The Sovereignty of God in All Things
God ordains whatsoever comes to pass, which is only possible by His omnipresence, omnipotence, and omniscience. Everything lives and moves and has its being because of God (Acts 17:24–28).
Knowing all things, and having infinite power to move all things, whatever comes to pass is God’s will (Lam 3:37; Ezek 33:33; Jn 13:19). It was His will to create all things that exist. Thus, He is Lord of all (Acts 10:36). Hence, the natural world operates under God’s Law for it. This is true for the moral world of men, too. In His dominion come our comforts and judgments.
If God wills for a man’s will to choose right or to choose evil, God’s sovereign will is done (Prv 16:9) God made everything for His purpose, even the wicked for the day of evil (Prv 16:4). The numbered hairs on every head, and the numbered days of every person’s life is God’s prerogative (Job 14:5; Mt 10:30).
God has made man to bring glory to God, and in righteousness or unrighteousness, God will be glorified by those in both categories. God bestows knowledge, wealth, wisdom, poverty and every other station in life to each one. Individuals and nations are both under His providential care.
His administration every moment of everyday, and in every place, is operational (1 Tim 6:15). He is Lord over the forest, the forest fire, and the fireman. Whatever change may appear in the natural world or in the world of man, it is God causing change, as determined in His predetermined plan (Acts 2:23).
As this sovereignty pertains to the Son of God and salvation, we see the same wisdom and power of God (1 Cor 1:24). The sovereign wisdom of God has chosen weak and small things, to shame the strong in their lust for bigger (1 Cor 1:26–29). The foolishness of the Gospel of grace (1 Cor 1:18), preached to creation remains the sole enterprise of fools for Christ (1 Cor 4:10).
With the full forces of the domain of darkness (Col 1:13), also under His dominion (Acts 26:18), God prospers the wicked, giving them every advantage against light, life, truth, and righteousness. The whole world is in the power of the evil one (1 Jn 5:19). Sinful man has zero chance, no possibility to remedy his spiritual deadness (Eph 2:1; 1 Cor 2:14). No action, no thought, no work, no choice can reconcile him to God. This is God’s sovereign plan that no flesh may boast in His presence(1 Cor 1:29).
Every aspect of God’s salvation of a chosen people, to be His own possession (1 Pet 2:9), is from His sovereign good pleasure (Is 46:10). It is eternally decreed in His sovereign will, revealed to us in His sovereign Word. God has revealed His sovereign election and reprobation from before the foundation of the world (Eph 1:4–5; Rom 9:22–23). The propagation of His Word is a sovereign act of God’s Spirit (1 Cor 2:4; 1 Pet 1:2), through preaching, when and where God Himself determines (Mt 24:14; Mk 16:15; Jn 6:63).
Even false prophets, preachers, and teachers play their important part in the drama of the devil’s deception. God sovereignly saturates the world, with false religions, and a multitude of false “Christian” cults. This causes the sovereign God’s work to shine, in contrast with that which can only steal glory from God.
The sovereign ordination of select sinners, to receive the gift of faith, is only the beginning (Acts 13:48). Every action required to move from sovereign predestination to sovereign glorification is the sovereign work of our Triune God (Rom 8:30). There is so much work to be done, and it is immensely difficult work, so much that many call it, “a miracle.” As in, “It would take a miracle for Bob to trust in Jesus, so as to be saved.” This is true for everyone who is chosen, not just Bob.
Sinful men hate the doctrine of the sovereignty of God, as much as they hate the sovereign God Himself (Jn 7:7; Rom 1:30). They deviously separate His attributes, “My God is a God of love, and He would never send anyone to hell.” Or, “God delights in sharing His glory with another, letting each person make the decision to let Jesus save him or her. O glorious day! What a choice I have made!” To point out this man’s self-boasting will only guarantee his anger and wrath because you have offended his pride.
Sinful men also hate God’s sovereignty, in the distribution of gifts and talents. Here is the impetus for socialism, to correct God’s erroneous distribution.
Sinners loathe God for all the chaos in the world, “Where was your God in that disaster?” God, in His sovereignty, has permitted sin to enter the world (Rom 5:12), and sin will serve to bring glory to God, by inviting a demonstration of divine justice (Rom 1:18). Sometimes God will withdraw His restraint of evil, as He did with Job, and with Jesus on the cross.
When the saint learns God’s sovereignty it spurs his desire for the means of grace. Seeing his situation, the believer prays to the One who is able to deliver him, from encroaching trouble of every kind, in this world. He searches the Scriptures for greater knowledge of God (Jn 5:39; 2 Pet 3:18) and His wisdom for living holy, by grace (1 Pet 1:15–16). Far from this knowledge puffing up pride, it is the knowledge of God’s sovereignty that humbles the saint like nothing else (Zeph 2:3; Mic 6:8; Acts 20:19; Eph 4:2; 1 Pet 5:5).
When one realizes everything is from God, through God, and to God (Rom 11:36), he sees providence in everything. Sovereignty causes God’s people to draw near to Him, as Healer in illness, as Deliverer in oppression, as Savior when in sin. Christ is all, over all, and in all (Col 3:11) — therefore, let us revere Him, thank Him, praise Him, love Him, and glorify Him…for His sovereignty in all things (Ps 103:9).
David Norczyk
Spokane Valley, Washington
July 11, 2022
