God's Sovereignty: Does that negate free will?

by Dick York - September/October 2007

Probably the most significant thing in the unfolding of day-today events is the revelation that comes as a result. Of course there is a certain segment of the population that seems to grasp little of the meaning of what goes on around them, so, regardless of what they experience, they seem no more enlightened than if it had never happened. However, that is not the normal case. God created man with an astuteness that is not common in the rest of his creation. Man is able to observe, to analyze, to evaluate, to consider and to decide according to his rational deliberation. All of this relates to the fact that God created man in his own image.

Being the creator, and possessing in himself all power and authority in heaven and in earth, could it be otherwise than that he is sovereign over all that he has generated? Of course there can be no question as to his sovereignty; why then is there a controversy about this matter?
Disagreement among men about the sovereignty of God revolves around what those men perceive that word to mean. If God is indeed sovereign in the universe he has made, does that mean the elimination of a free will for men; or did God, in his sovereign wisdom see that such a freedom of will must, of necessity, be a factor in the making of man in the image of God? Had man not been given a free will, several attitudes essential to his reason for existing could not possibly be realized.
The greatest commandment is “love God.”1 That is a choice that must be made. Obviously it is a choice or it would be meaningless to issue a commandment. Without the option to hate, there could be no such thing as love. The most important demonstration of love is obedience, which also is a choice; but without the option to disobey, the whole concept of obedience would be ludicrous. Jesus said, “If you love me, keep (obey) my commandments.”2 It is because God is sovereign that he has the prerogative to issue commandments and design the consequences of disobedience, but if sovereignty means that he alone decides, then both the commandments and the consequences are without meaning.
All of history is the unfolding of events and circumstances that are either designed or allowed by God to reveal the nature of man and the attributes of God. In every event, we are able to observe God’s working, man’s reaction and the resulting consequences. History is progressive: we are always pursuing the future; God is not trying to recover the past as some would suggest.
God’s purpose for his creation had a beginning (“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.”3); and it has an end (“But the end of all things is at hand.”4).
The preaching of the apostles was “to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery which from the beginning has been hid in God who created all things by Jesus Christ.”5

It seems obvious, then, that there has been an unfolding of what is called here “a mystery.”
The intent of that revelation is that the wisdom of God might be demonstrated to the principalities and powers (the entire angelic host, fallen and unfallen, as well as all this world’s luminaries and authorities) through the redemption and perfecting of the church. All of this “according to the eternal purpose which he (God) has purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord.”6
God’s eternal purpose is to reveal himself––his power, his glory and his wisdom––to and through his creation; and specifically through the man that was created to bear his image.
There are those who believe that God is trying to restore man to what he was at the beginning. But is that the case; is it God’s plan to restore Eden? Does he intend to make man as Adam once was? If that were indeed the case, the revelation up to the present would be that God, who created all things, is not sovereign. There are powers that can wrest his kingdom from his control, causing thousands of years of purposeless suffering and chaos, and making all of history a struggle to regain what once was.
As was stated in the first paragraph, the most significant thing in the unfolding of history is the revelation of God that is manifested thereby. The great drama of God’s unfolding plan begins at the beginning and, chapter by chapter, expands to reveal, not his incompetence, but his unsearchable wisdom. We know from the reading of scripture the history of the declension of the human race. We know about sin’s origin in the heart of Lucifer, an angelic being. We can read in the early chapters of Genesis, the first book in the Bible, how this sin was introduced into Adam’s race, causing the first man to fall and corrupting the nature of every succeeding generation.
God did not cause man to sin, but he did of necessity endow him with a free will which, unavoidably, gave him the potential to do so. Satan, the fallen angel Lucifer, through tempting Adam and Eve to disobey God in the matter of the eating of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, provided the element of choice. So man in choosing to disobey declared his independence from God whose image he was to be, and sin was the result. “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.”7
Did sin then wreck God’s plan, or even derail it for a while? Has God spent the past six thousand years trying to recover from Satan’s attack? Or has God’s plan been on track from the beginning? History, as we have already noted, does not work in reverse; it is a progression toward the future; and every moment of it brings us that much closer to the culmination of God’s ultimate purpose.
Adam was not the finished product of God’s determination to create man in the image of God; he was the beginning of that project. There were seemingly insurmountable technical problems to overcome to cause a creation to be like its creator in nature and character, the greatest being how to instigate a “love” relationship. That can only be possible if there is freedom to choose. Adam, then, must, of necessity, choose of his own free-will to be in fellowship with God. Such a choice can only be made from without. Therefore that which Satan meant to frustrate God’s purpose only facilitated it. Had Adam not sinned in the beginning of history, that potential would have hung over every generation, none of them would have experienced the finished work of redemption, and the full revelation of God’s character would not have been realized.
It would seem that it is God’s good pleasure to reveal himself and display his glorious attributes to mankind whom he loves so much, and with whom he has identified himself in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son…” How could he love us more? How could such a degree of love be revealed in anything less than the redemptive sacrifice?
We often hear the question asked, “Why did God allow sin?” It was unavoidable if man were to have freedom of his will. A better question would be, “What if God had not allowed sin?” Then there would have been a bondage of man’s will that would have left him without the ability to love. All of the doing of the will of the creator would have been a matter of bondage, not of obedience. His submission to God’s authority would have been nothing less than robotics; no love would be experienced or demonstrated.
It was God’s purpose that in the relationship between God and man he should be revealed and that his glory should be praised.8 The Psalmists, in writing their music and penning their poems of praise exalted the attributes of the Omniscient, Omnipotent, and Omnipresent God. How did they know that’s who he is? It was made evident to them by the revelation of his Spirit, through the word and their observation of unfolding history. They extolled his mercy and his forgiveness. They lauded his power, his provision, his compassion and his grace. These are all aspects of his character, attributes that are revealed against the background of the needs of fallen humanity. How would God show forth his mercy if it were not for man’s failure? How would we experience his forgiveness if we had not sinned against him? What would reveal his grace if it were not for man’s helplessness? His power is manifested through our weakness; his provision through our poverty; his compassion through our need. He meets us every day, ministering to us out of his enduring love, giving and forgiving over and over again even when we are so far beyond undeserving.
He is also a righteous God, dispensing justice to nations and to men. But he is slow to anger, showing patience, longsuffering and mercy because his kindness is equal to his justice. It was for this reason he clothed himself with flesh, took upon him the form of a man and went to Calvary, enduring the cross, despising the shame that his righteous judgment against sin might be satisfied so that he could show compassion on the guilty and those who are out of the way. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.9 [He] can have compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way; for that he himself also is compassed with infirmity.10
Nothing is out of God’s sovereign control. Even though he grieves over the circumstances man has brought upon his world by bowing down to this world’s god [Satan], Apollyon, the great destroyer, God offers his solution to all. He continues to offer life through the Lord Jesus to all who will repent toward God and call upon his name. Meanwhile he sustains his saints in the warfare they endure, using it to perfect them and conform them to the image of his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. We are not perfected by lavish ease any more than a football player would develop his physique and stamina by lying on the couch; he does it by exercise, sometimes uncomfortable to the extreme, but always effectual in reaching his goal.
God’s sovereign purpose still stands. He is not frustrated by man’s rebellion or by the presence of sin in the world. Satan has derailed nothing. God is not trying to regain the “perfection” of the Garden of Eden; he has something much greater than that for his redeemed man. Eden was a brief incident in God’s incredible plan for the perfection of his church. We are moving on. The end will be more glorious than the beginning. Therefore be encouraged, “be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord.” 11 “Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward. For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry.12 For God is still sovereign.

(Endnotes)
1 Matthew 22:37,38
2 John 14:15
3 Genesis 1:1
4 1 Peter 4:7
5 Ephesians 3:9
6 Ephesians 3:10,11
7 Romans 5:12
8 Ephesians 1:6,12,14
9 Romans 3:12
10 Hebrews 5:2
11 1 Corinthians 15:58
12 Hebrews 10:35-37

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