The Sovereignty of God.
Zion's Advocate, March 1904, Vol. 43, No. 3.
"I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure." - Isa. 46: 9, 10.
"I am God," says Jehovah. There is not a more wonderful utterance in all the Bible than this. It towers infinitely high and stands as a column of eternal truth to the honor and glory of the great Being who reared and planted it. From everlasting ages it has been, and to everlasting ages it must continue, unchanged and unchangeable. Like the rays of the sun, its radiance is enjoyed by the least lamb in the Saviour's fold, while the greatest among the flock can do no more than stand in its light and bask in its warmth."I am God." The "Ancient of days" here declares his sovereignty. The sovereignty of God is his supreme and absolute right and ability to do according to his own will or pleasure at all times. Not only does God possess the right and ability, so that he may proceed in a sovereign way if he would, and none can charge him with going beyond his right, but he exercises the right he has by his omnipotent power, and actually does according to his own will and purpose, which is eternal and immutable.
The authority which God exercises over the universe he has created is infinitely supreme. This is true both in providence and grace. All his works of creation came forth from his hand as the product of his will. His control of those works and all his dealings with his creatures are no less according to the same good pleasure of that will. For the display of his wisdom and power he created the material universe; and for the display of his justice and mercy, as well as his wisdom and power, he created a family of moral beings. As it was with him alone to do this or not do it, the act was of his sovereign will. The fall of the family of moral beings into a state of moral pollution and misery did not overthrow his purpose or thwart his designs. He knew all this ere he gave them being, and he provided for a greater display of his power and wisdom in the work of redemption than he made in the natural creation. This also rested solely with him. He might have denied salvation to all, had he chosen to do so, and left them to an endless misery, without the least injury to his honor and glory. He could have called forth children of his own from the literal stones of earth, and left the posterity of Adam to sink down to ultimate despair.
But he decided in his own mind, without any constraint, without the least obligation to another, merely of his own independent pleasure, to elect a people in Christ before the world was made. If the reader wants proof of this let him read the Bible and he will find an abundance of it. These special passages might be noted: Eph. 1: 4, 5; I. Peter 1: 2, 20; II. Tim. 1: 9; Rom. 8: 28-33. It is charged that those who believe and contend for this doctrine are "old fogies." Be it so. But those who deny it seem to betray a shameful ignorance of the teaching of the Bible, in which so much care has been taken to establish and illustrate the doctrine. That election is taught in the Bible in some sense, however, no Bible scholar dares to deny. That the election of God's elect has no other foundation than the good pleasure of God's will it is our intention to prove. We argue that it must rest either in the foundation of the good pleasure of God's will, or in the foundation of man's ability to furnish a reason for God's choice. But what ability has man to furnish a reason for God's choice? None whatsoever, according to the description given of him in God's word. All the imaginations of his heart are only evil continually (Gen. 6: 5); his inward part is very wickedness (Psa. 5: 9); every man is brutish in his knowledge, altogether brutish and foolish; yea, even their pastors (Jer. 10: 8, 14, 21); the heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they live (Eccl. 9: 3); they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge (Jer. 4: 22). Not only is it said that the worst men at their worst estate are vanity, but that "every man at his best state is altogether vanity." Psalm 39: 5. This depravity of nature is so deeply and indelibly fixed that the Lord himself declares that those who are accustomed to do evil can no more do good than the Ethiopian can change his skin or the leopard his spots. Jer. 13: 23. "There is no difference, for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." Rom. 3: 22, 23. "They that are in the flesh cannot please God." Rom. 8: 8.
The Bible description of mankind shows most conclusively that no member of the human family is able to furnish any reason for God's choosing him to salvation and an inheritance in heaven. Then the good pleasure of God's will is the sole foundation of his choosing any of his fallen creatures to become his children and heirs with Christ of an incorruptible, undefiled and fadeless inheritance. Election could not be founded upon any thing else with respect to God's glory or the security of the elect. Thus it is expressly declared that "it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy." Rom. 9: 16.
God is said to regard not persons nor take rewards (Deut. 10: 17); so he is not propitious to any unregenerated sinner for what he can bring to him or do for him. "Who hath prevented me," says the Almighty, "that I should repay him." Job 41: 11. Let the whole army of Arminian boasters stand up and answer. God had respect to Abel and to his offering, but he had respect to Abel before he had respect to his offering. Gen. 4: 4. It is argued that Abel's faith is the cause of God's having respect unto him. Nothing could be more foreign to the truth. Abel would never have had faith if God had not had respect to him so as to give him faith, for faith is the gift of God (Eph. 2: 8) and the fruit of his Spirit (Gal. 5: 22). Abel had faith before he made his offering, and as God gave him his faith neither his faith nor his offering was the primary cause of God's respecting him.
Faith and love are intermediate material. They are neither the root nor the capstone of election. They are to sovereign grace as the stalk and branches are to the root, by which the root conveys its virtues into the principle fruit. Since the elect were chosen to holiness, their holiness cannot be the cause of their being chosen, either as existing of foreseen (Eph. 1: 4).
The salvation of God's people would have been based on a fallible foundation had it been made dependent on anything else than God's sovereign will and purpose. Man's goodness is compared to the morning cloud and early dew (Hosea 6: 4). The result of predicating a matter of such great importance on so changeable and uncertain a foundation is plain. How soon the morning cloud and the early dew pass away! God chose Jacob rather than Esau before either of them had done good or evil that his immutable purpose according to election might stand demonstrated and proved, not of works, but of him that calleth. This demonstration and proof of God's absolute sovereignty in election does stand by this example. All the winds of opposition that Arminianism can raise against it will never shake it. It is a tower of eternal truth, planted by the divine Hand in the Rock of Ages.
The predication of the election of all God's people on his own sovereign will insures the success of Christ's death, so that the pleasure of the Lord is sure to prosper in his hand. Isaiah 53: 10. This makes it infallibly certain that they were all reconciled to God by the death of his Son, when they were enemies, and, being reconciled, they shall be saved by his life. Rom. 5: 10. All were originally enemies, for the carnal or unchanged mind is enmity against God (Rom. 8: 7), and as some are reconciled to God while others are not, there is no other way to account for the discrimination than on the ground of God's sovereign pleasure. All conscientious children of God are bound to admit that there was nothing in them that could give the Lord delight or merit his esteem.
"'Twas even so, Father, they ever must sing,
Because it seemed good in Thy sight."
Those not elected will have no right to complain, for they preferred the service of Satan to that of God.
J. R. D.
Copyright c. 2005. All rights reserved. The Primitive Baptist Library.
