another human plan which would thwart His will.
4. In verse 43 those who could swim were told to jump overboard and swim to land. Their ability to swim was the means God used to get them safely to land. Other passengers who could not swim hung on to things that would float from the ship which was breaking up in the sea and that wreckage was the means that God used to get them to land.
5. There were 276 people on that ship (v. 37). And every one of them was brought safely to land. “And so it happened that they all were brought safely to land” (v. 44). In the midst of a raging sea, a sea that tore the ship to pieces, when it would be difficult even for those who could swim to get to shore, and when there were many who could not swim at all, “they all were brought safely to land.” Why? Because God was in control. He had promised it, and He accomplished it. But He used ordinary means to accomplish His purpose. The means are not out of His control.

The Principle Illustrated and Applied

The principle I am emphasizing is that the sovereign God who gives us His infallible promises and determines the end also ordains the means to accomplish that end. In fact we can say that He does not accomplish the end without the means. There are several important areas where this can be seen.

Our Days Are Numbered

Job 14:5 says that man’s “days are determined, The number of his months is with You; And his limits You have set so that he cannot pass.”

This is to say that the very number of the days of our life is known and determined by God. We do not know what that number is, but God does, and that number is certain. It cannot be increased or decreased by a single day. There is a sense in which we are immortal until that fixed day arrives. This is part of the sovereign plan of God.

The fatalist might say to this that it really does not matter what I do, since I cannot die any sooner or later than God has decreed. But if that is so, why eat? If you are a fatalist, your days are numbered. You can’t alter that fact. Then why take food?

Do you see the principle? God not only ordains the end, the number of our days, He also ordains the means, eating and taking nourishment. And He has made us in such a way that we get hungry and of our own free will, without any coercion, we choose to eat.

Further, He works through out actions and our actions can have real results. If you neglect your health and abuse your body through alcohol, cigarettes, and drugs, you will find that God has ordained fewer days for you than the average. God can ordain events to happen by our causing them. [7]

God’s Election and Human Faith

One of the classic examples of an area where God’s sovereignty and human responsibility seem to be in conflict is the area of God’s election and man’s faith.

The Fact of Election

It is unfortunate that the doctrine of election has been so filled with controversy. Much of that controversy is the result of philosophical presuppositions which we bring with us when we read Scripture. It is not those controversial aspects of the doctrine of election which I want to deal with here. Note the following Scriptures.

Knowing, brethren beloved by God, His choice of you (1 Thes. 1:4). 

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him (Eph. 1:3–4). 

But we should always give thanks to God for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth (2 Thes. 2:13). 

I endure all things for the sake of those who are chosen, so that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus and with it eternal glory (2 Tim. 2:10).

There are several things that should be noted from these texts.

1. The word “election” simply means “choosing.” God chose or selected us.
2. These verses talk about God’s choosing us, not our choosing God.
3. The time of God’s choosing us is before creation, before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:4).
4. The near purpose of election is our salvation (2 Thes. 2:13; 2 Tim. 2:10).
5. The intermediate purpose is a holy life (Eph. 1:4).
6. The ultimate purpose is God’s glory (Eph. 1:6).
7. Election is always spoken of as a blessing for which we should give thanks (cf. Eph. 1:3–4; 2 Thes. 2:13; 1 Thes. 1:4 [cf. v. 2]).

The fact of election is clear. Before time began God chose us to salvation. This is part of His sovereign plan and purpose and the end or outcome is certain. Those who have been chosen to salvation will be saved.

God’s Election and Man’s Faith

But the God who has ordained the end has also ordained the means. The means that God uses and requires for the elect to obtain salvation is faith in Jesus Christ. No elect person will be saved without receiving by faith Christ as his personal Savior (John 1:12). John 3:18 and 36 say:

He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 

He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.

It is a perversion of the truth to say that because the salvation of the elect is certain, the elect will be saved do what they will. It is a false and fatalistic attitude to say, “If I am elect, I will be saved, and if I am not elect I will be lost, and there is nothing I can do about it.” God accomplishes His goal of the salvation of the elect through faith in Christ. Anyone who wants the goal of salvation must come by the means that God has ordained and uses.

Eternal Security: No End Without the Means

The Bible teaches that the completion of the salvation of those who have been born again is certain. Those who have been saved will remain saved and will finally be glorified in the presence of Christ. However, the end is not obtained without the means that God uses to accomplish that salvation.

The Fact of Eternal Security

Scripture teaches the security of the believer. We can only note a few of the passages here.

1. The believer is promised eternal life (John 3:16, 36; 5:24). “He who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.” The believer is promised “eternal” life. If salvation, once obtained, can be lost, then we may have life for one year, or five years, or fifty years, but it cannot be called eternal life.
2. In Romans 8:38–39 Paul uses all of the eloquence he can muster to emphasize that nothing can ever separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. [8] Romans 8:29–30 says that those foreknown, predestinated, called, and justified, will ultimately be glorified and conformed to the image of God’s Son. [9]
3. In Ephesians 1:13–14 we are sealed in Christ with the seal of the Holy Spirit who is the earnest of our inheritance. [10] The words “seal” and “earnest” indicate that the Holy Spirit is the guarantee of the full completion of our inheritance.
4. In John 10:27–30 Christ says, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. “My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. “I and the Father are one.” We are as safe and secure as the Father and Son can possibly keep us.
5. In Philippians 1:6 Paul is confident that “He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.” God is not going to leave the work of our salvation half done or abort us in the process.

The Means of Our Security

Eternal security is not a doctrine which guarantees the end apart from the means. We are saved by faith in Jesus Christ. We are also kept in our salvation by faith in Christ. Note the following verses:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope…to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time (1 Pet. 1:3–5). 

So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free” (John 8:31–32). 

Yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach—if indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel that you have heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, was made a minister (Col. 1:22–23).

These passages indicate that God who has saved us by faith keeps us by faith. In 1 Peter 3:5 we are protected by the power of God (that is the work of God), but it is through faith (that is the human means). Those who have been born again are continually guarded by God (present participle), but the means that God uses to guard us is faith. It is God who preserves our faith, who keeps us believing and trusting Christ, and in this way secures our salvation. In John 8 those who are true disciples will continue in His word. In Colossians 1 we will be presented holy and blameless if we continue in the faith.

In John 10 Christ says “My sheep hear My voice…and they follow Me.” Following Christ does not make you His sheep. We have to be born again through faith. But the one who is His sheep through faith will follow Him and he will never perish. The end God ordains is eternal life and the means He uses is following Him in faith.

These verses, which say that the true believer continues in the faith, are not meant to teach the Arminian doctrine that we can lose our salvation. Salvation is the work of God. We do not obtain salvation by any work we do or by anything that we have the ability to do, and we do not keep our salvation by our ability to keep on trusting Christ. The God who brought us to faith in Christ guards us and keeps us in faith. This is His means of accomplishing His end.

This means that all those who are born again will persevere and continue in faith. Any who do not continue to believe have never been born again. John says in 1 John, “They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, so that it would be shown that they all are not of us” (2:19). If a person gives up the faith and stops trusting Christ, that is an indication that that person never truly believed in the first place.

The important question for your salvation is whether you are trusting Christ now. If you are asked whether you are saved and your answer is only I raised my hand at a campfire, or I trusted Christ in Sunday School, or I knelt by my bed when I was a child and asked God to save me, then that answer may be insufficient. If you can only look to the past but do not have present faith in Christ, then there is no real indication that you are saved. If you say that you asked Christ to save you from your sin when you were a child, but now you are content to live in sin, then there is no indication that God has ever done a work of grace in your life. The person who is truly saved will continue to trust in Christ because the God who gives us new life through faith in Christ will guard us through faith and keep us saved until the very end. That person will not only be able to point back to that time when he first trusted Christ, but will also be able to confess his present faith in Christ as his Savior. Continuing faith is the means God uses to keep us saved. God saves us and keeps us saved, but He keeps us through faith, not apart from faith.

Conclusion

This is a very important principle. The God who ordains the end also ordains the means and uses the means to accomplish His end. Whether it be the sailors staying in the ship so that none of those on the ship might perish just as God promised, whether it be through the ordinary process of eating so that we might live the number of days that God has ordained, whether it be that we come to Christ in faith in order that we might accomplish the purpose of God determined before the world was ever created, or whether we continue in faith in order that the salvation promised and guaranteed to us be finally completed, God uses human means, and they also are a part of His sovereign and certain plan and purpose.

Notes

1. J. I. Packer, Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God (London: Inter-Varsity, 1961), 9.
2. Rackham says, “The story is told with such a wealth of detail that in all classical literature there is no passage which gives us so much information about the working of an ancient ship.” Richard Belward Rackham, The Acts of the Apostles(Grand Rapids: Baker, 1964 [= 1901]), 476.
3. F. F. Bruce, Commentary on the Book of the Acts, NICNT (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1954), 506. Cf. Vegetius, de re militari, iv. 39.
4. F. F. Bruce, Commentary on the Book of the Acts, 506.
5. The specific date in the Hebrew calendar was the tenth of the lunar month Tishri. Cf. R. B. Rackham, The Acts of the Apostles, 482. Bruce comments that “Luke’s remark has point only if that date fell rather late in the solar calendar that year. [Note the word even in “even the fast was already over.”] In A.D. 59 it fell on October 5, but in all the neighboring years from A.D. 57 to 62 it fell earlier.” F. F. Bruce, The Book of the Acts, 506.
6. See the example of Joseph in Genesis 39:21 where it says that “the LORD was with Joseph and extended kindness to him, and gave him favor in the sight of the chief jailer.”
7. See Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1994), 334.
8. “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8:38–39).
9. “For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified” (Rom. 8:29–30).
10. “You were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory” (Eph. 1:13–14).