What is the sovereignty of God?

Scripture states God's rule without qualification. "Our God is in the heavens: he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased" (Psalm 115:3). "The LORD hath prepared his throne in the heavens; and his kingdom ruleth over all" (103:19).¹ Nebuchadnezzar learned it the hard way: "he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou?" (Daniel 4:35).

That rule reaches to small things and great. "The lot is cast into the lap; but the whole disposing thereof is of the LORD" (Proverbs 16:33). "The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will" (21:1). Not a sparrow falls without the Father (Matthew 10:29). Paul speaks of him "who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will" (Ephesians 1:11).

It includes what people do wrongly, without making God the doer of the wrong. Joseph told his brothers, "ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good" (Genesis 50:20). Peter said of the crucifixion, "Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain" (Acts 2:23). The Westminster Confession says that God did "freely and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass; yet so as thereby neither is God the author of sin; nor is violence offered to the will of the creatures".²

Christians disagree on how this applies to salvation. The Reformed tradition holds that God chooses whom he will save: "it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy" (Romans 9:16). A. W. Pink's book is a forceful statement of this view; in it he laments, "The sovereignty of God is an expression that once was generally understood."³ The Wesleyan and Arminian tradition holds that God in his sovereignty has chosen to give people a real power to accept or refuse grace, and appeals to God "who will have all men to be saved" (1 Timothy 2:4). Many urge that divine sovereignty and human responsibility are both taught in Scripture and must both be believed, even where we cannot see how they fit.

Scripture itself sets a limit to the inquiry. "The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us" (Deuteronomy 29:29). Paul ends his own discussion in worship: "how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!" (Romans 11:33).

The Bible presents God's sovereignty chiefly as a ground of confidence. Because he rules, "all things work together for good to them that love God" (Romans 8:28), and believers may pray, obey and suffer without fear that anything has escaped his hand.