What does it mean that God is sovereign?
One of God’s attributes is Sovereignty. This has been a trait or characteristic attributed of God since early church history. But this attribute has caused much division between denominations and theologians. Let’s first begin with the dictionary definition.
Sovereign definition:
Merriam-Webster [1]:
- one possessing or held to possess supreme political power or sovereignty
- one that exercises supreme authority within a limited sphere
- an acknowledged leader : arbiter
Oxford [2]
- Supreme power or authority
As an adjective, Oxford adds:
- supreme; preeminent; indisputable
- greatest in degree; utmost or extreme.
- being above all others in character, importance, excellence, etc.
From this, we can agree and say that God is the Sovereign of the universe. He is God. He is the King. Everything under Creation falls under His power, influence, and authority. God rules it all. There is no one that can thwart His purpose. There is no higher judge, no higher authority and no one with greater power. He made us all, set the rules, and being absolute Sovereign, no one can question Him.
God is also perfect in character and the only one worthy to be worshipped. None compare to Him.
God’s sovereignty is a natural consequence of His omniscience, omnipotence, omnipresence, omnibenevolence and holiness.
Now, let’s look at some descriptions from others on God’s sovereignty:
From Derek Thomas, Ligonier Ministries:
“God is sovereign in creation, providence, redemption, and judgment. That is a central assertion of Christian belief and especially in Reformed theology. God is King and Lord of all. To put this another way: nothing happens without God’s willing it to happen, willing it to happen before it happens, and willing it to happen in the way that it happens. Put this way, it seems to say something that is expressly Reformed in doctrine.” [3]
What is added to the definition of Sovereign is “nothing happens without God’s willing it to happen, willing it to happen before it happens, and willing it to happen in the way that it happens.” This is control.
Monergism.com writes:
“[God's sovereignty] simply refers to the fact that all things are under His rule and control, and that nothing happens in this Universe without His direction or permission. He is a God Who works, not just some things, but all things after the counsel of His own will (see Eph. 1:11). God's purpose is all- inclusive and is never thwarted (see Isa. 46:11). Nothing Takes Him by Surprise” [4]
Added to the definition is “nothing happens in this Universe without His direction or permission.” This is control.
The Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter III on God’s Eternal Decree
I. God from all eternity, did, by the most wise and holy counsel of His own will, freely, and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass; yet so, as thereby neither is God the author of sin, nor is violence offered to the will of the creatures; nor is the liberty or contingency of second causes taken away, but rather established. [5]
Added to the definition is “unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass.” This is control.
John MacArthur of Grace to You:
No doctrine is more despised by the natural mind than the truth that God is absolutely sovereign. Human pride loathes the suggestion that God orders everything, controls everything, rules over everything. The carnal mind, burning with enmity against God, abhors the biblical teaching that nothing comes to pass except according to His eternal decrees. Most of all, the flesh hates the notion that salvation is entirely God’s work. If God chose who would be saved, and if His choice was settled before the foundation of the world, then believers deserve no credit for their salvation. But that is, after all, precisely what Scripture teaches. [6]
Added, “God orders everything, controls everything…” Control.
From gotquestions.org
The fact that God is sovereign essentially means that He has the power, wisdom, and authority to do anything He chooses within His creation. Whether or not He actually exerts that level of control in any given circumstance is actually a completely different question. Often, the concept of divine sovereignty is oversimplified. We tend to assume that, if God is not directly, overtly, purposefully driving some event, then He is somehow not sovereign. The cartoon version of sovereignty depicts a God who must do anything that He can do, or else He is not truly sovereign. [7]
Here is a great explanation of what has been added to the definition of Sovereign by many. Sovereign does not relate to control in any way. If a theologian wants to say God orders and controls all things meticulously, they need a proper attribute that describes this, such as Omnideterminism or Omnicontrol.
Arminiantheologyblog
God’s sovereignty necessarily means His complete freedom and authority (or right) to act any way He so wills. On this view, God certainly has the freedom and authority to exercise meticulous control over every minute detail (though the Arminian can’t see how this doesn’t necessitate God’s authorship of sin), but He also has the freedom and authority to not exercise meticulous control. For the Arminian, if God chooses to not exercise meticulous control, that decision is itself a sovereign decision. [8]
Let’s look at what scripture says:
He is King and has rule over Creation
Job 25:2
“Dominion and awe belong to Him who establishes peace in His heights.
Job 42:2
“I know that You can do all things, and that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted.
Psalm 93:1-2
The Lord reigns, He is clothed with majesty; the Lord has clothed and girded Himself with strength; indeed, the world is firmly established, it will not be moved. Your throne is established from of old; you are from everlasting.
Psalm 103:19
The Lord has established His throne in the heavens, and His sovereignty rules over all.
Isaiah 40:21-23
Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been declared to you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is He who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, who stretches out the heavens like a curtain and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in. He it is who reduces rulers to nothing, who makes the judges of the earth meaningless.
Isaiah 45:21-24
“Declare and set forth your case; indeed, let them consult together. Who has announced this from of old? Who has long since declared it? Is it not I, the Lord? And there is no other God besides Me, a righteous God and a Savior; there is none except Me. “Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other. “I have sworn by Myself, the word has gone forth from My mouth in righteousness and will not turn back, that to Me every knee will bow, every tongue will swear allegiance. “They will say of Me, ‘Only in the Lord are righteousness and strength.’ Men will come to Him, and all who were angry at Him will be put to shame.
Isaiah 46:9
Remember what I accomplished in antiquity! Truly I am God, I have no peer; I am God, and there is none like me
Jeremiah 10:10
But the Lord is the true God; He is the living God and the everlasting King. At His wrath the earth quakes, and the nations cannot endure His indignation.
Daniel 7:13-14
“I kept looking in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven one like a Son of Man was coming, and He came up to the Ancient of Days and was presented before Him. “And to Him was given dominion, glory and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations and men of every language might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away; and His kingdom is one which will not be destroyed.
Matthew 28:18
18 And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.
Ephesians 1:20-21
20 which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.
Philippians 2:9-10
9 For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth
1 Timothy 6:15
15 which He will bring about at the proper time—He who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords
Revelation 4:11
11 “Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and because of Your will they existed, and were created.”
As King, He can judge and render justice
Psalm 9:7-8
But the Lord shall be seated as king forever: He sets up His throne for judgment, to judge the world in righteousness, to render justice to its peoples.
Jeremiah 18:5-10
5 Then the word of the Lord came to me saying, 6 “Can I not, O house of Israel, deal with you as this potter does?” declares the Lord. “Behold, like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel. 7 At one moment I might speak concerning a nation or concerning a kingdom to uproot, to pull down, or to destroy it; 8 if that nation against which I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent concerning the calamity I planned to bring on it. 9 Or at another moment I might speak concerning a nation or concerning a kingdom to build up or to plant it; 10 if it does evil in My sight by not obeying My voice, then I will think better of the good with which I had promised to bless it.
Jeremiah 32:19
You plan great things and you do mighty deeds. You see everything people do. You reward each of them for the way they live and for the things they do.
Daniel 4:34
“But at the end of that period, I, Nebuchadnezzar, raised my eyes toward heaven and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High and praised and honored Him who lives forever; For His dominion is an everlasting dominion, and His kingdom endures from generation to generation.
As King, He can plan and order His kingdom the way He sees fit
Psalms 33:11
But the plans of the LORD stand firm forever, the purposes of His heart through all generations.
Proverbs 16:4
The Lord works everything for its own ends, even the wicked for the day of disaster.
Proverbs 19:21
Many plans are in a man’s heart, but the counsel of the LORD will stand.
Isaiah 25:1
O Lord, you are my God! I will exalt you in praise, I will extol your fame. For you have done extraordinary things, and executed plans made long ago exactly as you decreed
Isaiah 46:9-11
Remember what I accomplished in antiquity! Truly I am God, I have no peer; I am God, and there is none like me, who announces the end from the beginning and reveals beforehand what has not yet occurred, who says, ‘My plan will be realized, I will accomplish what I desire,’ who summons an eagle from the east, from a distant land, one who carries out my plan. Yes, I have decreed, yes, I will bring it to pass; I have formulated a plan, yes, I will carry it out.
Daniel 4:35
“All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, but He does according to His will in the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of earth; and no one can ward off His hand or say to Him, ‘What have You done?’
Romans 9:20-21
20 On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, “Why did you make me like this,” will it? 21 Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use?
Sovereignty comes both from God’s power, and His perfect character. God’s sovereignty speaks to His moral authority and right to order, direct, and judge the universe however He chooses.
Because of His power and His perfect character, there is no one that can “rule better”.
God’s style of Rulership
Deuteronomy 1:30-33
30 The Lord your God who goes before you will Himself fight on your behalf, just as He did for you in Egypt before your eyes, 31 and in the wilderness where you saw how the Lord your God carried you, just as a man carries his son, in all the way which you have walked until you came to this place.’ 32 But for all this, you did not trust the Lord your God, 33 who goes before you on your way, to seek out a place for you to encamp, in fire by night and cloud by day, to show you the way in which you should go.
Isaiah 5:1-4
1 Let me sing now for my well-beloved a song of my beloved concerning His vineyard. My well-beloved had a vineyard on a fertile hill. 2 He dug it all around, removed its stones, and planted it with the choicest vine. And He built a tower in the middle of it and also hewed out a wine vat in it; then He expected it to produce good grapes, but it produced only worthless ones. 3 “And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, Judge between Me and My vineyard. 4 “What more was there to do for My vineyard that I have not done in it? Why, when I expected it to produce good grapes did it produce worthless ones?
Mark 10:35-45
35 James and John, the two sons of Zebedee, *came up to Jesus, saying, “Teacher, we want You to do for us whatever we ask of You.” 36 And He said to them, “What do you want Me to do for you?” 37 They said to Him, “Grant that we may sit, one on Your right and one on Your left, in Your glory.” 38 But Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?” 39 They said to Him, “We are able.” And Jesus said to them, “The cup that I drink you shall drink; and you shall be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized. 40 But to sit on My right or on My left, this is not Mine to give; but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.” 41 Hearing this, the ten began to feel indignant with James and John. 42 Calling them to Himself, Jesus *said to them, “You know that those who are recognized as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them; and their great men exercise authority over them. 43 But it is not this way among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant; 44 and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be slave of all. 45 For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”
John 13:12-17
12 So when He had washed their feet, and taken His garments and reclined at the table again, He said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you? 13 You call Me Teacher and Lord; and you are right, for so I am. 14 If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. 15 For I gave you an example that you also should do as I did to you. 16 Truly, truly, I say to you, a slave is not greater than his master, nor is one who is sent greater than the one who sent him. 17 If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.
Philippians 2:3-4
3 Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; 4 do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.
God doesn’t lead through control, but through love, compassion, service, the betterment of others. He leads by example. He humbles Himself for others.
But doesn’t God control all things:
Matthew 10:29-31
29 Are not two sparrows sold for a cent? And yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. 30 But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. 31 So do not fear; you are more valuable than many sparrows.
Sovereignty =/ Determinism
Many people have mistaken sovereignty with absolute meticulous control; unless God absolutely controls everything, He is not completely sovereign. This is a twisted definition, and tends to define God as a celestial puppet master.
Just because God is KING and LORD does not mean there are no other kings and lords
1 Timothy 6:15
which He will bring about at the proper time—He who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords
Daniel 2:21
He changes the times and seasons; He removes kings and establishes them. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning.
Just because God can exercise His will over all others, doesn’t mean others don’t have a will
Deuteronomy 30:19
I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants,
Leviticus 26:21
‘If then, you act with hostility against Me and are unwilling to obey Me, I will increase the plague on you seven times according to your sins.
Exodus 7:16
You shall say to him, ‘The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, sent me to you, saying, “Let My people go, that they might serve Me in the wilderness. But behold, you have not listened until now.”
Joshua 24:15
If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
Luke 1:72-75
To show mercy toward our fathers, and to remember His holy covenant, the oath which He swore to Abraham our father, to grant us that we, being rescued from the hand of our enemies, might serve Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him all our days.
Matthew 23:37
“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling.
Just because God rules and judges, does not mean He cannot delegate rulership to others.
Genesis 1:26-28
Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
Jeremiah 27:5
By My great power and outstretched arm, I made the earth and the men and beasts on the face of it, and I give it to whom I please.
Daniel 4:17
"This sentence is by the decree of the angelic watchers And the decision is a command of the holy ones, In order that the living may know That the Most High is ruler over the realm of mankind, And bestows it on whom He wishes And sets over it the lowliest of men."
Daniel 5:18
As for you, O king, the Most High God gave your father Nebuchadnezzar sovereignty and greatness, glory and honor.
Romans 13:1
Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which is from God. The authorities that exist have been appointed by God.
Exodus 18:21-22
21 Furthermore, you shall select out of all the people able men who fear God, men of truth, those who hate dishonest gain; and you shall place these over them as leaders of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties and of tens. 22 Let them judge the people at all times; and let it be that every major dispute they will bring to you, but every minor dispute they themselves will judge. So it will be easier for you, and they will bear the burden with you.
Deuteronomy 1:16
16 “Then I charged your judges at that time, saying, ‘Hear the cases between your fellow countrymen, and judge righteously between a man and his fellow countryman, or the alien who is with him.
Matthew 19:28
28 And Jesus said to them, “Truly I say to you, that you who have followed Me, in the regeneration when the Son of Man will sit on His glorious throne, you also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
God is able to work “all things after the counsel of His will” (Eph. 1:11), and do so without controlling and manipulating His creatures. In fact He must if He is to remain holy, just, and good.
[1] https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sovereign
[2] https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/sovereignty
[3] https://www.ligonier.org/blog/gods-sovereignty-and-our-responsibility/
[4] https://www.monergism.com/topics/sovereignty-god
[5] https://reformed.org/documents/wcf_with_proofs/index.html?body=/documents/wcf_with_proofs/ch_III.html
[6] https://www.gty.org/library/articles/A167/Gods-Absolute-Sovereignty
[7] https://www.gotquestions.org/God-is-sovereign.html
[8] https://arminiantheologyblog.wordpress.com/2012/07/16/do-arminians-believe-in-the-sovereignty-of-god/