One of the key characteristics and attributes of God is His sovereignty. He is the ruler of the universe and, as such, is free from restriction and has the right to do whatever He wants. Nothing happens outside of His awareness and control. He is never surprised or caught off guard by anything that occurs. He is never helpless or at a loss. He is never backed into a corner to where His only recourse is to do something He hates to do. Nor is He in any way bound or limited by us as humans.
However, for God to be sovereign doesn’t mean He’s a dictator who micromanages the universe down to the last detail. Quite often, God chooses not to intervene and allows things to play out according to the laws He has put in place—some of which are observable and verifiable by science and others of which are not scientifically verifiable but just as certain and reliable nonetheless. We live in a cause and effect world where actions have consequences. For God to be sovereign does not mean that the future is so fixed and predetermined to where our choices are inconsequential. God has endowed us with a genuine ability to choose, and how we exercise that freedom has a stake in how things play out. Our choices matter! For God to be sovereign does not in any way minimize or make light of our ability to choose. For God to be sovereign means that He has an ultimate purpose which is, whether we can ascertain it or not at any given moment, being implemented and more fully realized.
But the sovereignty of God has a downside to it—when we allow our belief in His authority and supremacy to become a rationale for apathy or passivity. For instance, I was recently reading an article that talked about the decline of a particular denomination in a certain part of North America. It tracked numbers saying that the number of adherents they have today is roughly 70% less than it was in 1960. If the trend continues, experts believe this denomination could functionally be extinct in this part of the world in the next twenty years.
While this is troubling, what was equally troubling to me was a statement by a denominational official who was quoted in the article. He said, “The church is not ours to save. We are only called to be good stewards of what we’ve been given. God will do what God will do.”
Of course, in its broad theological context, he’s absolutely right. The Church is not ours—or anybody’s—to save. Jesus said in Matthew 16:18, “I will build my church.” The church is His project … His endeavor … His enterprise. He owns it and is ultimately responsible for it. God is going to do what God is going to do. As an uncontrolled and unrestrained being, He does not answer to anyone or anything. He is the ultimate shot caller. His will is paramount and His intention is pre-eminent.
But I also believe part of what a sovereign God has willed to do is work through His people! That’s why He endowed each of us with specific talents and abilities. That’s why we’re the repositories of divine enablements called spiritual gifts. There is no room for a sense of passive fatalism when it comes to the work of the Church. We must someday stand before God and give an account of what we have done … not only how we have prioritized and related to Him during the course of our lives … not only how we have carried and conducted ourselves in our interactions with others … but also how we have leveraged and made use of the strengths and proficiencies He placed within us to assist in the furtherance of this venture He’s been about since Jesus’ ascension into heaven and the giving of the Holy Spirit.
There is a verse in the book of Proverbs that I believe sheds great light on how this arrangement is supposed to work. It says, “The horse is made ready for the day of the battle, but victory rests with the Lord” (Prov. 21:31 - NIV). Yes, the victory is always the Lord’s—we don’t put our trust in horses. But it is our responsibility to make sure the horse is ready to go. If we don’t, we are not inviting the Lord to be victorious! It is like Augustine was purported to have said, “Pray as if it all depends on God, but work as if it all depends on you.”
I hope the church of Jesus Christ can turn it around in parts of the world where it appears to be dying. I hope those in leadership will risk creativity and innovation in their efforts to impact to a secular and skeptical society. I hope they pray, as Augustine said, like it all depends on God. But I also hope they will not give way to the deadly notion that removes from them the responsibility and urgency to be an active and effective part of the process. Because that is not what God would have them do. Such thinking is, in fact, among the deadliest of theologies we can ever buy into. And when we buy into it—when we consistently put it forward—the weakening and decline of the church becomes, in many ways, a self-fulfilling prophecy.