Divine Pursuit and Human Response in Biblical Theology

Paper submitted to Academia.edu

Abstract

This paper examines the biblical theme of divine pursuit and human response, arguing that Scripture consistently presents God as the initiating seeker of humanity while simultaneously affirming the genuine capacity and responsibility of human beings to seek God in response. Beginning with the divine inquiry in Genesis 3:9, the study traces this relational dynamic across the biblical canon, including the patriarchal narratives, prophetic literature, wisdom writings, the teachings of Jesus, and the apostolic witness. Employing a biblical-theological methodology, the paper demonstrates that divine initiative and human response function not as competing principles but as complementary realities within a covenantal framework. The study further explores the theological implications of this dynamic for understanding grace, faith, moral accountability, and divine sovereignty. By allowing the narrative and exhortational shape of Scripture to guide interpretation, the paper contends that the biblical portrayal of salvation resists deterministic reduction and instead affirms a relational model in which God’s gracious pursuit invites meaningful human response.

I. Introduction: The Divine Question and the Human Condition

Among the earliest recorded words spoken by God to humanity after the entrance of sin are not words of judgment but of inquiry: “Then the LORD God called to Adam and said to him, ‘Where are you?’” (Gen 3:9, NKJV). This question, brief yet profound, stands at the theological crossroads of divine initiative and human responsibility. It is not a request for information, nor is it a rhetorical device designed merely to heighten narrative tension. Rather, it is a revelatory question—one that discloses the posture of God toward fallen humanity and establishes a pattern that reverberates throughout the entirety of the biblical canon.

The divine inquiry in Genesis 3 introduces a central biblical tension: God is portrayed as the initiating seeker, while humanity is simultaneously portrayed as capable of response—whether in faith, rebellion, repentance, or resistance. The question “Where are you?” is relational. It exposes alienation, invites confession, and opens the possibility of restoration. Theologically, it frames the human predicament not as one of divine absence but of relational rupture, one that God Himself moves to address.

This paper argues that the biblical witness consistently affirms both divine pursuit and genuine human response as integral to the redemptive narrative. From Genesis to Revelation, God is depicted as actively seeking humanity—calling, drawing, pleading, and inviting—while human beings are repeatedly addressed as morally responsible agents who may seek God, resist Him, or respond in faith. This reciprocal dynamic is not incidental; it is covenantal. It reflects a relational framework in which divine sovereignty operates through invitation rather than coercion, and grace enables response without nullifying responsibility.

The importance of this theme is heightened by ongoing theological debates concerning the nature of salvation, human agency, and divine sovereignty. Certain interpretive frameworks have emphasized divine initiative to such an extent that human response is rendered functionally inevitable or merely apparent. Conversely, other approaches risk minimizing divine grace by overemphasizing human effort. The biblical text, however, resists both extremes. It presents a God who relentlessly seeks, and a humanity that is repeatedly exhorted to seek in return.

Methodologically, this study employs a biblical-theological approach, tracing the motif of divine pursuit and human seeking across major canonical divisions: the Pentateuch, the Prophets, the Writings, the Gospels, and the Apostolic witness. Rather than engaging in systematic abstraction, the paper prioritizes narrative progression, covenantal context, and textual emphasis. The goal is not to adjudicate theological systems but to allow the Scriptural testimony itself to define the contours of the relationship between God’s initiative and humanity’s response.

By examining the biblical data in this manner, the paper seeks to demonstrate that the divine-human relationship presented in Scripture is neither mechanistic nor unilateral, but relational and responsive. The God who asks “Where are you?” in Eden is the same God who seeks the lost in the ministry of Christ, who calls all people everywhere to repent through apostolic proclamation, and who ultimately invites humanity into restored fellowship. The persistence of divine pursuit and the reality of human response together form a coherent and compelling theological vision—one that preserves both the grace of God and the moral dignity of the human person.

II. Divine Initiative: God as the Seeker in the Biblical Narrative

A. Edenic Pursuit and the First Redemptive Movement

The narrative of Genesis 3 establishes a foundational theological pattern: sin does not provoke divine withdrawal but divine movement. After Adam and Eve transgress the divine command, the text does not portray God as retreating from creation; instead, “the LORD God” is depicted as walking in the garden and calling to the man (Gen 3:8–9). The initiative is unmistakably divine. Before confession is offered, before repentance is articulated, before judgment is pronounced, God seeks.

This pursuit is significant precisely because it occurs in the immediate aftermath of rebellion. The humans hide; God calls. The humans withdraw; God advances. The narrative grammar reinforces this contrast. The question “Where are you?” functions as an invitation to self-disclosure, implicitly offering the possibility of restored relationship. Even the subsequent judgments are framed within a redemptive horizon, culminating in the promise of a future victory over the serpent (Gen 3:15).

Thus, from the outset of Scripture, divine initiative is not portrayed as selective passivity but as active engagement. God’s pursuit is not contingent upon human merit; it is motivated by covenantal intent. Yet this pursuit does not negate human responsibility. Adam is called to answer. The question demands response, not resignation.

B. Patriarchal Calling and the Nature of Election

The motif of divine pursuit continues in the patriarchal narratives, most notably in the calling of Abram. Genesis 12 presents a decisive moment of divine initiative: “Now the LORD had said to Abram: ‘Get out of your country… to a land that I will show you’” (Gen 12:1). Abram does not seek God prior to this call; God sovereignly initiates the relationship. Yet Abram’s subsequent obedience—“So Abram departed as the LORD had spoken to him” (Gen 12:4)—demonstrates that divine calling presupposes meaningful human response.

Election in the patriarchal context is vocational rather than fatalistic. Abram is chosen not for private salvation but to become a conduit of blessing: “And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Gen 12:3). The divine pursuit of Abram is thus outward-facing and missional, reinforcing the idea that God’s initiative is expansive rather than exclusionary.

Moreover, the patriarchal narratives repeatedly depict moments of genuine choice, testing, and response. Abraham’s faith is expressed through trust and obedience, not mere inevitability (Gen 15:6; 22:1–18). God initiates, but Abraham responds—and that response carries real covenantal significance.

C. Prophetic Witness: The Seeking God and the Resistant People

The prophetic literature intensifies the theme of divine pursuit, often juxtaposing God’s relentless seeking with Israel’s persistent resistance. Through the prophets, God repeatedly calls His people to return, repent, and seek Him. The language is invitational and conditional: “Seek the LORD while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near” (Isa 55:6). Such appeals presume the genuine capacity of the hearers to respond.

Perhaps most striking is the divine lament over rejection. In Isaiah 65:1, the LORD declares, “I was sought by those who did not ask for Me; I was found by those who did not seek Me.” This statement underscores divine initiative extending even beyond covenant boundaries, anticipating the inclusion of the nations. Yet the same chapter records God’s grief over a rebellious people who continually provoke Him (Isa 65:2–5).

The prophetic portrayal of God is neither detached nor deterministic. God reasons, pleads, warns, and waits. His pursuit is persistent, but His invitations may be refused. The prophets do not depict a God whose purposes unfold through coercion, but one whose sovereignty is expressed through faithful persistence in the face of human resistance.

D. Christological Fulfillment: Seeking in Flesh and Blood

The theme of divine pursuit reaches its fullest expression in the person and work of Jesus Christ. The incarnation itself represents the ultimate seeking act: God does not merely call from heaven; He enters history. Jesus explicitly frames His mission in seeking terms: “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10).

The Gospel narratives consistently portray Jesus initiating encounters with sinners, outsiders, and the marginalized. In John 4, Jesus intentionally travels through Samaria and engages a woman whose life reflects moral and relational brokenness. In John 5, He seeks out a man who has been infirm for decades. In John 6, He confronts crowds who must decide whether they will truly seek the bread of life or merely pursue signs.

Yet even in these encounters, divine pursuit does not override human response. Jesus invites belief, warns of unbelief, and laments rejection (John 5:40; 12:37–40). His call is sincere, His offer genuine, and His grief over refusal real.

The Christological witness thus confirms what Genesis intimated and the prophets proclaimed: God is the seeker, but humanity is not reduced to a passive object. The divine initiative embodied in Christ establishes the possibility of salvation, but the call to respond remains integral to the redemptive encounter.

III. Human Response: The Biblical Affirmation of Seeking God

A. Old Testament Appeals and the Moral Call to Seek

While Scripture consistently portrays God as the initiating seeker, it just as consistently addresses human beings as capable of responding to that pursuit. Throughout the Old Testament, the call to “seek the LORD” appears not as poetic flourish but as moral imperative. Such commands presuppose not only divine accessibility but genuine human capacity for response.

One of the clearest formulations appears in the prophetic literature: “Seek the LORD while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near” (Isa 55:6, NKJV). The conditional nature of the appeal—while He may be found—suggests both opportunity and urgency. It would be incoherent to issue such a summons if seeking were either impossible or illusory. The prophetic call assumes that God’s nearness invites human action, not resignation.

Similarly, Jeremiah records the divine promise: “And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart” (Jer 29:13). This statement affirms several theological realities simultaneously: God is findable, human seeking is meaningful, and sincerity of heart matters. The text does not frame seeking as the inevitable result of divine causation but as a genuine relational pursuit, one that carries both promise and responsibility.

The Deuteronomic tradition reinforces this framework. Moses exhorts Israel that even after judgment and dispersion, restoration remains possible: “But from there you will seek the LORD your God, and you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul” (Deut 4:29). Here, seeking God is presented as an act of repentance and covenant renewal—one grounded in divine mercy yet dependent upon human return.

Collectively, these passages reveal that the Old Testament does not portray humanity as spiritually inert. Though fallen and prone to rebellion, human beings are addressed as responsible covenant partners, capable of turning, seeking, and responding to God’s gracious initiative.

B. Wisdom Literature: Seeking as Orientation of the Heart

The Wisdom literature further develops the theme of seeking by framing it as an orientation of the heart rather than a momentary act. Proverbs repeatedly associates seeking the LORD with wisdom, understanding, and life itself. “Yes, if you cry out for discernment, and lift up your voice for understanding, if you seek her as silver… then you will understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God” (Prov 2:3–5).

Here, seeking is active, intentional, and sustained. It involves desire, effort, and perseverance. Notably, divine response is promised—you will find—yet it is tethered to the posture of the seeker. Wisdom is not imposed; it is pursued.

The Psalms similarly reflect this relational dynamic. The psalmist declares, “When You said, ‘Seek My face,’ my heart said to You, ‘Your face, LORD, I will seek’” (Ps 27:8). This exchange captures the covenantal rhythm of divine invitation and human response. God speaks; the heart answers. The psalmist’s seeking is neither coerced nor automatic—it is volitional and relational.

Even in texts that emphasize human weakness, the call to seek remains intact. “The LORD is near to all who call upon Him, to all who call upon Him in truth” (Ps 145:18). Nearness is promised, but it is relationally activated through calling. Such language would be unnecessary—and misleading—if human response were merely the outward appearance of a predetermined outcome.

C. Jesus’ Teaching: Invitation and Accountability

The teaching of Jesus reinforces and intensifies the biblical affirmation of human seeking. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus issues one of His most well-known exhortations: “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you” (Matt 7:7). The structure of the saying emphasizes action on the part of the hearer. Asking, seeking, and knocking are not metaphors for passivity but for engaged pursuit.

Importantly, Jesus grounds the promise of divine response in the character of God as a good Father. The reliability of the outcome does not negate the necessity of the action; rather, it motivates it. The call to seek assumes the possibility of refusal, delay, or half-heartedness—realities repeatedly addressed throughout Jesus’ ministry.

Jesus also holds individuals accountable for their failure to seek rightly. In John 5:40, He laments, “But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.” The obstacle is not divine unwillingness but human resistance. Life is offered, yet refused. Such statements underscore that rejection of God’s grace is neither illusory nor inconsequential.

Parabolic teaching further confirms this dynamic. The parables of the lost sheep, lost coin, and lost son (Luke 15) portray God as the seeking party, yet they also depict distinct human responses—repentance, return, and rejoicing. Divine pursuit culminates not in coercion but in restoration when response occurs.

D. Apostolic Witness: Seeking, Repentance, and Faith

The apostolic preaching recorded in Acts and the Epistles continues this balanced portrayal. In Paul’s address at Athens, he affirms God’s sovereign ordering of history “so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him” (Acts 17:27). The language is striking. God’s providential design has a relational purpose: that human beings might seek. The possibility of finding God is presented as real, though not guaranteed.

The Epistle to the Hebrews likewise emphasizes the necessity of faith as an active response: “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him” (Heb 11:6). Faith here is not portrayed as an automatic condition but as a relational movement toward God—one that assumes human volition under divine grace.

James echoes this call with pastoral urgency: “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you” (Jas 4:8). The reciprocal nature of the statement resists any interpretation that would render human action meaningless. Drawing near is commanded, not assumed.

Together, the apostolic writings confirm what the earlier Scriptures had already established: God’s grace precedes, enables, and invites—but it does not negate the reality of human seeking. Salvation unfolds within a relational framework in which response matters.

IV. Covenant, Relationship, and Reciprocal Engagement

A. Covenant as Relational Framework

At the heart of the biblical narrative lies the concept of covenant—a relational bond initiated by God and sustained through faithfulness, trust, and response. Unlike impersonal contracts or deterministic decrees, biblical covenants presuppose interaction. God speaks; humanity listens. God promises; humanity responds. Blessing and restoration are consistently connected to relational fidelity.

From the Abrahamic covenant onward, divine promises are accompanied by calls to walk before God, obey His voice, and trust His word (Gen 17:1; 22:16–18). Even when covenants are unilaterally initiated by God, they are never relationally unilateral in their outworking. The covenantal structure affirms divine authority while preserving meaningful human participation.

This framework is essential for understanding the interplay between divine pursuit and human response. God’s initiative establishes the relationship; human response sustains it. The two are not competitors but complements.

B. Love, Invitation, and the Logic of Relationship

Scripture consistently describes God’s redemptive posture in the language of love. Love, by its very nature, cannot be coerced without ceasing to be love. The biblical insistence that God desires relationship rather than mere compliance explains why divine pursuit is expressed through invitation, warning, and appeal rather than compulsion.

Jesus’ lament over Jerusalem illustrates this tension poignantly: “How often I wanted to gather your children together… but you were not willing!” (Matt 23:37). The statement reveals both divine desire and human refusal. The tragedy lies not in divine incapacity but in human unwillingness.

Such passages reinforce the relational logic of Scripture. God seeks, calls, and invites precisely because response is not guaranteed. The authenticity of the relationship depends upon the reality of choice.

C. Sovereignty Properly Understood

The affirmation of genuine human response does not diminish divine sovereignty; rather, it clarifies its nature. Biblical sovereignty is consistently portrayed as God’s rightful authority, freedom, and faithfulness—not as mechanical control that overrides relational engagement.

God’s sovereign purposes are accomplished through His persistent pursuit, faithful promises, and redemptive patience. His will is not thwarted by human resistance, yet Scripture allows space for real rejection, real grief, and real consequence. Sovereignty, in this biblical sense, governs the story without collapsing its characters into inevitability.

This understanding preserves the coherence of Scripture’s invitations, warnings, and judgments. It allows divine initiative and human responsibility to coexist without contradiction.

D. Grace as Enabling, Not Eliminating, Response

Finally, Scripture presents grace as that which enables response rather than replaces it. Grace precedes faith, but it does not render human engagement unnecessary. Faith remains faith because it is trusted response; repentance remains repentance because it is turning. We are not saved by grace alone, in the sense that it is an automatic and inevitable result based on the sovereign election of God for some. Rather, we are saved by grace through faith. (Eph. 2:8-9).

The biblical narrative never portrays grace as a substitute for relationship. Instead, grace makes relationship possible. The God who seeks does so in order to be found, and the humanity that seeks does so because it has first been addressed.

V. Theological Implications and Soteriological Tensions

A. Preserving the Integrity of Biblical Invitations

One of the most significant theological implications of the biblical witness to divine pursuit and human response concerns the integrity of Scripture’s invitations. Throughout both Testaments, God repeatedly calls, urges, pleads, and reasons with humanity. These invitations are framed as sincere, meaningful, and urgent. If human response were merely apparent or inevitable, such appeals would lose their moral and relational coherence.

Biblical invitations function not as narrative ornamentation but as expressions of God’s redemptive will. Commands to repent, calls to believe, and exhortations to seek the Lord presuppose that the hearer is genuinely capable of response. This does not imply moral autonomy independent of grace, but it does affirm moral responsibility enabled, not coerced, by grace. The repeated biblical insistence on response indicates that God’s redemptive purposes are carried forward through relational engagement rather than unilateral imposition.

The theological danger of minimizing human response is not merely abstract. When divine initiative is emphasized to the exclusion of response, the language of Scripture risks being reinterpreted in ways that flatten its urgency and dull its pastoral force. The biblical authors, however, appear unconcerned with such recalibration. They address their audiences as accountable hearers whose decisions bear real consequence. The teaching that man is totally depraved and dead and unable to respond or seek God, renders each of the verses we are considering, null and void and removes the urgency of decision for Christ. Salvation is not possible without a decision for Christ.

B. Moral Responsibility and Accountability

The biblical affirmation of human seeking is inseparable from the doctrine of accountability. Scripture consistently links response to consequence—both positively and negatively. Blessing follows trust and obedience; judgment follows persistent refusal. These patterns assume that human beings are not passive instruments but responsible agents within God’s redemptive economy.

This accountability is not portrayed as incompatible with grace. On the contrary, grace intensifies responsibility by clarifying the stakes of response. The more fully God reveals Himself, the more weighty the human decision becomes. Jesus’ warnings regarding greater light and greater accountability (cf. John 15:22; Luke 12:48) reinforce this principle.

Importantly, Scripture does not frame accountability as an arbitrary imposition but as the natural outworking of relationship. To be addressed by God is to be summoned into responsibility. The question “Where are you?” therefore becomes paradigmatic—not only of divine pursuit, but of the human obligation to answer truthfully.

C. Grace and the Nature of Faith

Another critical implication concerns the nature of faith itself. Within the biblical narrative, faith is consistently portrayed as trust, reliance, and commitment—responses to God’s self-disclosure. Faith is not depicted as a mechanical effect or an unconscious condition, but as an act of the heart and will enabled by grace.

This understanding preserves the biblical tension between divine enabling and human response. Grace makes faith possible, not inevitable; faith does not earn grace, it receives it. Faith remains genuinely human in its expression. This is evident in Scripture’s frequent commendation of faith, its rebuke of unbelief, and its call to perseverance.

If faith were merely the inevitable consequence of divine causation, the biblical language of exhortation, warning, and encouragement would be difficult to sustain. The New Testament writers, however, consistently address believers as participants not bystanders in their salvation. Such language reflects a relational, rather than mechanistic, understanding of salvation.

D. The Problem of Determinism and the Narrative Shape of Scripture

While this study has avoided engagement with named theological systems, the biblical data nonetheless raises important questions for any interpretive framework that collapses divine pursuit into unilateral determinism. Scripture’s narrative shape resists reduction to abstract causality. It tells a story—a story of calling and answering, seeking and finding, pleading and responding.

The God of Scripture is not portrayed as indifferent to response or unmoved by refusal. He rejoices when sinners repent, grieves when they resist, and laments when invitations are spurned. These depictions are not anthropomorphic concessions to human understanding; they are integral to the biblical portrayal of God’s relational character.

A theology that cannot account for these realities risks imposing coherence at the expense of fidelity. The biblical text invites readers to embrace a dynamic vision of sovereignty—one that governs history without negating relationship, and accomplishes redemption without erasing responsibility.

VI. Conclusion: The Persistent God and the Responsible Human

From the opening chapters of Genesis to the closing appeals of the New Testament, Scripture presents a God who seeks and a humanity that is summoned to respond. The divine question, “Where are you?”, echoes far beyond Eden, reverberating through patriarchal calling, prophetic pleading, Christological mission, and apostolic proclamation. It is a question that reveals both God’s redemptive intent and humanity’s moral accountability.

This study has argued that the biblical witness consistently affirms a relational dynamic in which divine initiative and human response are held together without contradiction. God’s pursuit is prior, persistent, and gracious. Human seeking is enabled, commanded, and consequential. Neither reality negates the other; both are essential to the covenantal structure of Scripture.

Such a framework preserves the integrity of biblical invitations, the seriousness of moral responsibility, and the authenticity of faith. It allows Scripture to speak in its own voice—narrative, pastoral, urgent, and relational—without forcing its testimony into categories foreign to its intent.

Ultimately, the God who seeks does so not merely to be acknowledged, but to be known. The biblical story is not one of divine distance overcome by inevitability, but of divine nearness offered through grace and received through response. In that sense, the question “Where are you?” remains not only descriptive of the human condition, but invitational—calling each generation to step out of hiding and into restored fellowship with the God who still seeks.

Suggested Readings for Further Study

1. Kaiser, Walter C. Toward an Old Testament Theology. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1978.

2. Goldsworthy, Graeme. Gospel and Kingdom: A Christian Interpretation of the Old Testament. Carlisle, UK: Paternoster Press, 1981.

3. Scobie, Charles H. H. The Ways of Our God: An Approach to Biblical Theology. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2003.

4. Brueggemann, Walter. Theology of the Old Testament: Testimony, Dispute, Advocacy. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1997.

5. Marshall, I. Howard. New Testament Theology: Many Witnesses, One Gospel. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2004.

6. Carson, D. A. Divine Sovereignty and Human Responsibility: Biblical Perspectives in Tension. London: Marshall, Morgan & Scott, 1981.

7. Shank, Robert. Elect in the Son: A Study of the Doctrine of Election. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1970.

8. Alexander, T. Desmond, and Brian S. Rosner, eds. New Dictionary of Biblical Theology. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2000.

9. Staples, Jason Paul and the Resurrection of Israel, Cambridge University Press, 2024