Well, we have traveled through my journey in how I look at the sovereignty of God. I have no doubts if you were to write a book on this subject, you would have chosen different verses to consider and may have come to different conclusions on some of the things I put forth. I have tried not to take stances on things that were based on assumptions without mentioning that these were my conclusions. And I have tried to counsel all of us to think before we build a belief based on our conclusions that go beyond the revealed Word of God. If we can do this, then it will help us stay open to learning and adjusting our beliefs as we let Scripture continue to mold us rather than put down pegs of assumptions we live and die on.
When I started the book, I said there were a few questions a study on the sovereignty of God would help us answer. To remind us of those questions, I will repeat them here:
How can living in the sovereignty of God help me conquer through my battle to overcome sin and temptation?
How can bowing the knee daily to a sovereign God equip me to persevere through any trial?
How does my free will intersect with the sovereignty of God?
How will God’s sovereignty change how I view suffering and unanswered prayers?
How will God’s sovereignty realign how I look at my fellow man who is created in His image?
How will the sovereignty of God cause me to reevaluate my role as a steward of God?
We will take the time to look at these questions specifically, but let’s pull everything together and summarize the main points of what we have learned as we traveled our journey together. First and foremost, we gave a definition of sovereignty we used throughout this book. This was a definition we used the dictionary to help us verbalize while seeing that the elements of the definition were indeed found in the Scriptures as we saw how it applied to God.
God has inherent authority, power, and ability to do whatever He wants.
God answers to no man, no power, or to any other authority.
God has the right to make the rules and the power to enforce those rules on whomever He chooses.
This book sought to show God within these fundamental truths of sovereignty. We learned God’s sovereignty means He has unlimited power to do anything He purposes. No power outside Him can cause Him to act a certain way or prevent Him from acting a certain way. God is truly in a class of one; there is none like Him. There is no exception to this. Man may defy God, but only because God, in His sovereignty, allows man to defy Him. And in a time of His choosing, God will exert His sovereignty over the disobedient by causing every knee to bow and every tongue to confess. No power can defy the sovereign God in perpetuity. There will be a day of reckoning in which the sovereign God will exert His sovereignty, and all disobedience will be brought fully under His subjection.
We learned God is held to no external standard. He is never put on trial, and no one can condemn Him. He never has to answer to any authority. The only standard that bears upon God is His own standard and His character. For example, God cannot lie because it is not in His nature to lie and not because He must obey an external standard. Sovereignty means that He and He alone is the ultimate source of all standards, and He can apply His standards upon whom He wishes. But no one can apply standards to God or force Him to live by anyone else’s rules.
We learned God is just, loving, good, gracious, and merciful because those attributes define Who He is and not because He is expected to be those things by anyone. God does not live up to a standard; instead, He is the standard everyone must live up to. God’s sovereignty means He has the power and authority to make the rules and requires obedience to His rules. His rules are not subject to our approval or our acceptance.
We learned God’s sovereignty is inherent, meaning His sovereignty comes from Himself and is not granted by anyone or anything else. His unlimited, omnipotent power backs up his sovereignty. When it comes to man, God has the right, power, and ability to determine every aspect of our lives and to expect our obedience to Him. Yet, in His sovereignty, our great God has demonstrated His perfect love for us, manifested by His selfless sacrifice, amazing grace, and tremendous mercy toward us.
This is our sovereign, perfect God. So, what does this mean for me?
How can living in the sovereignty of God help me conquer through my battle to overcome sin and temptation?
As we have seen in our study, it is not God’s purpose for sin to reign over us. We understand God will allow us to choose our path, but because of His sovereignty, there will be a day of reckoning, and we will be judged by our actions. Yet, He has given us everything we need to overcome sin. He will transform us into a new creature through His grace and love if we choose to let Him. He will give us the strength to resist and overcome because Jesus has taken away the penalty due to us for our sins. When we accept His grace, we live with power, strength, and the ability to strengthen the spiritual man and subdue the carnal man. With Jesus as our High Priest, sin will not conquer us as long as we continue to walk in Him. Our dependence upon His sovereignty means He cannot fall short of helping us in our time of need. Because of His sovereignty over sin and death, we have confidence in Him to aid us in our time of need.
“Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” (Hebrews 4:14-16 ESV).
How can bowing the knee daily to a sovereign God equip me to persevere through any trial?
If God is truly sovereign, then there is no other place to go but to Him for a way to persevere through all trials. When Jesus asked the disciples if they would leave Him as others were leaving Him,
“Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.” (John 6:68-69 ESV).
In His sovereignty, God can either strengthen us to persevere, or He can remove the trial. It is His sovereign choice which He will choose. Whichever He decides, we can say with all confidence, “I can do all things through Him Who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13).
“Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need.” (Philippians 4:11-12 ESV).
We bow the knee to our sovereign God because through Him and Him alone, we can find the strength to do the things we cannot do without Him. We bow the knee to Him because when we are overwhelmed, He can shoulder our burdens for us (1 Peter 5:7). We bow the kneed daily to Him because when we are not strong enough to continue, He gives us strength. We bow the knee because He “is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think.” (Ephesians 3:20).
How does my free will intersect with the sovereignty of God?
God, in His sovereignty, has gifted man the ability to choose how to live our lives. He did not make us robots or mindless creatures. He made us with the ability to choose Him. Ultimately, God’s sovereignty will have the last word in our lives. Whether we choose to obey or not, we cannot deny the God who has the right to instruct us on how to live. We cannot ignore the standard that He sets before us with impunity. While the choice is ours to make, the consequences for good or evil will also be ours to own. So, while God will give us free will and is gracious in His longsuffering, there will come a time when His longsuffering will end. That will be the day of reckoning for the choices we have freely made. His sovereignty will have the last word over our lives and our eternity.
“The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness,” (2 Peter 3:9-11 ESV).
How will God’s sovereignty change how I view suffering and unanswered prayers?
When we understand the sovereignty of God, we realize sovereignty means it is God’s prerogative alone how to answer our prayers and what sufferings we will face. As Job learned, we can always ask God for relief, but we are never in a position to question Him or demand answers from Him. We cannot charge Him with wrongdoing or sin in how He chooses to respond to our prayers or suffering. We must remember God comes from a position of infinite love for us and infinite wisdom in all things. He can see things we cannot see, and He can use us and our circumstances for His glory in ways we may never be able to see. Truly, we are as far apart as the earth is from the sky. When we understand His sovereignty, we can say, “Not my will, but Yours be done,” even when we have to say it when our sweat is as great drops of blood. We may not be able to see it, but we must trust that what God allows us to endure is for a reason. And we have this promise from Him: He will always step in to limit the trials and temptations if they reach a level that will break us. He can do this by stopping the trials, giving us the strength to endure, or changing our circumstances. We believe this because we know our God is sovereign, even over the suffering and unanswered prayers we endure.
“No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.” (1 Corinthians 10:13 ESV).
How will God’s sovereignty realign how I look at my fellow man who is created in His image?
When we understand God’s sovereignty over creation, including the creation of man, we come to believe He created man in His image. That means every man, woman, and child we meet is someone special. When we look into the eyes of any person, we should not see the things separating us; instead, we need to see the common bond we all share. When we begin to hate the politician who is against everything we believe, do we see the man or woman who is created in the image of God? We can hate what they stand for, but does that cause us also to hate the person God made in His image? When we see a person doing despicable acts, do we hate the person, or do we see a lost, wretched soul who has separated Himself from God by his sins? Do we see an image bearer of God walking toward eternal damnation and desperately want to pull Him to safety because he is made in the image of God? This is precisely how Jesus and Stephen could both say, “God, forgive them,” as these people hated them to the point of murdering them. Understanding the sovereignty of God teaches us to love the way He loves and to see all men the way He sees all men.
How will the sovereignty of God cause me to reevaluate my role as a steward of God?
God calls us all to be His stewards, placing talents into our hands according to our abilities. He determines our talents, but we choose what to do with them. We can ignore them and do our own thing. We can put them aside for now and party while the master is away. We can bury them in a hole to dig them up and return them to Him when He returns. Or we can bless God for the value He sees in us to make us a steward. If we understand His sovereignty, we will realize we always have value and we can always give value to God. Understanding the sovereignty of God means we see that we never fall through the cracks with God. We can never pull the wool over His eyes with our stewardship. We are never forgotten, never underestimated, and never mistreated. He puts us exactly where He wants us, and He can be glorified in whatever stewardship we perform for Him. Just listen to what the sovereign God says about our stewardship:
“But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose.” (1 Corinthians 12:18 ESV).
And
“For truly, I say to you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ will by no means lose his reward.” (Mark 9:41 ESV).
No matter how great or small our stewardship is, when we understand His sovereignty, we will serve Him in the best way we know how. We will long to serve Him because we eagerly desire to hear the words of our Lord say to us,
“Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.” (Matthew 25:21b ESV).
And these are some of the questions that I said we would discuss in our study of the sovereignty of God. I hope and pray this book has caused you to take a deeper look at what God’s sovereignty means and how magnificent our God truly is. Perhaps we have underestimated Him at times and forgotten just how amazing and awesome our God truly is. Perhaps we have let our culture paint a picture of a weak, passive, and permissive God we can easily manipulate. Perhaps we have ignored the words of warning He has left for us and come to believe, “I can do what I want. God loves me and will never condemn me for this or that.” Through this study, I hope we realize we should not see God as someone we can do as little as possible for and still be accepted by Him; instead, we are in awe of His sovereignty, and we seek earnestly to always be in His presence.
If we do this and fully respect God’s sovereignty over all things, we will respond in humility to Him, and He will lift us up. We will recognize our weaknesses, and He will make us strong. We will come to Him every day with our hands outstretched because we know He is the provider of everything we need daily. We will walk with Him daily because we know He will lift us up when we fall. And we will know that when we serve a sovereign God, who else is there we can go to but Him?
May God bless you as you grow deeper in your love and complete submission to the most sovereign God!