Sovereignty

2022-01-15

Is God sovereign? Does God always get everything He wants? Are these the same question? If they are different questions, and the first question is yes, and the second question is no, then God does things He does not want to do. If the answers were reversed, then we have a God who is not omnipotent yet always gets everything He wants. This may imply that there is one greater than God that is providing God with everything He wants. If both questions are yes, then God rigidly controls all things, and no one has any freewill. If both are no, then how is He God? The problem is that it is not so simple, and this brief post will not exhaustively discuss the matter due to time and finiteness of the author.

The second question we must answer in the negative. We can demonstrate this by assuming that God always gets what He wants, then find a counterexample. I will show you two counterexamples. First, He wants everyone to be saved, but few people are:

For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. (1 Timothy 2:3-4)

Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. (Matthew 7:14)

Here is an example of the Son of God not getting something He wants; He wanted to gather Israel together, but they were not willing:

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. (Matthew 23:37-38)

This shows that God does not always get what He wants. Why else does He tell us to pray, “Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10)? It also shows us that freewill of subordinate beings exists. The Jewish people did not want what God wanted, and they got their way, and God did not. But does this mean that He is not sovereign? If we define sovereign as omnipotent, well He surely is that. He is referred to as the Almighty, and created everything out of nothing with no tools, no blueprints, and no one to teach Him how. “Is any thing too hard for the LORD?” (Genesis 18:14). “Ah Lord GOD! behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee” (Jeremiah 32:17).

However, if sovereignty means that He controls everything so rigidly that there is no freewill of any of His creatures, then He is not that type of sovereign, or at least He gave up this type of sovereignty. I believe this is what happened when He delegated authority to subordinate creatures, namely angels and people. This is how sin could have entered the world because God would have never sinned, and He cannot sin. Real, bona fide freewill would have to exist if sin exists. Sin exists; therefore, real freewill would have to exist. “They have built also the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings unto Baal, which I commanded not, nor spake it, neither came it into my mind” (Jeremiah 19:5).

When would God have delegated His authority? “And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the Garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it” (Genesis 2:15). God created the Garden but delegated authority to the man to take care of it. He delegates authority to churches: “Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven” (Matthew 18:18). He also delegates authority to heathen government: “Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God” (Romans 13:1).

If he delegates authority, He is not a puppeteer controlling them. He gives authority and expects them to do it right. If they don’t, then He removes the authority: “Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent” (Revelation 2:5). Of Herod, He says, “And immediately the angel of the Lord smote him, because he gave not God the glory: and he was eaten of worms, and gave up the ghost” (Acts 12:23).

God is sovereign, but He created beings of freewill to whom He delegated authority and gave them works to do. Life is not a rat race; freewill exists and we are responsible to the Creator.