On God's Sovereignty and the Christian's Sufferings

 The sovereignty of God is something I have been studying, pondering, praying about, and standing in awe of this last year.  Particularly in regards to our pain and suffering, and more specifically, in the lives of His own dear children.  It is a topic I think many Christians are perplexed, confused about, and which many even desire to avoid thinking about altogether.  Maybe because they are indeed going through very painful, heart-wrenching trials, which seem to have no purpose, and they cannot fathom how it could be working together for their good.  It might be that they have false presuppositions of the character of God, or that they simply do not know what the Scriptures teach about this aspect of Him.  

 Whatever the case, I believe that it is not only important, but essential, to the lives of believers, and in order for their relationship with Christ to thrive, that they be discipled and taught what God's Word says about His absolute sovereignty.  He has written these things for our comfort and joy, that we might be able to have implicit and childlike trust in who He is and all He does.  The knowledge of these things are given to us to make us strong and confident in our hope, believers who stand firm and are not shaken, no matter what trial or affliction or persecution or sickness comes against them.  These truths have turned my world right-side up, and have gotten me through some of the darkest periods of my life.  Really, I should say, that it is God who has done this, by His gracious Spirit, through His precious Word.  That is why I am just bouncing up and down to share this!  Truth needs to be proclaimed, to cast out darkness and lies, to bring light and life, to renew our minds so that we might be conformed to the image of Christ Jesus and grow in love for Him.

 What do we mean when we speak of God as being sovereign?  A definiton of Sovereign, from the Webster's 1828 dictionary: "Supreme in power; possessing supreme dominion; as a sovereign ruler of the universe; superior to all others; chief."  God works ​all ​things according to the counsel of His own will. (Eph 1:11)  "But our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases." ~Psalm 115:3~ At first glance, that's a bit hard for us to want to accept isn't it?  Okay, sometimes, it's really hard.  If God is in complete control of all that happens, how does that translate to all the suffering we're going through?  In reality, there is no tension between God's sovereignty and our sorrow and suffering; it's just that as the creatures, we have a hard time wrapping our mind around the implications drawn from the fact that God is the Creator, and we are the work of His hands, that we actually don't have an inherent right to control and dictate our own destiny.  As Creator of ​all​ things, God is by definition ​above​ all things.  All things belong to Him and He may do with them whatever He deems best.  "For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions, or rulers or authorities- all things were created through him and for him.  And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together" ~Col 1:16-17~  The ​very essence of ​who​ He is requires, necessitates that He be The Sovereign.  For there can by definition be only ​one​ Sovereign, only ​one​ who is above every other, in complete control, with absolute authority and freedom of will.  This One, can be none but He who is "Yahweh, He is God, there is no other besides Him... Yahweh, He is God in heaven above and on the earth below, there is no other... See now that I, I am He, and there is no god besides me." ~Deut  4:35,39; 32:39~

 We know from Revelation 4:11, that all things were created by God's will and for His pleasure.  In Ephesians 1:5, in speaking of God's sovereign, loving choice of us unto salvation, Paul tells us that it was according to the "good pleasure of His will".  That is why we can rest and trust in His sovereignty: because the Sovereign, Almighty God is good, righteous, holy, merciful, and abounding in lovingkindness.  "The LORD is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made... The LORD is righteous in all his ways, and kind in all his works." ~Psalm 145:9,17~  And His love exists in perfect continuity with His sovereignty, never in opposition to it.  Because of ​who​ He is, we can trust that when God says He has the "right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use" (Rom 9:21), He does so in perfect love and justice, as "The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice.  A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he." ~Deut 32:4

So, we see that God's Word clearly tells us that He is the Supreme Ruler over all things and that nothing here on earth happens without His consent.  But are the painful things that He allows to happen to His children, the evil He allows Satan to bring against them, really working together for their good?  Sometimes it's so hard to see past the suffering we are enduring right now.  It's so easy to let the darkness obscure the light, to cloud our vision from the truth that will give us freedom and joy and resolute trust that God's promises are true!  How do we keep our eyes fixed on Jesus so that we don't become disillusioned, filled with doubt and discouragement?   A good start is to ask ourselves what we really believe is our greatest good, what we believe God is ultimately working toward in our lives?

Romans chapter 8, from which we receive our promise that "all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose." (v28), really helps to give us the big picture about this.  Verse 30 tells us that "those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.".  These things are spoken of as already having been done, accomplished.  This verse is sometimes referred to as the 'Golden Chain'; the links here cannot be broken.  If He has set His eternal love upon you, and Christ, the "Lamb who was slain before the foundation of the world" (Rev 13:8), died to purchase you, He will most certainly draw you to Himself by His Spirit, justify you, and bring you home to glory to be with Him and made like Him for all eternity!  These promises are life!  

Now, notice the end of that progression: we will be glorified, made perfect, like unto Jesus.  This is why in verse 18, Paul says that the "sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us."  And in verse 23, that we are eagerly awaiting the "redemption of our bodies", when we will no longer be subjected to sin and the flesh, but will finally know our full salvation.  In 2 Corinthians 4:17-18, Paul tells us why we should not lose heart: "For this light affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen.  For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal."  And Peter encourages us in his first epistle, "In this (that we are by God's power being guarded for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time) you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith- more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire- may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ." ~Pet 1:6-7~

Do you see a common thread running through all this?  What is the end, the goal, the result of these afflictions here and now?  What are we being told is our greatest good?  Glory-to be conformed to the same image as Christ day by day, and then perfectly and completely when Jesus comes back for us!  

Finally  God explains to us (stating three times in v 6,12,14!) in the first chapter of Ephesians what is the true and ultimate end result of all of this: The praise of His glory.  God is all glorious and brilliant in majesty, worthy to be worshiped and praised for all eternity.  And nowhere is the more clearly displayed in His plan of redemption of unworthy sinners, His grace towards those He has freely adopted as His own! (v5)  All of this, He works according to the counsel of His own perfect will. (v5,9,11) This journey, with all of it's trials and hardships, the whole scope of our salvation, our relationship with the Sovereign God of the universe, will in the end culminate to bring all praise to His glory.  Because of who He is and what He has done, we will have all the more reason and desire to lift up grateful hearts forever!

Truly, it is a marvelous, beautiful, magnificent story, created by a God who encompasses all those same attributes and infinitely more!  And our response to Him most surely should be to simply and humbly love Him back and to yield ourselves to His good and gracious will.  How true is the answer of the first question in the Westminster Catechism! "What is the chief and highest end of man? -Man's chief and highest end is to glorify God, and fully to enjoy Him forever."   As Paul did, I will leave this as the final conclusion to our ponderings on the Sovereignty of God: "Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!  How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!" ~Romans 11:33~