The attributes of God

The Sovereignty of God

An attribute of God · Psalm 115:3

The sovereignty of God means he reigns over all things, and nothing happens outside his rule. Our God is in the heavens; he has done whatsoever he has pleased. He works all things after the counsel of his own will, so that none can stay his hand. His sovereignty is not blind fate but the wise, good, fatherly rule of the One who loves us and gave his Son for us.

But our God is in the heavens: he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased.Psalm 115:3 (KJV)

And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and 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 (KJV)

What the sovereignty of God means

To be sovereign is to be the highest authority, answerable to no one, ruling over all. God is King, not merely of a nation but of the whole created order, of nations and empires, of nature and history, of angels and atoms. He does whatsoever he pleases, and none can thwart him. His purposes cannot be defeated, his plans cannot be canceled, his throne cannot be shaken.

This rule is total and it is detailed. Not a sparrow falls without him; the very hairs of your head are numbered. He turns the heart of the king wherever he wills, as a man turns a stream of water. Yet his sovereignty never makes us puppets or excuses our sin; Scripture holds together, without embarrassment, God's total rule and our real responsibility. He governs all things, and we are truly accountable for our choices. How both are true is a depth we cannot fully sound, but that both are true, the Bible everywhere assumes.

How the Bible reveals it

The story of Joseph is sovereignty in miniature. His brothers sold him in cruelty, yet Joseph could say to them, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good. The same event was their sin and God's plan, and God's purpose ran straight through their wickedness without excusing it. This is how sovereignty works all through Scripture: God rules even over what he hates, and bends it to his good ends.

Nebuchadnezzar, the proudest king of the ancient world, learned it the hard way. Humbled until he acknowledged that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, he confessed that all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing, and that none can stay his hand. The cross itself is the supreme case: Jesus was delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, and yet by wicked hands was crucified. The worst act in history was, at the same moment, the center of God's saving plan. Nothing is outside his reign.

Common misunderstandings

Some hear sovereignty and picture cold fate, an impersonal force grinding on regardless of us. But the sovereign of the Bible is a Father, not a machine. His rule is personal, wise, and good, aimed at the good of those who love him. Sovereignty is not fatalism; it is the reign of a God who counts our tears and works all things, even the painful ones, for our good and his glory.

Others fear that if God is sovereign, then he is the author of evil, or that our choices are meaningless. Scripture refuses both errors. God is light, and tempts no one; he is never the doer of evil, though he rules over it and overrules it for good. And our choices are real and accountable, not erased by his rule but held within it. Still others use sovereignty as an excuse for passivity, but the Bible everywhere calls us to pray, to act, and to obey, precisely within the sure purposes of God.

Why the sovereignty of God is good news

If God were loving but not sovereign, he might wish us well but be unable to help; if he were sovereign but not loving, his power would terrify. Because he is both, we are safe. The One who rules everything is the One who gave his Son for us, and he will not fail to give us all things needful. Nothing can reach you that has not passed through his hand, and nothing in his hand is wasted.

This is the deep comfort of the suffering believer. We know that all things work together for good to them that love God. Not all things are good, but the sovereign God weaves even the dark threads into a pattern of good we will one day see. Sovereignty means your life is not adrift on a sea of chance; it is held by a purpose that cannot fail. You can rest, because he reigns.

How the sovereignty of God is seen in Jesus Christ

Jesus exercised the sovereignty of God in the open. The wind and the sea obeyed him. Disease fled at his word, demons submitted, death gave back its dead when he called. He said no one could take his life from him; he laid it down of himself and took it again. Even in his dying he was in command, promising paradise to a thief and committing his spirit to the Father.

Now the risen Christ declares, all power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. God has highly exalted him and given him a name above every name, that at his name every knee shall bow. History is moving toward the day when the kingdoms of this world become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ. To trust the sovereign God is to trust the Lamb upon the throne, who rules all things for the sake of his people and will bring us safely home.

A note offered humbly and for all Christians: God is one, simple, and undivided in his being, and these attributes are not parts of him but the one God seen from many sides. His holiness is loving, his love is holy, his justice is merciful, and his mercy is just. He is also greater than all our words, and no page can contain him. What we can say, we say only because he has graciously revealed it, above all in Jesus Christ, who is the image of the invisible God.

Related: The Omnipotence of God · The Wisdom of God · Who is Jesus? · All the attributes of God