As my flight began to taxi the runway, fire up the engines, and go faster and faster until we finally took flight, there is always (at least in my mind) a clear sense of ones mortality. I have a keen sense that if any one thing goes wrong at this moment it will very likely be the end of me and everyone else on this plane. That feeling is all the more real now that I have a young child and a waiting wife at home. Those thoughts if unattended and aggressively fought can grip you with fear and maybe even panic. Most times, to take my mind off my impending doom in a ball of flames, I listen to my Ipod or pull out a book. Well today I pulled out a book and i’m so glad I did.
The book I read is called On Being Black And Reformed by Anthony J. Carter, Pastor of East Pointe Church in East Pointe, Ga. The books goal is to answers questions around the idea of being Black and holding to or affirming Reformed Theology and its implications. In the second chapter which is titled A Case For Reformed Theology he goes in depth on the Sovereignty of God. As I sat on the airplane reflecting on this amazing but often neglected attribute of God the tension in my neck began to pass and the fear and worry for my family and even my own well being began to be drowned out with praise and worship of God. It was so refreshing to me in the midst of of what could have been and anxious moment I thought it needed to be shared.
The Sovereignty Of God
Perhaps no single attribute of God has come under more attack and scrutiny than his sovereignty. It is explicitly attacked by theologians who insist that there are limits to the exercise of God’s sovereignty in the world as we know it. It is also under implicit attack daily by Christians who fail to acknowledge God not only as Creator, but equally as the One who sustains and ordains all that comes to pass. They speak of God as knowing all things, but in the same breath suggest that he is not in control of all things. They politely suggest that God surrenders some aspects of his sovereignty that humans might exercise free will. The modern popular view of God is no more than a distorted caricature of the biblical deity. The modern God proclaimed in many pulpits is a sickly invalid who is apparently unable to accomplish anything without the initiative and prerogative of humans.
Recently I heard a preacher proclaim that Satan’s work is being accomplished every day, while God’s work remains undone because we refuse to get after it. Such statements inherently attribute more power and authority to Satan than the Bible allows and simultaneously rob God of the sovereign , omnipotent control over his creation upon which the Bible insists. A more accurate assessment of God’s sovereignty is found in the Westminster Confession of faith, echoed by the Baptist Confession of 1689: “God from all eternity, did, by the most wise and holy counsel of his own free will, freely, and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass.” This assertion is consistent with the biblical understanding concerning God’s sovereign rule over all things:
For His dominion is an everlasting dominion, And His kingdom is from generation to generation. All the inhabitants of the earth are reused as nothing; He does according to His will in the army of heaven And among the inhabitants of earth. No one can restrain His hand Or say to Him, “What have You done?” (Dan. 4:34-35)
Accordingly, when we speak of God’s sovereignty, we are speaking of his kingly rule over all his creation. There is no place to which this sovereignty does not extend and no activity or affair in his creation over which he is not governor.
He Is Sovereign over Humans
A man’s heart plan his way, But the lord directs his steps. (Prov.16:9)
The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord, Like the rivers of water; He turns it wherever He wishes. (Prov.21:1)
There are many plans in a man’s heart, Nevertheless the Lord’s counsel – that will stand. (Prov. 19:21)
…the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdoms…(Ezra 1:1) The Lord kills and makes alive ; He brings down to the grave and brings up. The Lord makes poor and makes rich; He brings low and lifts up. (1 Sam. 2:6-7)
In speaking to Belshazzar, Daniel states that …the God who holds your breath in His hands and owns all your ways, you have not glorified. (Dan. 5:23)
He is Sovereign over Nations
If there is calamity in a city, will not the Lord have done it? (Amos 3:6) And I indeed will harden the hearts of the Egyptians, and they shall follow them. (Ex. 14:17)
For it was of the Lord to harden their hearts, that they should come against Israel in battle, that He might utterly destroy them, and that they might receive no mercy, but that He might destroy them, as the Lord had commanded Moses. (Josh. 11:20)
Woe to Assyria, the rod of My anger And the staff in whose hand is My indignation. I will send him against an ungodly nation, And against the people of My wrath Shall the ax boast itself against him who chops with it? Or shall the saw magnify itself against him who saws it? As if a rod could wield itself against those who lift it up, as if it were not wood. (Isa.10:5-6,15)
He Is Sovereign over the Elements
I Myself am bringing the flood waters on the earth, to destroy from under heaven all fleshing which is the breath of life…(Gen. 6:17)
He sends out His command to the earth; His words runs very swiftly. He gives snow like wool; He scatters the frost like ashes; He casts out His hail like morsels; Who can stand before His cold? He sends out His word and melts them; He causes His wind to blow, and the waters to flow. (Psalm 147: 15-18)
I also withheld rain from you, When there were still three months to the harvest. I made it rain on one city, I withheld rain from another city. (Amos 4:7)
When Jesus spoke to the storm-driven seas with the words, “Peace be still!” his disciples responded, “Who can this be, that even the wind and the sea obey Him!” (Mark 4:39, 41).
He Is Sovereign over Physical Afflictions So the Lord said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Or who makes the mute, the deaf, the seeing, or the blind? Have not I, the Lord? (Ex.4:11)
The Lord will strike you with boils of Egypt, with tumors, with the scab, and with the itch, from which you cannot be healed. The Lord will strike you with madness and blindness and confusion of heart. (Deut. 28:27-28)
It is clear that the scriptures teach by precept and practice that God is sovereign in the universe. And nowhere is scripture more insistent upon God’s sovereignty than in the realm of salvation. Yet this is the most neglected aspect of his sovereign rule, even among those who claim enthusiastically affirm the other areas of his sovereignty.
It is my prayer that the sovereignty of God, such a magnificent and profound doctrine be a constant source of delight and comfort everyday of your life. Abraham Kuyper, a dutch theologian summed up the doctrine of sovereignty well when he wrote, “In the total expanse of human life there is not a single square inch of which the Christ, who alone is sovereign, does not declare, ‘That is mine!’” Rest assured that God is in complete control.