We run our website the way we wished the whole internet worked: we provide high quality original content with no ads. We are funded by your direct support for ReKnew and our vision. Please consider supporting this project.
Re-Thinking Divine Sovereignty
Many people in the church have been taught that divine sovereignty is synonymous with unilateral control. Some have even argued that if God is not in control of everything, then something must be in control of him. Still others have proposed that if God is not sovereign over all, then he has no sovereignty at all.
But why should we accept this understanding of divine sovereignty? Why should we think that God would cease to be God because he decided to create something he does not meticulously control? On the contrary, this view seems to severely restrict God’s omnipotence! It reduces the Creator to one mode of behavior: unilateral control. God must control everything in order to exist! Why should we suppose that this is the most exalted, let alone the only conceivable, form of sovereignty?
It could be argued that this is not actually sovereign at all. It is hard to conceive of a weaker God than one who would be threatened by events occurring outside of his meticulous control. It is difficult to imagine a less majestic view of God than one who is necessarily limited to a unilateral, deterministic mode of relating to his creation. Power is about having choices. If this is so, then if God cannot choose to create an open creation, his power is actually undermined.
What is praiseworthy about controlling something simply because a being possesses the innate power to do so? For instance, I have the power to exercise total and exhaustive control over my little finger as I twitch it. But no one would think me praiseworthy on this basis. Yet this is precisely what we do when we claim that God’s sovereignty is praiseworthy because he controls everything. God could control everything if he wanted to, since it is his creation, but that is not what he chose to do.
There is nothing intrinsically praiseworthy about sheer power. Praise has to do with character. What is praiseworthy about God’s sovereignty is not that he exercises the omnipotence he obviously has, but that out of his character, as ultimately revealed on the cross, he does not exercise all the power he could.
The greatest testimony to God’s sovereignty is the fact that God created beings who possess the power to say no to him.
Our common experience confirms this. On the one hand, we tend to view leaders as insecure, weak, and manipulative when they seek to meticulously control other people in order to ensure that things go exactly the way they want. On the other hand, we commonly admire leaders who influence others through the respect their character earns.
A truly great leader who is sovereign over all—the God revealed in the Bible—is one who is secure enough in the character he possesses that he does not need to resort to coercion. This is what we see in the ultimate revelation of God on the cross. As Irenaeus said, “There is no coercion in God.”
Adapted from Satan and the Problem of Evil, pages 146-151
Category: General
Tags: Cross, God's Sovereignty, Open Theism, Power
Related Reading
How People Misunderstand Open Theism
Open theism holds that, because agents are free, the future includes possibilities (what agents may and may not choose to do). Since God’s knowledge is perfect, open theists hold that God knows the future partly as a realm of possibilities. This view contrasts with classical theism that has usually held that God knows the future exclusively as a domain…
Open Theism: A Basic Introduction
On Monday and Tuesday, Greg explained Molinism and contrasted it against the open view of the future. (Click here for part 1). Because many see the open view as a limited view of God, it’s helpful to be clear that this has less to do with the nature of God and is about the nature…
What’s the significance of Isaiah 63:8-10?
The Lord said (or “thought”) to himself, “Surely they are my people, chidren who will not deal falsely.” So, the text says, “He became their savior” (Isa. 63: 8). But “they rebelled and grieved his holy spirit.” So the Lord “became their enemy” (9-10). If the future is exhaustively settled from all eternity, how could…
What do you think of the classical view that God is impassible?
The classical view has historically held that God is impassible, meaning he is above pathos (passion or emotions). The main reason the church came to this view was that, following the Hellenistic philosophical tradition, they associated emotions with change while believing God was above all change (immutable). Moreover, experiencing emotions implies that one is affected…
It’s All About the Crucified Christ
The world was created by Christ and for Christ (Col 1:16). At the center of God’s purpose for creation is his plan to unite himself to us in Christ, reveal himself to us through Christ, and share his life with us by incorporating us into Christ. We don’t know what this might have looked like…
Sin-Bearing God
On the cross, God became our sin, as Paul wrote: “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us” (2 Cor 5:21). However, God didn’t begin to be a sin-bearing God when Jesus walked the earth and hung on the cross. Rather he became Incarnate and bore our sins on the cross…