The Attributes of God
by Arthur W. Pink
The Supremacy of God
In one of his letters to Erasmus, Luther said, "Your
thoughts of God are too human." Probably that renowned scholar resented such
a rebuke, the more so, since it proceeded from a miner's son; nevertheless,
it was thoroughly deserved. We too, though having no standing among the
religious leaders of this degenerate age, give the same charge against the
majority of the preachers of our day, and against those who, instead of
searching the Scriptures for themselves, lazily accept the teaching of
others. The most dishonoring and degrading conceptions of the rule and reign
of the Almighty are now held almost everywhere. To countless thousands, even
among those professing to be Christians, the God of the Scriptures is quite
unknown.
Of old, God complained to an apostate Israel, "You
thought I was just like you" (Psalm 50:21). Such must now be His indictment
against an apostate Christendom. Men imagine that the Most High is moved by
sentiment, rather that actuated by principle. They suppose that His
omnipotence is such an idle fiction that Satan is thwarting His designs on
every side. They think that if He has formed any plan or purpose at all,
then it must be like theirs, constantly subject to change. They openly
declare that whatever power He possesses must be restricted, lest He invade
the citadel of man's "free will" and reduce him to a "machine." They lower
the all-efficacious atonement, which has actually redeemed everyone for whom
it was made, to a mere "remedy," which sin-sick souls may use if they feel
disposed to; and they enervate the invincible work of the Holy Spirit to an
"offer" of the Gospel which sinners may accept or reject as they please.
The god of this twentieth century no more resembles the
Supreme Sovereign of Holy Writ, than does the dim flickering of a candle the
glory of the midday sun. The god who is now talked about in the average
pulpit, spoken of in the ordinary Sunday School, mentioned in much of the
religious literature of the day, and preached in most of the so-called Bible
Conferences is the figment of human imagination, an invention of mushy
sentimentality. The heathen outside of the pale of Christendom form gods out
of wood and stone, while the millions of heathen inside Christendom
manufacture a god out of their own carnal mind. In reality, they are but
atheists, for there is no other possible alternative between an absolutely
supreme God, and no God at all. A god whose will is resisted, whose designs
are frustrated, whose purpose is checkmated, possesses no title to Deity,
and so far from being a fit object of worship, merits nothing but contempt!
The supremacy of the true and living God might well be
argued from the infinite distance which separates the mightiest creatures
from the almighty Creator. He is the Potter, they are but the clay in His
hands, to be molded into vessels of honor, or to be dashed into pieces
(Psalm 2:9) as He pleases. Were all the citizens of heaven and all the
inhabitants of the earth to combine in revolt against Him, it would occasion
Him no uneasiness, and would have less effect upon His eternal and
unassailable Throne than has the spray of Mediterranean's waves upon the
towering rocks of Gibraltar. So puerile and powerless is the creature to
affect the Most High. Scripture itself tells us that when the Gentile heads
unite with apostate Israel to defy Jehovah and His Christ, "He who sits in
the heavens shall laugh" (Psalm 2:4).
The absolute and universal supremacy of God is plainly
and positively affirmed in many Scriptures. "Yours, Lord, is the greatness
and the power and the glory and the splendor and the majesty, for everything
in the heavens and on earth belongs to You. Yours, Lord, is the kingdom, and
You are exalted as head over all. Riches and honor come from You, and You
are the ruler of everything. In Your hand are power and might, and it is in
Your hand to make great and to give strength to all." (1 Chron 29:11,12).
"Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns!" (Revelation 19:6)
note, "reigns" now, not "will do so in the millennium." "O Lord God of our
fathers, are not You God in heaven? and do You not rule over all the
kingdoms of the nations? Power and might are in Your hand, and no one [not
even the Devil himself] can stand against You." (2 Chron 20:6). Before Him
presidents and popes, kings and emperors, are less than grasshoppers.
"But stands alone, and who can oppose him? He does
whatever He pleases" (Job 23:13). Ah, my reader, the God of Scripture is no
make-believe monarch, no mere imaginary sovereign, but King of kings, and
Lord of lords. "I know that You can do anything and no plan of Yours can be
thwarted." (Job 42:2); or, as another has translated it, "no purpose of Your
can be frustrated." All that He has designed He does. All that He has
decreed He performs. "Our God is in heaven and does whatever He pleases."
(Psalm 115:3); and why has He? Because "there is no wisdom nor understanding
nor counsel against the Lord" (Pro 21:30).
God's supremacy over the works of His hands is vividly
depicted in Scripture. Inanimate matter, irrational creatures, all perform
their Maker's bidding. At His pleasure the Red Sea divided and its waters
stood up as walls (Exo 14); the earth opened her mouth, and guilty rebels
went down alive into the pit (Num 16). When He so ordered, the sun stood
still (Josh 10); and on another occasion went backward ten degrees on the
dial of Ahaz (Isa 38:8). To exemplify His supremacy, He made ravens carry
food to Elijah (I Kings 17), iron to swim on top of the waters (2 Kings
6:5), lions to be tame when Daniel was cast into their den, fire to burn not
when the three Hebrews were flung into its flames. Thus "the Lord does
whatever He pleases in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all the depths."
(Psalm 135:6).
God's supremacy is also demonstrated in His perfect rule
over the wills of men. Let the reader ponder carefully Exodus 34:24. Three
times in the year all the males of Israel were required to leave their homes
and go up to Jerusalem. They lived in the midst of hostile people, who hated
them for having appropriated their lands. What then, was to hinder the
Canaanites from seizing their opportunity, and during the absence of the
men, slaying the women and children and taking possession of their farms? If
the hand of the Almighty was not upon the wills even of wicked men, how
could He make this promise beforehand, that none should so much as "desire"
their lands? Ah, "The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord; He directs it
like a watercourse wherever He pleases" (Pro 21:1).
But, it may be objected, do we not read again and again
in Scripture how that men defied God, resisted His will, broke His
commandments, disregarded His warnings, and turned a deaf ear to all His
exhortations? Certainly we do. And does this nullify all that we have said
above? If it does, then the Bible plainly contradicts itself. But that
cannot be. What the objector refers to, is simply the wickedness of man
against the external Word of God; whereas what we have mentioned above is
what God has purposed in Himself. The rule of conduct He has given us to
walk by, is perfectly fulfilled by none of us; His own eternal "counsels"
are accomplished to their minutest details.
The absolute and universal supremacy of God is affirmed
with equal plainness and positiveness in the New Testament. There we are
told that God "works all things after the counsel of His own will" (Eph
1:11)—the Greek for "works" means "to work effectually." For this reason we
read, "For of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all things: to whom be
glory forever. Amen" (Rom 11:36). Men may boast that they are free agents,
with a will of their own, and are at liberty to do as they please, but
Scripture says to those who boast "we will go into such a city, and continue
there a year, and buy and sell ... You ought to say, If the Lord will"
(James 4:13,15)!
Here then is a sure resting-place for the heart. Our
lives are neither the product of blind fate nor the result of capricious
chance. Every detail of them was ordained from all eternity, and is now
ordered by the living and reigning God. Not a hair of our heads can be
touched without His permission. "A man's heart devises his way: but the Lord
directs his steps" (Pro 16:9). What assurance, what strength, what comfort
this should give the real Christian! "My times are in Your hand" (Psalm
31:15). Then let me "Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him" (Psalm
37:7).