Though there are a myriad things to lament concerning the Christian world today, one of the things that I have yet to encounter is a Christian that would flat out deny that God is in control, that God is sovereign. Because, it is axiomatic to conclude that if God is not Sovereign, He is not God. To assert, even in the most fundamental level that God is not sovereign is to negate the very God-hood of God. The very definition of Deity demands sovereignty and supremacy over that which He has created.

Every Christian believes that God is in control. When trials come, when a job is lost, when tears strike the bane of our hearts, after all the outbursts of emotions and feelings are done we are quick to cry out: “I know that God is in control.”

But then, what I have discovered is that when you begin to scratch that affirmation that rolls from the lips of the great majority of evangelicals, fairly quickly will you find out that there is very little sovereignty left.

Many, many years ago, when I and my brothers were little, we used to play a game on the stair-case of our old home from the second floor to the first floor of the house. What we would do is sit in a fetal-position just at the edge of the stair-case and when we have mustered just enough courage we would roll ourselves down to either oblivion or mad-exhilarating fun down to the first floor.

Of course it need not be said that what we did was neither wise nor advisable, in fact, it’s outright insane. And I do not, in any way, shape or form advise anyone to imitate what I and my brothers did. In any case, in the providence of God, we did make it out alive in the multiple times we played that “game” of ours.

Given then this scenario of us rolling down a stair-case or suppose even on a slope of a hill, why is it that neither I nor any of my brothers, in our attempt to roll down, stay afloat in mid air? What is it that captured us to inescapably descend from our position on the stair-case after pressing ourselves in forward momentum?

As the old adage goes, almost everyone would say: “What comes up, must come down.” And in this scenario, “What was up, must come down.” Which is to say that nothing on earth can escape the “Law of Gravity”. You can have doubts about whether fairies or aliens are real or not, but jump off a building and gravity will prove itself to be true for you. It just doesn’t leave room for any doubt! Just the same with every accepted “law of nature.” Including the laws of thermodynamics and the laws of motion among others.

But then, dear reader, if this is how you perceive things to be, if this is how reality is principally analyzed and accepted in your mind, then, by all means and purposes, you are thinking like a Pagan.

In the apostle Paul’s mission to the Athenians, as he sought to make known the “unknown god” that they profess to worship, he declared:

“The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.”  (Acts 17:24-25)

And Paul went on saying,

“In him we live and move and have our being” (v.28).

Now, what’s the significance of that?

It plainly means that there is no living, there is no moving, and there is no being apart from God.

Many would say that they believe that God is sovereign, but on this point, do we really? Or is it not true that in the very core of our beliefs, we are more akin to Pagans rather than Christians?

By default we pay homage more to the mechanistic, impersonal laws of the universe than we do the providence of God. Even amongst Christian men and women, they would attribute accidents and such to mere chance. This is especially true when tragedies occur. Though they say that “God is in control” and able to help them through the event, scarcely would you hear a main-line evangelical say that God actually ordains suffering.

“God is in the blessing, the saving and in the helping! Evil? Pain? Suffering? That’s just Mother Nature, or maybe the devil!” How entirely removed is this assertion from Christianity itself. See, dear reader, apart from God there is nothing, we are nothing. And in the words of Martin Luther, that “nothing” is not a little something.

Arthur W. Pink, in his book “The Sovereignty of God”, he says,

Everything is supposed to be ordered according to the (impersonal and abstract) “laws of Nature”. Thus is the Creator banished from His own creation. Therefore we need not be surprised that men, in their degrading conceptions, exclude Him from the realm of human affairs.

Indeed, we shouldn’t be surprised that God is given little authority, if none at all, in the various activities of human life (even Christian life). Why should He given such an importance if in the fundamental level of our belief systems it is man that is on the throne? Or that “mother nature” is on the throne of creation instead of God the Creator?

Do we not see the effects of this system of belief in our own respective contexts? In our relationships and family? On how we spend our time, affections, finances and energy? Even in our worship, is not God, treated like a mere Cosmic Butler than He is a Sovereign King?

Yet, in direct opposition Holy Writ plainly and unashamedly declares,

“For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be glory forever. Amen.” (Romans 11:36)

Coram Deo

As we live before the face of God this day, let us seek the forgiveness of God in repentance from such a sin as this of robing Him of the honor due His Name (even in the smallest degrees and instances). Let us no longer give glory to nature. Let us no longer glorify the impersonal forces of the universe or even our own selves in our sinful cry for autonomy. But as Christians, redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, let us acknowledge that the thrice-holy God, the Creator of the universe, is King. And that in fact, as well as in Name, He truly is Sovereign.