UNDERSTANDING GOD'S ABSOLUTE SOVEREIGNTY WILL FORTIFY OUR FAITH.
Arthur W. Pink (1886-1952) was an English Baptist pastor, preacher, and author whose work took him throughout Great Britain, the United States, Canada, and Australia.
The Godhood of God! What is meant by this expression? This: the omnipotence of God, the absolute sovereignty of God.
When we speak of the Godhood of God, we affirm that God is God. We affirm that God is something more than an empty title; that God is something more than a mere figurehead; that God is something more than a far-distant spectator, looking on helplessly at the suffering which sin has wrought. When we speak of the Godhood of God, we affirm that He is "King of kings and Lord of lords” (Rev. 19:16).
We affirm that God is something more than a disappointed, dissatisfied, defeated being, which is filled with benevolent desires but lacking in power to carry them out. When we speak of the Godhood of God, we affirm that He is “the Most High” (Ps. 9:2). We affirm that God is something more than one who has endowed man with the power of choice, and because He has done this is therefore unable to compel man to do His bidding. We affirm that God is something more than one who has waged a protracted war with the devil and has been worsted. When we speak of the Godhood of God, we affirm that He is the Almighty.
To speak of the Godhood of God, then, is to say that God is on the throne, on the throne as a fact and not as a say-so; on a throne that is high above all. To speak of the Godhood of God is to say that the helm is in His hand, and that He is steering according to His own good pleasure. To speak of the Godhood of God is to say that He is the potter, that we are the clay, and that out of the clay He shapes one as a vessel to honor and another as a vessel to dishonor according to His own sovereign rights (Romans 9:21-24). [To speak of the Godhood of God is to say that] the divine despot does “according to His will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay His hand, or say unto Him, ‘What are You doing?’” (Dan. 4:35, NRSV). Therefore, to speak of the Godhood of God is to give the mighty Creator His rightful place; it is to recognize His exalted majesty; it is to own His universal scepter.
The Key to Every Mystery – The Godhood of God stands at the base of divine revelation: “in the beginning God” (Gen 1:1)—in solemn majesty, eternal, uncaused, and self-sufficient. This is the foundation doctrine, and upon it all other doctrines must be built, and any other doctrine which is not built upon it will inevitably fail and fall in the day of testing. At the beginning of all true theology lies the postulate that God is God—absolute and irresistible.
It must be so. Without this we face a closed door; with it, we have a key which unlocks every mystery. This is true of creation: Exclude an Almighty God, and nothing is left but blind and illogical materialism. This is true of revelation: The Bible is the solitary miracle in the realm of literature; exclude God from it, and you have a miracle and no miracle worker to produce it. This is true of salvation: Salvation is “from the LORD” (John 2:9), entirely so; exclude God from any aspect or part of salvation, and salvation vanishes.
This is true of history, for history is His story; it is the outworking in time of His eternal purpose. Exclude God from history, and all is meaningless and purposeless. The absolute Godhood of God is the only guaranty that in the end it shall be fully and finally demonstrated that God is “all in all” (1 Cor. 15:28).
Our philosophy of history, instead of beginning with man and his world and attempting to reason back to God, must begin with God and reason forward to man and his world. Because God is holy, His anger burns against sin. Because God is righteous, His judgments fall on those who rebel against Him. Because God is faithful, the solemn threatening of His Word is being fulfilled. Because God is omnipotent, no problem can master Him, no enemy can defeat Him, and no purpose of His can be withstood. It is just because God is who He is and what He is that we now behold what we do—the gathering clouds of the storm of divine wrath which will shortly burst upon the earth.
“For from him, and through him and to him, are all things” (Romans 11:36). In the beginning—God. In the center—God. At the end—God. If we are confronted with unsolvable problems in the domain of nature and of human existence, what of the divine realm! Who can fathom the ways of the Almighty? Can you by searching find out God? No indeed. “Clouds and darkness surround Him” (Ps. 97:2, NKJV). If God were not a mystery He would not be God to us.
The Foundation of Faith – Why write in this strain? Surely the need of our day is for that which will strengthen faith, not that which paralyzes it. True, but what is faith? Faith is an attitude of dependency, of recognized weakness. Faith is a coming to the end of us and looking outside of ourselves—away from ourselves.
Faith is that which gives God His proper place. If we give God His proper place, we must take our proper place, and that is in the dust. What is there that will bring the haughty, self-sufficient creature into the dust so quickly as a sight of the God-head of God! Nothing is as humbling to the human heart as a true recognition of the absolute sovereignty of God.
