{"id":504,"date":"2021-01-01T14:27:12","date_gmt":"2021-01-01T14:27:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dearbornbible.org\/?p=504"},"modified":"2021-01-01T14:34:06","modified_gmt":"2021-01-01T14:34:06","slug":"%ef%bb%bfgod-is-sovereign-even-over-the-sins-of-his-creatures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dearbornbible.org\/?p=504","title":{"rendered":"God is Sovereign Even Over the Sins of His Creatures"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Bible teaches that God is sovereign (in control) over all things.\nThough a tornado appears chaotic and \u201cout of control,\u201d it is completely under\nGod\u2019s control. Every blade of grass that is moved by the tornado ends up in\nexactly the spot God planned for it to land. Theologians call this plan God\u2019s\ndivine decree. This decree is all encompassing and existed before time began.\nThis decree included God\u2019s plan to send His Son into the world at precisely the\nright time in order to suffer and die a cruel death at the hands of sinful men.[1]<\/strong><\/a> This was the greatest sin ever committed but it accomplished God\u2019s\npurposes perfectly and in complete fulfillment of His divine decree. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

God\u2019s divine decree is something that belongs to Him and He has not\nrevealed to us humans how it all works. It is a part of His \u201csecret things.\u201d[2]<\/strong><\/a> <\/strong>Human\nbeings do well to respect God\u2019s decision to keep certain things secret. One of\nGod\u2019s secret things is His sovereignty over the sins of His creatures. The\nBible does teach that He is indeed sovereign over all things including the sins\nof His creatures. But it does not convey the details of how that works. To us, there\nappears to be a conflict. We know that God is holy and perfectly righteous. We\nknow that \u201c<\/em>God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He\nHimself temp anyone\u201d (James 1:13). <\/em>Since these things are\ntrue, how is it possible at the same time that God is sovereign over the sins\nof His creatures? To revere God, it is our duty to simply accept both these as\ntrue even though we can\u2019t understand or begin to explain how it all works. All\nwe can do is state some things as true that God has already revealed as true.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, we can say positively that though God is sovereign over the\nsins of His creatures, He is not in any way responsible for those sins. The\nperson who commits the sin is the one responsible for the sin, not God! God\ndelights in righteousness and He hates all sin. God Himself does not \u201cmove\npeople to sin.\u201d The people that commit the sin do exactly what they want to do.\nThey desire to do the sin and so they commit it. Yet, because the Bible teaches\nthat God is sovereign over all things, we know that each sin that is committed is\nsomehow fulfilling God\u2019s divine decree perfectly. A prime example of this is\nthe greatest sin ever committed, the crucifixion of Jesus. Acts 4:27-28 clearly\nteaches that though humans committed this sin, it fulfilled God\u2019s purposes that\nHe determined beforehand. (See footnote.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For\nanother example of this mysterious relationship between the sins of His\ncreatures and His sovereign control over all things, we can point to the time\nwhen Joseph\u2019s brothers sold Joseph into slavery. This was utterly sinful and\nthey were the ones totally to blame. Yet, it fulfilled God\u2019s purposes\nperfectly. At the end, Joseph said to his brothers, \u201cYou meant IT for evil but\nGod meant IT for good.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We can\nalso point to the occasion when David took a census of the soldiers which God\ncommanded kings not to do. It was David\u2019s sin but it fulfilled God\u2019s purposes\ncompletely. In the following two verses, we read how God even used Satan in\naccomplishing His purposes in it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chronicles\n21:1<\/em><\/strong> Now Satan stood up against Israel, and moved David to number\nIsrael. (Here it says that Satan moved David to sin so that he took the\ncensus.)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

2 Samuel 24:1\n<\/em><\/strong> Again the anger of the LORD was aroused against Israel, and\nHe moved David against them to say, “Go, number Israel and Judah.”\n(Here it says that it was God who moved David to take this census.)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

God said\nin the II Chronicles verse that Satan stood up against Israel and moved David\nto number Israel. Yet, in the II Samuel verses, God said that He (God) moved\nDavid against them. This clearly shows that God was sovereign over the event\nincluding David\u2019s sin and Satan\u2019s sin. But we know from the rest of scripture\nthat God is perfectly righteous and He Himself never sins or tempts people to\ncommit evil. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

These\nprinciples are true for every single sin committed by God\u2019s creatures because\nGod is sovereign over all things. So, even though it is difficult for us to\ngrasp, God was sovereign over even David\u2019s greatest sin. While he was king over\nIsrael, David saw a woman bathing and summoned her to his abode where he\ncommitted adultery with her. In fulfillment of God\u2019s purposes, she became\npregnant.[3]<\/a> To\ncover up his sin, David arranged for the death of the woman\u2019s husband. In all\nof this evil, it is difficult to understand how any of it could fulfill God\u2019s\npurposes. We read in the Bible that great destruction came upon David\u2019s family\nand kingdom as a result of his sin. But knowing that God is working all things\ntogether for good for those who love Him,[4]<\/a> we\ncan rest assured that God\u2019s grand purposes were being fulfilled through it all.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of\nGod\u2019s purposes for it was the humbling of His servant David. He was a much more\nhumble man after his sin was found out. We can read how all of these things\naffected him by reading Psalm 51. In addition, it is clear that God wanted all\nof David\u2019s sin fully documented forever in His Word. As a result, believers can\nread the account and be inspired to take heed and watch over their hearts with\nall diligence so that they don\u2019t experience such a tragic fall. And those who\ndo fall can read this account and know that, like David, they too can come to\nGod for healing and restoration because Jesus\u2019 sacrifice has made\nreconciliation with God possible for them just as it did so for David.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To\nsummarize, God is righteous and holy. He Himself never moves people to sin. He\nhates sin. Yet, God somehow uses even the sin of his creatures to accomplish\nHis grand purposes.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

[1]<\/a> Acts 4:27-28 <\/strong> For\ntruly against Your holy Servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and\nPontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered\ntogether  28<\/sup> “to do\nwhatever Your hand and Your purpose determined before to be done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[2]<\/a> Deuteronomy 29:29 <\/strong> “The secret things belong <\/em>to the\nLORD our God, but those things which are <\/em>revealed belong <\/em>to us\nand to our children forever, that we <\/em>may do all the words of this law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[3]<\/a>\nThe Bible teaches that God is the One who opens and closes the womb.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[4]<\/a>\nRomans 8:28  And we know that for those\nwho love God,  those who are called\naccording to (His) purpose, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Bible teaches that God is sovereign (in control) over all things. Though a tornado appears chaotic and \u201cout of control,\u201d it is completely under God\u2019s control. Every blade of grass that is moved by the tornado ends up in exactly the spot God planned for it to land. Theologians call this plan God\u2019s divine […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dearbornbible.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dearbornbible.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dearbornbible.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dearbornbible.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dearbornbible.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=504"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/dearbornbible.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":508,"href":"https:\/\/dearbornbible.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504\/revisions\/508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dearbornbible.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dearbornbible.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dearbornbible.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}