C H A P T E R   F I V E

THE SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD

“I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose.’”

 ISAIAH 46:9b-10 

To say that God is sovereign, is to say that he is the Lord and King over his universe, and that he “works all things according to the counsel of his will” (Eph. 1:11). God orders and directs every event, in order to fulfill his purposes, and to bring glory and honor to his name. And nothing—absolutely nothing—is outside of or beyond his sovereign control.

The Heidelberg Catechism addresses the providence or sovereignty of God in answer 27: “The almighty and everywhere present power of God; whereby, as it were by His hand, He upholds and governs heaven, earth, and all creatures; so that herbs and grass, rain and drought, fruitful and barren years, meat and drink, health and sickness, riches and poverty, yea, all things come, not by chance, but by His Fatherly hand.” Note the all-encompassing breadth of God’s providential oversight: Nothing is too big or powerful for God to control—he upholds heaven and earth. Nor is anything too small or insignificant for him to watch over—even tiny herbs and blades of grass do not escape his governance. This is a redundant way to say it, since sovereignty by its very definition is absolute, but God is utterly and completely sovereign over all. 

SOVEREIGNTY NECESSITATES THAT GOD HAS ALL POWER AND AUTHORITY

A. W. Tozer has noted that God’s sovereignty necessarily implies that he possesses all power and all authority. Both are indispensable. “God could never be sovereign without the power to bring about His will or the authority to exercise His power.”^[i] 

“The United Nations is a pathetic example of authority without power. In the Congo, for example, the U.N. stands up and says, ‘We order you to do this and that,’ but the Congolese laugh and say, ‘You and who else?’ and do as they please. Authority without the power to carry out that authority is a joke.”^[ii] God has no such problem, since he has all power, which is why he is called “Almighty” 57 times in the Scriptures. 

Tozer goes on to asks:

[D]oes God have authority? I think it is rather foolish even to discuss it. Can anyone imagine God having to ask permission? Can anybody imagine the great God Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, having to send out a memo to a higher authority and ask, “Might I please roll this star over there, or do something with this galaxy?” To whom would God apply? Who is higher than the highest? Who was there before He was? Who is mightier than the Almighty? At whose throne would God kneel for authority?^[iii]

Of course, to ask such questions is to answer them. God alone is sovereign, since God alone enjoys all power and authority.

WRESTLING TO EMBRACE SOVEREIGNTY    

While God’s sovereignty is plainly taught and implied throughout the Bible, this is not always an easy doctrine to fully embrace at first. It may take struggling and wrestling before we are ready to praise God for his sovereignty. Jonathan Edwards testified about his own struggle with this difficult doctrine in the context of election:

From my childhood up, my mind had been full of objections against the doctrine of God’s sovereignty…. It used to appear like a horrible doctrine to me…. [But] there has been a wonderful alteration in my mind, with respect to the doctrine of God’s sovereignty…. I have often since had not only a conviction, but a delightful conviction. The doctrine has very often appeared exceeding pleasant, bright, and sweet. Absolute sovereignty is what I love to ascribe to God. But my first conviction was not so.^[iv]

It’s been my experience—personally, and as I’ve interacted with others—that the struggle with sovereignty is more emotional than exegetical.  The concept of God’s sovereignty doesn’t usually contradict passages that people can think of; rather it contradicts their inherent notion of fairness, as they are staggered by man’s powerlessness. I can still recall many years ago when I was rocked to the core of my being by the idea of God’s absolute sovereignty. With tears flowing down my face I wept freely as I realized that if loved ones in my family were going to be saved, God—and God alone—had to save them. Yes, I had my part to play, God uses means, such as our witnessing and the preaching of the gospel, but ultimately their eternal destinies were in the hands of God. This can be a very difficult to accept at first, as it was for Jonathan Edwards.

Jesus, on the other hand, never struggled with God’s sovereignty, but instead took great delight in it. We read in Luke 10:21-22: “In that same hour [Jesus] rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, ‘I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.’” This is one of only two passages in the gospels where we’re told that Jesus is glad or rejoices. The other is John 11:14-15, where Jesus says, “‘Lazarus has died, and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe.’” Putting these two passages together, it seems that nothing brings Jesus greater joy than the sovereign work of his Father that begets faith.

A SIMPLE SOVEREIGNTY TEST

Why do we fail to understand such a basic doctrine? I submit to you that too often our thinking is more American than biblical, and more atheistic than Christian. Allow me to give you a brief “sovereignty test.” What do you say when you narrowly miss getting into a terrible car accident by a few inches? “Wow, was I lucky!” Or, when you attend a sporting event with tens of thousands of people in the stands, and you run into a friend you haven’t seen for years, what do you think? “What a coincidence. What are the chances of that happening?” Rest assured that luck, coincidence or chance have no place in a universe governed and controlled by an omniscient, omnipotent, sovereign Lord. 

SOVEREIGN OVER THE SMALLEST DETAIL

Proverbs 16:33 says, “The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the LORD.” Today we would say that God even controls the outcome of the dice that are rolled in Las Vegas. I love this verse, because it shows that nothing is too small or insignificant for God to control. This is important, especially when we realize that “small” things can have enormous consequences. Some of you are familiar with the poem: For want of a nail the shoe was lost; for want of a shoe the horse was lost; for want of a horse the rider was lost; for want of a rider the battle was lost; for want of a battle the war was lost. World history can be altered because of one little seemingly insignificant nail.

            R. C. Sproul once said that one of his childhood heroes, racecar driver Bill Vukovich, was killed in the Indianapolis 500 when he was going around a turn and his car lost control because a 10¢ cotter pin broke. 

In the Battle of Fort Duquesne, during the French and Indian War, a young lieutenant had five horses shot out from underneath him. At one point in the battle, a bullet from an enemy rifle went through one side of his shirt and out the other as it was flapping behind him in the wind, missing his body by mere inches.  The young lieutenant who survived that battle, went on to became the first President of the United States of America. Was George Washington lucky? Or was a sovereign God guiding the flying bullets? If God is not in control of everything, including nails, cotter pins and flying bullets, our lives and this world are spinning out of control, and we are at the mercy of capricious chance. These are our only two options: all is controlled by a sovereign God or chaos rules. If the latter is true, we despair; if the former is true, we can rejoice always.

DON’T LIVE LIKE AN ATHEIST

Explanations of luck, coincidence or chance are how atheists view the “random” happenings of life in a closed universe without God. When we use their rhetoric, we downplay at best, or deny at worse, the loving, personal involvement of God in our daily affairs. Is it any wonder that we don’t immediately thank God for the blessings that graciously come our way, or petition him in prayer the moment tragedy strikes, or ask for strength to resist temptation when we see it headed our way? If we go through our day with little or no thought of God and his active intervention in our lives, we are for all intents and purposes “practical atheists.”

The inspired writers of Scripture did not think in terms of luck, coincidence or chance. Even “natural” events are clearly ascribed to God. Yes, God has set the water cycles in motion, as well as the constellations in their seasons, but the writers prefer to say that God himself leads forth Pleiades, Orion and Mazzaroth in their season (Job 38:31-32); he causes his sun to rise, and he sends the rain (Matt. 5:45). Lightning doesn’t strike autonomously or indiscriminately; our Creator consciously commissions it to strike and determines its exact target (Job 36:32). God “brings forth the wind from his storehouses,” and it blows along the course he designs (Ps. 135:7).  In the Bible, women don’t just “get pregnant;” rather, we read that the Lord opens and closes the womb (Gen. 29:31, 33; 30:1-2, 17, 19, 22). And, Jesus said, it is your heavenly Father who feeds the birds of the air and clothes the grass of the field (Matt. 6:26, 30). It would be impossible to describe a more intimately involved deity than the One we find throughout the pages of Scripture.  

            James warns God’s people, “Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers” (Jam. 1:16). He writes this since Christians do have a terrible tendency to be deceived. “About what?” you ask.  James continues, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change” (v. 17). The picture painted by James is of God personally handing us every good and perfect gift that we have ever or will ever enjoy. Don’t be deceived, God alone is the source of all these blessings.

A little later in the same epistle, James admonished Christians, who had a propensity to drift toward practical atheism: “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make profit’—yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring…. Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.’ As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil” (4:13-16).  The point here is simple, yet profound: Don’t go through life acting as if God isn’t sovereignly in control or has no say in your daily decisions—again, this is how atheists function.

            Proverbs 16:9 states plainly that God may interrupt our plans at any time: “The heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps.” Thus, we should use our day timers and calendars for scheduling, but recognize that they are subject to change at a moment’s notice as God sees fit. We can either get angry and fight this or joyfully submit to God’s sovereignty, understanding that he has wise and loving reasons for disrupting our plans and moving us in a different direction.  

            Since everything that happens to us is under the umbrella of God’s sovereign control, then all of life should be lived in perpetual response to him. If troubles are from him, then we petition him. If blessings are from him, then we thank him (James 5:13-14). A keen comprehension of God’s sovereignty provides the sure foundation for us to enjoy an acute awareness of his loving and personal involvement in every facet of our lives as we face the future he has prepared for us. 

SOVEREIGN COMFORT

In a world of apparent chaos, it is comforting to know that whatever happens to us is not the product of dumb luck, coincidence or chance, but of God’s sovereign decree. Personally, I know of no other doctrine than the sovereignty of God that will provide believers with such solid footing in the worst of times, including the death of a loved one.

It was, by all appearances, an average ordinary sunny afternoon when Job received four successive distressing reports about a raid from the Sabeans, fire from heaven, an attack from the Chaldeans, and a great wind that struck his oldest son’s house, killing his seven sons and three daughters, who were feasting together. In a single day, Job lost the vast majority of his wealth and all of his children. He responded with grief and worship, illustrating that you can praise God through tears beside the fresh grave of a loved one. Job said, “The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD” (Job 1:21b). Job could have said “Satan is responsible for this” or “Our enemies, the Sabeans and the Chaldeans, are the wicked culprits” or “I hate the wind that stole the lives of my children.”  But Job looks beyond all the immediate causes and correctly acknowledges the sovereign hand of God in the tragedies of the day—“the LORD has taken away.” He doesn’t know why God has done this, but apparently he can still trust God, as indicated by his worship of God after the dust settles.     

George Mueller found solace in this doctrine when his wife was dying. He prayed after he discovered that she had rheumatic fever: “Yes, my Father, the times of my darling wife are in Thy hands. Thou wilt do the very best thing for her, and for me, whether life or death. If it may be, raise up yet again my precious wife—Thou are able to do it, though she is so ill; but howsoever Thou dealest with me, only help me to continue to be perfectly satisfied with Thy holy will.”

            It was not God’s will to raise her up again, but Mueller trusted in God’s sovereignty. He said,

I bow, I am satisfied with the will of my Heavenly Father, I seek by perfect submission to his holy will to glorify him, I kiss continually the hand that has afflicted me…. Without an effort my inmost soul habitually joys in the joy of that loved departed one. Her happiness gives joy to me. My dear daughter and I would not have her back, were it possible to produce it by the turn of a hand. God Himself has done it; we are satisfied with Him.^[v]

Since God is sovereign, all that happens to us is his will.^[vi] As a result, we can be certain that he has good and wise purposes behind all that comes our way (Rom. 8:28).

HARMONIZING DIVINE SOVEREIGNTY AND HUMAN RESPONSIBILITY

C. H. Spurgeon was once asked if he could reconcile divine sovereignty and human responsibility. “I wouldn’t try,” he replied; “I never reconcile friends.” One of the first questions that may come to mind when you hear about the sovereignty of God is this: “If God is ordering and directing all events to work out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will (Eph. 1:11), then how can anyone be held responsible for their actions?” At first glance, divine sovereignty and human responsibility seem as incompatible as oil and water. Therefore, our natural inclination is to cling to sovereignty and reject responsibility, or to cling to responsibility and reject sovereignty. This inclination is the result of finite human reasoning, rather than submitting to the infinite wisdom of God’s Word, where both truths are clearly taught to co-exist in perfect harmony.   

            It helps to recognize that we are dealing with an “antinomy.” An antinomy exists when two truths placed side by side seem incompatible with one another. “There are cogent reasons for believing each of them; each rests on clear and solid evidence; but it is a mystery to you how they can be squared with each other. You see that each must be true on its own, but you do not see how they can both be true together.”^[vii]

The Bible does not claim to tell us precisely how divine sovereignty and human responsibility can be mutually compatible; it only insists that they are. Theologians sometimes label this duality compatibilism, since God’s sovereignty and human responsibility are compatible. Without a doubt, we are dealing with mysterious and complex truths here; however, neither truth should be sacrificed for the sake of the other, nor should either truth be softened or watered down. Both are to be asserted and upheld in the most unqualified terms, as they are all throughout God’s Word.

            The Bible is replete with compelling examples which show both truths co-existing harmoniously. The crucifixion of Christ provides an excellent illustration. Jesus told his disciples at the Last Supper, “[The Son of Man goes as it has been determined, but woe to that man by whom he is betrayed!” (Lk. 22:22). In other words, the cross was part of the sovereign plan of God, while, at the same time, Judas will be held accountable for his betrayal of Christ. On the day of Pentecost, Peter said, “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know—this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men” (Acts 2:22-23; see also 4:24-28). Peter recognizes God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility in the death of Christ. God had a purpose in the death of his Son, and wicked men also had a purpose in the death of his Son. Again, we concede that there is a great mystery operating here, but God’s sovereign purposes are interwoven with the evil purposes of men for which they are responsible. However, God’s purposes ultimately prevail; this is what it means to be sovereign. As God himself asserted, “I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose’” (Isa. 46:9b-10).

            Compatibilism is also at the core of Romans 8:28, which is one of the most comforting verses in the Bible during times of tragedy: “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (NIV). Those who love God, and are called of God, can be confident that he is working for their good “in all things.” Not in spite of all things, or after all things, but in all things. As with the crucifixion of Christ, God is at work in the evil events and tragedies of our lives, in order to bring about his good will for us. This is almost unfathomable. It takes a firm, unwavering faith in God’s Word to believe this. 

Throughout Joseph’s thirteen years of hardship, we find the almost dubious phrase: “the LORD was with Joseph” (Gen. 39:2, 3, 21, 23). This terse truth is meant to communicate a great deal. It is designed to remind us, the reader, that the sovereign plan of God to elevate Joseph has not been derailed, despite the apparent evidence to the contrary. This simple statement is also intended to remind God’s people that while at times it may appear that men’s evil intentions are gaining the upper hand, God is right there with them—even when it seems that he has abandoned them—and his intentions are at work as well and are, in fact, prevailing. In our finite minds it’s nearly impossible to comprehend two interwoven intentions operating simultaneously, but this is what the Bible teaches (Gen. 50:20), and what we should believe. Faith is required to see beyond the external circumstances of life into the mysterious ways of God, where He remains sovereign and man remains responsible.

SOVEREIGN CONFIDENCE

If there is one maverick molecule outside of God’s sovereign control, then God’s purposes can be thwarted and “chance” rules the universe. But as Job confidently testified, “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted” (Job 42:2). A calm conviction in the sovereignty of God will enable us to, in the words of Rudyard Kipling, “meet with triumph and disaster and treat those two imposters just the same.” If God has a plan for my life and your life—and he certainly does—then nobody and nothing can sidetrack or derail that plan.  From the womb to the tomb, nothing happens by chance, but by sovereign decree. When we were in our mother’s womb God formed our inward parts and knitted us together as he saw fit for his purposes. And before we were even born and saw the light of day, God had already ordained the days of our lives (Ps. 139:13-16), as well as the time and place where we would live (Acts 17:26). Therefore, from one viewpoint, we are invincible and immortal until God’s work for us is done. Let’s live like it. God is on his sovereign throne, and he never ceases for a moment from working “all things according to the counsel of his will”—for his glory and our everlasting joy (Eph. 1:11-12).

This is my Father’s world,

And to my listening ears

All nature sings, and round me rings

The music of the spheres.

This is my Father’s world:

I rest me in the thought

Of rocks and trees, of skies and seas—

His hand the wonders wrought.

This is my Father’s world:

The birds their carols raise,

The morning light, the lily white,

Declare their Maker’s praise.

This is my Father's world:

He shines in all that’s fair;

In the rustling grass I hear Him pass,

He speaks to me everywhere.

This is my Father’s world:

O let me ne'er forget

That though the wrong seems oft so strong,

God is the Ruler yet.

This is my Father's world:

Why should my heart be sad?

The Lord is King: let the heavens ring!

God reigns; let earth be glad!

            Maltbie D. Babcock