Who Is Sovereign?

Either God is sovereign, and election is the expression of God’s eternal purpose (His will), or man is sovereign, and election is an expression of what God foreknew that man would do.

Consider the difference between Jesus Christ and a martyr. Christ was to be forsaken by the Father; the chosen martyr would have the presence of God with him. Christ was to have the wrath of God poured out upon Himself; the martyr would have the comfort of God’s love that had been shed abroad in his heart. Christ would have the weight of all the sins of the elect; the martyr had been released from the weight of his own sins.

The same disciples who were with Christ on the Mount of Transfiguration (Matt. 17) were with Him in the Garden of Gethsemane (Matt. 26). In Christ’s Person, the Divine nature and the human nature were united. Godhead and Manhood were inseparably joined together. However, while the two natures were united, the two wills were not confounded. Christ possessed a will as the perfect man, and He also possessed a will as the perfect God. Furthermore, we must not think of Christ’s natures as being distinct and separate in Him. Their relation is a mystery, but the evidence of both is evident. Had Christ Jesus not been man, He could not have sympathized and died; had He not been God, He could not save. Christ said, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will. And He came to the disciples and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, So, you men could not keep watch with Me for one hour?” (Matt. 26:39, 40).

Christ’s prayer was with submission of will. Christ’s human nature, acting in a natural way, desired life. However, His human will was controlled by the Divine will. This shows that, although His human will was different from His Divine will, it was not contrary to it. Jesus Christ was like man and at the same time very much unlike man. Jesus Christ was the unique Person—the God-Man.

The terrible sting of death was before Christ. He knew what was before Him—by anticipation. He was already beginning to feel the weight of imputed sin. Death had the full character of the wages of sin and the curse of God’s judgment. His great sorrow and distress did not interrupt His communion with the Father. The distress makes God’s servants live and be safe by the same faith that justifies them before men.

Go to the Old Testament and the book of Habakkuk for an illustration. The name of the prophet “Habakkuk” means “willingly embraced.” Every privilege entails suffering; therefore, every privilege involves suffering. The burden was laid on the prophet by the Lord who gave him his glorious privilege. The burden was his enlightenment, and such truth is distorted when exercised. Therefore, the prophet undertakes the defense of justice. Habakkuk, contemporary of Jeremiah, was both prophet and seer. “How long, O LORD, will I call for help, And You will not hear? I cry out to You, Violence! Yet you do not save” (Hab. 1:2). Through all the mystery of sin and its apparent success, through the mystery of suffering and of God’s judgments, the prophet lays hold of God’s promises and clings to Him with faith triumphant.

God answered Habakkuk by stating that His silence did not mean ignorance or indifference, but that He was about to bring punishment upon the sinful nation of Judah. God replied (1) that He was about to do something incredible, (2) that He would use the Chaldeans to chastise Judah for their sin, and (3) that He would give a graphic character sketch of the Chaldeans. It is faith’s privilege to recognize God’s hand in the afflictions and pressures that come upon His people. The Lord’s reply, although it solved one problem, raised another (Hab. 1:12-17). God chastised Judah by a nation worse than them.

The prophet Habakkuk stood to see what would become of prayer, and what would be the issue of his doubts, temptations, and God’s providence. The LORD answered that He was not unmindful of the wickedness of people who neglect the Law. The Law is the pulse of any nation. If it does not beat at all, the nation is dead. If there is only a faint beat, the nation is weak. If the pulse keeps an equal course, the nation is in good condition. Therefore, a judge is to retain the decency and gravity of the Law. John Trapp said, “A just Law is a heart without affection, an eye without lust, and a mind without passion.”

There are three parts of the Law: (1) The commandments were given to curb moral life, and they are for everybody (Ex. 19-20). (2) Judgments were given to influence social life (Ex. 21-24). (3) Ordinances were given to direct the spiritual life (Ex. 25-40).

All things are present with the eternal God. He knows temporal things eternally, mutable things immutably, contingent things infallibly, and future things presently. Hence, He “…calls into being that which does not exist” (Rom. 4:17). Therefore, the unconditional promise made to Abraham concerning a son was not disproved by Abraham’s faith, as some teach. It is true that Abraham had faith, but his faith was of such nature that it did not consider the deadness of his body or of Sarah’s womb. Paul said, “In hope against hope he believed, so that he might become a father of many nations according to that which had been spoken, SO SHALL YOUR DESCENDANTS BE. Without becoming weak in faith he contemplated his own body, now as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah’s womb; yet, with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully assured that what God had promised, He was able also to perform. Therefore IT WAS ALSO CREDITED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS. Now not for his sake only was it written that it was credited to him, but for our sake also, to whom it will be credited, as those who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, He who was delivered over because of our transgressions, and was raised because of our justification” (Rom. 4:18-25).

Faith which God gives does not stagger. This is the only faith that can glorify God. No difficulty can stand in the way of such faith. Furthermore, “natural faith” looks to the ability of the sinner to come to Christ; but supernatural faith alone can draw the sinner to Jesus Christ. Finally, as the Arminian depends on his natural faith to motivate the will of God, what about Abraham’s dead loins? To experience life from dead loins, Abraham had to learn the meaning of death.

Natural faith makes the “will of God” dependent on the “will of the sinner”; supernatural faith makes the “will of the sinner” dependent on the “will of God.” Abraham believed God, “who gives life to the dead” (Rom. 4:17); and he comprehended the fact that life was in God. Promise and fulfillment are not the same. Nevertheless, the guarantee of fulfillment exists at the time the promise is made. “God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that he should repent; Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?” (Num. 23:19). This can be applied to what Christ said in John 6:37—“All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out.”

The following Arminian argument is interesting at this point: “If Christ died for the elect only, then the elect only were ungodly. If the elect only are ungodly, all others are godly; hence the so-called non-elect will make it to heaven despite the vagaries of Calvinism.” This is the answer to that argument: Did Christ die for all the sins of all men? If for some sins only, who then can be saved? If He died for all sins, why then are not all saved? Arminianism says it is because of unbelief. Is unbelief a sin, or is it not? Did Christ die for unbelief? Did Christ satisfy justice when He died for our sins? Did Christ become our Surety? Did He die for all our sins?

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The NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE—UPDATED EDITION is the source of all Scripture quotations in this message, unless otherwise noted.