Transcript
The Bible is very clear in teaching that God sits on the throne of the universe in unstoppable, unalterable power. If you want to understand the sovereignty of God, a great place to go is Jonah in scripture because, first, Jonah tells me that God commands this fish to do something. I mean, think about that. Think how specific that is that an individual creature is under His command. Later in Jonah, we're told that God appoints a worm to do something. Now, my mind is totally blown. I mean, how many billion worms are there? And God says, "You go and you do what I told you to do."
Our World Is Under Rule
Now, in our age of scientific explanations of life, it's very important that we realize that our world is under rule, that I am under rule. But there's two things that need to be said about that. The first is God's sovereignty doesn't violate my volition as His creature.
I don't wake up in the morning and my arm starts going to a shirt that I don't want to wear and I think, "No, I don't want to wear that shirt," because God's in control. That's not how it works. The theological way of saying this is God accomplishes His sovereign plan through the true volition of the secondary agent.
In other words, the way God works out His plan is through my choices. So it's never, "Is God sovereign or am I responsible?" The answer is yes, both because it's my responsible choices that are the means by which He accomplishes His sovereign plan. That's a mind-blowing and beautiful thing.
Not the Great Chess Player in the Sky
The second thing is when you think of the sovereignty of God, you would often think that this is one of His transcendent qualities, that He's off there, He's the great chess player in the sky. When Paul is in Athens talking to the Athenian philosophers who had erected this statue to an unknown god, he says, "Well, dudes, He's actually knowable and I can tell you who He is."
And he talks about God as Creator, but he talks about God as sovereign. And he says He determines the exact place where we will live and the exact length of our life. And He does this so that He's not far from each one of us, so at any moment, we can reach out and touch Him.
So Paul teaches, not the theology of transcendent sovereignty, he teaches a theology of imminent sovereignty, that God is sovereignty-near. His purpose in that kind of constant control of our living is so He's near to each one of us, so at any moment, I can reach out and touch Him.
The Sovereign God Is Near and Active
If the sovereignty of God doesn't depict to you that God is near to you and active, you have misunderstood the sovereignty of God. In that way, the sovereignty of God should not discourage me and make me feel small. It should encourage me and make me feel cared for because what is out of my control is under His control. And it means when I need help, He's near because He's right here, in control of every situation, every location of my life.
It's impossible for Paul Tripp to ever be in a situation or location or relationship that isn't ruled by my Lord. Things are out of my control. I have such little sovereignty, I can't keep a hold of my keys, but God is sovereign and I rest in His care.
