God is the most dominant power of supreme authority, and He rests in His
exercise of love toward all His creation. He is Creator of the universe and
knows what's best for all things. He understands we are a three part being,
spirit, soul, and body, and that for us to be the healthiest and happiest, all
three of those parts need to be in harmony with each other and with Him!
With love, we are to celebrate this magnificent reality. And it is with divine
sight that we who love to learn to know Him, discern that He is more than
sovereign. He is higher than the heavens and though we use God’s
sovereignty as a monocle that does enhance our vision, even significantly,
it’s not enough, He is more. God is powerful and authoritative to the extent
of being able to override all other powers and authorities. The fullest picture
of necessary reality is revealed to His chosen in the cluster of divine
attributes, deserving special focus. He is the triunity of sovereigness: the
source of all knowledge, all understanding, all wisdom. This is formulaic.
Nothing is left to chance.
Ephesians 1:11
Proverbs 16:33
Any that deny His sovereignty, because they refuse His good, will come to
know unholy terror. But what we think does not matter unless it’s a reflection
of what the bible says.
In these final days, the word of God introduces and raises subjects we may
not think to discuss. The word that cast new light on our approach to reason.
God is increasing the value of His words to apply biblical truths to new
situations we may experience in this final world. When we study together, we
simultaneously gain a glimpse of God’s character through love in the act of
reasoning together. He shows us the qualities that make Him to be God. His
charge means that everything happens according to His plan and intention.
Authority means that all His commands ought to be obeyed. His Presence
means that we encounter God’s charge and authority in all our experience,
so that we cannot escape from His justice or from His love. We partner with
the text of every word, to incarnate the truth in His covenantal presence. God
is so much more...that nothing can prevent Him from accomplishing His
purpose.
Psalms 115:3; 135:6
Isaiah 14:24, 26, 27; 43:13; 55:11
Daniel 4:35
It is also universal; that is, it covers all the events of nature and history. This
includes the natural world.
Psalms 65:9-11: 135:7
Human history.
Acts 17:26
Individual human life.
I Samuel 2:6, 7
James 4:13-16
God even governs the free decisions of human beings.
Proverbs 16:9
Our attitudes toward others.
Daniel 1:9
Ezra 6:22
More problematically, God even foreordains people’s sins.
Exodus 4:21
Deuteronomy 2:29, 30
I Kings 22:23
Romans 9:17, 18
II Thessalonians 2:10-12
But, as sovereign Lord, he also ordains that some will come to faith and
salvation.
Ephesians 2:4-10
So, salvation is God’s work from beginning to end, doing for us what we could
never dream of doing for ourselves. We should always remember that God’s
saving grace in Christ, is part of His charge over creation, as the Lord. But
God is more. On the basis of who He is, even the winds and the seas obey
Him. He utters to us His commandments that we may obey Him, not
wavering in our obedience, that by His absolute sovereign authority He has
right to save us. God’s sovereign lordship is His covenant solidarity with His
creatures. The covenant Lord is one who takes us to be His own. And He
declares His intention in scripture.
Exodus 6:7
II Corinthians 6:16
Genesis 17:7
Exodus 29:45
Hebrews 11:16
Revelation 21:3
God takes us to be His people, He fights our battles, blesses us, loves us,
and sometimes, as a loving Father should, gives us special punishments for
our sins.
Amos 3:2
He summarizes all this by saying that He is with us. He places His name
upon us so that He dwells with us and we with Him.
Numbers 6:27
But God’s presence is not only for His chosen beings. For God’s whole
creation of beings is also able to be in covenant with Him. If they so choose.
He is the Lord of all creation. We should not think of God’s sovereignty as an
impersonal, determinism. God’s sovereign lordship is deeply personal. As
Lord, God has charge over everything, efficaciously, universally, and He also
utters words of life, that graciously govern the ongoing life of His creatures.
And as Lord He has made a sovereign commitment to be “with” those who
are His. God’s sovereignty is a broad concept, including all that God is and
all that He does, even embracing His love. The two vast truths of God’s
sovereignty that are more than we can grasp are the depth of the riches and
wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are His judgments and
how inscrutable His ways. Everything is governed by the deepest divine
wisdom. God never does anything or allows anything that is meaningless,
random or without an infinitely wise purpose. That’s huge. That is a big thing
that we must come to terms with when we think about God’s sovereignty. His
sovereignty is governed by His justice and His mercy. God never, never
wrongs anyone. All that He does is righteous and just, but even justice is not
the final and highest aim of God’s wisdom. The ultimate aim is that He be
glorified for His mercy, His goodness, His love, and His grace toward
undeserving rebels. He sovereignly planned and accomplished salvation for
sinners by the death of His Son. Because of that, we get an assignment
through Jesus Christ to go to all nations in order that any who choose might
come to God. In this truth we can have all of God that we want to have.
Reason with the statement that you can’t love someone you do not know,
and you might conclude that knowledge must precede love. That’s
profoundly why God wants us to know Him more…that we might love Him.
But God does not say “if you know me”, He says, “if you love me”… God
says this in drawing upon that image created in us. God is love. Suppose
that Adam would’ve loved God more than he thought of Eve. The deep love
of this relationship with God is the door to even deeper knowledge of the
Creator. Intimate friends entrust themselves and so disclose more of
themselves to each other. So, there is an intimate knowledge accessible only
through the deep love that results from and produces even more profound
trust. Would the seventy have left Jesus if they had come to know that he
was the Holy One of God? To those that were with him, this knowledge wasn’t
merely intellectual; they had come to love him and trust him, even when he
confused them. And because they trusted him, Jesus disclosed to them“mysteries of the kingdom of God” that he didn’t disclose to others. To really
know Jesus, is to really love Jesus, which is the door to knowing Jesus more.
John 14:17-23
Notice the simplicity in those words. The way to know the triune God
intimately, to experience the relational communion promised, is not complex.
As we more deeply know, love, and trust God by faith, and to persevere
through the difficulties, God will use these opportunities to manifest more
dimensions of Himself to us. We come to know that His grace is sufficient. It
is in our encountering the reality of these opportunities that God’s love is true
to His word. It is shown that His love, His word, is more than just proposition,
it is revelation…it is the Person Jesus Christ with whom we are coming to
know.
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