I am the LORD, and there is no other,
besides me there is no God; I equip you, though you do not know me,
that people may know, from the rising of the sun and from the west, that there is none besides me;
I am the LORD, and there is no other.
I form light and create darkness;
I make well-being and create calamity;
I am the LORD, who does all these things. (Is. 45:5-7)
There is one idea, one doctrine, that undergirds them all. Upon it, all others depend. In matters of theology, in matters of redemption, in matters of science, in matters of farming, they all rely on the Sovereignty of our Creator God. Should this Truth be lost, forgotten, neglected, or abandoned everything else fails. Anyone who has heard me speak, has heard me talk about a top down theology. It is this point I hope to belabor, though we could never exhaust. The Scriptures begin with this point, objectively, “In the beginning God…” God here functions as the unequivocal subject both grammatically and theologically. His existence nor His identity are ever called into question. It is the reformed tradition to begin as Scripture has with this top-down theology. Beginning with God, howbeit, acknowledging the Scriptures as the source of knowledge of God. Secondly, viewing nature as a source of general revelation of God, so that all are without excuse and able to begin where we are today. There is a God and He is Sovereign. I like how Herman Bavinck puts it in the opening words of the first chapter of His Systematic Theology: “The Wonderful Works of God”:
God, and God alone, is man’s highest good.
In a general sense we can say that God is the highest good of all His creatures. For God is the Creator and Sustainer of all things, the source of all being and of all life, and the abundant fountain of all goods. All creatures owe their existence from moment to moment solely to Him who is the one, eternal, and omnipresent Being. [1]
If God has created us, indeed He has, He must then have a purpose for us. And if He has the power to create, He certainly has the power to sustain, to intervene, to overcome, to redeem all that He wills. Dear friends, this is what you are depending on when you pray. Whatever it is that is your greatest concern, you only ask because you believe God is able to dictate the end of the matter, even in its finest detail. Stephen Charnock summarizes this way:
The Lord governs this world and everything in it. He is the Creator God, all-powerful, holy, and righteous. He is perfect in His patience and infinite in His knowledge. He alone has the power to bend and direct human hearts. A mere word from His lips can bring creation to its knees before Him. Nothing takes place without His knowledge, and nothing takes place outside His will. He has ordered all creation, yet this all-powerful God desires a relationship with each of us and seeks to give us every good thing. The providence of God extends to every human life and heart. [2]
Surely, we can see that every person, even among the unredeemed, has received better than they deserve. This comes from the hand of a Sovereign God. Every evil that befalls us we may endure with faith on account of this very attribute of God. Every person willingly endures difficulty when they know the good that will be accomplished. We go to the gym and afflict our bodies that we may produce physical endurance. We fast and meditate knowing it produces mental and spiritual fortitude. We take great risks in effort to protect what is important and those we love. More than any of this, we can trust this all-good, all-powerful God to bring even what is wicked to its most perfect, most just, most glorifying end. Isn’t this the nature of your prayers? Of course it is! You knew how helpless your estate in sin and you know that your God is able and willing to protect and provide. Though you plan your way, the Lord directs your steps (cf. Pr. 16:9).
This makes the tendency of the Pelagian or Arminian view of salvation even more venomous and offensive to the Most High God. They will demand a view of libertarian free will that trumps God’s Sovereignty. There is no passage of Scripture that leaves to man’s wicked imagination that God is not in control of every event good, bad, or ugly. The reason this sort of Divine Sovereignty is so abhorrent to these professors of Christianity is that they have rejected what God has revealed Himself to be, and they do not trust that He is good and righteous. See for yourselves, their claim is that such a powerful God cannot be good or righteous in doing what our original passage asserts clearly: He creates both light and darkness, well-being and calamity. I challenge you to see how incapable a god would be to render salvation if he had no control over what is wicked. And yet, this is the very message of the Gospel. God has redeemed what is wicked. Remember Romans 8:33:
Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God who justifies.
Spurgeon writes:
If God has justified a man it is well done, it is rightly done, it is justly done, it is everlastingly done… The grandest fact under heaven is this—that Christ by His precious blood does actually put away sin, and that God, for Christ’s sake, dealing with men on terms of divine mercy, forgives the guilty and justifies them, not according to anything that He sees in them, or foresees will be in them, but according to the riches of His mercy which lie in His own heart. This we have preached, do preach, and will preach as long as we live. “It is God that justifies”—that justifies the ungodly. He is not ashamed of doing it, not are we ashamed of preaching it. [3]
You and I, we need a God who can overcome our will and nature to do evil. Of course it is true that you must believe. The third chapter of John’s Gospel tells us in verse three, you must be born again and of the Spirit; while in verse eighteen we are told, He that whoever believes on Him will not be condemned, but He who believes not is condemned already. Spurgeon again helps us to reconcile the two and put away the Arminian controversy:
It is clear to every reader that these two statements must agree, since they come from the same lips, and are recorded on the same inspired page. Why should we make a difficulty where there can be none? If one statement assures us of the necessity to salvation of a something, which only God can give, and if another assures us that the Lord will save us upon our believing in Jesus, then we may safely conclude that the Lord will give to those who believe all that is declared to be necessary to salvation. The Lord does, in fact, produce the new birth in all who believe in Jesus; and their believing is the surest evidence that they are born again. We trust in Jesus for what we cannot do ourselves: if it were in our own power, what need of looking to Him? It is ours to believe, it is the Lord’s to create us anew. [4]
What’s more, Luke glorifies God with the truth that He grants repentance. “God exalted him at his right hand as Lord and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins (Acts 5:31).” Spurgeon again aids us,
Our Lord Jesus Christ has gone up that grace may come down. His glory is employed to give greater currency to His grace. The Lord has not taken a step upward except with the design of bearing believing sinners upward with Him. He is exalted to give repentance; and this we shall see if we remember a few great truths. The work which our Lord Jesus has done has made repentance possible, available, and acceptable. [5]
Repentance earns no glory. So often a child has remorse of their wrongdoing because of their selfish concern of receiving penalty. Even when we do good, the Scriptures say we have only done as we ought. No commendation or recognition is due someone who has merely met their design. In our case it is much worse, because we cannot undo our wrongs no matter how much good we may attempt. Aren’t you thankful that, where repentance is required, you have been given the help of the Almighty God to walk in it? It is as we have said before, God ordains the means as well as the ends. You believe God is your creator, as every demon does, as well. You have faith in His promise to bring you finally and fully to the salvation that was long foretold and perfectly fulfilled in Christ. There is no reason to break this trust in the moments that come between. No matter how great or small, you can beseech the Lord, asking Him to intervene and rest on the Good and Sovereign nature God has revealed Himself to have. Should you fail in your faith here, it will be impossible to overcome those trials that are common for us to endure. This Truth will grant you patience and make you able to endure anything this side of glory. It will strengthen your hope in the finished work of Christ. And it will allow you to steward more faithfully even the areas that seem at first mudane to you. May His Will be done! And to Him be all the glory.
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[1] Herman Bavinck. The Wonderful Works of God: Instrucrion in the Christian Religion according to the Reformed Confession. (Glenside, PA: Westminster Seminary Press, 2019). P. 1.
[2] Stephen Charnock. Divine Providence: A Classic Work for Modern Readers. (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2022). P. 11.
[3] Charles Spurgeon. All of Grace. (Nashville, TN: B&H Publishing, 2017). P.27.
[4] Ibid. P. 114.
[5] Ibid. P. 135.