PHGod's Sovereignty and Sin
The question arises: If God is sovereign, is He sovereign over sin? If His sovereignty is total, does not this include sin? The answer is emphatically, Yes. The Scriptures write this truth in large letters. Assyria, when it came storming against the northern kingdom to destroy it and then against Jerusalem to lay siege to it, is said to be an ax in God's hand whereby God cuts down an apostate people who have turned from Him to serve the idols of the heathen. Assyria — an ax in God's hand, that is all (Is. 10, especially vv. 5-19). Amos plaintively cries out: "Is there evil in the city and the Lord hath not done it?" (Amos 3:6). David, when fleeing from Absalom and enduring the mockery of Shimei, was confronted with bloodthirsty Abishai, who wanted to cut off Shimei's head. But David's response was, "No! God said to Shimei: Curse David" (II Sam. 16:5-10). David received the cursing and blasphemy of Shimei as coming from God.
And so it is on almost every page of Scripture.
God's will is supreme. God's will is sovereign in all the universe — in hell and in this world. Terrorists cannot do a thing apart from the will of God. Islam is carrying out the purposes of the Most High. All the evil that engulfs this country in its corruption is under the control of the Almighty!
Does that mean that man is not responsible for sin? Oh, no! Man is responsible. He goes to hell because of his sins. He is justly punished by God for his sins. He is accountable for them. Man is, by virtue of his creation, accountable. It is better to speak of accountability, for man must give an account of his sins before God; and accountability implies responsibility. By virtue of being rational and moral, man can do nothing else but "respond" to God. But because he is able to respond, that is, because he is responsible, he is also accountable. If God is sovereign even over evil, is man accountable for his sin? The answer of Scripture is, Yes! He goes to hell for his sin. He does not go to hell because he is reprobate. He goes to hell as the just judgment of God against sin. Why is he accountable? He is accountable because always, in everything he does, he sins willingly. It is man's will that makes him accountable for what he does.
How can one harmonize that with God's sovereignty? This question is repeatedly asked. The problem is frequently presented as if both God's sovereignty over sin and man's accountability exclude each other. Either God is sovereign or man is accountable. Both together are impossible. But Scripture speaks of both and thus both are true.
God's will so controls and directs all things, that it even touches upon man's will. But where God's will touches upon man's will, it touches it in such a way that man continues to do what he does willingly. God never takes the sinner by the scruff of the neck and says to him, "Pull the trigger of this gun and shoot your wife," with the result that the man says, squirming and desperately trying to get out of God's grasp, "I don't want to do it!" God never works that way. A man shoots his wife... because he wills it.
The whole question is really an abstract question. There is not a wicked man in the whole world who would ever deny, and who will dare to deny in the judgment day, that he did what he did because he wanted to do it. All the wicked in hell will say, "We're here...because we deserve it. We wanted to live our lives of sin. We chose the evil." That was all they were able to choose, for they are totally depraved. They could not choose the good; but this is due to the corruption of their nature. And the corruption of their nature, which makes it impossible for them to do good, is also their fault, for they sinned in Adam. They are responsible for Adam's sin, and their depravity is God's punishment for their sin in Adam. But behind their sin is God's sovereign work.
How can these things be? We cannot completely understand how these things are possible, but we ought not be troubled by them. I cannot understand anything about how God's sovereign will is executed in this creation. What is the relationship between God's sovereign will and the formation of a baby in the womb of its mother? How does God work that? How does God cause that to take place? How does God cause a blade of grass to grow? I do not know. And I do not know of a scientist in all the halls of the universities of the world that can explain that. What gives a creature its life? Can we understand anything about God's relationships to the creation? Can we understand anywhere how God works and why He works the way He does?
Can one understand how God moves the stars in the millions of the galaxies in the star-studded heavens? Can one understand the way of a serpent on a rock? Can one understand the simplest things that take place in this creation? Everything fills us with awe. One sees the trillions upon trillions of snowflakes — each one formed delicately by the fingers of God, each one different from every other, each one formed in the skies, falling according to a path ordained by the Most High, directed to a destination that God alone determines — and one marvels at the ways of God. Someone asks to understand and explain how God sovereignly works His purpose in evil so that His will is accomplished, though man remains accountable. We ought not be surprised that we cannot understand that. There are no works of God that we understand. But Scripture is clear. Christ was condemned and with wicked hands crucified and slain according to the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God (Acts 2:23). But that evil deed for which the nation of Israel was rejected is our redemption. God sovereignly brought about the cross, His Son's cross, to save you and me. He used Herod and Pontius Pilate, the Sanhedrin and the mobs who mocked. He was sovereign at Calvary, in every aspect of that event. And through it all, He accomplished our salvation while the sin rests heavily on the heads of the perpetrators.
This is true for all that happens in this world, for "all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose" (Rom. 8:28). Reprobation serves election. The heinous sin of the cross of Christ is our salvation. All things are for your sakes. Ye are Christ's, and Christ is God's (I Cor. 3:21-23). And the sovereign God is glorified in all His works forever, world without end.
The question arises: If God is sovereign, is He sovereign over sin? If His sovereignty is total, does not this include sin? The answer is emphatically, Yes. The Scriptures write this truth in large letters. Assyria, when it came storming against the northern kingdom to destroy it and then against Jerusalem to lay siege to it, is said to be an ax in God's hand whereby God cuts down an apostate people who have turned from Him to serve the idols of the heathen. Assyria — an ax in God's hand, that is all (Is. 10, especially vv. 5-19). Amos plaintively cries out: "Is there evil in the city and the Lord hath not done it?" (Amos 3:6). David, when fleeing from Absalom and enduring the mockery of Shimei, was confronted with bloodthirsty Abishai, who wanted to cut off Shimei's head. But David's response was, "No! God said to Shimei: Curse David" (II Sam. 16:5-10). David received the cursing and blasphemy of Shimei as coming from God.
And so it is on almost every page of Scripture.
God's will is supreme. God's will is sovereign in all the universe — in hell and in this world. Terrorists cannot do a thing apart from the will of God. Islam is carrying out the purposes of the Most High. All the evil that engulfs this country in its corruption is under the control of the Almighty!
Does that mean that man is not responsible for sin? Oh, no! Man is responsible. He goes to hell because of his sins. He is justly punished by God for his sins. He is accountable for them. Man is, by virtue of his creation, accountable. It is better to speak of accountability, for man must give an account of his sins before God; and accountability implies responsibility. By virtue of being rational and moral, man can do nothing else but "respond" to God. But because he is able to respond, that is, because he is responsible, he is also accountable. If God is sovereign even over evil, is man accountable for his sin? The answer of Scripture is, Yes! He goes to hell for his sin. He does not go to hell because he is reprobate. He goes to hell as the just judgment of God against sin. Why is he accountable? He is accountable because always, in everything he does, he sins willingly. It is man's will that makes him accountable for what he does.
How can one harmonize that with God's sovereignty? This question is repeatedly asked. The problem is frequently presented as if both God's sovereignty over sin and man's accountability exclude each other. Either God is sovereign or man is accountable. Both together are impossible. But Scripture speaks of both and thus both are true.
God's will so controls and directs all things, that it even touches upon man's will. But where God's will touches upon man's will, it touches it in such a way that man continues to do what he does willingly. God never takes the sinner by the scruff of the neck and says to him, "Pull the trigger of this gun and shoot your wife," with the result that the man says, squirming and desperately trying to get out of God's grasp, "I don't want to do it!" God never works that way. A man shoots his wife... because he wills it.
The whole question is really an abstract question. There is not a wicked man in the whole world who would ever deny, and who will dare to deny in the judgment day, that he did what he did because he wanted to do it. All the wicked in hell will say, "We're here...because we deserve it. We wanted to live our lives of sin. We chose the evil." That was all they were able to choose, for they are totally depraved. They could not choose the good; but this is due to the corruption of their nature. And the corruption of their nature, which makes it impossible for them to do good, is also their fault, for they sinned in Adam. They are responsible for Adam's sin, and their depravity is God's punishment for their sin in Adam. But behind their sin is God's sovereign work.
How can these things be? We cannot completely understand how these things are possible, but we ought not be troubled by them. I cannot understand anything about how God's sovereign will is executed in this creation. What is the relationship between God's sovereign will and the formation of a baby in the womb of its mother? How does God work that? How does God cause that to take place? How does God cause a blade of grass to grow? I do not know. And I do not know of a scientist in all the halls of the universities of the world that can explain that. What gives a creature its life? Can we understand anything about God's relationships to the creation? Can we understand anywhere how God works and why He works the way He does?
Can one understand how God moves the stars in the millions of the galaxies in the star-studded heavens? Can one understand the way of a serpent on a rock? Can one understand the simplest things that take place in this creation? Everything fills us with awe. One sees the trillions upon trillions of snowflakes — each one formed delicately by the fingers of God, each one different from every other, each one formed in the skies, falling according to a path ordained by the Most High, directed to a destination that God alone determines — and one marvels at the ways of God. Someone asks to understand and explain how God sovereignly works His purpose in evil so that His will is accomplished, though man remains accountable. We ought not be surprised that we cannot understand that. There are no works of God that we understand. But Scripture is clear. Christ was condemned and with wicked hands crucified and slain according to the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God (Acts 2:23). But that evil deed for which the nation of Israel was rejected is our redemption. God sovereignly brought about the cross, His Son's cross, to save you and me. He used Herod and Pontius Pilate, the Sanhedrin and the mobs who mocked. He was sovereign at Calvary, in every aspect of that event. And through it all, He accomplished our salvation while the sin rests heavily on the heads of the perpetrators.
This is true for all that happens in this world, for "all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose" (Rom. 8:28). Reprobation serves election. The heinous sin of the cross of Christ is our salvation. All things are for your sakes. Ye are Christ's, and Christ is God's (I Cor. 3:21-23). And the sovereign God is glorified in all His works forever, world without end.
