God is sovereign. That means he can do what he wants to do for any reason he chooses without anyone’s input or accountability. Noah Webster defines a sovereign as “one who possesses the highest authority without control.”
Many of God’s sovereign actions meet our approval. Certainly he doesn’t need our approval, but we mortals deign to offer it, nonetheless. For instance, God’s love meets our approval. He loves unconditionally and with great compassion. We’re also good with beauty. God created beauty, and he designed us to have an appreciation of it. I like that about him.
But wrath, judgement, and condemnation? Not so much.
From our human perspective, God’s sovereignty can sometimes seem glaringly unfair. Take, for example, election and condemnation. God elects people for salvation, and the rest he seemingly casts aside. And in the cases of Pharaoh, Judas, Esau, and others, he even chooses people he didn’t save to achieve his purposes. Then he blames them for rejecting him. Human reasoning might regard this as rather callous.
Thankfully, for those who have been saved by the power of God’s sovereign grace, the Holy Spirit is given as counsel, enabling Christ followers to consider the workings of God’s world from his perspective, and to realize,
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:8-9)
God created the world. He created us. We rebelled. He rebooted after the flood. He chose a people group to receive his plan for restoration and he revealed that plan to them. They rejected it. He carried it out anyway by sending his Son and offering the plan to anyone who would accept it. He will retain a remnant of his original people group to carry on his Kingdom, along with the other folks he chose, called, justified, and glorified.
Callous? No, just!
God is sovereign. Like he told Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion” (Exodus 33:19 and Romans 9:15). That’s frightening, until you consider that God is good. He is good. He wants us to be with him. The people he uses to fulfill his plan have rejected him by their will. And lest we get caught up in the whole “but he didn’t choose them for salvation, so how can he blame them” argument, remember, we are the clay. Romans 9:20-21 admonishes,
But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’ Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use?
Human beings have this whole thing backwards. We all deserve what Pharaoh, Judas, and Esau got. We all deserve death. We all are the objects of God’s wrath. We all have inherited the consequences of the fall. So it’s not like everyone deserves salvation, but then God capriciously holds it back from some.
God, in his sovereign mercy, chose to pluck a group of people from the mire and destruction to keep as his own. Incredulity is a response bred from a tragic misunderstanding of the holiness and goodness of the sovereign Creator of the universe. The only proper response to this beautiful mystery is gut wrenching, joy-filled, unrestrained gratitude!
Reflect
In God’s sovereign system, election and rejection are not opposite actions. Predestination for salvation, election, is an act of God, where he works in a person to accept the gift of grace through Jesus Christ. Predestination for damnation, reprobation, is simply God leaving some to their own sinful choices, as we all deserve. His sovereignty does not include pointing a fickle finger at some and sending them to their death, any more than it includes choosing the best and brightest to be his people. And he doesn’t work in anyone to sin or to reject him. Rejection of God is our natural state, our post-fall default. Acceptance by God is an act of his will, and has nothing to do with any behaviors or qualities we possess. For some, this is an uncomfortable, even distasteful, doctrine.
Consider God’s servant Job, who was not predestined for damnation, but was held out as an illustration to Satan that God’s elect love him because of who he is and not because of what he does for us. That is beautiful, but the part I struggle with is how Job was held out as an example. God took everything away from him to prove to Satan that his elect are the real deal.
Read Job 38-42, God’s answer to Job after he laments his circumstances. What must our response be to the mysteries of God’s sovereign choices?
In Romans 9:2-4 and 10:1, Paul shares his sadness over his fellow Jews’ rejection of Christ. His grief is so unabated that he wishes he could be “cursed and cut off from Christ” for the sake of his fellow Israelites. Think about what he is saying! His love for his people and his understanding of the ramifications of Christ’s sacrifice are so profound that he would be willing to go to hell if it meant the Hebrews would embrace their Messiah!
Read the following scriptures and record where Paul’s passion for the salvation of the Jews originated.
In Romans 9:1, Paul boldly declares, “I speak the truth in Christ-I am not lying, my conscience confirms it in the Holy Spirit.”
It seems like often we recognize God the Father and God the Son, but we tend to diminish or at least overlook the role of the Holy Spirit. But it is this third person of the Trinity that compels and enables us to accept the Word of the Father and of the Son as truth!
Read the following scriptures, and record what is said about the Holy Spirit. If you are a believer, you have this Spirit in you right now!
Pray
Dear Father, your sovereignty is a mystery to us, but it is also a comfort and a joy. Thank you for your goodness and the all consuming love you have for your people. Create in us a heart of gratitude for your sovereign decisions. Bring us close to you and keep us from erroneous thinking. Above all, thank you for Jesus Christ, our sovereign and sufficient Lord, and for your Spirit, who guides us into all truth about him. Amen.