My reading this morning was Job 9-10. Job understood that he could not speak to God. He believed that he needed an arbitrator to settle whatever it was that God had against him. Job believed that he was guiltless but for some unknown reason God was holding him guilty. However, Job never denied that God is sovereign, he is the one who decides who is righteous and who is guilty.
I am not Job, I cannot say that I am without guilt; in fact, I am guilty by either thought or deed of breaking every one of the ten commandments, therefore, the law of Christ. However, Job believed that he was guiltless but also understood that if God declares him guilty, then he is guilty for God is the judge. I think that this is one aspect of biblical theology that is lost in American Evangelicalism. The aspect that I speak of is the sovereignty of God.
The local church that my wife and I attend (Sylvania Church in Tyler, Texas) is a sovereign grace baptist church. A number of the members believe and all of the elders believe in the sovereignty of God in the salvation of man. However, even though this congregations official doctrine is sovereign grace, does the congregation really believe that God has the authority to do whatever he wants to do, however he wants to do it? Would you hold to sovereign doctrine if things went bad in your life like they did for Job?
The Lord God is the creator of all things and he holds all things together by the word of his power. Who can say anything to God? Who can go before God and say, “You should let me into your garden because I did, x, y, and z.” Or, “You shouldn’t allow bad things to happen to me?” Jesus Christ is Lord, He alone has all authority in heaven and on earth. The Father God has given the Son authority to execute judgment, and the Son has given the terms for entrance into the paradise of God. The terms are repentance towards God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
In Christ alone,
Michael Peek
The Nurse Theologian
