The sovereignty of God is our shorthand phrase for a teaching found on nearly every page of Scripture: that God rules over all of His creation. This rule is not only an abstract truth but also a practical reality. Men who have authority may not have the power to apply or enforce their authority in all that lies under them. Even the strongest of despots cannot make everything in his dominion conform to his will. But God can and does. His power extends as far as His authority. He does whatever He pleases in heaven and on earth. His arm is not shortened.
The sovereignty of God is fundamental to the Christian faith. It is a correlate of His oneness. As the only God, he rules not only over His own people, but over all those also who reject him, whether or not they worship other gods. Our salvation and hope depend on it because it means that He can and will accomplish what He has promised. When we pray we are depending on it; we ask knowing that He is able to give. We look to it for our comfort in trial; everything, whether good and bad, comes to us from His fatherly hand.
But there is one exercise of this sovereignty of God that troubles us: His sovereignty over sin and trouble. Some Christians simply deny that God has anything to do with sending trouble or ruling over sin. They have taken refuge in a kind of dualism; their position implies that there is a power at work in creation which is independent of God. In effect, this dualism posits two gods, even if one of them is stronger than the other, for if trouble and evil exist independently of God, then evil has its origin of itself or of some being that has its existence from itself. How did Satan or Adam conceive and commit sin unless God gave them the power to do it? Many others speak of God’s permission of sin. This is woefully inadequate because it does not take into account all that the Scriptures have to say on this subject.
What do the Scriptures say?
“But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive” (Gen. 50:20). Joseph’s brothers admitted their sin and Joseph did not contradict them. Nevertheless Joseph also saw the hand of God working through them to accomplish something of which they had no knowledge. And after Joseph’s brothers heard Joseph’s explanation, they did not try to shift the blame for their sin to God.
Exodus contains about 10 verses that talk about the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart. Sometimes they tell us that Pharaoh hardened his own heart (8:15, 8:32, 9:34), other times that the Lord did it (7:3-4, 9:12, 10:1-2, 10:20, 10:27, 11:9-10, 14:8). Some have said that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart as a punishment for his sin. That concept is Biblical (see Rom. 1:26), but it is not the explanation that Exodus gives. Before ever Moses confronted Pharaoh, God told him that Pharaoh would not let the people go (Exod. 3:19). As with all prophecy, He could know that only because He had determined it from eternity. Furthermore, the Lord explained His purpose in 7:3-5, 10:1-2, 11:9-10. He had foreordained that He would lay His hand on Egypt and make the Egyptians know that He is God. He wanted to show His signs so that the people of Israel could tell their descendants about His mighty works and know that He is the Lord. He hardens whom He wills (Rom. 9:18). “He turned their heart to hate His people, To deal craftily with His servants” (Psalm 105:25).
The Lord did the same with others. Sihon king of Heshbon would not let Israel pass through his land because God had hardened his spirit and made his heart obstinate. By that means He delivered Sihon into Israel’s hand (Deut. 2:30). And the nations in Canaan fought Israel because the Lord hardened their hearts, “that He might utterly destroy them, and that they might receive no mercy, but that He might utterly destroy them” (Josh. 11:20). “The king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD, Like the rivers of water; He turns it wherever He wishes” (Prof 21:1). He even, at times, hardened the hearts of His people (Isa. 63:17).
2 Samuel 24:1 tells us that the Lord moved David to number the people because He was angry with Israel. But 1 Chronicles 21:1 says that Satan moved David. Who, then, did it? Both. God used Satan as His instrument. He is sovereign also over Satan and all the fallen angels.
The story of the alliance of Ahab and Jehoshaphat appears in 1 Kings 22 and 2 Chronicles 18. In both accounts the prophet Micaiah explained the false prophecies of Ahab’s false prophets by giving Ahab a glimpse into the heavenly council (1 Kings 22:18-23, 2 Chron. 18:18-22). The Lord was on His throne. The angels stood before Him on His right hand and on His left. In light of Matthew 25:33, we may conclude that both the elect and the fallen angels were there. The Lord asked for advice about how to tempt Ahab into battle so that he would be killed. A lying spirit (surely a fallen angel) volunteered to be a lying spirit in the mouth of Ahab’ prophets. The Lord told him to do it and assured him of success. Micaiah then explained it: “The LORD has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these prophets of yours, and the LORD has declared disaster against you” (v. 23).
Satan persuaded God to let him afflict Job, killed his children and servants, deprived him of all his possessions, and gave him a very painful, but not mortal, disease. That may sound like support for the idea that God permits evil, but what did Job say, “The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away” (1:21) and “shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity? In all this Job did not sin with his lips” (2:10).
God took up the Assyrians to be a rod and staff in His hand to punish Israel (Isa. 10:5-15). Assyria fulfilled His purpose without meaning to; Assyria’s purpose was to destroy and cut off many nations (v. 7). Therefore, God said that He would punish the pride of Assyria’s king (v. 12). “Shall the ax boast itself against him who chops with it? Or shall the saw exalt itself against him who saws with it? As if a rod could wield itself against those who lift it up, Or as if a staff could lift up, as if it were not wood!” (v. 15).
Peter applied the principle of God’s sovereignty over sin to the murder of Jesus, who “was delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God” (Acts 2:23-24). Yet God’s rule did not mitigate the sin. The hands of those who had done it were wicked.
The church in Jerusalem praised God for the boldness of Peter and John before the same leaders. “Lord, You are God… who by the mouth of Your servant David have said, ‘Why did the nations rage, And the people plot vain things?'” Herod, Pontius Pilate, the Gentiles and the people of Israel were gathered together, “to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose determined before to be done” (Acts 4:24-28). Even the great sin of crucifying Jesus happened according to the counsel and power of God.
Romans 9:10-24 gives us the most detailed theological explanation of God’s sovereignty over sin. God love Jacob and hated Esau before they were born or had done good or evil. His love and mercy are not according to works, but according to His good pleasure. The same applies to His wrath and judgment (v. 17-18). He raised up Pharaoh to show His power in him, and to make His name known in all the earth. “He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens” (v. 18).
Paul immediately anticipated the obvious objection: why does God still find fault? For who has resisted His will? We would probably say, “Doesn’t all this make God the author of sin?” The answer is two-fold. Man is too insignificant a thing to challenge God, and the clay has no right to say to the potter, “why have you made me like this?” God has authority to make vessels for honor and dishonor out of the same lump. Because He is God He has the right to prepare some vessels for destruction and others for glory.
The other question that rises out of all this is, “How can God’s sovereignty over sin be reconciled with man’s responsibility for sin?” I doubt that any theologian in the history of the church has given a satisfactory answer. We can only say that the Scriptures make abundantly clear that both are true.
Our God is a great God. His ways are far above our ways. His understanding is infinite; we only nibble at the edges of the vastness of His incomprehensibility and power. Therefore, we should lay our hands on our mouths and confess with Job, “Behold, I am vile; What shall I answer You?… Once I have spoken, but I will not answer; Yes, twice, but I will proceed no further” (Job 40:4-5).