You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.

Genesis 50:20 (NIV)

The topic of God’s sovereignty – the idea God is orchestrating all events in life and in the world – can be difficult for us. We do not want to think God is orchestrating all things because we reason that means God is responsible for all things. If He is orchestrating all things, then He must be giving people brain cancer, wiping out people with natural disasters, and committing every atrocity on the planet from the time of Adam and Eve till now. So we reason.

And so we make God less sovereign. We say that He is not really in control of all things as much as He is in charge of all things. Or that He was not responsible for the hand we were dealt but that He can win with any hand. Or that he is not responsible for our sickness or season but that He is responsible for delivering us from it. All of these things are an attempt to make God better. But the problem is: they only end up making God smaller.

And the difficulty with this is: We need a God who is not small. In fact, we need a God who is very big, so big that He is fully in control of every detail of our lives and actively causing all things to work together for our good. Without this, we are in a world outside God’s control. And if it is outside God’s control, we must remain in control, forever fearful of what may happen to us.

But what are we to do with a God who is sovereignly in control of a world with so much suffering, tragedy, and evil? Can we responsibly say He is the cause behind these things? It depends on what we mean by “cause.” If we mean God caused them in the sense He is the ultimate cause behind all things, the answer is yes. But if we mean God caused them in the sense He is morally responsible for them – that is, He is the one to blame for them, the answer is no.

An analogy may help here. An author who writes a novel is the ultimate cause behind everything that happens in the world he or she has created in the novel. This includes the actions of the villain in the novel. But it is difficult if not absurd to say the author is morally responsible – again, the one to blame – for the evil perpetrated by the villain. A novelist cannot be tried and convicted for the crimes committed by his or her characters, even though the novelist is the ultimate cause of them.

The important thing to realize here is that when we talk about God being sovereign, this is exactly what we are saying. In this world, the “characters” alone are morally responsible for their actions¹, not God. And yet God, in a way we cannot fully understand, is ultimately the cause of them, just like a novelist is. If an evil ruler like Pharaoh comes to power and oppresses the children of Israel, that ruler alone is to blame for his actions. And yet it is God the Novelist who has raised him up for this very purpose.² Joseph’s brothers intended harm for him by leaving him to die, but God the Novelist intended all along this would lead to the saving of many.

Now it is true God is ultimately responsible for allowing all that takes place in the panoramic novel that is all of human history, whether good or evil. It is also true He is ultimately responsible for allowing the effects of evil, which is all the suffering we see in the world today. But it is important for us to keep in mind this is true whether God was sovereign or not. An all-powerful God who can prevent evil is no less responsible than an all-powerful God who is the ultimate (novelist) cause behind evil. So when we reject the idea God is sovereign, we are really rejecting the idea He is all-powerful. We are trying to make Him powerless over the evil and suffering in the world in order to get Him off the hook for having anything to do with it. But a powerless God is the last thing you and I need.

It is far better for us, in my opinion, to trust God’s Word and accept the mystery of His sovereignty, knowing He is both absolutely good and powerful and has good reasons for sovereignly allowing what He allows in the world and in our lives. But it is vital to realize God Himself became the answer to all evil and suffering: becoming flesh and taking upon Himself the punishment we deserved through His Son, Jesus Christ. The real mystery is not that a holy God would allow suffering, but rather that despite our sins, He would choose mercy. To become sin for us that we might become the very righteousness of God.³

1. We will have more to say about God’s interaction with us in future articles. ↩︎
2. Romans 9:17 ↩︎
3. 2 Corinthians 5:21 ↩︎