The Sovereignty of God.
Part III, Zion's Advocate, May 1904, Vol. 43, No. 5.
God's sovereignty is seen in the work of the Holy Spirit. God's sovereignty in the salvation of sinners implies that he can either bestow salvation on any of them, or refuse to bestow it, without the least detriment to the glory and perfection of any of his attributes, except wherein he has declared that he will or will not bestow it. As the case now stands, it cannot be said absolutely that God can bestow salvation on any or withhold it from all, because he has already declared that he will bestow it on some, and thus he has bound himself by his own promise. He has promised that his people shall be saved from their sins, and this people were foreknown and chosen by him. Every one that is born again is a child of promise as Isaac was. But be it remembered that God was not obliged to make any promise. The obligation was assumed by him in a sovereign way and altogether free from constraint.God is an infinitely holy being, in whose sight the heavens are impure. He is of purer eyes than to behold evil, and cannot look upon iniquity. But he can save the greatest of sinners without giving any sanction to sin or mitigating his abhorrence of it or his displeasure against it. This has only been done by the sufferings of Christ for those very sinners. It is impossible to see how it could have been done in any other way. The Holy Spirit quickens those very ones into divine life and gives them a holy nature. This work is sovereign, for it is not the result of any influence on the part of the sinners thus quickened or any other existing intelligence. No one has any power to induce or hinder it. It is represented as a creative act, which is necessarily a sovereign act. We cannot conceive of a work that would be more absolutely sovereign than the resurrection of the dead, by which the work of regenerating sinners is frequently represented.
An affront offered to God and contempt cast on his authority are assaults made upon the honor of his majesty. Yet God saves the very sinners who have offered affront to him and cast contempt on his authority, without the least sacrifice to the honor of his divine majesty, for full satisfaction has been made for these vile and infamous offences by the death of Christ. The sovereign application of the merits of that death to those sinners by the Holy Spirit fully sustains the honor of Jehovah's majesty.
The justice of God requires the full punishment of sin. As the Supreme Judge of the world, his judgment is always according to the strict rules of justice. It is not as a judge so much as a sovereign that he extends mercy to any. The strict justice of God as a judge, and his mercy as a sovereign, must be made to agree ere the salvation of a sinner can be accomplished. This is done by the sufferings of Christ, in which sin is fully punished and justice is entirely satisfied. Justice cannot require any more than the sufferings of Christ as an atonement for the sins of those for whom he suffered. When the Spirit gives eternal life to those for whom justice has thus been satisfied, the sovereign choice of God is manifested and his right to bestow mercy upon whom he will is recognized.
God, who cannot lie, declared that death was the penalty of sin, but he saves sinners consistently with the truthfulness of this declaration, for those who are released from an eternal death are released because Jesus died for them. He was their surety, and, therefore, all were dead for whom he died, because they died in their head and representative, Jesus, and in their experience they die to all hope of salvation through anything they can do. Thus "mercy and truth are met together: righteousness and peace have kissed each other." Psa. 85:10.
All this is expressed in the sublime language of Jesus as recorded in John 5: 21: "For as the Father raiseth up the dead and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom he will." The raising of the dead is an act of Almighty power. As Jesus declares that he quickens whom he will, that act is a sovereign one. It is by the Holy Spirit alone that he accomplishes this, for he declares, "It is the Spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing." That some sinners are quickened while others are not, all being sinners alike, proves the act of quickening to be a sovereign one, done according to the good pleasure of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will.
The doctrine of the sovereignty of God cannot be made to harmonize with the theory of conditionalism. The latter cannot stand before the former. To prove that God acts in a sovereign way in the salvation of sinners effectually destroys the doctrine that sinners are saved by conditions which they perform. The fact, stated plainly in God's word, that salvation is by grace and not by works, sets aside every idea of human merit and bases the salvation of sinners entirely upon the sovereign will and pleasure of God.
A conditionalist may reason, that as he came to Christ, he knows he performed a condition necessary to his own salvation. It is not really certain that he has ever come to Christ; and if he has, the Father drew him there, for no one can come to Christ except the Father draw him. Since the coming is the effect of the Father's drawing, it cannot be a condition of that drawing. Another may contend that he believed in Christ in order to his own salvation. That notion is too absurd for any intelligent mind to accept it when its absurdity is made clear. Imagine a person, who disbelieves a certain statement, concluding to believe it in order to obtain a reward that is offered to all who believe it, and you will discover the absurdity of the notion that belief is ever performed as a condition. Another may say that he loved Christ and accepted him as his Saviour, which was a condition of his salvation. But before he loved him his mind was enmity against him (Romans 8:7). Imagine a person, who hates another, concluding to love him and accept him as a friend and companion because a reward is offered to all who do so, and you will see how impossible and ridiculous such a theory is. Arminianism will always be found wanting when weighed in the balance of human reason, to say nothing of its unscripturalness. Viewed from any standpoint whatever, it will not stand the test of a critical examination.
It becomes us, with the greatest humility, to adore the wonderful sovereignty of God. It is in this that his infinite greatness and exaltation appear. "See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no God with me. I kill, and I make alive; I wound and I heal; neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand." Deuteronomy 32:39. Jehovah thus describes his own majesty. He inspired David to say, "Our God is in the heavens; he hath done whatsoever he pleased." Psalms 115:3. Jesus praised and glorified the Father for the exercise of his sovereignty in revealing spiritual things. "I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight." Matthew 11: 25, 26. Let us adore him for his absolute and universal dominion, abasing ourselves in the presence of the Almighty One who has the right to dispose of us to all eternity as he pleases.
Those who have been delivered from the power of darkness and translated into the kingdom of light, should attribute it to grace alone, and give all the glory to him who makes them to differ from others. Such have no right to exalt themselves in the least degree, nor can they, by right, glory in any other except the Lord. They should exalt the name of God who chose them in Christ and set his love upon them before the world was, and the name of Christ who bore their sins in his own body on the cross, and the name of the Holy Spirit who called them out of darkness into his marvelous light. As no cause for all this exists save in God himself, he deserves the praise of it all. To his great name be honor and power, glory, and dominion, for ever and ever. Amen.
J. R. D.
Copyright c. 2005. All rights reserved. The Primitive Baptist Library.
