Monday, September 14, 2015

The Sovereingty of God

There have been volumes written about this subject. That I should think I could explain it all in any detail or accuracy in a short blog post is probably the height of presumption and arrogance, but I am going to try to give you a birds eye view of what I have come up with. This will not be a scholarly treatise. It will be my thoughts on the matter and that is all. You may walk away saying that Ghog is a heretic. So be it. I am a work in progress. So please bear with me.

When the Lord God created us, we were to be something new; living beings that were at once material and spiritual. We were to sense both of these worlds at the same time, enjoying the physical and appreciating the spiritual all at once. We are indeed unique among all the living things that God has made.

You see our Creator wanted us to be like Him in many ways. He wanted us to be able to choose and to create and to love. Mostly though I think He wanted us to be able to love and to serve Him of our own free will.

Free will was a new thing too in the spiritual realm. Until God created the physical universe, all things were attuned to His will alone. Nothing was capable of making a choice outside of His will.  God was indeed sovereign over everything and in total control.

If there was to be free will in this new physical universe, this would mean that God would have to  surrender some control. It's my belief that He did this. He did it for us and He did it for Himself. He wanted His new creations to serve Him out of choice and not due to their programming or His control.

He had to know from the beginning how it was all going to play out. After all He is God. Romans 8:28-30 tells us,

"And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those that are called according to His purpose. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become  conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the first born among many brethren.; and whom He predestined, these He also called; and whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified."

The Lord gave up a bit of control to us, so that we could choose and enjoy free will. What He did not give up was His foreknowledge of who we would be. He knew these things before we were ever born. And it is based on His foreknowledge of our choices, actions and decisions that He predestines us either to eternal glory or eternal death.

We make the decision to either serve Him our serve ourselves. He works with our decisions to create His desired out come. He knows those that are His before they are ever born. We do not. We do not enjoy His foreknowledge. It is a genuine journey for us to the destination of our choosing.

What more would you want from your Creator? To be able to choose freely is the greatest gift that He gave humanity. When He gave us free will, He gave up a part of Himself, His control, His sovereignty to us to do as we pleased. He wanted us to use it to make decisions within His will, all the while knowing that we would not always do that consistently.  He also knew some of us would never do that. Still, He created them too. The only way they would ever know they made the wrong choices in life would be to go out and actually make them. He knows the end of the game. We do not.

He knows those that will come to Him in faith and He knows those that will not. He knows what our choices will be and how we will exercise our free will. He does not interfere with it, but He does try to influence it with His Word. If His Word is consistently ignored, consequences will be forthcoming. The final say is always ours. If we have faith in Him, a glorious future awaits.

God Loved Us so much, they He gave some of His sovereignty to us. We have to be careful how we use it.