Wednesday, August 25, 2021

The Wonder of God's Sovereignty

                       

"Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in Your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them" (Psalm 139:16).

In poetic fashion, David here describes God's foreordination of all that comes to pass in the life of the believer. He refers to god's book, elsewhere (such as Revelation 13:8) called the book of life, in which God had purposed everything in our lives, even before our existence. Notice that David considers that foreordination to be a source of comfort, not the fatalism with which it is so commonly caricatured by today's anti-Calvinists. 

"Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it," David says (verse 6). "You formed my inward parts; You knotted me together in my mother's womb. I praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are Your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from You, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth" (verses 13-15). 

The anti-Calvinist makes disparaging remarks, such as that God's absolute sovereignty makes men into mere robots. Yet, David here describes it as a matter of wonder and praise. That is why Calvinists get so exasperated when attacked by anti-Calvinists. We refuse to accept demonization because we have the same attitude as that expressed here by David. Rather, it is the anti-Calvinist who should be ashamed, for advocating the same human autonomy that Satan offered to Adam in Genesis 3:5. That autonomy, whether in the mouth of Satan or in the mind of the Arminian is a deception. God does not abdicate His throne for men or devil. 

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