The Sovereignty Of God

Peter L. Meney | Added: Oct 10, 2023 | Category: Editorial

We believe in the Sovereignty of God because the holy scriptures clearly declare ‘the Lord reigns’. Sovereignty is the right of absolute dominion. Our God has the absolute right to order and arrange all things according to His own good will and pleasure. He may do what He wills with what is His own and has the right to deal with His creatures as seems good in His sight. 

There is no such thing as frustrating God’s will, thwarting His purpose or undermining His design. Our God is omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent; all-powerful, all-knowing, ever-present. The Lord does according to His will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: none can stay His hand. He knows the end from the beginning, and upholds all things by the word of His power, declaring, ‘I will be exalted in the earth’.

The practical importance of this great doctrine should not be lost. Having revealed it to us the Lord would have us blessed by it. Our understanding of God, our religion, our personal values and hopes, our world view, our dealings with our fellow men and women and our broader relationship with the natural world in which we live are shaped and governed by this truth. 

For a start, for believers there is joy in knowing the Lord is on His throne. David says, ‘The LORD reigneth; let the earth rejoice; let the multitude of isles be glad’. There is peace and contentment in knowing we rest in the love and kindness of God who is sovereign over both natural life and spiritual life. There is confidence in knowing all things move forward for the accomplishment of God’s holy and wise will and according to His schedule. Nothing runs beyond what our God allows for the greater good of His people. 

Even our hardships, trials and persecutions are in God’s hand to bless us and keep us close to our Saviour and dependent on His mercy. Understanding sovereignty motivates worship and nurtures humility. While there is much in the world to distress and depress the Lord’s people yet when we turn our minds to God’s sovereignty we are compelled to look beyond immediate threats and pains and to search more deeply for meaning and purpose in our life’s path. Paul told the churches ‘we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God’ and exhorted us all the more to trust and believe.

God’s sovereignty in salvation is the great encouragement for gospel preaching and evangelism. Paul and the apostles went forth boldly with the message of salvation by grace, preaching righteousness by faith because they believed it to be the power of God unto salvation to the Jew and to the Gentile. Let us remember, the needs of men and women are still the same, the power of the gospel to save is still the same and the Lord Jesus Christ is still the same so that we, too, may declare the gospel with confidence. 

Our God has an elect people loved before time, justified in eternity, redeemed on the cross and in every generation called by the gospel. Our Sovereign Saviour will lose not one of His little ones but shall gather them to Himself for ‘the Lord reigneth’.

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