Anonymous Asks (283)

“Why should I care about the sovereignty of God if it has no practical effect on my life?”

If we reject divine determinism as unbiblical, we may be tempted to conclude that the sovereignty of God has no practical consequences for believers. In fact, this is quite untrue.

Holy and Blameless Before God

The word of God assures us that everyone who puts his or her trust in Jesus was chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before God. That means if you are truly saved, the sovereign God of the universe has committed himself to making you over in the likeness of his beloved Son.

That’s actually about as practical as it gets. You can run, but you can’t hide, baby! If you are in Christ, you are getting eternal life by hook or by crook, whether your present conduct makes it look likely or not. “He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” That’s the sovereignty of God at work. It’s also our security in Christ: “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.”

The practical consequence of God’s commitment to transform my character is that it obligates me as a believer to cooperate with the process rather than interfering with it. “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” [Sealed. Sovereign. Get it?] The security we have in Christ because of God’s sovereignty is our incentive to allow his Spirit to do the work God has promised to accomplish in us. “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand [there’s your sovereignty again], that we should walk in them.” One of the purposes of our salvation is to walk the path the sovereign God has designed for us in life and do the things for which he has lovingly equipped us, good works that bless others. To devote our lives to lesser objectives will not defeat God’s purpose for us or change his ultimate goal, but it will make the process of becoming Christ-like a whole lot more painful for us.

The Whims of Fate

If we recognize and believe in it, the sovereignty of God also functions as a major disincentive to fretting and distress in turbulent times. “We know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”

We need to interpret that promise biblically, of course. It is not “All things work together for fun” or “All things work together to the complete satisfaction of even the most immature believer.” Sometimes they don’t. Being kept in Christ by a sovereign God is no guarantee the events of our lives will go swimmingly, or that we may not be called to suffer or even die for our faith as many have done over the centuries.

What it guarantees is that God oversees everything committed into his care and much of what isn’t yet. It guarantees he will produce an ultimate result that is for his glory and our eternal reward from even the wickedest of Satan’s plots, the nastiest things men can devise against us, and from the vicissitudes of living in a fallen world, apparently subject to the whims of fate like everyone else. The sovereignty of God guarantees that Christians are not.

Sovereignty and Identity

God’s sovereignty should also have a very serious effect on how I think about myself. I have one, God-given identity now, and that is that I am a brother of Christ and an adopted member of the family of God. (Look it up. God predestined you to that.) That identity eclipses all merely human loyalties I may have, whether ideological, preferential, covenantal or even genetic. (I am including here any “gender identity” you might have been fooled into thinking you owe some obligation.) Identities such as husband, father or sister still have a legitimate claim on us, but when that claim comes into conflict with the claims of Christ, every one of these must go in the bin.

Christians who do not understand they are forever “in Christ” tend to get caught up in the craziness of society around them, and the tug-of-war that drags their emotions in one direction or another. They worry that they may always be the sorry creatures their emotions and desires tell them they are, when instead they have been washed, sanctified and justified in the eyes of God.

Christians who understand their spiritual identity in Christ are liberated from all earthly ties, and it is “For freedom Christ has set us free.” No slavemaster can bind us.

Only Christ can obligate us. This too is a consequence of God’s sovereignty. Enjoy it.