The Sovereign God and the Christian Disciple

By Robert M Solomon

The sovereignty of God is a doctrine that has been debated by Christians for centuries. For some, this remains a passionate topic, creating different camps among Christians, endlessly arguing about whether God's sovereignty and human free will can co-exist. For the majority, the doctrine is a vague concept that remains to be explored. This book deals with these issues by examining what the Bible says about God's sovereignty and human responsibility. It explores the sovereignty of God by looking at God as the Creator, Saviour, Shepherd and Judge, and tackles questions that commonly emerge. If we believe that God is truly sovereign, then we must live out the implications by living faithfully and responsibly—by trusting and obeying Him amid the challenges of life, praying to Him, sharing about Him with others, and serving and hoping in Him. Our relationship with Him is an important way to understand how His grace, purpose, and power invite us to respond responsibly to Him in active discipleship.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Armour Publishing
• Release date: Aug 24, 2020
• ISBN: 9789814863599

Book preview

The sovereignty of God is a doctrine that has been debated by Christians for centuries. For some, this remains a passionate topic, creating different camps among Christians, endlessly arguing about whether God’s sovereignty and human free will can co-exist. For the majority, the doctrine is a vague concept that remains to be explored. This book deals with these issues by examining what the Bible says about God’s sovereignty and human responsibility. It explores the sovereignty of God by looking at God as the Creator, Saviour, Shepherd and Judge, and tackles questions that commonly emerge. If we believe that God is truly sovereign, then we must live out the implications by living faithfully and responsibly—by trusting and obeying Him amid the challenges of life, praying to Him, sharing about Him with others, and serving and hoping in Him. Our relationship with Him is an important way to understand how His grace, purpose, and power invite us to respond responsibly to Him in active discipleship.

AFFIRMATIONS

The idea of the sovereignty of God has been a battle cry in the history of theology. To switch metaphors, those interested in the topic have crashed at the intersection and then refused to leave the scene of the accident. Bishop Solomon provides a refreshing alternative to this history. He walks us through the questions we all have about divine sovereignty; in his delicate hands, we are able to see how intellectually beautiful the doctrine is and how life-giving it can be. He knows our hearts. More importantly, he knows how to bring the deep resources of theology to us in a way that heals our sorrows and awakens in us fresh hope. This is a singular and delightful achievement.

Professor William J Abraham

Outler Professor of Wesley Studies, Southern Methodist University,

Dallas, Texas, US

The sovereignty of God has been the source of heated theological debate, but that debate has often obscured the importance of its comfort and challenge to the Christian disciple. Here, Bishop Robert Solomon corrects that mistake as he skilfully navigates us through the theology and shows how energising it is to Christian hope and lifestyle for the disciple.

Rev Professor David Wilkinson

Principal of St John’s College and

Professor of Theology and Religion, Durham University

In times of peril and in times of peace, God’s sovereignty is often misunderstood and sometimes ignored. No more. With this latest book by Dr Solomon, the reality of our sovereign God is explained, explored, and illustrated from the Bible and life, not only as an appeal to right thinking but as an essential ingredient to right living. He asks and answers all of the pressing questions about God’s sovereign work in our lives: matters of trust and obedience, suffering and prayer, service and witness. This is a vital message for our time. I highly recommend it.

Timothy J Beals

President and CEO of Credo Communications

and author of The Red Letters and Teach Us to Pray

The author believes in a deep connection between doctrine and discipleship. Much has been written about discipleship but not enough about the doctrine undergirding it, much less the doctrine of the sovereignty of God. Few would question divine sovereignty, but many would have problems reconciling it with human responsibility. Robert Solomon brings the two together, balancing them on a tightrope, never losing his footing on either side. In his distinctive style of illustrating truths with narratives, answering questions with feet on the ground, and anchoring every argument in the Scriptures, he challenges readers to not only believe in the sovereign God but to live out that belief as Christian disciples.

Rev Dr David W F Wong

General Secretary, Bible-Presbyterian Church in Singapore

This book is a wise and penetrating reflection on the relationship between divine sovereignty and Christian discipleship.

Taking both the sovereignty of God and human freedom seriously, Robert Solomon holds them together in creative tension in his exploration of the mystery of the Christian life. The result is an insightful and challenging portrayal of Christian discipleship as a joyful response to the sovereign grace of God.

This book repays studied and prayerful reading.

Dr Roland Chia

Chew Hock Hin Professor of Christian Doctrine,

Trinity Theological College, Singapore

Theological and Research Advisor,

Ethos Institute for Public Christianity

The Sovereign God

Copyright © Robert M Solomon 2020

Published by Genesis Books

An imprint of Armour Publishing

Block 1003 Bukit Merah Central #02-07 Singapore 159836

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All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the Publisher.

Unless otherwise stated, Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, IncTM Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Scripture quotations marked ESV are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked NKJV are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Printed in Singapore

ISBN 978-981-48-6345-2 (paperback)

ISBN 978-981-48-6359-9 (e-book)

National Library Board, Singapore Cataloguing in Publication Data

CONTENTS

PREFACE

SECTION ONE: THE SOVEREIGN GOD

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER 2: GOD, THE SOVEREIGN CREATOR

CHAPTER 3: THE SOVEREIGN SAVIOUR

CHAPTER 4: THE SOVEREIGN SHEPHERD

CHAPTER 5: THE SOVEREIGN JUDGE

SECTION TWO: THE CHRISTIAN DISCIPLE

CHAPTER 6: DOCTRINE AND DISCIPLESHIP

CHAPTER 7: TRUSTING THE SOVEREIGN GOD

CHAPTER 8: OBEYING THE SOVEREIGN GOD

CHAPTER 9: THE SOVEREIGN GOD AND THE PRESENCE OF EVIL AND SUFFERING

CHAPTER 10: IF GOD IS SOVEREIGN, DO WE STILL NEED TO PRAY?

CHAPTER 11: THE SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD AND EVANGELISM AND MISSION

CHAPTER 12: GOD’S SOVEREIGNTY AND OUR SERVICE

CHAPTER 13: HOPING IN THE SOVEREIGN GOD

EPILOGUE

ENDNOTES

PREFACE

The popular song From a Distance was written in 1985 by American songwriter Julie Gold, and has been sung by numerous singers, including Cliff Richard who is known to be an evangelical Christian. The meaning of the lyrics has been debated by both Christians and non-Christians. The refrain goes, God is watching us, God is watching us, from a distance.

It is not clear whether it means that though God is watching us, He does not interfere with what is going on in our world; His interest may be just that of a distant (and possibly disconnected) observer. This is all the more possible when we examine the rest of the lyrics that speak about how the ideal world looks like—from a distance.

From a distance there is harmony

And it echoes through the land

It’s the voice of hope

It’s the voice of peace

It’s the voice of every man

From a distance we all have enough

And no one is in need

And there are no guns, no bombs and no disease

No hungry mouths to feed

From a distance we are instruments

Marching in a common band

Playing songs of hope

Playing songs of peace

They are the songs of every man

Does this mean that God’s view is that of an ideal world and does not match the reality of the human condition—where there is disharmony, greed, evil, violence and sin? Is God like a ruler who only reads the good reports, and does not get to hear about the suffering and pain that His creatures are experiencing? This does not tie up with what we read in Scripture. God recruited Moses to be used as His instrument to free His people from their slavery in Egypt. He told Moses, "I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land (Exodus 3:7-8, emphasis added). God states His actions: He has seen and heard, is concerned, and has come down. Then He tells Moses, I am sending you" (v. 10).

Here is a God who is not only watching from heaven but also acts on earth—to right wrongs, to save and set people free.

Julie Gold, the songwriter, who grew up in an Orthodox Jewish home and who sings in her synagogue, was perhaps expressing a more nuanced understanding of how she perceived God acting in our broken world. She has insisted that she believes in the immanent God who actually acts in our world. The story that she tells of how she came to write the song may explain her lyrics.¹ While she was a struggling songwriter, trying to support herself with odd jobs, her parents sent her an old piano that she grew up with—it was her best friend and confidant. On the day it arrived, she took a day off from work just to receive it, which she did lovingly. The deliverymen told her that she should not play the piano for at least a day as it had been in the truck for 48 hours and needed to rest.

She managed to get the piano squeezed into her tiny apartment and could not sleep, keeping her eyes on it as she lay on her loft bed. She watched her beloved piano from a distance. The next day, she was reunited with her beloved piano, and derived great pleasure from playing it. It was then that she wrote her famous song.

Could the song then be a complex description of the relationship between the sovereign God and His people? Some have interpreted it that way, suggesting that while the lyrics may sound ambiguous, they represent a nuanced view of God’s relationship with us. Still, the ambiguity leaves the lyrics open to whatever interpretation(s) people may choose to have. This leaves people in a limbo as to what it actually means, and, from a Christian standpoint,² it is not without its critics.

We do have problems believing in a sovereign God, one who can see all, and loves us perfectly, and yet allows suffering and evil to exist. What evidence do we have in the events of history and in our daily lives that God is indeed sovereign? To many, it might seem as if He is not. Yet the Bible tells us that God is sovereign, and the faith of the church believes in the sovereign God. How do we square our beliefs with our experience? Many Christians struggle with this and choose not to think too much about it.

Others have engaged in vigorous debates about what God’s sovereignty means. Those of a Calvinist persuasion emphasise that everything has to be explained by the sovereignty of God who pre-ordains all that happens, and thus exercises His absolute sovereignty. Their counterparts on the other end of the spectrum, the Arminians, hold on to their notion of God’s sovereignty that allows the exercise of human free will to choose and respond to God.

Calvinists such as Edwin Palmer insist that the Arminian denies the sovereignty of God³. Respected evangelical writer A W Tozer sets out what appears to be a dichotomy that forces Christians to choose between emphasising God’s sovereignty or human free will:

Another real problem created by the doctrine of the divine sovereignty has to do with the will of man. If God rules His universe by His sovereign decrees, how is it possible for man to exercise free choice? And if he cannot exercise freedom of choice, how can he be held responsible for his conduct? Is he not a mere puppet whose actions are determined by a behind-the-scenes God who pulls the strings as it pleases Him? The attempt to answer these questions has divided the Christian church neatly into two camps which have borne the names of two distinguished theologians, Jacobus Arminius and John Calvin. Most Christians are content to get into one camp or the other and deny either sovereignty to God or free will to man.⁴

Both Calvinists and Arminians believe that God is sovereign, but they differ on how they understand this to be so. Calvinists believe in a God who is absolutely sovereign, whose control over events is deterministic. Arminians believe that God’s sovereignty is to be understood as His control over everything even as He permits the exercise of choice on the part of human beings. Nothing ever happens without His permission, and He never loses control as He works all things together for our good (Romans 8:28).

In the end, could it be said, as leading Arminian theologian Roger Olsen suggests, that every classical Arminian shares with every classical Calvinist the belief that God is in charge of and governs the entire creation, and will powerfully and perhaps unilaterally bring about the consummation of his plan?⁵

This book is an examination of the biblical doctrine of the sovereignty of God. It necessarily engages with theological differences between Christian thinkers but does not intend to dwell at length on the differences. Instead, it seeks to examine what the Bible teaches and intends to illuminate a wider truth that accepts with equal conviction both divine sovereignty and human responsibility (the ability given to us by God’s grace to respond to God and be responsible for our behaviour).

The book will examine biblical teaching on God’s sovereignty by exploring four areas of God’s sovereignty: as Creator, Saviour, Shepherd, and Judge. Each of these explorations also poses questions that trouble Christians, and we shall endeavour to try to find some answers.

What is most important is that doctrine and discipleship must be well connected. It is one thing to say that we believe that God is sovereign; it is another to show that we truly believe this by the way we live our daily lives. The second part of this book explores the implications of believing in the sovereignty of God in various aspects of Christian discipleship such as trusting and obeying God, praying, dealing with suffering and pain, evangelism and mission, serving, and living with hope in a darkening world.

To this end, this book is a book not about systematic theology (and there are many good books in this direction) but a practical theology book that seeks to connect doctrine better with Christian living. It connects the biblical truth about God’s sovereignty and our responsibility in the context of a vital and growing relationship between God and us. I offer this book to Christians who struggle to understand theological debates and controversies (who may be helped by examining Scripture on their own), and to help them turn biblical teaching into biblical living.

Robert M Solomon

the sovereign God

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

The much-loved hymn All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name was written in 1779 by British Anglican clergy-man Edward Perronet. There is an interesting story connected with that hymn. It was told by pioneer missionary to India, E P Scott, who saw an Indian tribesman on the streets and found out that he belonged to a rather violent and vicious tribe of head-hunters. He developed an interest in that tribe and resolved to visit them to share the gospel of Jesus Christ. As he entered the tribal area, he was stopped by a group of tribesmen who threatened him and pointed their spears at him. He realised that he might be killed there and then. With a prayer in his heart, he did something unexpectedly. He opened his violin case which he was carrying and started playing and singing All Hail the Power. When he came to the stanza that has the phrase, Let every kindred and every tribe, something remarkable happened. The fierce tribesmen had lowered their spears and were crying. They were strangely moved by the hymn and their demeanour changed. They welcomed Scott to their village and allowed him to preach about Jesus. He remained with them for some time and eventually many of them placed their faith in Jesus. ⁶

We can compare this amazing missionary story with another that did not go so well. Many Christians know about Jim Elliot who, as a young American missionary in Ecuador, brought the gospel to the Quicha people. After doing so for three years, he developed a special burden to reach out to the isolated Auca (Waodani) tribe. The Aucas were known to be hostile to outsiders, killing many who had approached them or sought to work near them. With the help of Nate Saint, a pilot friend, Jim attempted to befriend the Aucas by flying over them and dropping friendly gifts. Thinking that they had established friendly relations, Jim and four friends decided to make direct face-to-face contact. They landed on a beach and tried to make friendly contact with the Aucas. Sadly, they were killed by hostile Aucas who speared them. Jim had touched a gun he had for instinctive self-protection when the Aucas surrounded the missionaries with raised spears, but did not use it because the missionaries had resolved not to kill any Auca, even in self-defence, who did not know Christ (and thus send him to a Christless eternity).⁷

The first of the two missionary stories above would bring us much encouragement and assurance that God is indeed sovereign and at work in our lives. He brings about surprising turns of events to remind us that He is in control of all situations and is sovereignly working out His eternal purposes. What was it that God did that softened the hearts of the fierce spear-wielding warriors? How did Scott get the idea of playing his violin and singing the hymn? Through the actions, decisions, and reactions of the various characters in that momentous scene, God was working out His plans, which resulted in the salvation of many of the members of the tribe. Indeed, this is a story that strengthens the belief in a sovereign God.

The second story raises questions that bring to doubt (in some people’s minds) the sovereignty of God. Why did not God intervene the way He did in the first story? Why did He allow His fervent and faithful missionaries to be killed so tragically, especially when they were young and had many more years of life and service ahead of them? Surely, the five young men and their families would have prayed for safety and God’s protection. Why did God seem to have let them down? Why did God act in one way, with such sovereign power in one situation, and yet act in an apparently powerless and helpless way in the other? Can we trust God to act with His sovereign power in all situations? Or should we be resigned to the fact that God acts selectively, for no apparent reason or for reasons known only to Him?

In the case of Jim Elliot and his friends, the story does not end with their tragic deaths. Two years later, Elliot’s wife Elizabeth and his daughter Valerie, and Saint’s sister Rachel were able to move to the Auca village. The Aucas became receptive to the gospel and many became Christians. Even in the short span of a few years, we can see how the tragic event of the death of five missionaries became a turning point in the conversion of an initially hostile tribe.

Both stories result in the significant conversions of the respective tribes. But why would God choose to act in two entirely different ways? How can we explain this?

Puzzling Questions in Scripture

We are reminded of how God acted in the case of some of His disciples. Early in the story of the church, following the Pentecost event, the Spirit-filled apostles began preaching the good news of Jesus Christ, and faced immediate persecution by the authorities. The apostle James, brother of John, and a member of the inner circle of three disciples who followed Jesus, was arrested by King Herod Agrippa I. He had the faithful apostle put to death with the sword (Acts 12:2). Christian tradition has it that he was beheaded.⁸

Realising that this pleased the Jews who opposed the apostles and the church, Herod had Peter, considered as the leader of the apostles, arrested too. If he succeeded in having Peter killed, he would have eliminated two of the three disciples in the inner circle of Jesus, and he would have literally beheaded the new religious movement.

Scripture tells us that the church was earnestly praying to God for Peter (Acts 12:5). God answered their fervent prayers and miraculously freed Peter from prison. Though he was guarded by two soldiers and there were sentries at the prison entrance, and though he was bound with two chains, Peter was able to walk out a free man. An angel appeared to him and asked him to get up, while the chains fell off. The angel then led Peter to walk out past the sentries, and through the iron gate that opened by itself. Peter then went to meet the church that was praying, and they were surprised to see him!

The story of James and Peter again raises the question of why God acted differently in their respective cases. Surely, the church also prayed fervently for James when he was in prison. But he was sadly beheaded and the church may have wondered why God had not answered their prayers for James. When Peter was imprisoned too, they gathered to pray fervently. The previous experience may have suggested to them that God might also allow Peter to die a martyr. And that is why, though they prayed earnestly, they were also surprised that Peter was standing before them, alive and well.

Who is to say why God treated James and Peter differently? In one case He intervened so powerfully and miraculously, and in the other He seemed to stand by inactively, allowing His beloved disciple to be put to death. How can we explain these apparently inconsistent actions of God? Does that mean that God is capricious in His actions, doing as He pleases with no apparent reasons for the differences? Or could it be that, like in the two missionary stories above, God knows what He is doing, and that His actions are always in tandem with His wisdom and will, and His higher and ultimate purposes?