By Cody Anderson
Have you ever thought about random things, like the shape of clouds or drops of dew in the morning? I mean, do they really matter? What if I told you that something made to be random, like dice, has an outcome fixed by the sovereign hand of God? Proverbs 16:33 says, “The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the LORD,” (ESV). R.C. Sproul explains that there is not a single maverick molecule in all the universe. Every molecule is controlled and ordained by God. He also uses the illustration of dust particles floating in what seems to be a meaningless dance in the sunbeam passing through the window of your house as all being controlled by the Sovereign God. His sovereignty is the outworking of His supremacy. God, being the Supreme Creator, has sovereignty over all His creation, including every single particle.
If God is the Creator God, then is He free to do as He pleases with His creations? Paul seems to think so. Romans 9:21 states, “Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use?” (ESV, emphasis added). What about when man finds it unfair? Is God still right and just? Absolutely. Every believer is comfortable with attributing blessings to God. What about things we would consider bad, like natural disasters, cancer, or the death of a child? Is God any less God in those moments? Of course not. Even when we do not understand something, it is still under God’s control. That isn’t to say that He approves of all things, but that He allows them to happen.
Let’s look at a couple of God’s creatures that appear to be treated differently by God. Daniel 4:35 declares, “All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and He does according to His will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay His hand or say to Him, ‘What have you done?’” (ESV). Notice that what happens to these creatures is according to His will.
We see different outcomes for angels. We will look at only two. God has fixed some angels to be in continual praise and worship of Him. Revelation 4:8 says, “And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say, ‘Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!’” (ESV, emphasis added). Others were not fixed and set in a conditional footing in which they were allowed to sin, and God banished them from Heaven along with Satan. 2 Peter 2:4 states, “For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment,” (ESV, emphasis added). From the same lump, God sets some in continual praise of Him and others with the capability of rebelling against Him.
A look at man’s outcome reveals two options. Adam rebelled against God. Adam was placed in a conditional relationship with God. If you do these things and don’t do certain things, then God would dwell with man in the Garden. We know that Adam sinned by not trusting and not being obedient to God. The original sin has now polluted all mankind since Adam is our father. To be in relationship with man again, God ultimately provides Christ as a sacrifice to satisfy the wrath that is to be poured out on sinners. Those that God allows to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ and those He works faith and trust in are reconciled back to Him. But not everyone hears of the works of Christ. For all eternity, some will praise God and others will be under the wrath of God, similarly to angels. God states in Exodus 33:19, “I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.” The Sovereign God decides who the Gospel is preached to and whose hearts He softens to trust in Him.
I hope this article is a catalyst to think about the sovereignty of God and causes you to dive into the Word of God. Allow Him to teach you. We will tackle a few other sovereignty questions next week.
This article originally appeared in The Clarion Newspaper on June 27, 2023.
Corinth Baptist Church 