The Sovereignty of God
Through the periods of church history both philosophers and theologians alike have been unrelenting in their efforts to unravel new clues to the mysteriousness and grandeur of the sovereignty of God and the existence of free will. However, despite the various views and attempts to deny or affirm God’s sovereignty over free will, it is necessary to admit that it takes a sensible mind and a humble heart when approaching the topic of God’s almighty power and the gracious gift of free will.
The Most High
A.W. Pink matter of emphatically states, “To say that God is sovereign is to declare that God is God.”[1] That is, there is none like Him. God is the Most High who has unlimited control and supreme power over heaven and the inhabitants on earth. He alone is the Creator and Sustainer over everything that has its existence according to His complete purpose and will (Ephesians 1:11).
Nebuchadnezzar, an unlikely character of the Bible, records one of the most striking passages on the sovereignty of God:
At the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to Heaven, and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High, and praised and honored Him who lives forever, for His dominion is an everlasting dominion, and His kingdom endures from generation to generation; all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, andHe does according to His will among the host of Heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay His hand or say to Him, "What have you done (Daniel 4:34-35)?"
As uttered by Nebuchadnezzar, God alone has the absolute and perfect right to reign and exercise His authority over the earth (Psalm 22:28); and govern the stars of heaven as He sees fit (Psalm 103:19; 135:5, 6). In his brilliant book Knowledge of the Holy, the renowned pastor, A.W. Tozer, expresses God to be “absolutely free because no one and no thing can hinder Him or compel Him or stop Him. He is able to do as He pleases always, everywhere, forever.”[2] In essence, God (who is absolutely free) has the absolute right to execute His universal authority over His creation and not a single thing in His creation can impede His purposes (Psalm 115:3). Job stressed, “I know that you can do all things and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted (42:2).” Since everything God decrees will come to pass as He has perfectly willed it to be (Isaiah 46:10), God, therefore, has absolute supremacy over His creation.
As absolutely sovereign, God’s power and control must be absolutely perfect over His creation as well. Thus, God, who is absolute perfection, has no potentiality to change to a greater level of perfection because He lacks nothing and possesses nothing that He should not. Henry Thiessen writes, “God is simply God, an infinite perfection of fullness, and we cannot say God is a little more or a little less.”[3] Hence, God’s sovereign power and control is wrapped up in the fullness and completeness of His knowledge, wisdom, love, and justice.[4]
Furthermore, within His sovereign control, God is able to work out all things according to His benevolent and perfect purposes. In essence, God’s providence and preservation over His creation is accomplished perfectly and will end as He sees fit. This is not to mean God manipulates the actions of His free creation, but instead, controls absolutely the free actions that appear under His possession. The prophet Isaiah declares about God, “For my own sake, I do it, for how should my name be profaned? My glory I will not give to another (Isaiah 48:11).” Erickson writes in regards to the plan of God, “What is now coming to pass is doing so because it is (and has always been) part of God’s plan. He will most assuredly bring to actual occurrence everything in His plan. What He has promised, He will do.”[5] From all eternity God has had an inclusive plan that encompasses the entire expansion of the universe as well as to the minor details of life. In a wise proverb written by Solomon, he writes, “The Lord has made everything for its purpose, even the wicked for the day of trouble (Proverbs 16:4).”
Moreover, not only is God sovereign over His creation, but He also manifests power in the redemptive plan of salvation. For instance, God sent Jesus Christ to become the Mediator between God and man (1 Timothy 2:5) so that we might receive Him as our Savior (Matthew 1:21; Acts 4:12). Paul writes that God “has mercy on whomever He wills, and He hardens whomever He wills (9:18).” In short, salvation is God’s sovereign work whereupon He redeems those whom He predetermined to save.
Nevertheless, it is not sufficient to only speak on the meaning of the sovereignty of God, but it is also necessary to examine the nature of the Who behind it. Therefore at this point, I will describe two essential metaphysical attributes of God and show how His omnipresence, omniscience, omnipotence, and omnisapience flow from them and the effects they have on creation and everything else in existence.
God is Self-Existent
To say God is Self-Existent is to mean He is the Uncaused First Cause who exists in and of Himself, absolutely independent of anyone or anything. The phrase comes from the word aseity, which literally means “of oneself.”[6] The Self-Existence of God is recorded by Moses in Exodus 3:14 when God announced from the burning bush, “I AM THAT I AM.” In this one statement God reveals to Moses His “Is-ness” (Self-Existence) and opened the door to all the other amazing attributes that describe who He is.
First, God’s Self-Existence reveals that He is a Simple Being (absolutely one; Deut. 6:4), who is the only Creator of the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1:1; Isaiah 40:28; Psalm 148; Hebrews 11:3). Second, God is Eternal; there is no beginning or end to Him (Deuteronomy 33:27). Tozer writes, “Because God lives in an everlasting now, He has no past and no future…God dwells in eternity but time dwells in God. He has already lived all our tomorrows as He has lived all our yesterdays.”[7] Third, He is immutable. God alone is Pure Actuality with no potentiality to change from His immutability (Hebrews 6:17-18). Though God’s creation is in constant flux, He is eternally perfect with no potency to change. Fourth, God is an Infinite Being (Psalm 147:5; Isaiah 66:1) who is limitless and boundless and everything that exists proceeds from Him. Tozer stated it this way, “There is nothing boundless but God and nothing infinite but God. God is self-existent and absolute; everything else is contingent and relative. There is nothing very big and nothing very wise and nothing very wonderful. It’s all relatively so. It is only God who knows no degrees.”[8] Thus, God experiences no growth or improvement from His perfectly infinite nature. Fifth, and final, God is Omnipotent (Exodus 6:3) and is fully capable of holding and sustaining everything together by His infinite power. Therefore, everything outside of God is dependent on Him for existence because He has existed for all eternity.
God is Self-Sufficient
As was shown above, since God exists eternally and independently of everything, it is reasonable to deduce that He is also Self-Sufficient, and therefore, needs nothing to elevate His essence. Tozer insightfully writes, “Since God is self-existent He is not composed. There are in Him no parts to be altered. And since He is Self-Sufficient, nothing can enter His being from without.”[9] Therefore, God is unaffected by the external causes of His creation, and seeks no greater good to change His Being because He Himself is absolutely perfect in His immutability.
The Self-Sufficiency of God is supported by various passages in the Bible. In Hebrews 1:2, the writer maintains that “[God] created the world.” The prophet Isaiah writes, “The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth (40:28). He went on to write, “Thus says God, the Lord, who created the Heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes out of it, who receives breath to the people on it and spirit to those who walk in it (42:5).” Hence, since the beginning of time, it was God who was the Originating Cause that caused everything to exist.
The Bible not only establishes God as the Originator of created things, but also affirms God is the Sustainer of all things created. For instance, not only did God create the origin of the universe, but He also remains active in the operation of it. Geisler offers an excellent critique on this subject of God in his Systematic Theology:
God’s acts are necessary for the world’s coming to be as well as for its continuing to be. He brought it from nothing in the past, and He also keeps it from returning to nothing in the present. In other words, God is both the beginning and the conserving Cause of all that exists. God was active both in life’s production and reproduction. He was operative in the generating of the world, and ever since He has been operative in governing it.[10]
The Bible makes frequent mention of God as the Sustaining Cause that holds everything together (Colossians 1:17; Revelation 4:11). The writer of Hebrews contends, “[God] upholds the universe by the word of His power (1:3).” Daniel declares God is “over the times and the seasons (Daniel 2:20, 21).” Solomon boasts that kings and all government powers are in the control of God (Proverbs 8:15, 16; 21:1). And finally, Samuel affirms God as Sustainer by mentioning that the provision and destiny of man lies in the hands of God (1 Samuel 2:7, 8).
The Omnipresence of God’s Sovereignty
Within the Self-Existence and Self-Sufficiency of God; there are four properties that maintain the power of His sovereign control. The first is the omnipresence of God. That is, God’s presence is everywhere at once and there is nowhere He is not present in His creation. Geisler defines omnipresence to mean, “As the indivisible Being, God does not have one part here and another part there, for He has no parts. God is present to but not part of creation. God is everywhere, but He is not any thing. He is at every point in space, but He is not spatial.”[11] Hence, God (who has no origin) simply is infinite and presently involved everywhere in His creation all at once. It is, however, important to point out that the omnipresence of God is not a necessary part of His nature, but rather a free act of His will to His creation. This is readily seen in many passages in the Bible.
Isaiah records, “The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth (40:28).” A revelation to God’s people that there is absolutely no limitation to the presence of God, and as such, He is not limited to the boundariesof the universe, but instead, He is boundless to the limitations of the universe. David pondered, “Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence (Psalm 139:7)?” Jeremiah records God asking, “Can a man hide in secret places so that I cannot see Him? Do I not fill Heaven and earth (23:24)?” In 1 Kings 8:27, “But will God really dwell on earth? The Heavens, even the highest Heaven, cannot contain you.” Undoubtedly Isaiah, David and Jeremiah all recognized the omnipresence of God over creation.
The Omniscience of God’s Sovereignty
As mentioned earlier, God knows all things. Scripture states that God “knows the end from the beginning (Isaiah 46:10).” David adds, “His understanding is beyond measure (Psalm 147:5).” Job acerbically asks, “Can anyone teach God knowledge (Job 21:22)?” Hence, God’s omniscience is infinite because it is essentially linked to His very nature (or Pure Actuality).
The fact that God is absolutely perfect, He must also know all things perfectly from all eternity. God’s understanding does not progress in time nor is it affected by the action of secondary causes of time. Tozer explains it well:
God perfectly knows Himself and, being the source and author of all things, it follows that He knows all that can be known. And this He knows instantly and with a fullness of perfection that includes every possible item of knowledge concerning everything that exists or could have existed anywhere in the universe at anytime in the past or that may exist in the centuries or ages yet unborn.[12]
In essence, there has never been a point in time (nor will there ever) whereby God learns something that He knows fully already. Hence, God’s knowledge is absolutely perfect lacking nothing. Furthermore, not only does God know all things actual, but He also knows the possibility of what could have happened whether it is from the past, present or future.
For instance, God knew that Saul would have killed David had he remained in Keilah with His men (1 Samuel 23:11, 12). At the same time, God also knows precisely what future free actions will occur and affect human history (Daniel 2, 7). This is true of God because He knows all things in the eternal present both exhaustively and truly by one simultaneous intuition. However, if God’s knowledge were limited of the future, He would not possess infinite knowledge, and therefore, would not be an infinite Being.
The Omnipotence of God’s Sovereignty
We have seen above that God is a Necessary Being who has absolute and perfect knowledge as well as the ability to be at all places equally at once. Similarly, God is also omnipotent; He has the absolute power to do all things that He wills to do. Tozer writes, “Sovereignty and omnipotence must go together. One cannot exist without the other. To reign, God must have power, and to reign sovereignly, He must have all power.”[13] As an Eternal Being, God possesses an incomprehensible plenitude of power that is undiminished and infinitely enacted without expending any energy. He alone is Self-Sufficient in His potency and exercises His divine efficiency in the universe perfectly.
Abraham asks plainly, “Is there anything too hard for the Lord (Genesis 18:14)?” Though Abraham’s question was more rhetorical than anything else, he did pose a brilliant question that addresses the mighty power of God. For example, since God created the universe, it follows that He is the rightful owner as well as the sovereign ruler over all things. David proclaims, “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it (Psalm 24:1).” The Psalm of Asaph reads, “He [God] summons the Heavens above, and the earth, that He may judge His people (50:4).” There is nothing in existence that exists without the sovereign rule of God neither is there anything outside of His knowledge or power to control.
However, when stating that God has the power to do whatever He wills, it is important to mention that God’s will is limited by His nature. God can only do that which coheres to His perfections and not what is contradictory to His nature. For instance, God cannot deny Himself (2 Timothy 2:13); He cannot do wrong (Habakkuk 1:13); He cannot be tempted (James 1:13); and finally, God cannot lie (Titus 1:2).
Omnisapience of God’s Sovereignty
Finally, in expressing the doctrine of God being omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent, it is also necessary to point out that God is omnisapience. Omnisapience literally means God is “all-wise.” This is at the root of God’s sovereignty because in order for God to be sovereign over all things, He must be able to devise and achieve perfection with complete wisdom, producing no gimmicks or flaws. Thus, God’s actions are accomplished perfectly in His infinitely pure wisdom that exalts His own glory forever.
In brief, the basis for the sovereignty of God is clearly evident in the biblical and theological reasoning provided above. God is Self-Existent and possesses knowledge and wisdom that is eternally and equally perfect to His will. The apostle Paul expresses this infinite power of God with these words, “He [God] who is blessed and the only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To Him be honor and eternal dominion (1 Timothy 6:15-16).”
[1] Arthur W. Pink, The Sovereignty of God (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1919), 1.
[2] A.W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1961), 116.
[3] Henry C. Thiessen, Lectures in Systematic Theology, comp. Vernon D. Doerksen (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1949), 184.
[4] Ibid., 186.
[5] Millard J. Erickson, Christian Theology, Unabridged, one vol. edition (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1985), 348.
[6] Norman Geisler, Systematic Theology, vol. 2 of God and Creation (Minneapolis: Bethany House, 2003), 58.
[7] Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy, 39.
[8] A.W. Tozer, The Attributes of God (Camp Hill, PA: Christian Publications, 1997), 5.
[9] Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy, 50.
[10] Geisler, Systematic Theology, 505.
[11] Ibid., 170.
[12] Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy, 56.
[13] Ibid., 65.