The God We Worship Is... Sovereign

This is ninth in a series called The God We Worship Is…

The sovereignty of God is usually the attribute most hotly contested amongst modern evangelicals today. It refers to His absolute dominion and freedom in relation to the world He created, to His absolute right to rule and reign over all of creation. This is seen in the whole of Scripture, beginning with Genesis 1:1: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth”. Because God is Creator of all things, He is sovereign over all things. He is unlike the Greek pantheon, where each god has his own domain. He is unlike Zeus, who is god of the sky and thunder. He is unlike Poseidon, god of the sea and storms. He is unlike Hades, the god of death. Rather, God alone is God of the sky and thunder, of the sea and storms, of life and death – He is God of all.

He is sovereign over His creation. He alone is the One who commands the morning and tells the dawn its place (Job 38:12), who tells the sea to come this far and go no further (Job 38:8-11), declaring the end from the beginning (Isa 46:10). He is the origin and the guiding hand behind everything. Though He makes use of secondary causes, God remains the sovereign first cause. The plants flower according to His order and the sky brings forth rain and shine according to His command, to give new life and season to the world. He is sovereign even over the Devil, who was created by Him before his fall – the Devil serves His plans. As Calvin said, the universe is the theatre for God to sovereignly display His glory, something that Sproul picked up on, declaring that there is not one molecule in this universe outside the scope of God’s sovereign control.

He is sovereign also over mankind and history. All of history is controlled by His hands and everything unfolds according to His sovereign decree. The wickedness of Man continues, but they continue according to God’s sovereign plan. There is no man more wicked than what God allows, and no man more upright than what God permits. All things are comprehended within God’s sovereignty. Man is free, simply because he reflects God who is free – Man is as free as he can be as a creature and God is as free as He can be as Creator. God’s freedom stands above and beyond Man’s freedom, superseding it and governing it. After all, did Joseph not say that the evil his brothers meant, God meant for good (Gen 50:20)?

He is sovereign over salvation as well. He predestined us for salvation before the foundation of the world (Eph 1:4), has mercy on whom He will have mercy (Rom 9:15), draws His own people to Himself (John 6:44), has a sheep who will hear His voice (John 10:27). God is free to save and He demonstrated this absolute freedom in electing people that He was not obliged to save.

So why does sovereignty matter?

It matters because we know that God is in control. What a comfort this is, especially in a world of chaos and disorder! When the struggles of life and cares of the world begin to assail us, we know that our God remains outside of our turmoil and sovereign over our anguish. Like Spurgeon, we can say that the sovereignty of God is the pillow upon which every believer can rest his weary head. Because God is sovereign, we can trust that all things will work out for our good (Rom 8:28). Only a sovereign God can promise that!

It matters also because we know that God will save His people. The number of the elect has been eternally decided within the eternal mind of God. On Judgment Day, that same number will be presented by the Spirit through the Son to the Father as a holy and complete people. It will be precisely that number God has elected, nothing more and nothing less. The rebellious wills and hard hearts of Man cannot thwart God’s saving purposes. In salvation He does not remove our wills and hearts, but recreates them, because God is sovereign over our wills and hearts! When we preach the gospel therefore, we can be assured that the burden of conversion is not on us. Rather, we preach the gospel to all men, believing that God is sovereign and will save all of His people chosen before the foundation of the world. There is not a single person too far fallen nor too far hardened that the sovereign God cannot save. God will save His people.

It also matters because everything now has meaning. If God was not sovereign over all and guiding all things to its intended end, then there is no meaning to anything whatsoever. But because God is sovereign, He has an intention for the world, time and space. Everything that we do, every job we perform, every small and minute thing that falls into place within history, all find their meaning in the sovereign plan of God. We may look at tragedy and evil and weep, but unlike the unbeliever, we can say, “There is a meaning and a sense to this tragedy and evil.” We may not see it now, but in faith we trust that all things, whether good or wicked, go towards God’s good and holy intention.

Finally, it matters because God does not need your permission. He is sovereign – His is the absolute right to do whatever He wants with your life. All humans are not their own and the Christian doubly so. For all humans belong to God as His creation and all Christians belong to God twice as His recreation. He does not come to us for counsel and permission to do anything with us. Rather, we are commanded to joyfully submit to all that He sovereignly brings about, precisely because we know that He sovereignly brings about our good for His glory. Our chief end is to glorify Him and enjoy Him forever (WSC #1). And since God’s primary concern is for His own glory (Isa 42:8), He does not need our permission to use us for His glory; after all, in this way, He is using us for the chief end for which He created us.

All praise be to Father, Son and Holy Spirit, from whom through whom by whom all things sovereignly come!

There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry: “Mine!”

• Abraham Kuyper