Sovereignty of God
by David Dunlap
The blazing African sun beat down upon the
crowded Arab marketplace as women busily bartered with the merchants. The
bustling walkways were lined with storekeepers selling their wares, as the
children played nearby. The air was filled with the pungent smell of spices,
and the confusing din of a thousand voices. Amid these dusty streets teeming
with people, a pregnant woman began to slowly make her way across a wide
thoroughfare. Suddenly, there was a great noise and commotion in the
marketplace, and in an instant, an out-of-control wagon, being pulled by a team
of horses in full gallop, raced through the marketplace. Without warning, the
team of horses trampled down the helpless woman with tremendous force.
Immediately, a crowd began to gather to see what had happened. The driver, now
realizing what he had done, brought the horses to an abrupt stop. While
looking at the woman lying dead on the ground, he said with callous
indifference, "It was the will of Allah", and continued on his way. To many,
this account describes their view of the sovereignty of God. To them, God's
actions are arbitrary, capricious, and often unjust. Their attitude is
"whatever will be, will be". No matter what happens, it is God's will. This
is the fatalistic view of God. Such a God will be feared, but how can He be
loved? If He cannot be loved, how can He be trusted?
Divine Sovereignty and the Attributes of God
Thankfully, the Bible does not present such a
view of God's sovereignty. The Bible presents God as both infinitely
all-powerful and infinitely good. God's goodness, justice, mercy, grace, and
His numerous other attributes meet together to form the righteous and holy
sovereign actions of God. God's sovereignty may sometimes involve testing in
the form of calamity and trials, but never without love, faithfulness, and
compassion. His sovereign will may appear for the moment to be without purpose
or sense, yet the ways of God are always perfect. He is a God whom we can
trust, love, and worship for His sovereign will. While sovereignty is surely
to be believed by all who love sound doctrine, it must not be understood to be
exercised in conflict with God's attributes, such as love, justice, truth, and
immutability. Some have erred in this respect and have raised sovereignty to
such a level that all the attributes of God become secondary, thereby causing
discord in the nature of God. The sovereignty of God can never be exercised in
expense to His divine nature, which is love (1 Jn. 4:8). Concerning this
conflict, Dr. James Orr, general editor of the International Standard Bible
Encyclopedia, writes,
"Calvin exalts the sovereignty of God, and this is right, but errs in placing
his root-ideas of God in the sovereign will rather than in love."
(1)
Divine Sovereignty and the Goodness of God
The biblical principle that God is good and
does good applies to His sovereign actions. God's nature and His holy purposes
cannot be divorced; for God will not act contrary to His holy nature.
Scripture reveals that God's mercy, goodness, grace, and compassion all
undergird His sovereign purposes and will. Abraham echoed this very principle,
when he said,
"Shall not the judge of all the earth do right?"
(Gen. 18:25). Even when affliction and suffering are God's divine will, it too
is ruled by His
"compassion and unfailing love".
Jeremiah the prophet explains,
"Though He brings grief, He will show compassion, so great is His unfailing
love. For He does not willingly bring affliction or grief to the children of
men"
(Lam. 3:33). Theologians have called this linking of God's sovereign rule
with God's infinite goodness the doctrine of
"providence".
Providence is divine care, sustenance, and love, and His sovereign rule over
creation for His glory and the good of man. The two-fold goal of providence is
the glory of God and the good of His people. God never pursues His glory at
the expense of the good of His people, nor does He ever seek our good at the
expense of His glory. He has designed His eternal purpose so that His glory
and our good are inseparably yoked together.
Divine Sovereignty and the Wisdom of God
All God's sovereign actions are also rooted
in His infinite wisdom. God's wisdom enables Him to direct every act that
occurs upon the world stage into a perfect plan that accomplishes His divine
purpose. God is the master of every situation. Man can be frustrated by
circumstances outside of his control, but this is never true of God. There is
never a situation, problem, or difficulty which can ever frustrate the wisdom
of God. His sovereign actions are advanced by His unbounded omnipotence and
ruled by His infinite wisdom. The Psalmist has said,
"Great is our God, and of great power: His understanding is infinite"
(Ps. 147:5). His ways are infinitely perfect. No act of God is flawed,
marred, or suspect. No decision of God can ever be improved upon. We may not
understand the ways of God, yet they remain rooted in perfect wisdom. It is
not our place to raise doubts about our
"God only wise",
but rather to bow in worshipful submission. The psalmist writes of the works
of God,
"O Lord, how manifold are Thy works! In wisdom hast Thou made them all: the
earth is full of Thy riches"
(Ps. 104:24).
The Biblical Scope of Divine Sovereignty
The doctrine that God is sovereign in His
created universe is a truth that must be believed by all Christians. That God
is sovereign means that He is the highest and greatest, exalted above all. He
is omnipotent and controls everything, working everything according to His
eternal plan and purpose (Eph. 1:11). The Bible states that God is eternal,
self-existent, self-sufficient, unchanging, all-powerful, all-knowing and He
alone stands unequaled, above all.
"For Thou, Lord, are high above all the earth: Thou art exalted far above all
gods"
(Ps. 97:9). Since God is infinite, His rule must be absolute. His rule must
involve total control of everything in His creation--every circumstance, every
situation, every event. God's sovereignty means that He either directly causes
or consciously permits all that happens in human history. God claims full
responsibility for establishing and removing human rulers. God, according to
His holy character, has the right to do those things that please Him (Ps.
115:3). Yet we must never forget that those things that please Him most are
marked by love, mercy, and justice. God is in complete control, and yet He does
not manipulate people like mere puppets. He gives them the dignity and freedom
to make decisions and holdsthem responsible for their choices. Those decisions
may bring to pass untold misery and suffering, and yet God allows it. However,
through divine omniscience God knows every choice that man would make, and
through divine sovereignty He takes those choices and uses them to serve His
purposes. In this way, God has complete control over every decision and
action, and man has the freedom to make decisions. However, where divine
wisdom deems it best, He will overrule man's decisions in order to accomplish
His own matchless purposes. Only an omnipotent God can take man's choices and
the suffering that follows and cause them to ultimately serve His sovereign and
perfect will. God does not always allow man's sinful actions to run their full
and natural evil course, but He intervenes and overrules. Moreover, we should
not question God's sovereignty, but rather yield to the good and perfect will
of God.
Divine Sovereignty and the Scope of Man's Free Will
However, some have wrongly concluded that if
God is absolutely sovereign, then man does not have a free will. It is thought
that man can only act insomuch as God will allow him to act, and that man must
act only as God desires. Therefore, according to this view, man cannot resist
the sovereign will and desires of God. This view may strike us as biblical and
logical; however, Scripture does not seem to support this view. Moreover,
Scripture emphasizes that God has sovereignly granted to man the ability to
make free choices. This is not man usurping God's role in the world, but this
is God's sovereign design and purpose for man in the world. Man could not make
free choices except that it was given by God. This principle is stated by our
Lord Himself in His interview with Pilate before the crucifixion. Pilate
charges the Lord,
"Do You not know that I have power to crucify You, and have power to release
You?"
Jesus answers,
"You could have no power at all against Me, except it were given to you from
above..."
(John 19:11). Pilate thought that his ability to make free decisions was a
personal right. Our Lord rightly corrects Pilate and states that the ability
to make free choices is from God--"it is given from above". Frequently
throughout Scripture we see man acting in defiance to God's desires. This
ability is granted to man from God. King Solomon in the book of Proverbs
declares,
"For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord: They
would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof"
(Prov. 1:29). God has not determined and caused all things to come to pass as
they do. God exercises sovereign control in the world; but within this
control, He permits certain events and purposes others. It is of great
importance to carefully distinguish between these two aspects of God's
sovereignty. For this reason, the sinful consequences of man's will must never
be attributed to God. The Word of God clearly states that all sinful
temptations, the acts of the flesh, wars, lust, killings, and the misery that
results because of sin are not caused by God, but by the free choices of man
(James 4:1). The Word of God carefully sets forth both the infinite sovereignty
of God and human responsibility. God is sovereign, and yet in this infinite
sovereignty, God has granted to man a free will. To detract from either of
these truths is to detract from the fullness of the Word of God. A proper
biblical balance between the two must be rigorously sought and maintained.
Respected author A. W. Tozer strikes this proper biblical balance between the
sovereignty of God and man's free will when he writes,
"God sovereignly decreed that man should be free to exercise moral choice, and
man from the beginning has fulfilled that decree by making his choice between
good and evil. When he chooses to do evil, he does not thereby countervail the
sovereign will of God but fulfills it, inasmuch as the eternal decree decided
not which choice the man should make but that he should be free to make it. If
in His absolute freedom God has willed to give limited freedom, whois there to
stay His hand or say, 'What doest Thou?' Man's will is free because God is
sovereign. A God less than sovereign could not bestow moral freedom upon His
creatures. He would be afraid to do so."
(2)
Dr. Norman Geisler adds further clarity, writing,
"Human freedom is not contrary to God's sovereignty. God sovereignly gave man
his freedom by creating him a free creature, and God sovereignly continues to
allow man to exercise his freedom moment by moment in existence. Thus the
sovereignty of God is not thwarted by human freedom but glorified by human
freedom. For God gave man free will, He sustains man so he can act freely, and
he brings about all his purposes without violating man's free will."
(3)
The scholar and gifted preacher C. H. Spurgeon draws together the importance
of these two lines of biblical truth:
"Man is a free agent, a responsible agent, so that his sin is his own wilful
sin and it lies fully with him and never with God, and yet at the same time
God's purposes are fulfilled, and His will is done even by demons and corrupt
men--I cannot comprehend it : without hesitation I believe it, and rejoice so
to do, I never hope to comprehend it...I worship a God I never expect to
comprehend."
(4)
Finally, the doctrine of the sovereignty
of God must never provide man with excuses. Systems of theology may give
reasons to do so, but not the Word of God. For no man can deny full
responsibility for his actions, claiming that he was irresistibly led by God;
for God never does violence to the free will which He has graciously given to
man. God's sovereignty and man's freedom dwell side by side in such a way that
the former does not force itself upon the latter; but in some cases He does
overrule for His highest eternal purpose. In a future day we will see that
mankind, in complete freedom, in uncoerced decisions, has been working out
God's eternal divine plan. How can this be brought to pass? It is only by and
through a sovereign God who is characterized by infinite power, wisdom, love,
and goodness.
"O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How
unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out!..."
(Rom. 11:33-36).
Endnotes
(1) James Orr, The Progress of Dogma, (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1952), p. 292
(2) A. W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy, (New York, NY: Harpers and Row
Publishers, 1961) , p. 118
(3) Norman Geisler, Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, (Grand Rapids, MI :
Baker , 1986), p. 429
(4) C. H. Spurgeon, Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, vol. 16, (London:
Passmore & Alabaster, 1907), p. 501
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"C. H. Spurgeon was approached by a young man who laboring to reconcile the
apparent conflict between the sovereignty of God and human freedom. So he
asked, "Sir, how do you reconcile the sovereignty of God with the free will of
man?" Mr. Spurgeon replied, "My good man, I never try to reconcile good
friends."
C. H. Spurgeon
(1834-1893)
"God's sovereignty is always to His people in wisdom and in love. This is the
difference between sovereignty in God and sovereignty in man. We dread the
sovereignty in man, because we have no security of its being exercised in
mercy, or even justice; we rejoice in the sovereignty of God, because we are
sure it is always exercised for the good of His people."
Alexander Carson
"Confidence in God",
Baker, 1978
"When we turn to the sacred page of God's word, we find truth, not one side of
truth, but the whole of truth in all its bearings. We find, lying side by side,
the truth of divine sovereignty and human responsibility. Are we called to
reconcile them? No, they are reconciled already because they are both set
forth in the word of God."
C. H. Macintosh
(1820-1896)
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