Reconciling Divine sovereignty and human responsibility is a common Christian conundrum. The problem goes something like this: in order for God to hold us accountable, our choices must be free. In order for God to be sovereign: He must be in control of all things, otherwise He wouldn't be God. But then either God does not control our hearts and is not completely sovereign, or God does control our hearts and therefore cannot hold us accountable.
But suppose for a moment that human hearts were subject to God's control: would that mean that we are less free? Would that mean we cannot be held accountable?
I am not convinced that it would.
Consider with me for a moment what it means to have a free will. It's often thought of like a multiple choice test. You have at least 2 options–A. or B.–and you can choose which you think is best. And after reading the question multiple times, and considering your options, you choose A. But if you had a test that only had one answer: A, then it might be somewhat frustrating. What if you think there's a better answer? But you are forced to go with the one answer available to you. So it can be easy to assume it is the multiple choices that allow our choice to be authentic.
But that's not true. Can't we imagine a multiple choice test with 5, 10, or even 100 options, all of which we don't think are great answers to the question? Even with multiple options, we can still feel that same frustration we saw above. We still find ourselves being coerced into choosing what we do not want. What matters more is whether there is an option we genuinely want. Whether our will is able to will what it wants. That is the core of a free will.
And that definitionl is compatible with God's control. Let's consider a different sort of multiple choice test. This is a math test is made up of two sheets of paper (sorry if you don't like math, but go with me on this). On the first page is one question, which asks you to solve a complex equation, and asks that you show your work, and when you have finished select the correct answer from the second page. Upon arriving at your answer, you turn the page and find only one option given, and it matches the answer that you came up with. It's the answer that you want. The providence of God could work like that test. Suppose that God told me that my marriage with my wife and all the steps we took to get there: my nervously asking her out, dating, engagement, wedding planning, the ceremony, and everything else in between; were parts of God's providence. That fact would not change that I genuinely fell for my wife, wanted to be closer to her, did ask her out, and I asked her to marry me. And my wife genuinely reciprocated my desires, to the point of consenting to marry me. Neither one of us were forced to choose something we didn't want. We both wanted it. So even if everything that happened was in the providence of God, it was still something we genuinely wanted.
One might object that such a system still does not allow us to be accountable for our actions, how could someone sin if they don't have a choice to do better? But we can answer this similarly. We often extend grace to others when they are stressed, grieving, or in great physical pain. We give grace to those who don't yet have the capacity to control themselves, like young children. But I don't think God's providence is one of those answers. If that is what they genuinely wanted then they are still responsible. We can see this through an example. Suppose God's plan includes the unjust death of a man (say, Jesus). Those who brought it about were not coerced into it, as though God held a gun to their heads forcing them to choose what they didn't want. They did want Him dead, and therefore are still responsible for their actions.
I did not come up with this answer on my own. It's a traditional response to the question of God's sovereignty and human responsibility. A similar, though far more robust form can be found in the first volume of Francis Turretin's Institutes of Elenctic Theology. While it doesn't answer every question, it allows us to read passages that display God possessing control over the human will (Ex. 4:21; 9:12; 10:20, 27; 1 Sam. 2:25; 1 Kgs. 19:18; Prov. 21:1; Jn. 6:44; Acts 13:48; Rom. 9:14-16, 19-23, etc) and passages that hold humanity accountable for its actions (Gen. 22:15-17; Deut. 30:11-14; Jos. 24:15; Matt. 10:32-33; Acts 16:30-31; Jas. 2:17; etc), with much less tension.