PCEA

God is Sovereign

When we say that a king is sovereign, we mean — or used to mean, for even kings are not what they once were! — that he has authority to command and the power to ensure that his command is carried out. We must recognise that the God we worship is sovereign. By this we mean that God makes His own plan and carries it out, in His own time and way. If God is an intelligent Being — and He is Supreme Mind — He must plan. If God is an almighty Being — and He is Supreme Power — He must carry out His plan. And if God is all-wise — and He is Supreme Wisdom — He must carry out His plan in His own time and His own way. Failure to do this is a sign of inadequacy in planning, or inability in operating. In that case God would not be God. So sovereignty belongs to the very nature and being of God. But the sovereignty of God is not something that is aloof and distant, as with an earthly sovereign. It is so intimate and personal that, according to the Shorter Catechism, it extends to “everything that comes to pass” in human life and destiny. It is clear that if God left anything out that did not come under His control, He was not really in personal control at all. It would mean that there is a sphere to which His control does not extend. And this is unthinkable if He is God.

Freedom

Will this not interfere with human freedom? We may well ask. The answer is that we have our freedom within the will of God, just as a bird is free in the air and a fish in the sea. Neither the bird nor the fish is conscious of any curbing of his freedom as long as he remains within his native element. Within the sovereign will of God man’s freedom is not curbed, it is employed. Paul on the Alexandrian corn-ship (Acts 27) had an assurance from God that he and all that sailed with him would be saved from drowning. Yet when he saw the sailors preparing to abandon the ship under a cloak of deception, he had no hesitation in saying to the Centurion: “Unless these men stay in the ship, you cannot be saved”. So the skill of the sailors, cowardly and treacherous though they were, was part of God’s plan to save the entire passengers and crew. It is so in everyday life. God is in sole control, yet He employs “second causes”, the strength and faithfulness of men, to reach the fulfilment of His purpose.

Election

Some may wonder how the doctrine of predestination and election fit into this pattern. It is clearly the exercise in personal life of the sovereignty of God. It was within God’s plan that the race of mankind should reach a certain destination of holy fellowship with Him. But the “fall of Adam” would seem to make that purpose inoperative. Yet that very fall was made to fit into the purpose of God. When Adam, the first head of the race, had failed, and dragged the race after him into ruin, God had another Head — a second Adam, or as the Bible puts it, “the last Adam” — to take over the headship of a race that would be recreated and sanctified and kept by His grace. That new race of mankind, under the headship of Christ, would fulfil God’s purpose, and they would constitute “a great multitude that no one could number” (Rev. 7:9). Election is God’s principle and process of gathering in that race, redeemed and called and sanctified, and at the last they will be seen to be, in number and character, worthy of the One who assumed headship over them. All this falls within the sovereignty of God’s will and purpose, and it does no outrage either to the nature of God or the freedom of man, since He makes His people “offer themselves freely on the day of [his] power” (Ps. 110).

The truth is that if God is not sovereign, He is not a God at all and He is not in control of His universe. But the sovereignty of God means that He has designed the plan and accepts sole responsibility for the perfect operation of all its parts, and for eventually fulfilling His purpose perfectly, so that He will be seen to be “all in all”. And toward us it is operated in sovereign mercy and love.