This doctrine of the absolute Sovereignty of God is a great
battering-ram against human pride, and in this it is in sharp contrast
from the "doctrines of men." The spirit of our age is essentially that
of boasting and glorying in the flesh. The achievements of man, his
development and progress, his greatness and self-sufficiency, are the
shrine at which the world worships today. But the truth of God's
Sovereignty, with all its corollaries, removes every ground for human
boasting and instills the spirit of humility in its stead. It declares
that salvation is of the Lord-of the Lord in its origination, in its
operation, and in its consummation. It insists that the Lord has to
apply as well as supply, that He has to complete as well as begin His
saving work in our souls, that He has not only to reclaim but to
maintain and sustain us to the end. It teaches that salvation is by
grace through faith, and that
all our works (before
conversion), good as well as evil, count for nothing toward salvation.
It tells us we are "born, not of the will of the flesh, nor of the will
of man, but of God" (John 1:13). And all this is most humbling to the
heart of man who wants to contribute something to the price of his
redemption and do that which will afford ground for boasting and
self-satisfaction.
But if this doctrine humbles us it results in praise to
God. If,
in the light of God's Sovereignty, we have seen our own worthlessness
and helplessness we shall indeed cry with the Psalmist
"All my springs are
in Thee" (Psa.
87:7). If by nature we were "children of wrath," and by practice rebels
against the Divine government and justly exposed to the "curse" of the
Law, and if God was under
no obligation to rescue us from the fiery indignation and yet, notwithstanding, He delivered up His well-beloved Son for
us all; then how such grace and love will melt our hearts, how the apprehension of it will cause us to say in adoring gratitude
"Not unto us, O LORD, not unto us,
but unto Thy name give glory, for Thy mercy, and for Thy truth's sake" (Psa. 115:1). How readily shall each of us acknowledge
"By the grace of God I am what I am! With what wondering praise shall we exclaim-
"Why was I made to hear His voice,
And enter while there's room,
When thousands make a wretched choice,
And rather starve than come?
'Twas the same love that spread the feast,
That sweetly forced us in;
Else we had still refused to taste
And perished in our sin."
[Isaac Watts]
- A. W. Pink (The Sovereignty of God, Chapter 11: The Value of this Doctrine)
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