I. Introduction
What is the difference between Christian, biblical sovereignty, and mundane, secular sovereignty? There is more than a world of difference, because there is no such thing as secular sovereignty, except in a truncated way. Secular sovereignty, if there is such a thing, is but a pretension of biblical sovereignty, it masquerades as such. “Sovereignty” is meaningless apart from biblical sovereignty. And biblical sovereignty finds its ground and root in the one and only Potentate, the one and only Sovereign, Jehovah God. Thus, secular sovereignty is but a pretense, for want of a Sovereign like unto Jehovah, because sovereignty is perfectly characterized by the Sovereign. And there can only be one Sovereign.
In this study we are considering three things with respect to the sovereignty of Jehovah God:
1.) Why is Jehovah sovereign?
2.) Over what is Jehovah sovereign?
3.) What are the consequences of Jehovah’s sovereignty?
II. Why is Jehovah Sovereign?
Jehovah is sovereign because He is eternal. In fact, that is His self-prolaimed memorial Name: I AM, or, Jehovah (Yahweh, Exodus 3:14-15, “The Alpha and the Omega”, “John Chapter One Commentary”). How so? We are not suggesting here that He “built up” His sovereignty by accretion, not at all. His eternality bespeaks of His perfectly unconstrained existence. In this way, He is God. He is outside of time and space as we understand these chains in the mundane order He instituted. And that existence makes Him Sovereign with respect to anything mundane, absolutely. What is left to consider is His sovereignty with respect to anything extra-mundane, and that is the subject of the entire Word of God, because it centers on Jehovah’s sovereignty in Redemption | Salvation, the de facto proof of which is the historical Jesus Christ and Calvary (“A Letter of Invitation” for some background dearest reader; see also “Holy Week” if you wish).
And again, from another angle, why is Jehovah, why is El Shaddai, the Sovereign, and not another? It is not trivial that, for starters, He claims to be sovereign, while many others do not. It reasonably follows that Jehovah claims to be sovereign because He can substantiate the claim while many others do not so claim because they cannot substantiate such a weighty claim. Here we argue from Scripture, which is the Word of the One of whom we write, because therein is found His claims (claims such as these for example, Genesis 3:15, Psalms 22:28, 62:11, Isaiah 46:11, Daniel 4:35, 1Timothy 6:13-16). Importantly, this very Word of the Eternal One Jehovah is of necessity a living Word, applicable to the times across the millennia before and since Jesus (Hebrews 4:12, 1Peter 1:23, “Early Christendom”). And that living character of Jehovah’s Word is what qualifies the claims of its Originator Jehovah. Particularly significant are the extra-mundane matters that culminated in Redemption | Salvation for innumerable brethren living and many others long deceased who have by word and/or in writing testified to the power of Jehovah God that turned a sordid life into a saved one if you will. And is not the sovereignty of Jehovah God in mundane matters a light thing comparatively speaking? We have a great number of proofs of Jehovah’s sovereignty in Redemption | Salvation, and in turn we rightly reckon the mundane matters (claims) a surety.
III. Over What is Jehovah Sovereign?
As we discovered in the previous section, Jehovah claims to be thoroughly sovereign. Therefore, He is sovereign over all things, be they spiritual or mundane (consider Jesus’ expulsion of demons, His nature miracles). Sovereignty here does not demand identification with that over which Jehovah is sovereign. This is a reasonable argument, but a better one comes from the perspective of Jehovah’s self-identification as a holy God (“Be Holy”); much over which Jehovah is sovereign is unholy, inconsistent, and unreasonable.
Jehovah is not sovereign when it comes to volitional creatures however. Clearly, He could be if He wanted to, but the testimony of His Word is that of allowing the creature to choose this and that (for example Deuteronomy 30:19), to choose even Himself per His disclosure to volitional creatures. There is an aspect of sovereignty in that allowing we think. The Christian theologian John Calvin (1509-1564) spoke of “irresistible grace” in this context. Calvin reckoned that the Spirit of God works in the lives of people whom He predestined to Salvation through Jesus Christ to overcome any resistance to their accepting Jesus as their Lord and Savior. This irresistible grace is effected by the Divine Providence (a subject in its own right) and done by Jehovah in a manner consistent with His holiness (John 6:37, 44). This is a post-Cross theology; faith alone, in Jesus Christ, being the Salvation-dynamic, itself introduced nevertheless by Jehovah to Abraham, at which time was mentioned already Abraham’s Seed—Jesus Christ—upon whom Salvation would and does revolve (Galatians 3:1-7, 8-14, 15-21,22-28, 29; aside, cf. the Jews of Jesus’ day, who reckoned themselves Abraham’s seed [John 8:31-37, 38-44, 45-51, 52-58, 59], “He Who Sent Me”). This study, “Jacob I Loved but Esau I Hated”, addresses matters such as election, predestination, and irresistible grace. In the context of the present study, “irresistible grace” is understood to be an exercise of Jehovah’s sovereignty.
IV. What are the Consequences of Jehovah’s Sovereignty?
It means, simply, Jehovah does what He wants to do, when He wants to do it, and exactly the way He wants to do it, and none or nothing can hinder Him if He disallows said hindrance. This is the nature of biblical sovereignty. The consequences extend to that over which Jehovah is sovereign, and that is everything as mentioned just above. Consider the negative. Were He a brutish, cruel, merciless, hyper-demanding, hyper-disciplining, mocking Potentate the consequences for His dominion would be dire to say the least. It follows that such a dominion would shrink away from Him and cower before him in exceeding angst continually. Hardly would any a creature want to have anything at all to do with Him, let alone entrust their soul into His hands. But what we see in practice day-by-day is just the opposite. The Kingdom of Jehovah God is characterized, not least, by growth, and that speaks volumes to the character of the Sovereign Jehovah, who does not force Himself upon His creatures (He does not bias the growth—“irresistible grace” is not “arm-twisting” if you will); who does not force His creatures to love Him but allows them to choose per his disclosure to them (this is the role of Christian ministry under the guide of the Spirit of God).
There is another angle here, and that is consummate elegance. The outworking of Jehovah’s designs—spiritual, mundane—flourish elegantly precisely because they are entirely, are solely, His, Artist Extraordinaire. Any allowed interference with those designs would cheapen and lessen their efficacious simplicity (elegance), and beauty, and certainly holiness. Why? Anything besides Jehovah is not holy; is not omniscient, is not of infinite intellect, nor omnipotent (recall, the Godhead Jehovah is eternal). Consider please a contrasting case in point—that unclean creature called Satan, the pretender, the interferer. Here is allowed, less than perfect interference, on display. Just look around you dear reader at Satan’s dominion (he is the so-called ruler of this world according to the Word of God, John 12:31, 14:30, 16:11, Ephesians 2:2): unholy; flawed, breakage, corruption, degeneration, death, on it goes like that. God’s designs here, His systems and works (hijacked by the pretender), “click not on all cylinders,” precisely because of this allowed interference (and so it is with souls, designed by and for the Sovereign Jehovah, when a soul invites and permits and enjoys this interference). Now, it is a statement!, by Jehovah, this allowed interference; gently nudging the chooser to wisely choose Jehovah, not the interferer, in all the myriad decisions that the Divine Providence lovingly presses upon the chooser.
The consequences of Jehovah’s sovereignty for all concerned are the best possible precisely because He is sovereign is the point we wish to make.
V. Concluding Comments
We wanted to touch three areas concerning the sovereignty of Jehovah God in this study:
1.) Why is Jehovah sovereign,
2.) Over what is Jehovah sovereign and,
3.) What per se are the consequences of His sovereignty.
As concerns 1.),
we offered that Jehovah is sovereign because He is eternal (no conceivable beginning, no ending; God the I AM). It is this same characteristic of eternality that we have argued elsewhere is essential to His deity. Eternality bespeaks of absolute nonconstraint. Time and space complement one another in the mundane order Jehovah instituted. The modern “worldline” betrays this four-dimensional harmony between time and space. But absolute nonconstraint knows no worldlines (it is not rigorous verbiage, but it is reasonable to say this). Certainly, sovereignty attends deity, but, eternality sufficiently qualifies (biblical) sovereignty in the mundane order in and of itself, because the mundane order is thoroughly constrained in time and space. Sovereignty (biblical) and deity are closely related realities.
We considered Jehovah’s sovereignty with respect to anything extra-mundane, which moved us away from the realm of the mundane into this other realm. Here we turned to Jehovah’s sovereignty in Redemption | Salvation, the de facto proof of which is the historical Jesus Christ and Calvary. We wish to put it reverently, but surely the “weight” of Jehovah’s sovereignty in the mundane pales in comparison to the weight of His sovereignty in the extra-mundane. And it is but a short step to recognize that the de facto proof of Redemption | Salvation, aplenty attested, undergirds Jehovah’s claims to sovereignty in the mundane. Nevertheless, it need not be left as a thought exercise, for each is borne out categorically by Jesus’ (Jehovah incarnate) nature miracles (physics—Jesus masterminded these terrific laws), and exorcisms, respectively. These proofs of Jehovah’s sovereignty are eye-witness accounts as related by Scripture.
As concerns 2.),
It was said that Jehovah is sovereign over all things, be they spiritual or mundane. We said that sovereignty does not demand identification with that over which Jehovah is sovereign, noting that much over which Jehovah is sovereign is unholy, inconsistent, and unreasonable.
We thought that Jehovah is not sovereign when it comes to volitional creatures. We said that He certainly could be if He wanted to, but the testimony of His Word is that of allowing the creature to choose even Himself per His disclosure to volitional creatures. There is an aspect of sovereignty in that allowing we think. In this context we mentioned “irresistible grace” as an exercise of Jehovah’s sovereignty.
As concerns 3.),
we said that Jehovah does what He wants to do, when He wants to do it, and exactly the way He wants to do it, and that none or nothing can hinder Him if He disallows it. We identified this as the nature of biblical sovereignty. We concluded here that the consequences of Jehovah’s sovereignty for all concerned are the best possible precisely because He is sovereign.
The sovereignty of Jehovah God is a complicated subject. We are grateful that God allowed us the time and means to do this study, and for His help and teaching throughout, not least by way of others whom He blessed in this subject. There is so much more to be learned here, but probably not in this life; that must wait until finally by His grace we meet this blessed Sovereign one fine day, and sit at His feet with our dear brethren, forevermore listening, learning, loving. Praised be His wonderful Name.
Praised be your awesome Name El Shaddai. Amen.