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The Sovereignty of God

Shirley C. Guthrie

If we are to understand the Presbyterian-Reformed doctrine of the sovereignty of God for our time, we must distinguish between two different interpretations of it.

First, let us look at the speculative interpretation of the sovereignty of God. This interpretation, which Calvin and the early Reformers inherited from the medieval church, is based on logical speculation about what God must be and do if God is really a “sovereign” God, and on analysis of what our experience of what is going on in the world around us and in our own lives tells us about God’s will. This God turns out to be very much like what we believe a sovereign human ruler or nation is: (1) God is free to do anything God pleases. So, for instance, God is free to choose to love and help some but not others, to forgive the sin of some and demand punishment for the sin of others, to save or damn whom he will (Calvin’s doctrine of predestination, preserved in the Westminster Confession, III.3). (2) “God from all eternity did by the most wise and holy counsel of his own will, freely and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass” (Westminster Confession, III.1). (3) Faith in God’s controlling and dominating power therefore requires us to believe that everything, good or bad, that happens to us and to other people is directly or indirectly caused or willed by God. (4) Almighty God is free from, and untouched and unmoved by, the weakness, pain, suffering, and death that are characteristic of all creaturely life.

While Calvin and the early Reformed thinkers often defended this understanding of the sovereignty of God, Calvin himself and many recent Reformed thinkers (led especially by Karl Barth) have thought about it in another way. According to this alternative, the true meaning of God’s sovereignty is not discovered by speculating about what God must be and do if God is all-powerful or by analyzing our own and others’ good or bad life experiences. It is learned by listening to what the Bible tells us about what God actually has said and done and what God promises to do in the story of ancient Israel and in Jesus Christ. (This biblical understanding of God’s sovereign freedom and power also has implications for the meaning of true human freedom and the legitimate use of human power.)

Now let us examine the biblical understanding of the sovereignty of God. According to the biblical story, God’s sovereignty is God’s power to accomplish God’s purpose in creating, caring for, ruling over, reconciling, renewing, and saving the world. This understanding radically changes all four characteristics of the speculative understanding:

1. God’s sovereignty is not God’s freedom either to love and save or not.  It is God’s freedom, in everything God does, to be the loving and just Lord that God is.  The story of God’s dealings with his often rebellious people of Israel, and the story of Jesus’ reconciling death for a sinful world, teach us that even when God judges and punishes, it is not to seek revenge, pay back, and destroy. It is to help, renew, restore, and save people who have made themselves the enemies of God and of other people. God’s sovereignty is God’s freedom to be a God of unchanging steadfast love and justice in dealing with all people, everywhere, always.
2. When the Bible speaks of God’s sovereignty, it does not mean that God wills or causes everything that happens. God’s sovereignty is the sovereign power that raised Jesus from the dead, victorious over all the powers of sin, evil, injustice, suffering, and death that are against God’s will. The good news of Easter is that the loving and just will of God for the life, health, and welfare of all God’s creatures will be done, despite all opposition and everything that seems to call it into question.
3. God’s sovereign power does not demand that we piously and passively accept as God’s will everything that happens in our own lives and in the world around us. It is the liberating and enabling power of the God of Israel who calls his chosen people to be covenant partners in his plan to create a new heaven and a new earth. It is the sovereign power of a risen Lord who calls and empowers his followers to participate in his work of bringing in the reign of God’s compassion and justice in the world by doing what they can to remedy the sickness, suffering, injustice, and death that are opposed to the life, health, and welfare that God intends for all people. Faith in the sovereignty of God gives people courage to live in obedient, hopeful anticipation of the time that is surely coming when by God’s sovereign power there will be no more mourning or crying or pain or death anywhere, for anyone.
4. God’s sovereign power is God’s power to be a God of self-giving, suffering love as well as a God of triumphant, victorious love. It is the power of the God who was present and at work in the history of Israel not only to give the people prosperity and political success, but also to share their humiliation and suffering in political defeat and exile. It is the power that was present and at work in Jesus not only when he did mighty works, but also when he suffered and died on the cross as the friend, companion, and fellow-sufferer of suffering people — people who suffer both the consequences of their creaturely finitude and vulnerability and the consequences of their own sinfulness and that of other people.

To believe in the sovereignty of God is to be ready to recognize the powerful presence and work of God’s love and care in our own lives and in the world around us when there is disappointment, suffering, and death as well as when there is health, happiness, and success. It is to believe in God’s sovereignty, not because God “sends” or “wills” the bad as well as the good, but because nothing in all creation can separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ.

Recommended Reading

The Book of Confessions. Louisville, Ky.: Office of the General Assembly, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), 2002. See Scots Confession, 3.01, 3.08; Heidelberg Confession, 4.026–028; Second Helvetic Confession, 5.029–031, .052–061; Westminster Confession, 6.014–021, 6.024–030; Confession of 1967, 9.15, 18, 19; A Brief Statement of Faith, 10.3, lines 27–31.