Our Sovereign God

Everybody loves God's love. All other attributes are often ignored so that what is often viewed as the supreme attribute--love--may be used to define God. To boldly proclaim God's love is not a bad thing by any means, for "God is love" (1 John) and embodies love in a way that no human can even imagine. The measure of His love in Christ is a feat that no human could even attempt to replicate. When we imagine love, however, we often self-project our finite view of it onto God. We remake His love in our image, rather than letting God's love speak on its own terms through Christ.

Instead of drawing God down to our level in order to make Him seem closer and more real to us (which He has already done in Christ and continues to do in His Spirit), let us meditate upon another wonderful attribute: His sovereignty. This is not an attribute that can be used to superficially draw God close to us--rather, it does the exact opposite. It places Him far away from us in a role which we can never replicate. By virtue of God's sovereignty (total control over all things), man is proven to be the exact opposite--absolutely helpless and unable to control any part of his life. That does not mean that man is left without responsibility, but even that responsibility is governed by God.

So why talk about sovereignty instead of love? In order to answer that question, let us ask another question: Do we simply want a God who is with us in our daily ordeals and suffering, or a God who is over them? So often, we draw God so close to us in a contrived sort of way that we neuter His character and render Him helpless before the ravages of a world under the temporary dominion of sin. In an age that has firmly rejected the unfathomable optimism of the 20th century and come to terms with the reality of sin and suffering, God's sovereignty offers hope. In the sovereign God who rules through His Word, we find a God who stands over evil; who sent His own Son to bear His just judgment and wrath over evil; who has thus provided a hope that transcends the realms of all that is decaying and dead.

We need a God who stands over the great human problem and offers the quintessential Solution, and that is exactly the God we have. The world will be justly judged and convicted for its sin, but for those who have faith in the Person and work of Christ, the judgment has already been meted out once and for all on a Roman cross. That is not only love, but a sovereign love.