God's Sovereign Freedom

Let me start by saying that this is a summary of a message that John Piper preached called "I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious." This and all of his messages can be found at desiringgod.com, which I recommend as a good site for any spare time you have. It is likely that many of my future posts will come from there as well.

The text that is focused on in this sermon is Exodus 33: 12-19. God is speaking to Moses and telling him to take the people up out of Egypt. Moses basically tells God that if He (God) will not go with them, then he (Moses) was not going to lead them out. So God tells him that although Israel is a stiff-necked people, (Exodus 32:9) He will go with them. Then Moses makes an interesting request, to which God gives an even more interesting answer. Moses asks God to show him His glory. And God says "I will make all my goodness pass before you, and will proclaim before you my name 'The LORD' (Yahweh); and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy." (Exodus 33:19) Moses asks to see God's glory and God tells him His name. Seems weird yes? What is even more astonishing is how similar the language of the last line is to Ex. 3:14 when God states "I AM THAT I AM." So we can gather that just as there is no other force or influence making God who He is, there is also no force or influence making God show mercy or grace on any particular person or people outside of His own sovereign will. This is what is called sovereign freedom. The fact that God shows mercy and grace to whoever He wills is what makes Him God, and if anything else in the universe were able to dictate to whom God showed His mercy and grace, that thing would then become God. So, going back to Israel, although Israel was a stiff-necked people, God showed His mercy because He chooses whom He shows mercy on out of His sovereign freedom, not because of anything they did to deserve it.

The doctrine in which we see God exercise His sovereign freedom today is the doctrine of election. God chose His elect before the foundation of the world, not because He saw down the line of history and picked the deserving ones, but because and only because He is gracious to whom He will be gracious and shows mercy on those He shows mercy. There are numerous passages that confirm the doctrine of election (Rom. 9:14-18, Acts 13:38, John 10:26, Eph. 1:4-5, 2 Pet. 1:10). For example, in John 10:26, Jesus states "But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep." The people did not believe because they were not sheep (elect) not the other way around. The fact that someone believes in Christ does not make them a sheep. The fact that they are a sheep is why they believe. The reason one believes in Christ is because God excercised His perfect and sovereign freedom in choosing them and, therefore, gave them the ability to believe (John 1:12-13).

So, why is this important? Well, it ties in with what Adam has been writing about in the study of God. The doctrine of election helps us to understand the nature of God. It helps us to understand His sovereign freedom to act completely upon His own will and none other. We must understand that God does not operate upon the whims and wishes of man unless those wishes are in tune with His divine will. As we continue to understand God better through the study of doctrine, it should make us more submissive to God and more humbled before our Almighty Creator. It should make us fear Him more (Job 28:28) and make us seek to serve Him with our lives in greater ways each and every day we live.

Blogging for His glory, Aaron Soutar