God is Sovereign

I’d said last Tuesday that roughly once a week (as memory allows) I was going to fill out the post that I’d done on the characteristics of Creator God.

http://thesauros-store.blogspot.com/2011/10/can-we-know-god.html

A God of love, such as our Creator would not and does not leave us in the dark, so to speak. He has revealed Himself to us. One of the main things about God is that He does not need anything outside of Himself. He is self-sufficient, self-existent and eternal. Creator God has never not existed.

The first attribute of God that I want to focus on is, Creator God is Sovereign:

This applies to both the creation of the universe and the creation of saved souls.

We ask the question, “Why is there something rather than nothing?” Creation was a sovereign act brought about by nothing outside of the Cause. Our Creator did not need anything outside of Himself to make Himself complete. Our Creator is eminently worthy to be praised and worshipped. There is not and never has been any other Being like Him. God is absolutely and totally perfect. He creates and upholds His creation yet is utterly independent of His creation. In my post “Why I’m Not An Atheist,” I give several levels of evidence that point toward the existence of a Creator. One of those lines is the obvious design and mathematical precision with which our universe was put together. The thing is, the argument of design gives only a mere glimpse of our Creator’s majesty. Even a seemingly infinite universe is inadequate to measure His infinite power and might. The universe is in itself an metaphor of sorts for the greatness of God in comparison to ourselves and the earth. For earth, this mere speck floating in what seems infinity is comparable to the greatness of God and our finite ability to comprehend His greatness.

God’s sovereignty applies not only to salvation of the elect, it also applies to Himself and His death on the cross. It was His will that decided Jesus should die and appease God’s wrath toward our sin. It was the only solution that could demonstrate both His love and His justice while destroying the power of evil and paying the penalty of our choosing evil over and above our Creator.

Think about that! Try to remember the worst sex offender you can think of. And then ask if you would suffer God’s wrath to redeem that person’s soul. In Canada the worst offender might be (there are many other potential candidates) Clifford Olson who, until his dying day tormented the parents of the children he raped and killed with lurid details, sent from prison, of how he tortured and degraded the kids prior to killing them. And God, out of infinite and sovereign love for you and all other humans on their way to hell, sent His one and only Son to offer Clifford Olson forgiveness for his sins. On the other hand, if Olson refused that offer of forgiveness, God’s infinite and sovereign Justice will ensure that the full force of His hatred of evil will be handed out to Olson and all others who side with evil of any degree for eternity.

It was His love for us that sent Jesus to the cross. It was His sovereign authority that God sent Jesus to do this job. The job entailed the following:
God was in Jesus reconciling the world to Himself.
This was done by becoming a human in flesh.
He bore all the sins of all the people in His own body.
He paid the price of our sin in full.
He endured the full wrath of God against our sin.
He endured a physical death and burial.
He defeated the power of sin to cause death and He rose from the dead, coming physically back to life.

Because He took our place, by sovereign decree, those He has chosen now get to share His riches. We get His righteousness and His standing before God. God loves us as much as He loves Jesus (John 17:23). By sovereign decree there is nothing left for us to do to gain salvation. There is no condition left unmet. I don’t have to partake in communion or attend Church. There is no responsibility left to fulfill. I don’t have to pray a certain number of times per day or wash my hands or eat certain foods. My sins have been unconditionally forgiven. This is different than Adam and Eve. Their “good standing with God” was on a conditional footing. If they obeyed, all would have been well. Since they disobeyed, the world continues to groan under the penalty and power of sin until Jesus returns. Those of us who have been elected for salvation have an unconditional base. We have been chosen by sovereign decree for salvation. Jesus did it all. Adam’s standing was based upon what he did. Our standing is based upon what Jesus has done according to God’s sovereign decree. Nothing can be added to it and nothing can be taken away. “I have mercy upon whom I will have mercy and I will harden whom I will harden.”

This is something that we can know about Creator God. He’s not asking you to like it. But He is letting you know well in advance what the ground-rules are. Ignorance will not be an excuse.