The
Sovereignty Of God
John
Murray
Contents
Introduction
The church and the world have never stood in greater need than today
of the message of the sovereignty of God. The world is faced with
impious proud claims that contradict the sovereignty of God, claims
to the supremacy of race and people. Here is a godless philosophy
that has brought upon us the awful cataclysm of bloodshed and
tyranny witnessed in Europe and Asia. Before this avalanche many
professing Christians have surrendered, and with fanatical zeal
multitudes of men have joined in the onslaught on justice and truth
and liberty. It is an unholy crusade, and knowingly or unknowingly
they have taken “counsel together against the Lord, and against his
anointed, saying, Let us break their banks asunder, and cast away
their cords from us” (Ps. 2:2, 3).
In such a situation the message of the divine sovereignty must be
thrust into the foreground, principally for two reasons. First, we
must be reminded that in this universe God’s sovereign government is
the only totalitarian government and men must assume in it the place
of humble submission and obedience. “The Lord reigneth; let the
people tremble: he sitteth between the cherubims; let the earth be
moved. The Lord is great in Sion; and he is high above all the
people” (Ps. 99:1, 2). “Be still, and know that I am God: I will be
exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth” (Ps.
46:10). God’s supremacy demands subjection to His law and guarantees
for every transgression judgment sure and inexorable. All history is
under His control and is moving towards His final judgment where
every infraction of truth and deviation from justice will receive
its final adjustment and adjudication. “He cometh to judge the
earth: with righteousness shall he judge the world, and the people
with equity” (Ps. 98:9).
Secondly, we must be reminded that all events, great and small, are
embraced in God’s sovereign providence. He has not resigned the
reins of government. Present history is not moving towards chaos. It
is moving in the grand drama of God’s plan to the accomplishment of
His holy designs and to the vindication of His glory. “Enter into
the rock, and hide thee in the dust, for fear of the Lord, and for
the glory of His majesty. The lofty looks of man shall be humbled,
and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the Lord alone
shall be exalted in that day” (Isa. 2:10, 11). The people of God
must “suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock”
and recognise, in the words of the great reformer, Calvin, “that
while the turbulent state of the world deprives us of our judgment,
God, by the pure light of his own righteousness and wisdom,
regulates all these commotions in the most exact order, and directs
them to their proper end” (Institutes, I, xvii. 1).
The Presuppositions of God’s
Sovereignty
The sovereignty of God is the absolute authority, rule, and
government of God in the whole of that reality that exists distinct
from Himself. It respects His relation to other beings and to all
other being and existence. The possession and exercise of this
absolute authority, rule, and government are founded upon certain
basic truths.
1. Sovereignty is founded upon the oneness or Unity of God. This
truth underlies and determines the whole fabric of divine
revelation, and it is a truth to which Scripture bears witness in a
great variety of ways. The oneness of God does not mean mere
uniqueness or supremacy in the realm of deity. It is not as if there
were a host of lesser gods over whom God is supreme. It is not as if
He demanded of us the highest worship in contrast with the lower
worship that may be given to others. It is rather that He alone is
God and that there is none else besides Him. “The Lord he is God;
there is none else besides him.” “The Lord he is God in heaven
above, and upon the earth beneath: there is none else” (Deut. 4:35,
39). “Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God is one Lord” (Deut. 6:4).
“See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god with me” (Deut.
32:39). “Thou art the God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of
the earth” (II Kings 19:15).
Our responsibility to God is based on His oneness. When our Lord was
asked the question, “What commandment is first of all?”, He
answered, “The first is, Hear O Israel; the Lord our God is one
Lord”. And so the consequence for us is, “Thou shalt love the Lord
thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy
mind, and with all thy strength” (Mark 12:28-30). “Thou shalt
worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve” (Matt.
4:10).
Our salvation also is based on the fact that God is one and that
there is none else besides Him. This is shown, for example, by the
way in which the Apostle Paul supports the doctrine of justification
by appeal to the oneness of God. “Or is God the God of the Jews
only? Is he not of the Gentiles also? Yes, of the Gentiles also: if
so be that God is one, who will justify the circumcision by faith,
and the uncircumcision through faith” (Rom. 3:29, 30).
The logic is simple and irresistible. God is sovereign in the realms
of nature and grace and this sovereignty belongs to Him because He
is one, without peer or rival.
2. The sovereignty of God is also founded upon the self-existence of
God. Since God is one and there is none else besides Him, He does
not owe His existence to any other. Indeed, origin cannot be applied
to Him. His existence is without beginning and eternal. “Before the
mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth
and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God”
(Psalm 90:2). Our finite minds stagger when we try to bring such a
truth within our comprehension. We cannot comprehend it; it is too
high and we cannot attain unto it. But we must humbly and even
joyfully receive it. God is without origin, and He is not dependent
upon any for his eternal and immutable being.
3. The sovereignty of God is founded upon the self-sufficiency of
God. Not only is He self-existent but He is to Himself sufficient.
He does not need any created existence to complete His perfection
and blessedness. Created reality is not a necessity arising from His
being but an effect resultant upon His sovereign will.
4. The sovereignty of God is also founded upon the fact of creation.
Creation means simply the origination of all other existence by the
command of God. The moment we admit the existence of anything apart
from God’s will as the principle of its origin, in that moment we
have denied the absoluteness of the divine authority and rule.
The witness of Scripture to the originative action of God in
creation is very abundant. Perhaps no word expresses it more
pointedly than that of the psalm, “By the word of the Lord were the
heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth”
(Psalm 33:6). The import of this text is that the word or breath of
God -- breath being the symbol of His almighty creative will -- is
the first cause of all that is. “For he spake, and it was done; he
commanded, and it stood fast” (vs. 9). This mode of statement
reminds us of the first chapter of Genesis where on repeated
occasions we have the formula, “And God said”.
God made heaven and earth; by His Spirit the heavens were garnished;
He laid the foundations of the earth; by wisdom He founded the
earth; by understanding He established the heavens; His hands
stretched out the heavens and all their host He commanded; heaven
and earth His hand made, and so all those things came to be; He is
the first and the last, the Alpha and Omega; He is the beginning of
creation; by His will heaven and earth were and were created. (See
II Kings 19:15; Job 26:13; 38:4; Prov. 3:19; Isa. 42:5; 44:6; 45:12;
66:2; Jonah 1:9; Rev. 1:8; 3:14; 4:11.) Such expressions provide us
with examples of the way in which the Scripture abounds in the
teaching that God’s hand and will and word are the first cause of
all things.
The piety on which Scripture places its seal as true piety rests
upon the recognition of God as Creator. Man’s address to God in
adoration, prayer, and praise begins with it; God’s address to men
in law and gospel rests upon it. The faith that is the substance of
things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen, the faith through
which the catalogue of saints had witness borne to them that they
were righteous, is the faith through which “we understand that the
worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen
were not made of things which do appear” (Heb. 11:3). And when Paul
makes his appeal to the idolatrous Athenians that God now commands
men that they should all everywhere repent, he begins his address by
saying, “God that made the world and all things therein, he, being
Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands”
(Acts 17:24).
The Nature of God’s Sovereignty
We have just found that the sovereignty of God rests upon God’s
oneness, God’s self-existence, God’s self-sufficiency, and God’s
creatorhood. In what does His sovereignty consist?
(1) God’s sovereignty consists in the fact that God is the possessor
of all. In the formula of Melchizedek and of Abraham He is “the
possessor of heaven and earth” (Gen. 14: 19, 22), and the psalmist
sounds this note when he says, “The earth is the Lord’s and the
fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein” (Psalm
24:1).
(2) God’s sovereignty consists in the right of dominion and rule
over all. His kingdom is over all, He is the God of the whole earth,
He is the Most High who rules in the kingdom of men and gives it to
whomsoever He will (Isa. 54:5; Dan. 4:17, 25).
(3) God’s sovereignty consists in the all-pervasive and efficient
exercise of government. It is not simply that God is the owner of
all. Nor is it simply that He has the right of dominion and rule
over all. But it is that he also exercises government over all in
accordance with His perfections and in accordance with the
prerogatives that are His because of His ownership of all and the
right of dominion over all. This sovereignty He exercises with
omnipotent and irresistible efficiency. The mighty hand of God is
the executor of His will. He is the great, the mighty, the terrible.
He rideth upon the heavens and in His excellency on the skies. There
is none that can deliver out of His hand for He frustrateth the
devices of the crafty and the counsel of the cunning is carried
headlong. He breaketh down and it cannot be built up again. There is
no wisdom, nor understanding, nor counsel against Him. None can stay
His hand, nor say unto Him, what doest Thou? For human might is of
one sort with the Egyptians, and they are men and not God, and their
horses flesh and not spirit. (Deut. 10:17; 33:26; Job 5:12, 13;
12:14; Prov. 21:30; Dan. 4:35; Isa. 31:3).
We may illustrate this all-pervasive and efficient sovereignty by
some of the ways in which Scripture applies it.
(a) It respects the events of ordinary providence. It is God who
gives rain upon the earth, and sends water upon the fields. He makes
His sun to rise upon the evil and the good, and sends rain on the
just and the unjust. He clothes the grass of the field, causing the
grass to grow for cattle and herb for the service of man. He feeds
the birds of heaven. Not a sparrow falls to the ground without His
knowledge and will. He gives us our daily bread. He gives wine that
makes glad the heart of man, oil that makes his face to shine, and
bread that strengthens man’s heart. He crowns the year with goodness
and the paths drop fatness. He even gives that which is abused and
used in the service of another god. He gave grain and new wine and
the oil and multiplied silver and gold which they used for Baal. He
makes the wind His messengers and flames of fire His ministers. The
whole earth is filled with His glory. So that the pious
contemplation of His working brings forth the exclamation of
adoration, “O Lord, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou
made them all: the earth is full of thy riches” (Job 5:10; Matt.
5:45; Ps. 104:4; 14:24; 65:11; Hos. 2:8).
(b) It respects the disposition of all earthy authority. He alone is
God of all the kingdoms of the earth. He removes kings and sets up
kings, for as the Most High He rules in the kingdom of men and gives
it to whomsoever He wills. He sets up over them even the lowest of
men. It is He who gives even to ungodly men the kingdom, the power,
the strength, and the glory. He overthrows the throne and strength
of kingdoms (Deut. 4:35, 39; II Kings 5:15; 19:15; Isa. 37:16; Dan.
4:17; 5:18, 21; Hag. 2:22).
The very division of the kingdom of Israel, fraught with dire
consequences for the true worship of Jehovah, was yet a thing
brought about of the Lord that He might establish His word (I Kings
12:15). “Thus saith the Lord, Ye shall not go up, nor fight against
your brethren the children of Israel: return every man to his house;
for this thing is of me” (I Kings 12:24). For He ordains kings for
judgment and establishes them for correction, so that Assyria is the
rod of his anger and the staff in his hand the divine indignation to
perform the divine judgment upon Mount Zion and on Jerusalem (Hab.
1:12; Isa. 10:5, 12).
It is not simply, then, that the powers of civil government are
ordained by God to be the ministers of equity and good and peace for
the punishment of evil doers and for the praise of them that do well
(Rom. 13:3; I Pet. 2:14). But it is also true that corrupt
government which violates the very principles of government itself
is still within the government of God and fulfils His sovereign
purpose. In the doing of iniquity the wicked fill up the cup of the
divine indignation. “Wherefore it shall come to pass, that when the
Lord hath performed his whole work upon Mount Zion and on Jerusalem,
I will punish the fruit, of the stout heart of the king of Assyria,
and the glory of his high looks” (Isa. 10:12).
(c) It respects good and evil. Even the sins of men come within the
scope of His rule and providence. “What?” asks the oppressed and the
afflicted Job, bereft of flocks and herds, and smitten with sore
boils from the sole of his foot unto the crown, “shall we receive
good at the hand of the Lord, and shall we not receive evil?” (Job
2:10). For with God he says again, “is wisdom and strength, he hath
counsel and understanding. Behold, he breaketh down, and it cannot
be built again; he shutteth up a man, and there can be no opening”
(Job 12:13, 14). He forms the light and creates darkness; He makes
peace and creates evil. He kills and He makes alive; He wounds and
He heals (Isa. 45:7; Deut. 32:39). He “hath made every thing for its
own end; Yea, even the wicked for the day of evil” (Prov. 16:4).
“Shall evil befall a city, and the Lord hath not done it?” (Amos
3:6).
We should not be in the least forgetful of the very acute questions
raised by such pronouncements of Scripture. Yet the teaching of
Scripture requires us to recognise, as John Calvin so eloquently
taught, that all events are governed by the secret counsel and
directed by the present hand of God, and that God’s omnipotence is
not the vain and idle possession of potency but power that is
“vigilant, efficacious and operative”, “a power constantly exerted
in every distinct and particular movement” (Institutes, I. xvi. 3).
“Whence we assert”, he continues, “that not only the heaven and the
earth, and inanimate creatures, but also the deliberations and
volitions of men, are so governed by his providence, as to be
directed to the end appointed by it” (Institutes, I. xvi. 8)
The questions raised come to their acutest expression in those
instances where the providence of God is affirmed in connection with
what is not only evil in the generic sense, but evil in the specific
sense of sin and wrongdoing. It surely appears that Calvin again is
right when he contends that “nothing can be desired more explicit
than his frequent declarations, that he blinds the minds of men,
strikes them with giddiness, inebriates them with the spirit of
slumber, fills them with infatuation, and hardens their hearts.
These passages also many persons refer to permission, as though, in
abandoning the reprobate, God permitted them to be blinded by Satan.
But that solution is too frivolous, since the Holy Spirit expressly
declares that their blindness and infatuation are inflicted by the
righteous judgment of God. He is said to have caused the obduracy of
Pharaoh’s heart, and also to have aggravated and confirmed it. Some
elude the force of these expressions with a foolish cavil -- that,
since Pharaoh himself is elsewhere said to have hardened his own
heart, his own will is stated as the cause of his obduracy; as
though these two things were at all incompatible with each other,
that man should be actuated by God, and yet at the same time be
active himself. But I retort on them their own objection; for if
hardening denotes a bare permission, Pharaoh cannot properly be
charged with being the cause of his own obstinacy. Now, how weak and
insipid would be such an interpretation, as though Pharaoh only
permitted himself to be hardened! Besides, the Scripture cuts off
all occasion for such cavils. God says, `I will harden his heart’ "
(Institutes, I. xviii. 2).
In this connection it is noteworthy to observe that the prophet was
commanded to go and tell the people, “Hear ye indeed, but understand
not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not. Make the heart of this
people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest
they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand
with their heart, and convert, and be healed’ (Isa. 6:9, 10). In the
Gospels and Acts of the Apostles we have allusion to this part of
Isaiah’s prophecy (See Matt. 13:14, 15; John 12:40; Acts 28:26, 27).
In Matthew and Acts the blinding of the eyes is represented as the
blinding on the part of the people of their own eyes; in John it is
represented as blinding on the part of God. This variation should
serve to remind us that the positive infliction on the part of God
must not be abstracted from the sinful condition of the heart, the
moral perversity and responsible action of those who are the
subjects of the divine retribution. Paul tells us that, because men
will not receive the love of the truth that they might be saved,
“for this cause God sends them strong delusion (working of error)
that they should believe a lie, that they all might be judged who
believed not the truth, but took pleasure in unrighteousness” (II
Thess. 2:11, 12; cf. I Kings 22: 19-23). But while we may not
isolate the divine infliction from the moral situation in which
those concerned find themselves, we must frankly acknowledge the
reality of the divine action and the sovereignty of His agency.
“Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will, and whom he will be
hardeneth” (Rom. 9:18).
Perhaps most familiar to us in the matter of God’s sovereignty as it
respects evil are Acts 2:23; 4:28, where the arch-crime of human
history, the crucifixion of Christ, is referred to the determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of God, and the treatment meted out to
Jesus in the conspiracy devised against Him by Herod and Pontius
Pilate and the Gentiles and the people of Israel is referred to as
that which the hand and counsel of God foreordained to come to pass.
We are now attempting, only very briefly, to show some of the ways
in which the witness of Scripture establishes the all-pervasiveness
of the sovereignty of God. When we find this sovereignty coming to
expression in the most unequivocal way even in those acts of human
agents in which moral responsibility is most intensely active in the
perpetrating of wrong, we can hardly go any further in demonstrating
the all-inclusiveness of it.
But just then we must ever remind ourselves that God contracts no
defilement or criminality from such agency. He is just in all His
ways, and holy in all His works. While everything that occurs in
God’s universe finds its account, as B. B. Warfield says, “in His
positive ordering and active concurrence”, yet “the moral quality of
the deed, considered in itself, is rooted in the moral character of
the subordinate agent, acting in the circumstances and under the
motives operative in each instance” (Biblical Doctrines, p. 20). God
is not the author of sin. Sin is embraced in His foreordination; it
is accomplished in His providence. But it is embraced in His decree
and effected in His providence in such a way as to insure that blame
and guilt attach to the perpetrators of wrong and to them alone.
And again there comes to us with renewed force the significance of
the precious truth that inscrutable mystery surrounds the divine
working. “As thou knowest not what is the way of the spirit, nor how
the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child: even so
thou knowest not the works of God who maketh all” (Eccl. 11:5). We
cannot rationalise it; we cannot lay it bare so as to comprehend it.
We bow in humble and intelligent ignorance and reiterate, “Canst
thou by searching find out God? canst thou find out the Almighty
unto perfection? It is high as heaven: what canst thou do? deeper
than hell: what canst thou know? The measure thereof is longer than
the earth, and broader than the sea” (Job 11:7-9). His way is in the
sea, and His path in the great waters. His footsteps are not known
(Ps. 77:19). Clouds and darkness are round about Him. Yet, in
accordance with His holiness, Scripture never permits us to forget
that justice and judgment are the habitation of His throne (Ps.
89:14).
The Sovereignty of God in Salvation
I. The sovereignty of God in salvation is in a unique way
exemplified in God’s election of sinners to salvation.
In the Old Testament, one of the most significant episodes is the
revelation of the redemptive name Jehovah. There have been various
attempts to interpret the precise meaning of this name. The older
view that Jehovah expresses the self-determination, the
independence, the sovereignty of God in the redemptive sphere,
appears to be the most acceptable and tenable. The key to its
meaning is found in the formula, “I am that I am” (Exod. 3:14). In
all that God does for His people He is determined from within
Himself. Paraphrased the formula would run, “What I am and what I
shall be in relation to my people, I am and shall be in virtue of
what I myself am. The explanation of my actions and relations,
promises and purposes, is in myself, in my free self-determining
will.”
The correlate of this sovereignty in the choice and salvation of His
people is the faithfulness and unchangeableness of God. He
consistently pursues the determinations that proceed from Himself,
and so His self-consistency insures stedfastness and persistence in
His covenant promises and purposes. “For I am Jehovah, I change not;
therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed” (Mat. 3:6).1
Perhaps the most plausible and subtle attempt to eliminate the
sovereignty of God in the election of sinners to salvation is the
interpretation that regards predestination as being based upon
foreknowledge in the diluted sense of mere foresight. The classic
passage in the argument is Romans 8:29, “For whom he did foreknow,
he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son,
that he might be the first-born among many brethren”. It is
contended that the foreknowledge spoken of is God’s divine foresight
of the sinner’s faith, or, more comprehensively, the divine
foresight of the fulfilment on the part of men of the conditions of
salvation. Those whom He foreknew, it is therefore said, are those
whom he foresaw as certain to fulfil the conditions of salvation. It
is thought that this removes the reason or cause for the
discrimination that exists among men from the sovereign
discrimination and fore-ordination on the part of God and attributes
it to the sovereign volition on the part of man.
This matter, of course, concerns the eternal decree of God. The
question really is: what determines whether a man is predestined to
salvation? Is it a sovereign act on the part of God? Or is it an
exercise of will on the part of man? If predestination is made
contingent upon the divine foresight of a voluntary decision on the
part of man, then it is that action on the part of man that accounts
for discriminating foreordination on the part of God. In such a
case, the sovereignty of God in the election to salvation is
eliminated at the crucial point. Predestination, then, is made to
rest upon a condition fulfilled by man.
Suppose that for the sake of the argument we were to adopt this
diluted interpretation of the word “foreknow” in Romans 8:29, we are
not too readily to conclude that the absolute sovereignty of God in
the matter of election to salvation would be eliminated. If we say
that the meaning of the verb “foreknow” in Romans 8:29 is “whom He
foresaw as believing and persevering”, we are not to think that we
have ended the matter. For we are compelled to ask the further
question: whence this faith which God foresees?
The answer which Scripture affords is that faith itself is the gift
of God, not, of course, gift in some mechanical sense but gift in
the sense of being graciously wrought in men by the operation and
illumination of the Spirit (See e.g. John 3:3-8; 6:44, 45, 65; Eph.
2:8; Phil. 1:21). Since faith is thus given to some and not to
others, and given to those who are equally unworthy with those to
whom it is not given, the ultimate reason is that God is pleased
thus to work in some and not in others. God’s foresight of faith,
therefore, would presuppose an earlier decree on the part of God to
work this faith in some and not in others. The foresight of faith
would be preceded in God’s plan by His sovereign determination to
give faith to them. And so, on a Biblical conception of the origin
of faith, even foresight would throw us back on the sovereign
determination of God to give faith.
This interpretation, however, though really providing no escape from
the sovereignty of God in the decree of salvation, is nevertheless
not to be favoured, and that for the following reasons.
(1) It is extremely unlikely that Paul in tracing our salvation to
its source in the mind and will of God would have omitted reference
to the first decree, namely, the decree to work faith.
(2) According to the teaching of Scripture in general and of Paul in
particular, faith is included in, or associated with, “calling”, and
“calling” is in this very passage made the consequence of
foreknowledge and predestination. It cannot be both the condition of
predestination and the consequence of it.
This consideration is confirmed by verse 28. “All things work
together for good to them that love God, to those who are the called
according to purpose”. If called according to purpose, the purpose
is prior to the calling, and if faith is associated with calling,
the purpose itself cannot be conditioned upon faith.
(3) This interpretation is in conflict with what is said to be the
purpose of predestination -- conformity to the image of His Son.
Conformity of this kind is surely meant to include every phase of
likeness to Christ. Conformity to the image of the Son, no doubt,
points to the ultimate perfection to which the elect will attain. If
so, then the whole process by which that conformity is secured and
realised must be in subordination to this purpose. In other words,
the goal is surely prior, in the order of thought, to the process by
which it is to be achieved. But the process by which the end is to
be achieved includes faith and perseverance. Faith cannot, then, be
the logical antecedent of predestination; it is rather that
predestination is the logical antecedent of faith, even of faith as
foreseen by God in His eternal counsel. That is just saying that
faith follows, in the order of divine thought, upon the destined end
of conformity to the image of the Son. But faith would have to
precede predestination, if foreknowledge is the foreknowledge of
faith.
Faith therefore is two steps, in the order of divine thought, from
foreknowledge, and two steps after not before, two steps in the
order of consequence not of causation.
(4) This interpretation that foreknowledge is the foresight of faith
is not in accord with Paul’s teaching elsewhere, and particularly
not with that one passage which more than any other expands the very
subject in debate. It is Ephesians 1:3-14.
(a) Paul there affirms that God chose us in Christ “before the
foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame
before him, in love having predestinated us unto adoption through
Jesus Christ unto himself”. The elect are chosen to holiness; in the
divine love they are predestinated to adoption.
(b) This election and predestination are according to the good
pleasure of His will and according to the purpose of Him who worketh
all things according to the purpose of His own will. Paul, it is to
be noted, piles up expressions almost to the point of what, on
superficial reading, might be considered redundancy, in order to
emphasise the sovereign determination of the divine will and purpose
-- “having been predestinated according to the purpose of him who
worketh all things according to the purpose of his will” (vs. 11).
To find the determinating factor of this predestination in a human
decision would be to wreck the whole intent of Paul’s eloquent
multiplication of terms.
(c) The choice in Christ and the consequent union with Him is the
foundation of all the blessings bestowed. It is in the Beloved we
were abundantly favoured with grace (vs. 6); it is in Him we have
the redemption, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of
His grace (vs. 7); the making known of the mystery of His will was
purposed in Christ (vs. 9); it is in Him that all things in heaven
and earth will be summed up (vs. 10); it is in Him we were given an
inheritance (vs. 11); it is in Him that the Ephesians, when they had
heard the word of truth and believed, were sealed with the Holy
Spirit of promise (vss. 13, 14). It is obvious, therefore, that the
very exercise by the Christian of believing and persevering grace,
occurs in the sphere and on the basis, of union with Christ. Union
with Christ, then, (which has its origin in God’s choice of the
elect in Christ before the foundation of the world) must be regarded
as the basis of believing and persevering grace received by
believers. It follows, therefore, that belief in Christ and final
perseverance foreseen by God in the elect, cannot be the
conditioning cause of their election to salvation.
If this interpretation of “foreknow” in Romans 8:29 is not
acceptable what then, we may ask, is the meaning of foreknowledge?
The answer, given repeatedly by the ablest of commentators, is not
difficult to find. The word “know” in Hebrew and in Greek is used
quite frequently in a pregnant sense, that is, with a fuller meaning
than that of merely “perceiving”, or “taking cognisance of”, a fact.
It often means to “take note of”, to “set regard upon”, to “know
with peculiar interest, delight, affection and even action”. Indeed
it is the practical synonym of to “love”, or “set affection upon”.
The compound “foreknow”, as Sanday and Headlam observe, “throws back
this `taking note’ from the historic act in time to the eternal
counsel which it expresses and executes” (Com. Rom. 9:29). So we
should paraphrase by saying, “Those whom He loved beforehand”.
This pregnant meaning of the word is in accord with the context. In
every other link of this “golden chain of salvation”, as it has been
called, it is a divine activity that is spoken of. God is intensely
active in every other step. It is God who predestinates; it is God
who calls; it is God who justifies; it is God who glorifies. It
would be out of accord with this emphasis, a weakening at the point
that can least afford it, to make the originative act of God less
active and determinative. The notion of foresight has distinctly
less of the active and distinctly more of the passive than the
emphasis of the whole passage’ appears to require. It is not a
foresight of difference but a foreknowledge that makes difference to
exist. It does not simply recognise existence; it determines
existence. It expresses the volitional determinative counsel of God
with reference to those who are the objects of it. It is sovereign
distinguishing love.
If this is the meaning the question may well be asked: what is the
difference between foreknowledge and predestination in the text
concerned? For, after all, some distinction there must be.
The distinction is simple and significant. Foreknowledge is the
setting of loving and knowing affection upon those concerned. It
concentrates attention upon the love of God. But it does not of
itself intimate the specific destiny to which the objects of love
are appointed. That, in turn, predestination precisely does. It
reveals to us the high and blessed destiny to which the objects of
His distinguishing and peculiar love are assigned. And it reveals,
in so doing, the greatness of His love. It is love of such a sort
that it assigns them to conformity to the image of Him who is the
eternal and only-begotten Son.
When we ask the reason for the love that foreknowledge intimates,
the greatness and security of which predestination expresses, we are
uniquely confronted with the grandeur of the divine sovereignty. It
is love that is according to the counsel of the divine will. The
reason is enveloped in the mystery of His good pleasure. We are face
to face with an ultimate of divine revelation and therefore with an
ultimate of human thought. This love is not something that we can
rationalise or analyse. We are in its presence, as nowhere else,
overwhelmed with a sense of the divine sovereignty. We are struck
with amazement. It is amazing inexplicable love. But to faith it is
a reality that constrains the deepest and highest adoration. It is
love the praise of which eternity will not exhaust. “Herein is love,
not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be
the propitiation for our sins” (I John 4:10). “O the depth of the
riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are
his judgments, and his ways past finding out! For who hath known the
mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor? or who hath first
given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again? For of
him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory
for ever. Amen” (Rom. 11:33-36).
The sovereignty of God is exemplified
in regeneration by the Spirit.
Nowhere is this truth so plainly and directly affirmed as in the two
familiar passages in the Gospel of John (John 1:12, 13; John 3:3-8).
The three negations of the former passage -- “not of blood, nor of
the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man” -- are cumulative in
their effect, and the implication is that in the whole realm of
nature there is no element, impulse, instinct, desire, volition or
purpose, and no combination or collusion of these, that will produce
“sons of God”.
These negations are, however, followed by an affirmation that is
placed in sharp antithesis to what is denied -- “not of blood, nor
of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God”, The
force of the affirmation is that the kind of birth that is to
produce sons of God, that is to issue in the reception of Christ and
abiding trust in His name, is birth from God. Of this birth God is
the agent and God alone. The eloquent accumulation of negatives by
which the affirmation is preceded excludes human determination and
volition as in any way capable of effecting this supernatural
result. It is not wrought by convergence of divine and human
factors. God is the agent without cooperation on the part of man.
The intrusion of a humanly decisive factor would nullify the force
of the antithesis expressed by the negations, “not of blood, nor of
the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man”, on the one hand, and
by the affirmation, “but of God”, on the other.
In the discourse to Nicodemus Jesus says in effect that any
intelligent appreciation of, and entrance into, the kingdom of God
requires birth from above, birth of water and of the Spirit. He
states the reason when He says, “That which is born of the flesh is
flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (John 3:6).
The word “flesh” in this passage may designate simply human nature.
It is more probable, however, that it reflects on the ethical and
spiritual condition of human nature as dominated and controlled by
sin. But whether we take the word “flesh” as designating simply
human nature, or as designating human nature controlled by sin, the
result is to the same effect. What Jesus says, in either case, is
that human nature can never produce anything that transcends the
conditions under which human nature finds itself. Like propagates
like, and this is a law that holds in the moral and spiritual sphere
as well as in the physical. That which is born of human nature is
still simply human nature, and since human nature is sinful and
corrupt it cannot by any power or law inherent in itself overcome
these corrupt and sinful conditions. And not only so, but it is also
true that human nature inevitably produces just such human nature.
That which is born of the flesh is without fail still flesh.
But on the other hand it is just as true that human nature under the
dominance and control of the Holy Spirit is human nature born of the
Spirit. It is the Spirit alone who can produce it and the Spirit
does produce that kind of human nature. This is what our Lord means
when He says, “That which is born of the Spirit is spirit”.
There are, then, two kinds of birth and each birth conditions with
absolute invariableness the character of its product. The natural
cannot produce anything but that which is natural, and it does, by
an unbreakable law, produce the natural. The supernatural alone
originates the supernatural, and the supernatural infallibly secures
the supernatural character of its product. “That which is born of
the Spirit is spirit”.
It is, however, in the verse, “The wind bloweth where it listeth,
and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it
cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the
Spirit” (John 3:8), that Jesus particularly stresses the sovereignty
of God in this supernatural birth. In this verse there is expressed:
(1) the invisibility and mysteriousness of the Spirit’s operation,
-- “thou canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth”, (2)
the irresistibility and efficaciousness of the Spirit’s operation --
“The wind blows where it wills”, (3) the sovereignty of the Spirit’s
operation -- “where it wills”, and (4) the necessary observable
fruit -- “thou hearest the sound thereof”.
Just as we in the realm of physical life do not control the wind so
we do not control the Spirit. Just as the wind blows and produces
its effects apart from our cooperating will so the Spirit
efficaciously and irresistibly produces this effect by His own
sovereign volition.
It is true that the birth that is from above by the Spirit is always
accompanied by the appropriate effects in the heart and life of
those who are the subjects of it. They see, and enter into, the
kingdom of God. “That which is born of the Spirit is spirit”. But
these effects we must remember are after all effects and not
predisposing and predetermining causes.
This teaching of Scripture is often resisted as fatalistic and
tending to promote human sloth and inactivity. But such distortion
and abuse arise from failure to appreciate the depth of human
depravity, the desperateness of our spiritual condition, and our
complete dependence upon God’s grace. When we become aware of our
hopeless plight and bow humbly before the counsel of God, then we
glory in that efficacious grace which, by reason of the sovereign
counsel of His will, has reached down to the lowest depths of our
sinful need as it has also extended to the furthest reaches of our
guilt.
The sovereignty of God is exhibited in
the free overtures of grace to lost humanity.
It is too often thought, and even argued, that the doctrine of
sovereign and unconditional election and the doctrine of efficacious
regeneration are inconsistent with the free, full and unfettered
offer of Christ to lost sinners.
That Christ in all the glory of His person and in all the perfection
of His work is without reservation presented to men in the gospel
and freely offered to them is a truth never to be gainsaid nor
withheld. “And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that
heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst, Come. And whosoever
will, let him take the water of life freely” (Rev. 22:17). So we
must never place the sovereignty of God in His eternal election nor
the sovereignty of God in the actual operations of His grace in a
position that will do prejudice to that other aspect of truth.
What we find in the teaching of Scripture is that these two truths
lie side by side without any suggestion that they are incompatible
the one with the other.
For example, our Lord said, “All that the Father giveth me shall
come to me” (John 6:37). This points to the great mystery of the
Father’s election and to the committal of the elect to Christ. It
points to the certainty that those given to the Son by the Father
will in due time believe in the Son. The certainty of their
salvation is grounded in the fact that they are elect of the Father
and are given by the Father to the Son.
But in that same discourse our Lord also said, “No man can come to
me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him”. And again, “No
man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father”
(John 6:44, 65). This shows that men do not and can not come to
Christ in faith by the exercise of their own native and natural
power. Rather it must be given to them by the Father; they must be
drawn by the Father. This drawing can be none other than the
efficacious working of His grace in their hearts and minds. So we
have the sovereign election of the Father and the sovereign
operations of His grace.
It is, however, in that very same discourse and in immediate
conjunction with these same truths that Jesus says, “Him that cometh
to me I will in no wise cast out” (John 6:37). In that word there
are both assurance and promise. The assurance and promise provide
the firmest ground for faith in Christ and the sure warrant that in
coming to Him we shall be received.
However, there is more than conjunction of those truths in the
teaching of Scripture. It is not simply that they lie side by side,
not simply that they are integral parts of the whole counsel of God.
It is rather that the full and free overtures of Christ in the
gospel proceed from the very heart of God’s sovereign election and
efficacious grace.
It is in pursuance of the Father’s election that Christ came into
the world and suffered and died and rose again. Christ’s mission and
work as Mediator and Redeemer were the provision of God’s wisdom so
that the great purpose of His sovereign love to His own might be
fully realised in the glory of His name and in the eternal
blessedness of the elect. It is as the Mediator, Redeemer and
Saviour, who perfected redemption in pursuance of the Father’s
purpose of love, that He is freely offered to sinners in the gospel.
In a word, it is the Saviour that sovereign love and grace provided
who is proffered so fully and freely. And it is by sovereign grace
that He is so freely offered. Sovereign grace is not then
incompatible with the free offer of the gospel. It is rather
sovereign grace that makes the gospel free. The fount of grace
freely offered is grace sovereignly devised and framed. And not only
is sovereign grace the fount, but sovereign grace is also the stream
on the bosom of which Christ is borne to the very door of our
responsibility and opportunity. To change the figure but a little,
it is upon the crest of the wave of the divine sovereignty that the
full and free overtures of Christ in the gospel break upon the
shores of lost humanity.
The Sovereignty of God in Human
Responsibility
Divine sovereignty and human responsibility are often placed in
sharp antithesis to each other. It is true that we are not able to
comprehend how divine sovereignty as it comes to expression in the
absolute foreordination of all events works harmoniously and
consistently with the exercise of our responsibility. We have simply
to recognise and accept both and believe that divine foreordination
embraces our responsibility but does not in the least nullify its
reality or exercise.
The divine sovereignty, moreover, has a manifoldness of aspect or
expression, and the aspect with which we are now mainly concerned is
that the sovereignty of God as absolute authority demands total
subjection to His will in every sphere and activity of life. If God
should require less it would be a denial of Himself and it is His
glory that this one thing He cannot do. When man yields less than
total subjection this is a denial of God’s supreme Lordship,
repudiation of His authority, and contradiction of His glory. It
comes, then, to this that the correlate in man of sovereignty in God
is subjection wholehearted, undeviating and unceasing. It is the
irreducible obligation of all men in all departments of life to
bring the whole of life into subservience to the totality of God’s
revealed will.
The implications of this truth are too frequently overlooked, if not
virtually denied, by many Christians. By too many the revelation of
God’s will, particularly His will as revealed in Holy Scripture, is
regarded as having application merely to the private or, at least,
religious relations of men. It is true that we may use the
distinction between the private and the public as also the
distinction between the religious and the secular. But these
distinctions do not in the least imply that the public any more than
the private or the secular any more than the religious can ever be
removed from the domain of the divine sovereignty. No sphere is
independent of religious demands.
It is this principle that is asserted in the word of the apostle,
“Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to
the glory of God” (I Cor. 10:31). And it is expressed in its
application to the mediatorial headship of Christ in the word of the
same apostle when he describes the Christian warfare as, “Casting
down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against
the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to
the obedience of Christ” (II Cor. 10:5).
In the discharge of every function and in every detail of that
discharge the will of God is supreme and obedience to it the
controlling principle. The state, the school, industry, agriculture,
science, and art come within the domain of responsibility to God,
and therefore the statesman in the discharge of state-craft, the
industrialist and mechanic in the promotion of industrial
production, the farmer at his plough, the teacher in the school, and
the scientist in his laboratory have no less an obligation to apply
the revealed will of God to every detail of their respective
vocations than the preacher in the pulpit or the mother in the home.
It should, of course, be obvious that the scientist in his
laboratory is not to discharge the same function as the preacher in
the pulpit, nor the legislator the same function as the mother in
the home. There are distinct spheres, and one sphere must not
trespass upon the prerogatives of another. But all spheres come
within one domain -- the supreme government of God. And so, in the
way appropriate to each sphere and to the full extent of the bearing
of the divine will upon it, each sphere must bring every thought
into captivity to the obedience of Christ. God’s kingdom is over all
and Christ’s mediatorial kingdom is over all, too. It is the eternal
Father, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who speaks in
the words of the second psalm, “Thou art my Son; this day have I
begotten thee. Ask of me and I shall give thee the heathen for thine
inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession”
(Ps. 2:7, 8). And the sequel to this declaration and investiture is,
“Be wise therefore, O ye kings: be instructed, ye judges of the
earth. Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the
Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is
kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in
him” (vss. 10.12).
The goal or aim that the sovereignty of God has set for us is
nothing less than complete subordination to, and fulfilment of, the
whole will of God in the whole domain of the divine sovereignty, and
the domain of the divine sovereignty as it concerns us is life in
its broadest extent and minutest detail. It is this goal as the
irreducible implication of the divine sovereignty that is epitomised
in the prayer our Lord taught us to pray, “Thy kingdom come. Thy
will be done in earth, as it is in heaven” (Matt. 6:10).
Conclusion
These are days when international conflict has taken on staggering
proportions. Men’s hearts fail them for fear. Barbaric tyranny has
brought its cruel heel upon millions of our fellowmen. In words that
Calvin wrote four centuries ago, “the turbulent state of the world
deprives us of our judgment”. In such days there is inexpressible
comfort in the sovereignty of God. The world has not been abandoned
to cold and relentless late, nor has it been given over to the
totalitarianism of man or devil. God’s counsel still stands and He
still does all His pleasure. It is still true, “Surely as I have
thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall
it stand” (Isa. 14:24). Through all the disquieting events of our
history there runs the sovereign and holy purpose of the Lord God
omnipotent. Justice and judgment are the habitation of God’s throne
even though clouds and darkness are round about Him. He fulfils His
righteous purpose through the unrighteous wills of wicked men. He
holds the reins of universal government and not a sparrow falls to
the ground without His knowledge and ordination.
In this let the believer take solace, for it is the secret place of
the Most High and the shadow of the Almighty. It is the absolute
sovereignty of the eternal God. It is the absolute sovereignty of
none other than the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And it
is even with equal universality the mediational sovereignty of the
Lord Jesus Christ, the God-man, the incarnate Son, the Saviour-King,
the King of kings and Lord of lords.
“Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth” (Rev. 19:6).
Notes
1. Cf. Oehler, Old Testament Theology, Eng. Trans. Vol. I,
pp. 139f.
Geerhardus Vos, Old and New Testament Biblical Theology,
Philadelphia, 1934, pp. 72-76.
This paper was published as a tract by the Committee on Christian
Education of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church.