Thursday, May 31, 2007

God's Sovereignty is Absolute

Jim:

Deuteronomy 4:32-40
Verse 39 is a great affirmation of faith: “So acknowledge today and take to heart that the Lord is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other.” This resonates with many other statements about God found in scripture including Deuteronomy 6:4f. Taken together these statements help to shape what we know about God and how we talk about God and even how we talk to God. In this particular case the absolute sovereignty of God is clear. In heaven and on earth there is but one God and no other. Of this we can be sure.

2 Corinthians 3:1-18
In verse 17 Paul writes, “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” In this case the word Lord probably refers to God and not to Jesus Christ (though Paul often refers to Christ as Lord, too). It is interesting to note that the same God of whom Deuteronomy speaks as the God of heaven and earth grants freedom through the Holy Spirit to God’s people. The sovereignty of God does not lead to our oppression, but to the fullest expression of who we are meant to be. We may think that abiding by God’s will leaves us with few choices in life, with no “fun” to be had. Quite the opposite is true. Faithful obedience to God allows us to finally be who we really are, free from the real oppressors: sin and death.

Luke 16:1-9
According to the New Oxford Annotated Study Bible the application of this story comes in verse 9: “…make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes.” To me, the point seems to be that we must not assume that because wealth is “earthly” that it is somehow unfit to use to God’s glory, that we can somehow keep our money separate from God’s claim on our lives. Again, God is sovereign over heaven and earth and there is no area of life in which God is not involved. If even the most dishonest of people use their resources to ensure their future, we too, as God’s people, should use all our resources in the furtherance of the coming reign of God.

No comments: