A barrier to true joy in faith is often our flesh’s natural desire to make God man-centered rather than God-centered.  We try to define God by ourselves, and run into a great many problems.  There are aspects of God that we simply cannot fathom.  For example, God is outside of time, He is eternal.  He always has been, and always will be.

Exodus 3:13-14 – “Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.”

God is infinite Himself.  We are separate from God, but we are contained within Him.

Acts 17:26-28 – “And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for “‘In him we live and move and have our being’;”

There is much about God that cannot be understood by man, because ultimately the finite is reaching into the infinite.  A cup cannot contain the entire ocean can it?  However, we are not without hope.  God has given us His Word, and in the fullness of time, His Son to reveal Himself to us.  He has also given us a mind with which to pursue Him, a heart to be led by joy, and a Helper, the Holy Spirit to guide us into all truth.

With that said, I want to attempt to give a helpful understanding of what it means for God to be sovereign.  It will be difficult to take in.  You may say at the end, “This guy is CRAZY”, and I want you to know that’s ok.  It’s not something I would press upon someone who is first coming to know the Lord.  My hope isn’t that you would ever believe something merely because I say it, but that you would be as a Berean (Acts 17:11)  However, understanding the sovereignty of God in all things is helpful in finding joy amidst all circumstances, knowing that God is working all things towards good for those who love Christ Jesus, for those who have been called according to his purpose.  (Rom 8:28)  Ultimately, knowing the sovereignty of God will expose you to be helpless in front of an all-powerful God, totally dependant upon his love and mercy.  Know that while difficult to take in, I say these things for your joy.

“Our God is in the Heavens, He does whatever He pleases.” (Psalm 115:3) “Whatever the LORD pleases, he does,in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all deeps.” (Psalm 135:6)  “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD.   For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”  (Isaiah 55:8-9)

Romans 9:17-24 – “For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills. You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?” But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?”  Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patiencevessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory— even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles?”

I know this is very difficult for a secular humanist culture to take in, but this world, and even your own life is not about you – everything is for the glory of God.  Our God does not act out of compulsion, but of fullness for his glory.  Thus, everything that has been, is now, and ever will be is because in some way it serves to radiate the glory of God.  There is no set of circumstances that if changed would have better radiated the glory of God.

This is difficult to hear I’m sure, especially for those of us who have and will encounter loss and suffering.  While morally opposed to the sinful actions of man, a greater good was being served through them, that God desired and brought about evil.  God wanted man to fall, because the entire time He was looking forward to the cross, the greatest display of the glory of God.  Some will say, well God didn’t “want” such and such to happen, he “allowed” it to happen.  That is semantics at best, and at worst, diminishing the glory of God’s sovereignty.  When we are in Heaven, and perhaps we are able to see how things fit together, we will be able to look at history with a different lens.  We will condemn the evil actions of man, just as God does, yet we will praise God for bringing those things about for his glory.  Why?  Because the glory of God is our own treasure in Heaven.  We will see fully the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ for all eternity.

Let me be clear.  Am I saying that there is a part of God, that while morally opposed to sinful actions, desires that they occur, and actually brings them about through His providence/sovereign power?  Yes. Did God want Adam and Eve to fall?  Yes, for His glory.  Often times we hear in apologetics about the “problem of evil”.  How can evil exist if God is perfectly good and holy?  Answer:  Evil exists by God’s design to serve to display His glory in just wrath being poured out on sin for all eternity.  He is an all consuming fire.  Evil exists to display God’s justice on wrath poured out on sinners, and God’s mercy to those whom are covered by the blood of Christ through faith.  Can you take that in?

How else do you understand the cross?  The cross was the most horrific sin committed by man for all time.  A perfectly righteous man in essence and deed, tortured, nailed to a cross, and left to die in excruciating agony.  The wrath of God poured on a righteous lamb.  Are you saying God just “allowed” that?  Yet in that moment, what do we see?  Was God the Father sitting up in Heaven weeping?  Was Jesus sad about going to the cross?  God planned this from before eternity.  He brought it about.  God the Father was actively pouring out His righteous wrath against the Son, who bore the iniquities of many.

God the Father:
But the LORD was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief; If He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, And the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand.  As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; By His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, as He will bear their iniquities.”  (Isaiah 53:10-11)

God the Son:
“looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:2)

There was a greater goal of God being served through that horrible act – the glory of God.

When Joseph was sold into slavery by His brothers, what was his response to them?   “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.” (Genesis 50:20)

God has a good purpose in everything, even evil.  What man means for evil, God uses for good.  The question therefore is how your evil will be used by God for good…. and it will.   Your evil will either serve the glory of God as his wrath is poured out on you for eternity, or your evil will be found to have be put on Christ, and God’s glory will be displayed in His mercy and grace to you through Jesus Christ.  This isn’t license to sin, if your heart hears this and isn’t afraid of the all powerful righteousness of God, you only prove that you do not know Christ.  He is an all consuming fire, He does whatever pleases Him.  It is not our place to question Him or His motives, but to live under the mercy and grace of the blood of Jesus Christ to radiate His glory to a lost world.

My encouragement to those of you who read this and think “No way!” is to first humble yourself before God in His word, and make sure your “belief” is rooted there.  Read the book of Job, and let the Word speak.  Secondly, I would encourage you to think about this.  If God is not completely sovereign over everything, including evil, then how can we find any comfort when we endure suffering?  How will we be able to say to the world, “though He slay me, I will hope in Him” (Job 13:15)  My hope is that this does not uproot any of your faith, but serves to make it stronger.  The grace of God be with you

For your joy,
Adam

Follow up Reading:

Freedom of the Will – Jonathan Edwards
Spectacular Sins (and their global purpose in the glory of Christ) – John Piper
Are There Two Wills in God? – Geoff Ashley
http://northway.thevillagechurch.net/resource_files/study_guides/20070410DoesGodHaveTwoWills.pdf