THE SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD
A Brief Exposition On The Seventh
Question Of the
David Scott Petrie
© 2002 dp
"Very
nice work... well conceived and clearly written."
-D Kelly, Ph.D
Reformed Theological
Seminary
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Intro
I. The Sovereignty of God
Defined
II. The
III. The Decrees of God
IV. His Eternal Purpose
V. The Counsel of His Will
VI. For His Own Glory
VII. Foreordained
Whatsoever Comes To Pass
VIII. Conclusion
Bibliography
“Although the sovereignty of God
is universal and absolute, it is not the sovereignty of blind power. It is coupled with infinite wisdom, holiness,
and love. And this doctrine, when
properly understood, is a most comforting and reassuring
one.
Who would not prefer to have his
affairs in the hands of a God of infinite power, wisdom, holiness, and
love, rather than to have them left to fate or chance, or irrevocable natural
law, or to shortsighted and perverted self?
Those who reject God’s sovereignty should consider what alternatives
they have left”.
(Loraine Boettner,
The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination, p. 32)
THE SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD
A
Brief Exposition On The Seventh Question of The
Perhaps the most neglected doctrine in the evangelical church
today is the doctrine of God. Just as
the Bible starts with God, any study of theology must start with God. In fact, it is upon this doctrine that our
faith will stand or fall. It was John
Calvin who compared the Scriptures to “ a pair of eyeglasses”, in that through the written Word of God we
may be able to have a correct view of our life, purpose, and the world around
us. Well, in very much the same way, the
only way to gain a clear understanding of the various doctrines found in
scripture is to first have a correct understanding of the nature of God
Himself. Unfortunately, in the mind of
many in the church today, there seems to be a struggle between God’s
sovereignty and man’s responsibility. Although I do see great danger in over
emphasizing one side and neglecting the other, the intent of this essay is to
focus on the sovereignty of our God, to glorify the One who rightly sits on the
throne.
We can ask ourselves ‘who’s in charge, God or man?’; ‘can dead men believe?’ or ‘does Jesus save,
or does He make salvation possible?’ It
was perhaps best said by Steve Brown, a noted Reformed theologian and Bible
teacher, who once remarked; “we are to work like an Arminian, yet trust like a
Calvinist”. Amen! May we assume our responsibility to our Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ to seek and save the lost, from first having
confidence in the sovereignty of our God.
May we know Him to love Him;
may we love Him to serve Him; may
we serve Him to glorify Him. Amen.
I.
THE SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD DEFINED
‘Sovereignty’ is a term often heard in public prayers, and used in
the context of Sunday sermons. It has become a term that may be better placed
in a category called “Christian-ese”. Often used, its meaning has become dulled
and obscured over time. My favorite
treatment on this matter is found in the book, The Sovereignty Of God, by
Arthur W. Pink. For example:
The sovereignty of the God of
Scripture is absolute, irresistible, and infinite. When we say that God is
sovereign, we affirm His right to govern the universe, which He has made for
His own glory, just as He pleases. We affirm
that His right is the right of the
Potter over the clay, vis: that He may Mould that clay into whatsoever form He
chooses, fashioning out of the same lump
one vessel unto honour and another unto dishonour. We affirm that he is under no rule or law outside
His own will and nature, that God is a
law unto Himself, and that He is under no obligation to give an account of
His matters to any. …none can defeat His counsels, thwart His purposes, or
resist His will. (The Sovereignty of God,
20, 22)
Does God ‘control’ all
things? Well, let’s just say that God has all
things, at all times, and under all circumstances, under control.
II. THE
Perhaps the best confessional statement on divine sovereignty is
in the Shorter Catechism. Question seven
reads as follows:
Q. What are the decrees of God?
A. The
decrees of God are His eternal purpose, according to the counsel of His
will, whereby, for His own glory, He hath foreordained whatsoever comes to
pass. (Eph.
1:4,11;
III.
THE DECREES OF GOD
The answer for much of the reluctance to accept the absolute
sovereignty of God lies in the noetic effect of the fall. In other words, the fall, resulting in our
inherent sin nature, has a negative effect on our willingness to know certain kinds of truth (Romans 1, 2). The Deistic view of God has Him “outside the
box”, so to speak, unable or unwilling to involve Himself in His creation. This
view is absurd. Consider the truths of
scripture: God is absolutely perfect in
His nature and character (Dt 32:4; Ecc
In His morality (Hab
The
argument goes something like this:
1. All of God’s creation finds it’s
being, present, future, and existence in
the hands of a perfect God.
2. We are part of God’s creation.
3. Therefore, we find our being,
present, future, and existence in the
hands of a perfect God.
As we take an honest, and most importantly, a humble look into the
nature of God, we are necessarily driven to the logical conclusion that God
must be absolutely sovereign over all
of His creation. An honest assessment of
His nature demands it.
As R.C. Sproul has said, “there cannot be even one maverick
molecule in the whole universe”... In
his book Essential Truths Of The Christian Faith, he goes on to say:
Because God is sovereign and His
will can never be frustrated, we can be sure that nothing happens over which He
is not in control. He at least must
“permit” whatever happens to happen. Yet
even when God passively permits things to happen, He chooses to permit them in that He always has the power and right to
intervene and prevent the actions and events of this world. Insofar as He lets things happen, He has
“willed” them in a certain sense. (Essential
Truths, p. 67)
Essentially, when we speak of God’s sovereignty, His decrees must
be inclusive. Even in the Webster’s Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary
of the English Language, 1986 ed, we find the word ‘decree’ defined
theologically as “one of the eternal
purposes of God, by which events are foreordained”. Notice the word ‘foreordained’. When God foreordains an event to come to
pass, the end is sure. It is a privilege for us to be part of the means.
However, our poor choices can never thwart the next item we will examine: His eternal purpose.
IV.
HIS ETERNAL PURPOSE
“Known to God from eternity are all His works” (Acts
In declaring that God is
sovereign, we say that He is in absolute control of the universe, and that He
is absolutely independent of any other will or power. God does whatever He
wills; nothing happens without His leave, and no decision of any other person
or being can interfere with the accomplishment of His purpose. This is
indispensable to what we believe. (p. 37)
He goes on to say:
This understanding of God’s
absolute sovereignty should also be for us an incomparable source of
consolation in times of grief or loss.
Consider this with me: No accident, no illness, no death, no crime, no
loss takes place without God’s sovereign leave.
In other words, as He is sovereign, such events simply may not happen to
us if He does not allow it. If they do
happen to us, it is because He has allowed it for His good purposes. We may not be able to see what He has in
mind, but we can be assured that God in His sovereignty has it well in hand.
(p. 46)
A person acts with purpose.
God is personal. Belief in a
personal God results in the belief in a plan underlying all that He does.
Perhaps there is nothing more personal than realizing that there is nothing in
God’s plan that comes into our lives except through the broken body of our Lord
Jesus, demonstrating the heart of His love for us. Yet this too, was in the plan from eternity past according to Scripture (Rev
13:8). Notice also, that this passage
clearly teaches that all of God’s elect has been chosen before the foundation
of the world, before Genesis 1:1. We
also know that there is nothing we can do to add to that number, or take away
(Jn
V.
THE COUNSEL OF HIS WILL
For years, many have enjoyed reading the works of the late Lewis
Sperry Chafer, in particular, his seven volume set Systematic Theology. Over
the years, many of us have also learned the value of discernment, and that you
can learn from some even if we cannot agree with everything they say.
Case in point here. Chafer,
a respected dispensational²
theologian (who also praises the
Both salvation and condemnation
are conditioned on the individual’s
reaction to one and the same thing, namely, the saving grace of God made
possible through the death of Christ. (Systematic
Theology, 3.187, emphasis mine).
Notice, this kind of statement
proclaims the Arminian teaching that our eternal fate is conditioned on what man
does and not what God does, hence denying the sovereignty of God.
So… What about this “will” of God that determines His
decrees? Well, if we remember two facts,
we will be leaps and bounds above the curve.
First, EVERYTHING is derived from the will of God (Rev. 4:11). Second, God’s will is the FINAL ground
of all things (Dan.
In his book The Doctrine of God, Herman Bavinck does a wonderful job defining
God’s decrees, and points us to their source with all the Scripture references
one would need to be a responsible “Berean”:
God’s decree is his eternal
purpose whereby he has foreordained whatsoever comes to pass. Scripture
everywhere affirms that whatsoever is and comes to pass, is the realization of
God’s thought and will, and has it’s origin
and idea in God’s eternal counsel or
decree, Gen 1; Job 28:27; Prov 8:22;Ps 104:24; Prov 3:19; Jer 10:12; 51:15;
Heb 11:3; Ps 33:11; Is 44:24-27; 46:10; Prov 19:21; Acts 2:23; 4:28; Eph 1:11;
etc.
He goes on to add:
Even human deeds are based upon deliberation
and consideration: in the case of rational beings thinking and purposing
precede acting and doing. In a far more
exalted sense this is true with respect to the Lord our God: apart from His
knowledge and will nothing can ever come to pass. Accordingly, all Christians
accept a divine decree as such. (p. 369)
In essence, what we are saying is that, it is God’s “Godhood” that
holds the very fabric of our lives together.
His plan, His decrees, His counsel,
is within Himself, the Godhead alone.
He confers with no one. From
primary and secondary causes, right down to the freedom of our own wills, all
things run in perfect line with His ultimate will. It is this sense of freedom and trust that we
have which compels us, our will with His
will, to carry out the Great Commission with joy and eagerness, realizing
the great privilege we have in participating in God’s plan.
To
God be the
glory!
…FOR HIS OWN GLORY
I believe this is the heart of the problem. For example, in his
book The Holy Spirit, Charles Ryrie
comments that God the Holy Spirit needs man to “enable” Him to give man new
life. He says:
Faith is not the means of
regeneration, though it is the human requirement which when met, enables the Spirit to bring about the
new birth”. (64, emphasis mine)
Epistemologically (by expressing truth in words), this is bad
theology. We must remember for what purpose God created the universe and man.
Very simply, and well stated, question one of the Westminster Shorter Catechism
reads:
Q. What is the chief end of
man?
A. Man’s chief end is to glorify God and enjoy
Him forever.³
It is for God’s glory that all
that is, exists. Does God fail? Of course not! I think part of the cause of the confusion in
the evangelical church today, is that some have a tendency to define truth
philosophically, or by human reasoning.
Read these words also written by A.W. Pink:
Why is it that all are not saved,
particularly all who hear the Gospel? Do
you still answer, because the majority refuse to believe? Well, that is true, but it is only a part of
the truth. It is the truth from the human side. But there is a divine side too, and this side
of the truth needs to be stressed or God
will be robbed of His glory. (The Sovereignty of God, 46)
In John Calvin’s reply to an address by Jacopo Sadoleto, a Roman
Catholic Cardinal in the sixteenth century, Calvin wrote: “…it is not very sound theology to confine a
man’s thoughts so much to himself, and not to set before him, as the prime
motive of his existence, zeal to illustrate the glory of God. We are born first of all for God and not for
ourselves. As all things flowed from
Him, and subsist in Him, so, says Paul (Rom.
We get into danger when we attempt to interpret the Word of God
according to our own human paradigms. I
like how the Thematic Reference Bible
defines the term ‘Reformation’: “The
process of bringing religious practices and beliefs back in line with the Word
of God” (p. 2017).
The point the editors are trying to make is clear: It is the Word
of God, and the Word of God alone, which defines the truths of God.
Spiritual giant Charles Haddon Spurgeon, the great Baptist
preacher in the nineteenth century, cut many to the quick in his day as he
proclaimed boldly the sovereignty of God.
Relating this matter to the Glory of God, he wrote:
There is no attribute of God more
comforting to His children than the doctrine of Divine Sovereignty. Under the most adverse circumstances, in the
most severe troubles, they believe that Sovereignty hath ordained their
afflictions, that Sovereignty overrules them, and that Sovereignty will
sanctify them all. There is nothing
for which the children of God ought more earnestly to contend than the
dominion of their Master over all creation – the kingship of God over all the
works of His own hands – the throne of God, and His right to sit on that
throne. On the other hand, there is no doctrine more hated by worldlings, no
truth of which they have made such a football, as the great, stupendous, but
yet most certain doctrine of the Sovereignty of the infinite Jehovah. Men will allow God to be everywhere except
upon His throne. They will allow Him to
be in His workshop to fashion worlds and to make stars. They will allow Him to be in His almonry to
dispense His alms and bestow His bounties.
They will allow Him to sustain the earth and bear up the pillars
thereof, or light the lamps of heaven, or rule the waves of the ever-moving
ocean; but when God ascends His throne, His creatures then gnash their teeth;
and when we proclaim an enthroned God, and His right to do as He wills
with His own, to dispose of His creatures as He thinks well, without consulting
them in the matter, then it is that we are hissed and execrated, and then it is
that men turn a deaf ear to us, for God on His throne is not the God they love. They love Him anywhere better than they do
when he sits with His scepter in His hand and His crown upon His head. But it
is God upon the throne that we love to preach.
It is God upon His throne whom we trust.
(“Divine Sovereignty,” a sermon delivered
The glory of God, affirmed by His Sovereignty, is the line of
demarcation that separates the Gospel of God (Rom. 1), from the gospel of man
that surrounds us.
VI.
FOREORDAINED WHATSOEVER COMES TO PASS
Here we have another major stumbling stone for many. The opposing argument is one that defends free
will as independent of God’s sovereignty.
The complaint may go something like this; “that kind of doctrine makes God out to be
some kind of cosmic rapist, or puppeteer…” Well, if we look at the flip side, if
God did not foreordain all things (as His Word declares) , then we have a God
susceptible to failure. Remember, God
created man in His image, and declared His creation “very good” (Gen. 1).
Jonathan Edwards wrote these related words with regard to the
fall, illustrating the point perfectly:
…God must be greatly disappointed
in these events; and so the grand scheme and contrivance for our redemption,
and destroying the works of the devil by the Messiah, and all the great things
God has done in the prosecution of these designs, must be only the fruits of
His own disappointment, and contrivances of His to mend and patch up, as well
as He could, His system which originally was all very good, and perfectly
beautiful, but was marred, broken, and confounded by the free will of angels
and men. (The Freedom of the Will,
131-132)
I think it is an easy trap to fall into when we limit the nature
of God (who is sovereign), according to our own (limited) human nature. In reality, the basic difference lies between
Orthodoxy and Heresy. Unfortunately, the
source of this difference is in the attitude of the heart. Heresy declares, “if I can’t understand it,
it must be false”, and allows the contemporary philosophical teaching found in
today’s church to determine truth.
Belief, through faith, must be guided by the Word of God.
Chapter three of the Westminster Confession of Faith begins
with these words:
From all eternity and by the
completely wise and holy purpose of His own will, God has freely and unchangeably
ordained whatever happens. (cf. Eph.
1:11)
This is another mistake some are guilty of making; putting the
cart before the horse. Let us not make
that mistake here. God does not ordain
what may happen, or make decisions based on what he “foresees”. (Unfortunately this is a very popular, yet
unbiblical view of election). What God knows (first), He ordains (Isa. 46:10-11; Ac.
There are no obscure or ambiguous
words here, even though all the most learned men of all ages should be so blind
as to think and affirm the contrary.
However much you may boggle, yet your conscience, and everybody’s
conscience, is convinced and bound to confess, that, if God is not mistaken in
what He foreknows, then what He foreknows must necessarily come to pass.
He goes on to say,
And if you do not allow that the
thing which God foreknows is necessarily brought to pass, you take away faith
and the fear of God, you undermine all the divine promises and threatenings,
and so you deny Deity itself! (The
Bondage of the Will, 213)
In other words, the Bible is actually quite clear. Perspicuously written, Scripture is clear
enough for the simplest person to live by.
The perspicuity of Scripture rests in God’s intention to provide
Scripture as a revelation of Himself.
God created with purpose. A
purpose demands a plan. God’s knowledge
of His plan coming to fruition must necessarily precede the event in time. God is God; to deny that His plan (which He
foreknows, not according to what he foresees) must come to pass, denies
the God-hood of God!
A.A. Hodge, son of the great Charles Hodge, does a great job of
articulating these truths in his book The Confession of Faith. Here I quote at length:
God has had from eternity an
unchangeable plan with reference to His creatures. As an infinitely intelligent Creator and
providential Ruler, God must have had a definite purpose with reference to the
being and destination of all that He has created, comprehending in one
all-perfect system His chief end therein, and all subordinate ends and means in
reference to that chief end. And since
He is an eternal and unchangeable being, His plan must have existed in all its
elements, perfect and unchangeable, from eternity. Since He is an infinite, eternal,
unchangeable, and absolutely wise, powerful, and sovereign Person, His purposes
must partake of the essential attributes of His own being. And since God’s intelligence is absolutely
perfect and His plan is eternal, since His ultimate end is revealed to be the
single one of His own glory, and the whole work of creation and providence is
observed to form one system, it follows that His plan is also single - one
all-comprehensive intention, providing for all the means and conditions as well
as the ends selected. (COF,
63-64)
He follows up addressing the inevitable question of free will and
secondary causes:
Calvinists believe, as all men
must, that all events in the system of things depend upon their causes, and are
suspended upon conditions. That is, if a
man does not sow seed, he will not reap; if he does sow, and all the favorable
climatic influences are present, he will reap.
If a man believes, he shall be saved; if he does not believe, he will not
be saved. But the all-comprehensive
purpose of God embraces and determines the cause and conditions, as well as the
event suspended upon them. The decree,
instead of altering, determines the nature of events, and their mutual
relations. It makes free actions free in
relation to their agents, and contingent events contingent in relation to their
conditions; while at the same time, it makes the entire system of events, and
every element embraced in it, certainly future.
An absolute decree is one which, while it may determine many conditional
events by determining their conditions, is itself suspended on no
condition. A conditional decree
is one which determines that a certain event shall happen on condition that
some other undecreed event happens … All who believe in a divine government
agree with Calvinists that the decrees of God relating to events produced by
necessary causes are unconditional …If every event that comes to pass is
foreordained, it is evident that there is nothing left undetermined upon which
the decree can be conditioned. (COF, 65-66. Emphasis mine)
It is the Sovereignty of God, according to His perfect, wise, and
unchangeable plan, that proves the truth of this view. This is directly
affirmed in Scripture. Dan. 4:35; Is.
40:13,14; Rom.
VII. CONCLUSION
I am saddened by the nominalism and idealism that is so prevalent
today. In reality, these kinds of problems have been in the Church for
centuries. The Sovereignty of God is
hard for many to swallow. I often hear
the most learned of men deny the most obvious truths, and I can’t help but
remember these words from our hero, Martin Luther:
As little children in fear, or at
play, cover their eyes with their hands and think that because they see nobody,
nobody sees them, so the Diatribe, which cannot bear the bright beams, nay, the
lightning-flashes of the clearest words, uses every means to pretend that it
does not see what the facts are, in hope of persuading us that our eyes are
covered also and that we cannot see either.
All these maneuvers, however, are signs of a mind under conviction,
recklessly resisting invincible truth. (The
Bondage of the Will, 212)
Hard words, for hard truth.
But let’s not be “puffed up”, as many would like to think of us who
claim to be ‘reformed’. We need to stand
for truth, just as Luther, yet let’s also be humble enough to admit our natural
tendencies, as Luther also did here:
Keep in view three lights: the light of nature, the light of grace, and
the light of glory…. By the light of nature, it is inexplicable that it should
be just for the good to be afflicted and the bad to prosper; but the light of
grace explains it. By the light of
grace, it is inexplicable how God can damn him who by his own strength can do nothing
but sin and become guilty. Both the
light of nature and the light of grace here insist that the fault lies not
in the wretchedness of man, but in the injustice of God…. But the light of
glory insists otherwise, and will one day reveal God, to whom alone belongs a
judgment whose justice is incomprehensible, as a God Whose justice is most
righteous and evident-provided only that in the meanwhile we believe it,
as we are instructed and encouraged to do…. (The Bondage of the Will,
317, emphasis mine).
Footnotes
¹ The Westminster Shorter Catechism (1647)
served as a model for the Baptist Catechism, published by order of the
Particular Baptist General Assembly which met in
² The field of theology called ‘Dispensationalism’ focuses on
a separate agenda in God’s plan for the Jew and for the Gentile. For further
reading, I recommend Dispensationalism:
Rightly Dividing The people of God? By Keith A. Mathison. (P&R 1995)
³ Question one of the Shorter Catechism also appears as
question four of the Baptist Catechism.
Bibliography
A.A. Hodge. The
Confession of Faith, The Banner of
Truth Trust; reprint 1998
Arthur
W. Pink. The Sovereignty of God, The Banner of Truth Trust; reprint 1998
Charles
Haddon Spurgeon. Divine Sovereignty,
a sermon delivered
Charles Ryrie. The Holy
Spirit, Moody Press; 1965
Keith
A. Mathison. Dispensationalism: Rightly
Dividing The People Of God? P&R;
1995
Herman
Bavinck. The Doctrine of God, The Banner of Truth Trust; reprint 1997
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Reformation Debate, Baker Book
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Edwards. The Freedom of the Will, Soli Deo Gloria Publications; reprint 1996
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Boettner. The Reformed Doctrine of
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Trust
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