‘Behold, the Lamb
of God’
ide
o amnos tou theou
College Study
56th teaching
12.2.2013
“God’s Sovereignty”
Review:
Thus far in our studies in Theology Proper, a
study of God’s attributes, we’ve considered God’s metaphysical attributes. What
are metaphysical attributes? What’s an example of one?
Then we considered God’s moral attributes. What are moral
attributes? What’s an example of one?
And we concluded the moral attributes of God with a study
of His grace. Last week, then, we kicked off our third and final collection of
God’s attributes, known as the non-moral attributes? What are non-moral
attributes? These neither define what
God is nor do they relate to His moral character, therefore they are non-moral,
not-having-to-do with morals. Notice, that’s not amoral or immoral. God neither
lacks morality nor is He evil. Quite the contrary: our recent studies plumbed
the depths of Scripture to discover that God is all-loving, that He is
all-good, kind, caring, righteous, morally perfect, without sin and impeccable.
Simply, God is good with no darkness at all.
So then, what was our topic last week, the first of these
non-moral attributes? What is a good definition of wisdom? How are wisdom and
knowledge different? What’s the theological term for all-wise? How wise is God?
How can He be all-wise (because He has all-knowledge; omnisapience based on
omniscience)? Who is the wisdom of God? How do you know its Jesus Christ? What
are some similarities between Jesus and the personification of Wisdom in the
book of Proverbs? What is considered by the world to be offensive and foolish?
The Bible encourages us to get wisdom, but how do we get it?
End
of Review
Tonight, we come to a topic which deserves some very
careful consideration. It is a subject which I’ll openly admit has intimidated
and frustrated me, not only over the past few days leading up to this study,
but also many times in my past. It is a subject which, if misunderstood, can
dramatically affect your interpretation of Scripture passages, your school of
thought, your theological headquarters, and the way you live your life. Ideas
have consequences.
In a book by Dr. Norman Geisler, entitled Chosen but Free, he writes about a
pastor who became so depressed over his understanding of God’s Sovereignty to
the point that there was no more free will that he committed suicide.
What Tozer said rings true: “What comes into our minds when
we think about God is the most important thing about us.” How we think about
God, especially in the difficult doctrines, can dramatically affect our lives.
What’s more, we must realize that tonight’s topic is one
which has been a cause for division among many Christians throughout history,
our own fellowship in recent history included. This one subject is part of one
of the oldest problems in the history of theology: how to reconcile God’s
control and man’s responsibility.
Tonight’s study is entitled: “God’s Sovereignty: His Position and Power”.
Look at I Chronicles
29. Here, King David is nearing the end of his reign, and he collects the
materials and the offerings necessary for the future construction of the
temple. Read v.10-14. Clearly, a
major theme of David’s speech here is the sovereignty of God.
As mentioned, the subject of God’s Sovereignty is one which
invites and incites sharp debate. But let us affirm from the beginning of our
study tonight that this is not our intention, to sow discord or to split
friends, Christians or churches. There are many Christians who hold to varying
views on the subject of God’s Sovereignty who remain Christians nonetheless.
So while the problems discussed tonight are theological
problems, they ought not to be ecclesiastical problems, nor relational
problems. The command Jesus gave to His disciples was to love one another, not
to debate the finer points of theology. And we as Christians should be
characterized by what we do (loving others) rather than by what we do not do or
do not agree with. I have brothers and sisters in Christ on both sides of the
debate. And debate is not our intention tonight in an atmosphere of learning.
That being said, I could not teach you if I wasn’t
convinced that there’s both a right and a wrong understanding of God’s
Sovereignty and the problems associated with it. I can only teach you what I am
convinced of by Scripture and plain reason (as Luther said). I can tell you
what others believe, but I can only teach you why I believe what I believe and
how I believe it as according to Scripture.
Our topic tonight then is God’s Sovereignty.
Sovereignty is defined as the authority of a sovereign.
Sovereignty involves the jurisdiction, rule, power, dominion and authority of a
sovereign. When a king rules over his kingdom, he is exercising his authority.
When kings set laws and enforce those laws over the free peoples of their
kingdoms, whether those people choose to obey him or disobey him, he is
exercising authority over his kingdom.
Like other non-moral attributes, immanence and
transcendence, sovereignty is a relational term that describe God’s
relationship of authority over the universe. So when we refer to the
Sovereignty of God, we’re talking about His power to rule, His authority, His position
as King of all kings over all the universe.
The question is: what kind of control is involved?
Is God in absolute control over all things, including our
every thought and action, whether good or sinful, so that God is a cosmic
puppet master putting the lies we say into our mouths and the sins we commit
into our minds?
I heard a poem today which accurately depicts what such a
God would be like: Edward Fitzgerald writes: “'Tis all a Chequer-board of
Nights and Days, Where Destiny with Men for Pieces plays: Hither and thither
moves, and mates, and slays, And one by one back in the Closet lays.”
Is that what God’s Sovereignty makes Him out to be? A cold
and calculating Entity that moves men like game-pieces across a game-board
through history? Are we merely robots crying to the One who made us either “I
love You” or “I reject You” as He so programmed the words into our souls?
Or on the other extreme angle, rather than elevating
sovereignty they elevate free will. Does our capacity to choose form a kind of
revolution against the Sovereign God? Does our free will negate and erase the
Sovereignty of God? Does it denying Him any authority over mankind? Does our
ability to choose “dethrone God and enthrone man” as one commentator put it?
Some groups, known now as Open Theists, have even gone to the extreme of saying
that our free will is so free that
God cannot even know our free choices, that our free will has in fact blocked
the omniscient foreknowledge of God.
So you have the two extremes, the two views. Our aim is to
discover which the Bible holds to, though it shall become clear that the Bible
strikes right down the middle. The Scripture teaches that God is sovereign, but
it also shows that man can choose to obey or disobey. The Scripture teaches that
God controls all things, but it also shows that man is responsible for his
actions. The Scripture expounds the authority of God and at the same time
pleads upon the fact of man’s free will. Both extremes are included and
moderated and balanced out in the Word of God.
So let’s discover first what the Bible says about God’s
Sovereignty, then we’ll break it down and discover what these verses are saying:
1.
Biblical Basis for God’s
Sovereignty
Right at the outset, let’s have
our Project Scriptura verses.
Now God is both Sovereign by position and Sovereign by
power. He has the throne and authority to rule and the power to control.
Imagine a king who had the position of a sovereign but no power. He would look
something like the King of Hearts out of Disney’s Alice in Wonderland. A weasley, pathetic little shrimp with no real
‘oomph’ in his authority, no power in his words.
On the flip side, imagine a king who had no position of
sovereign but who exercised that kind of power. He’d resemble something a lot
less humorous and a lot grimmer, like the French revolutionaries depicted in
Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities
who overthrew the French authorities and began a wanton and bloody crusade that
involved the murder of thousands at the guillotine.
But God is both Sovereign ruler by position and by power.
He is neither a helpless figurehead nor an uprising rebel. He has the throne
and He has the ability to rule from it. Let’s look at these closer.
2.
Sovereign by Position
Who had Bible verses that
referred to God’s position as Sovereign?
God is Sovereign by Position.
Consider these verses and the phrases in them.
Turn to Genesis 14:18-20.
Here, this enigmatic figure known as Melchizedek comes and blesses Abram (later
Abraham). And several times this new name for God is mentioned: God Most High.
It says that Melchizedek was a priest of God Most High.
In Hebrew this name of God is pronounced El Elyon. It means exactly what the
translators put it down as in English, that God is the Highest of All, the
greatest and most supreme of all beings. He is superior and vastly far above,
transcendent over everything. The Hebrew phrase can also refer to mundane
objects: that this object is above that object: this basket is above this
table. When applied to God, El Elyon
means that God is above all else in
importance, in eminence, in greatness and in His Sovereign position.
Anselm of Canterbury wrote: “God is that than which nothing
greater can be conceived.” There is nothing greater than God Most High.
So El Elyon
reminds of that God is the Most High, exalted far above all other things
positionally sovereign.
Also, notice another title for God, namely that God is the
Creator. Ecclesiastes 12:1 says “Remember now your Creator in the days of your youth…” The prophet
says “Have you not known? Have you not
heard? The everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth,
neither faints nor is weary” Isaiah
40:28. Romans 1:25 says that unbelievers and rejecters of God’s truth have
“exchanged the truth of God for the lie,
and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, Who is blessed
forever.”
Scripture resounds with depictions of God as the Creator.
And if God is Creator than He produced all things created and all creatures are
His therefore by creative right. If you make something and produce something,
we naturally and automatically assume that this thing is yours. If we had
playdough lying around here (which we should), we would automatically say “Look
at Armando’s octopus” if he had made an octopus, “Look at Blythe’s dog she
made”, “Look at Christopher’s Venus de Milo”.
Point being: since God created the universe than He is the
rightful owner of it. Psalm 24:1, “The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in
it, the world, and all who live in it.”
So God is Sovereign by position according to one of His
names: El Elyon, and one of His
titles: the Creator. God is thirdly Sovereign by position because His
importance as the Sustainer of all things.
Colossians 1:17
says “And He is before all things, and in
Him all things consist.” Hebrews 1:3
says Christ upholds “all things by the
word of His power…” Revelation 4:11,
“You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory
and honor and power; for You created all things, and by Your will they exist
and were created.”
Simply, the universe exists because of God and the universe
continues to exist because of God. The Lord upholds and sustains and keeps the
universe together. Without this transcendent position over the universe, there
would be nothing left.
History remembers, vaguely, the first king to ever adopt
the title of “king of kings” as far as we know. This was King Tukulti-Ninurta I
of Assyria. Ever heard of him? Didn’t think so. That’s cause he’s been dead for
three thousand years. He’s so old they didn’t even have cameras to take
pictures of him, so I found a picture of a mace with his name on it.
So this Tukulti-Ninurta I called himself “king of kings”,
when in reality he and his kingdom have been long gone. Truly, there is only
one King of kings and “of his kingdom
there shall be no end” (Luke 1:33);
“For His dominion is an everlasting
dominion…” (Daniel 4:34). God is
Sovereign by position. He has the right to rule His dominion.
No wonder that the most common title for God in Scripture
is the title Lord. God is the Master,
the King, the Lord of all.
3.
Sovereign by Power
Who had Bible verses for Project Scriptura which referred
to God’s power as Sovereign?
Ecclesiastes 8:4,
Solomon writes: “Where the word of a king
is, there is power; and who may say to him, ‘What are you doing?’” We are
unused to royalty here in America, but it is clear that you don’t question
kings, you obey them.
Similarly, Job 9:12 says
“If [God] takes away, who can hinder Him? Who can say to Him, ‘What are You
doing?’” Being a king carries
certain authority and power to enforce his own will. A king has the power to
grant freedom or to take life.
God’s Sovereignty is related to His omnipotence,
His all-powerfulness. God rules because He can rule, He has the power and
ability to rule. God has all-authority because He has all-power. No one is
stronger than He. No one can resist Him. No one can fight against Him and hope
for victory.
One of the central themes of the Book of Job is the Sovereignty of God. Job was
allowed to suffer some terrible things at the direct hand of Satan but by the
permission of God. I once talked with a man who told me that Job was about God gambling with a man’s
life. While I definitely do not see that (God cannot gamble if He already knows
the outcome), there is clear proof within the Book of Job that what Job suffered was what God allowed him to suffer
within a set limit and for a specific purpose.
But considering Sovereignty as its central theme, look over
at Job 41. For the past few
chapters, God speaks directly to Job out of a whirlwind. Job had been wrestling
with his current predicament and had begun to cling to his own righteousness
while at the same time beginning to question God. What God does is He begins to
question Job, and with each question it becomes clearer and clearer that God is
in a far superior position as Sovereign. God had the wisdom to form the
universe. God had the knowledge to order the universe. God had the power to
make and fill the universe.
And so God brings before Job the constellations, the
animals, the waters, the earth and asks Job “Did you make these? Did you form
them? Did you order them?” To which Job finds himself feeling less righteous in
the face of God’s Sovereignty.
But in Job 41,
God brings forth the final illustration of His Sovereignty over creation by
showing Job one of His ultimate creative works: the Leviathan. (Read 41:1-11)
Jon Courson even suggests that the Leviathan is a representation
of Satan, that the one who originally brought Job low is here now presented and
paraded before Job as a part of God’s lesson on His Sovereignty over all creation, including even the Devil.
Incredible thought, but the point is clear. God is more powerful than man, more
powerful than even the Devil. God is powerful enough to make the heavens and to
form the earth and to create all the multitudinous life-forms we see.
Jeremiah 32:27,
“Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all
flesh. Is there anything too hard for Me?” Matthew 19:26, “…but with God
all things are possible.” Daniel 4:35,
“All the inhabitants of the earth are
reputed as nothing; He does according to His will in the army of heaven and
among the inhabitants of the earth. No one can restrain His hand or say to Him,
‘What have You done?’” Psalm 115:3,
“But our God is in heaven and He does
whatever He pleases.”
Now this can be either intensely frightening or incredibly
comforting, to believe that God can do whatever He wants without anybody being
able to stop Him. It can be intensely frightening if you do not know the character of God. And what is the character
of God? I John 4:16 says “God is Love”. What is a primary
characteristic of God’s moral personality? That He loves. As we’ve studied over
these many weeks: God is good, kind, loving, affectionate and passionate. And
that’s what makes this doctrine of God’s Sovereignty a comfort rather than a
fear.
With good reason do Christians say “God is still in
control” to comfort one another in troubled times.
God is not some horrible tyrant. God does not abuse His
Sovereignty for wickedness and evil deeds, as has been the case of so many
human sovereigns throughout our history. Rather, God is a loving King. And so
the Sovereignty of God, remember, is always balanced out by the King’s Wisdom,
Knowledge, Justice, Righteousness, Perfection, Goodness and Love.
His attributes work in harmony and Sovereignty is no
exception to that rule. We can trust that whatever our God allows or decrees to
come to pass, He has allowed or decreed out of the abundance of all of His
attributes, out of goodness, love, justice and wisdom. God doesn’t make bad
decisions.
But, and this is a big but,
there are two problems that the concept of a Sovereign God presents.
The first is the Problem of Evil. If God is in control of
all things, then whence comes evil? How can evil exist if an all-powerful,
all-loving God reigns? Where did it come from if God made all things? If God
does all that He sovereignly pleases, then why is there evil in the world, why
are some humans not going to be saved?
Secondly, there is the Dilemma of Free Will. If God is in
control of all things, then do human beings have any free will at all? If God
orchestrates, ordains and causes all things to come to pass, then how could any
of us make choices at all, if God chooses what kind of choices we’re making? If
that’s so, then you cannot say that we have free will. As Geisler writes: “If
God is sovereign, how then can we be free? Does not divine sovereignty make a
sham of human responsibility? Does not a sovereign God pull the strings of
human “puppets” at His will?” Like the pieces on a colossal checker-board…
I was reminded of the excellent quote by the ever-eloquent
C.S. Lewis: “If you choose to say, 'God can give a creature free will and at
the same time withhold free will from it,' you have not succeeded in saying
anything about God: meaningless combinations of words do not suddenly acquire
meaning simply because we prefix to them the two other words, 'God can.'”
Lewis’ point is that there are intrinsic impossibilities,
things which in and of themselves are impossible because they are
self-contradictory, which even God cannot do. Nonsense remains nonsense even if
we speak it of God.
So we know and understand that there must be a resolution
for these problems. We ought to have matured enough in the Christian faith to
recognize that God is not magic. God could not magically wish away sin and
forgive it automagically, as we discussed last week. Neither can God just
magically give free will and then control our every movement and thought and
still call it free. That’s a
contradiction of terms.
Now in order to grant sufficient time and consideration to
these two immense issues before us: the Problem of Evil and the Dilemma of Free
Will, we’re going to unfortunately have to consider them next week, when they
can form the bulk of our session together.
So then, what have we learned tonight. We have learned that
God is definitely Sovereign both by position and by power. He has the authority
to rule and the ability to rule. That God is Sovereign is definitely clear from
Scripture.
The question I’d like to leave you with is the one we
mentioned earlier: Does the Sovereignty of God terrify or pacify you? Does the
Sovereignty of God fill you with fear or with peace? Does the Sovereignty of
God incite your resentment or does it stir up your faith? Does the Sovereignty
of God depress or excite you?
I would suggest that your response to those questions all
depend on just Who you think this God person is, anyways. And that’s what it
comes down to. That’s the thrust of these studies: who is God?
Will
you choose to trust the God that is in control of the universe, who allows
things to happen in your life for the reasons determined by His wisdom and
knowledge and decreed by His love and righteousness? Out of all the debates
surrounding God’s Sovereignty, I believe this is something that everyone should
be able to agree upon, that our King rules, yes, but that the King is also our
Father, who loves us and cares for us. And more so than any earthly father
we’ve ever had, God our Father can be trusted above all us because of the very
God that He is.
God is in charge. Make your bed and sleep in it,
comfortably.
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