Sovereignty part 4 - Answers to the Unanswerable
“Whatever Yahweh pleases, He does, In heaven and on earth, in the seas and in all deeps.” Psalms 135:6
“Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will.” Ephesians 1:11
“My counsel will be established, And I will accomplish all My good pleasure.” Isaiah 46:10b
These short verses express God's sovereignty as an absolute. All that Yahweh does within His creation is for His "pleasure," His delight and joy. And, "His will" encompasses everything in "heaven and on earth;" all happens, works out according to and exactly as He wants. This is what pleases Him. Therefore, there can be no exceptions to what He wills. Nothing can or is able stray from what He has "established" or fixed firmly (cf. Isaiah 65:8-10).
Only Yahweh God truly has a free will, in the most literal sense. He has perfect and complete liberty to consummate His will to the utmost. Free from external influence or powers. A will that cannot be swayed or is governed by someone or something outside of Himself. He wields His will from an intrinsically pure and holy nature (cf. Leviticus 10:3; 11:44). Only Yahweh can, "declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things which have not been done" (Isaiah 46:10a). "For this reason You are great, O Lord Yahweh; for there is none like You, and there is no God besides You" (2 Samuel 7:22).
See God
We as redeemed creatures must think deeply on the sovereignty of God. "Those who grow in their awareness of God inevitably wish to see him more clearly" (Reformed Expository Commentary - REC). Seeking Him, will result in a right understanding of world events, nations, people and personal experience, even politics. Because, there is no randomness is God's economy. Rather, an ordered unfolding, a progressive revealing, orchestrated exactly as Yahweh wants. All people, nations and all things that exist, including the unseen spiritual realm, all are subordinate to Him.
As one of the Reformers said, "it is to see God, to see God everywhere." Seeing God in nature, seeing God in history, seeing God in the future, seeing God in all works, seeing the hand of God in all that occurs, seeing God behind all phenomena, in all activities. Even seeing God in the tragedies that so often occur. To lay hold of God's sovereignty is to understand our utter dependence on Him. Not dependent in some things, rather everything! Christians are to be enamored with Yahweh and His sovereignty and to delight in Him and what He does.
His Steady Will
The sun raises and the sun sets exactly as God determines. A baby is born by His will and a person dies at the very moment He determines: "Your eyes have seen my unshaped substance; And in Your book all of them were written The days that were formed for me, When as yet there was not one of them" (Psalms 139:16). Jerry Bridges states: "Nothing in all creation stands or acts independently of the Lord's will. The so-called laws of nature are nothing more than the physical expression of the steady will of [God]."
There are no random events or circumstances. There is no such thing as "chance" and "luck," these are nothing more than a denial of God. The world will never "go rouge" or "off the rails." Never will the world somehow go against God's established norm, order and plan. There are no stray molecules. He controls the micro and the macro. Unstoppable, is our Lord God!
Understanding God's sovereignty supplants uncertainty with confidence, it displaces fear with hope and the foundation of this hope is built on His sovereignty. Yahweh's governing authority has no limits. What He wills, is what will happen; "Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will" (Ephesians 1:11b). His will is now present and active and has been since before the world ever began.
It must be said, God and His Word is never to be subjected to our understanding. The duty of a Christian is to take God at His word, to trust and praise Him who, indeed, does understand everything! To fully apprehend sovereignty is far beyond our ability - the finite cannot fully grasp the infinite. Nevertheless, this what makes God God, who is like no one or no thing in all creation. We must take hold of it by faith, believe and teach what has been revealed.
He Is...
God is the explanation. He gives meaning and comfort and purpose to life. He sits on the throne over all things. Yahweh is the explanation of each persons life. He is the cause of everything that happens in a person's life - spiritual, emotional, domestic, interpersonal, work, physical, it all has meaning because of Him, therefore has purpose.
Yahweh is the cause in all of life. Christians must not limit themselves to looking at only secondary causes, rather consider Him who is the sovereign Master of His creation. He is the One behind all of life's mysteries and difficulties that seem to have no explanation. In other words, Yahweh wants us to look to Him and see Him in everything as the designer of life, who's rule is absolute over His creation.
All of our understanding, a right understanding, places God in the very center - this is your worship, this is faithfulness: "The one that keeps faithfulness. The steadfast of mind You will keep in perfect peace Because he trusts in You" (Isaiah 26:2-3). As the NKJV puts it, "You will keep him in perfect peace, Whose mind is stayed on You."
Answers to the Unanswerable
Here is where we find answers to all unanswerable questions, answers to life's many perplexities. We live in a world where Yahweh has revealed much, yet, much is kept secrete. Nevertheless, a great body of information He has provided, enough to last a lifetime.
With God there are no probables or possibilities, only certainties. We then, can be certain that every mystery and experience has a reason, an answer to "why?" Such knowledge will cause the Christian to have this attitude and pray: "My Father who's sits on the throne in heaven, Holy be Your name. You rule overall kingdoms and Your will be done, in all the earth and in my life, as it is in heaven. Yahweh my God, I am dependent on You, I confess my unbelief (cf. Matthew 6:9-13).
There is nothing too big or to mysterious or beyond the sight of Yahweh: "For the eyes of Yahweh move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is wholly devoted to Him" (2 Chronicles 16:9). He cannot fail! We have a strong God, who is sufficient in power ever watching over us. Again "Yahweh takes pleasure in His people; He will beautify the afflicted ones with salvation" (Psalms 149:4). He is a God that saves. It pleases Him to rescue people, who takes the filthy and makes them clean. God's Word is full of assurances.
Over and over Christians can read verses like Job 34:21, "for His eyes are upon the ways of a man, And He sees all his steps." And Psalms 139:1-3, "O Yahweh, You have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You understand my thought from afar. You scrutinize my path and my lying down, And are intimately acquainted with all my ways." This is a sovereign God who watches over His people, loves and cares for His own.
There is no better example of this, than in the person of Jesus Christ. Who was sent by the Father to provide redemption to a sinful undeserving people. To redeem a particular people given to Jesus: "My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand" (John 10:29). These are a people whom Yahweh secures and will love forever in and through His Son, Jesus Christ.
It Begins Here
Understanding God's sovereignty begins then, with repentance. Repent of our willful self-selfishness, self-reliance, self-pity, self-centered thinking, whoa is me attitude, individualism and independence, our eccentricity and idiosyncrasies. Life is not about us, it is about Him! Sin is anything that is placed above or before Yahweh.
A Christian must always keep in mind this question: "Do you not know that your body is a sanctuary of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you were bought with a price" (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). When something is purchased, it comes with ownership. In other words, you do not belong to you. Christians must recognize this truth and surrender to that ownership. Surrender to the God who orders and controls all of life, even each individual.
Yes, understanding a sovereign God, begins with repenting of self.
This is why in three of the first four books of the New Testament include these words of Jesus: "He summoned the crowd with His disciples, and said to them, 'If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me'" (Mark 8:34).
It also must be pointed out, laying hold of God sovereignty will come with confession. A Christian will acknowledge all that they are, their skills and abilities, whether physical, mental or intellectual, including their physical bodies, all are derived - received from, given by God. In other words, He made you exactly the way He wanted: "For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb. I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made" (Psalms 139:13-14). Therefore, a Christian must confess that God alone deserves the credit. All that you are and have came from Him.
As Christians, a people set apart for Yahweh, we need to look past secondary causes or circumstances in our personal lives and the world we live in. We must look to Him. Him who is the first cause, the sovereign ruler of the universe.
Yahweh Is The Answer
When Christians look at their lives through the whirl-wind of events and try to solve them apart from the sovereign God, they will always fail. Yahweh, is the answer to all the whys in life. Because He and He alone gives meaning and purpose to all of life. Yahweh a Holy God, a Righteous Ruler, who is above all others, is the reason. As a possession of God, there is no place for fear. For a Christian, his God cannot fail. He cannot be stopped. This is our God, who is the author and cause of all of life. He is the answer.
With full confidence in a sovereign God, a Christian can say with Paul: "For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8:38-39).
