I just wanted to offer a quick reflection on God’s sovereignty and love. Often times we hear “oh, God is sovereign,” and this is true; but what does that really mean? Typically I think it means, when Christians say it, that God is all powerful, and that He is completely in control of every circumstance of our lives and the order of the world itself. But scripture also says:
“Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.” ~I John 4:8
So while the above is true, the deeper question isΒ what shapes that control; what shapes that power. John gives a simple answer, God’s life of union and communion, His life which is love shapes His power, shapes His control. The cross is the perfect example of God’s kind of power and control; the kind that is shaped by His superabounding life of love.
Too often people speak of God’s sovereignty in abstraction from the fact that it is shaped by “His life,” as if it isΒ some sort of power God accesses in times of emergency “down here.” Grounding God’s power and control in His person makes time of suffering seem so much more personal; with the realization that all that happens in this world is filtered through God’s love, and at the same time this means there is complete control and order to everything that, at points, seems just the opposite.
So next time you comfort someone with the words that God is sovereign, don’t forget to further remind folks that sovereignty is shaped by God’s life of love for Himself, and then us in Christ!
Beautiful, Bobby. This is a realization I’ve made many times, but for some reason keep needing to make it. As much as I say I believe it, I so often fall into an impersonal and external conception of God’s power by default. The cross truly won’t allow that kind of thinking.
Funny, I was just writing on this very subject for an upcoming article in the magazine. Great thoughts there, Bobby!
Good, guys, I’m glad this resonates with you all too!
So often, personally, given personal circumstances, I’ve had many tell me the “Lord is sovereign,” meaning that this should be a source of comfort; and it really is — I take it with the unstated intent that these folks bring this comment with. But I’m afraid that this encouragement comes off rather cold and stoic, and I’m also afraid that this statement has this “ring” to it because there is an underlying doctrine of God that indeed is cold and monadic in orientation — contra Trinitarian and relational. Of course this all has to do with God’s being preceding His act (or better shaping it).
Bobby, we really were walking the same trail as we both wrote up our separate items at almost the same moment, weren’t we! Thanks for the nudge to visit and see for myself. I check in on your site pretty often but it would have been another day or two.
Could this be the Spirit at work?! Chris is in on it too. May the glory of God’s love, resourced by his power, spread ever more!
Amen, Ron! I was blessed to read your piece, as it really developed in further ways my little reflection here. Yes, I think the Lord is certainly at work in our hearts in similar ways. I see this as something that I want to encourage other believers with too! It’s like so many Christians try to say things about God, but they’ve been “given” systems that are odds with the God they have come to know as they simply read the scriptures. I want folks to know that God is love, and that there are ways to communicate this that are both faithful to scripture’s witness and God’s “real” life.
I am so glad there are brothers out there who are turned onto our great God of love! Thank you, Ron for introducing me to thinking in ways that actually fit who the God of the scriptures is . . . a God who is love, the uniquely “Christian” God who is personal!
Good reminder, Bobby. π
Good, Heather!