God’s Governance Over All Things

Theologians often refer to the Spectrum Texts as those Scripture references that clearly point to God’s Sovereignty over his entire universe. They are without a doubt insightful, challenging, and awe-worthy. My hope is that the following will stir your mind to hard thought and humble praise. Next article, I hope to explain how God’s control over the universe is compatible with human freedom and evil.

From the Old Testament to the New Testament, the Scripture clearly teaches God’s exhaustive, meticulous, and efficacious control over the world, and what a joy this is to those who are “called sons of God”! John Frame wisely notes that “Nothing is more important, especially at this point in the history of theology, then for God’s people to be firmly convinced that Scripture teaches God’s universal control over the world, and teaches it over and over again” (The Doctrine of God, 76). Let us now turn to two significant passages and their corresponding textual supports.

The first takes place at the beginning of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians (v. 1-11). He opens the letter with praise to God for blessing us with “every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places”, an “inheritance” that includes glorious gifts such as predestination, adoption, and the forgiveness of sins. The text reads that these blessings were in accordance with “his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time”. And that plan was to “unite all things in him, things in heaven and earth”. It’s crucial to note at this time, that Paul clarifies what he means by “all things”; in the next phrase he does so, namely all things in “heaven and earth”. Therefore, the Father will unite everything without exception under Christ’s feet. The next verse (v. 11) is our passage of study; Paul exhorts that ^“In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will”. At this point, Paul clearly indicates that our “spiritual blessings” are in accordance with God’s purpose, and this is great news for the Christian because God’s purpose is rooted in the unchanging, eternal One who “works all things according to the counsel of this will”. In other words, all things without exception, things in “heaven and earth”, not only are under God’s control, but actually work in agreement with it; so at the end of the day, we can say everything that takes place, both good and evil are part of God’s plan.

This point is asserted elsewhere when Scripture claims that God does whatever he wants.¹ Job writes, “I know you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted” (42:2). Nebuchadnezzar praises God as the one who “does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth” in which “none can stay his hand or say to him, “What have you done?”’ (Daniel 4:35). And the Psalmist declares, “Our God is in heavens; he does all that he pleases” (115:3; Is. 46:10 ). God works all things according to his plan because no one can stop him from doing so.

Isaiah 45:5-7 states just as clearly that God is sovereign over both good and evil. The text reads:

I am the LORD, and there is no other, besides me there is no God; I equip you, though you do not know me, that people may know, from the rising of the sun and from the west, that there is none besides me; I am the LORD, and there is no other. I form light and create darkness, I make well-being and create calamity, I am the LORD, who does all these things.

Here God establishes himself as God over all gods, the only eternal ruler. He boldly claims, “I form light and create darkness, I make well-being and create calamity, I am the Lord who does all these things” (emphasis added). Bruce Ware writes, “…God wants us to understand his own deity, his own “Godness,” as possessing the power and authority to control all that occurs, both good and evil—this much is simply undeniable, from this text”.² For many, the idea that God controls evil is much too difficult or nearly impossible to accept, especially when it means God is behind the worst of evils. But Scripture again and again states that God controls both. Observe these additional passages. Deut. 32:39 states, “See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god beside me; I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand”. 1 Sam. 2:6-7 says, “The Lord kills and brings to life; he brings down to Sheol and raises up. The Lord makes poor and makes rich; he brings low and he exalts”. And Lam. 3:37-38 says “Who has spoken and it came to pass, unless the Lord has commanded it? Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that good and bad come?”. These spectrum texts broadly speak of God’s sovereignty over all things—both death and life, wealth and poverty, good and evil—so we conclude that God’s governance is both exhaustive (covers all things) and meticulous (down to the details), but also efficacious, for who can hinder him from accomplishing what he desires? Surely, no one!

For Further Study

Frame, John. The Doctrine of God. P & R Publishing.

Ware, Bruce. God’s Greater Glory: The Exalted God of Scripture and the Christian  Faith. Crossway Books.

Carson, D.A. Divine Sovereignty and Human Responsibility: Biblical Perspectives in  Tension. Wipf and Stock Publishers.