The Certainty of God’s Sovereignty
From TABLETALK
Things happen because God orders them to happen, orders them to happen before they happen, and orders them to happen in the way that they happen. This is a statement of God’s complete sovereignty.
Take Job, for example. In response to one of life’s unimaginable tragedies, losing all ten of his children in one day, Job exclaimed: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:21). And when Satan inflicted Job with a disease, Job’s response to his wife is sublime: “Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?” (2:10).
It may appear absurd to some that Job expressed no anger at the loss of his children or the disease that brought him to within an inch of his life: “My bones stick to my skin and to my flesh, and I have escaped by the skin of my teeth” (19:20). How could he be so seemingly composed? The Apostle James points out Job’s “steadfastness” under trial (James 5:11). Though Job would lose his composure as the trial evolved, his faith in God’s complete sovereignty kept him calm and resolute, initially at least. Job lived his life under the dome of God’s complete control of all events. He believed in a world where God’s sovereignty was total. Events occur “according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will” (Eph. 1:11). Or, to quote Paul again: “For those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose” (Rom. 8:28).
What does it mean to live under the dome of Ephesians 1:11 or Romans 8:28? It means peace and security even during hard times. The possibility of assurance that we have “an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for [us]” (1 Peter 1:4). This view of total divine causality, one that is perfectly compatible with human responsibility and action, brings about a “peace . . . that surpasses all understanding” and guards both our hearts and minds amid all kinds of trials (Phil. 4:7).
Outside this dome, there is uncertainty and confusion. Nothing is sure. We can be driving along the interstate highway and read a sign that says, “God is not in control between exit 48 and exit 53.” What would you do? God’s sovereignty does not guarantee that we will never make sinful choices or never be the victim of what appears to be a random act. We live in a world where there exists true creaturely agency. We make choices all day long: what clothes we wear, what food we order from a menu, when to go to bed, and when to rise from it. But all these are decisions made under the umbrella of God’s fatherly disposition and upholding of all events and actions. That is what Ephesians 1:11 and Romans 8:28 insist on.
This is the worldview that Joseph lived by. When his brothers sold him into a life of slavery and false imprisonment in Egypt, he told them: “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good” (Gen. 50:20). There was human agency involved in the deliberate choices of his brothers. But there was also divine superintendence ensuring a definite outcome—“to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.” God’s sovereign hand ensured that when famine struck the land of the patriarchs, there would be a welcoming embrace of this covenant family in Egypt, thereby ensuring the continuation of God’s redemptive purposes.
This view of total divine causality, one that is perfectly compatible with human responsibility and action, brings about a “peace that surpasses all understanding.”
It is the worldview of King Jehoshaphat when he prayed: “You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations. In your hand are power and might, so that none is able to withstand you” (2 Chron. 20:6). In the frenzied world of international politics, no one lives outside God’s control.
It is the worldview that records the death of Ahab, the king of Israel, who attempted to thwart the deadly prediction of the prophet Micaiah and went into battle along with Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, disguising himself so that no one would recognize him. Yet a seemingly random shot struck the king: “But a certain man drew his bow at random and struck the king of Israel between the scale armor and the breastplate” (1 Kings 22:34). It was a lucky shot. It was a fatal shot. It was a divinely ordered shot.
It is the worldview taught by Jesus when He extended God’s sovereignty to include the death of sparrows and the hairs on our heads: “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered” (Matt. 10:29–30).
It is the worldview of the Apostle Paul when he said about Christ:
For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. (Col. 1:16–17)
The term translated “hold together” suggests a doctrine of complete providence. All events happen according to the will of Christ. It is the worldview of the prophet Isaiah when he records of God:
“I am the Lord, and there is no other,
besides me there is no God;
I equip you, though you do not know me,
that people may know, from the rising of the sun
and from the west, that there is none besides me;
I am the Lord, and there is no other.
I form light and create darkness;
I make well-being and create calamity;
I am the Lord, who does all these things.” (Isa. 45:5–7)
It is the worldview of Solomon when he pondered the mathematics of chance occurrences: “The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord” (Prov. 16:33). From a human point of view, events may appear fortuitous, but from a divine point of view they are not. It is the worldview of Jeremiah when he lamented:
Who has spoken and it came to pass,
unless the Lord has commanded it?
Is it not from the mouth of the Most High
that good and bad come? (Lam. 3:37–38)
The Lord ordains and brings to pass good and bad things. The Westminster Confession of Faith puts it this way:
God, from all eternity, did, by the most wise and holy counsel of his own will, freely, and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass: yet, so as thereby neither is God the author of sin, nor is violence offered to the will of the creatures; nor is the liberty or contingency of second causes taken away, but rather established. (3.1)
This is complete sovereignty with three caveats: God is not the author of sin. God ordains free agency. God allows for the attribution of events to more than one cause, though ultimately it is His own will.
“But I don’t understand,” you may protest. You are in good company. Even John Calvin admitted as much. In his commentary on Romans, written early in his ministry when he had been evicted from Geneva, he wrote that “the predestination of God is indeed a labyrinth from which the mind of man can by no means extricate itself.” Care is needed when thinking about God’s sovereignty. But we cannot avoid thinking about it and drawing strength from it, for “the Holy Spirit,” Calvin wrote, “has taught us nothing but what it behooves us to know. . . . Let this then be our sacred rule, to seek to know nothing concerning it, except what Scripture teaches us; when the Lord closes his holy mouth, let us also stop the way, that we may go no further.” The lesson that Job learned, when he laid his hand across his mouth (Job 40:4), was that it wasn’t important for him to understand the ways of God; it was important only that Job trust Him. And it is in Job’s final statement that we glimpse how he had grasped this truth:
“I know that you can do all things,
and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.
‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’
Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand,
things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.
‘Hear, and I will speak;
I will question you, and you make it known to me.’
I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear,
but now my eye sees you;
therefore I despise myself,
and repent in dust and ashes.” (42:2–6)
God’s sovereignty is a matter for praise and worship. Without it, we are doomed to endless uncertainty and hopelessness. Underneath this dome, there is tranquility.
Dr. Derek W.H. Thomas is a Ligonier Ministries teaching fellow and Chancellor’s Professor of Systematic and Pastoral Theology at Reformed Theological Seminary. He is author of many books, including Strength for the Weary and Let Us Worship God.
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