Presbyterian Distinctives (2): The Sovereignty of God
- Rev Norman Cameron

In our last sermon we looked at a potted history of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland. We asked the question where did we come from and we saw that our church can trace itself back to the Reformation of the mid 16^th Century and in particular to two people - John Calvin in Geneva and John Knox in Scotland who shaped Presbyterian thought and government. We saw that our church has close links with the Presbyterian church in Scotland – our mother church if you like – and that our standards of faith, our summary of what we believe the Bible teaches, is found in the Westminster Confession of Faith completed in 1646.

Our church has come through periods of oppression and persecution as Presbyterians in the past did not always conform to the preferred church government or style of worship favoured by the King & State. Over the past two hundred years there has been more freedom for Presbyterians and any debates and division have tended to be within the church itself over doctrinal issues and over issues concerning styles of worship.

In the rest of this series I want to focus on what makes Presbyterians different say from Methodists or Baptists, or Church of Ireland, or Pentecostals. What distinctives do we have, for these other Protestant denominations are of course also Christian. They would agree with us on the centrality of the scriptures, the Trinity, the Virgin Birth, the death and resurrection of Jesus, that salvation is through faith in Jesus Christ alone. There are more followers of Christ in our world who are not Presbyterians than are Presbyterians. We are one denomination among many and God is more interested in our hearts than our religious labels. We must keep this in perspective.

Being a Presbyterian is a label, but I think it is quite a good label for Presbyterians have certain emphases which are good and helpful and which I want to highlight over the next few weeks. It is not that other denominations do not believe in these things, rather Presbyterians place more emphasis upon them. Some will see that as a good thing and some will try and play down these for they see them as not so good. The Presbyterian Church is not perfect, and as is so often the case sometimes our greatest strength can be our greatest weakness, and we will see that later. But what beliefs and practices do we emphasise as Presbyterians?

REFORMATION & RENEWAL

The Presbyterian church was birthed out of the Reformation. We are part of the Reformed family and at that time the Reformation sought to purify the church as it was in the late 15^th and early 16^th century. As I said last time Martin Luther and John Calvin strove hard to stay within the Roman Catholic church for they saw it as the true church, the successors of the apostolic church. But such were the errors and false practices creeping into the church that they protested and urged the church leadership to correct these things. But they were not listened to so they withdrew but they did not see themselves as setting up a new church, rather as purifying the existing church, as getting people back to the things that mattered.

It was not only a doctrinal issue but a cultural one. “With the birth of the new era in human history it was essential that new ways of conceiving and acting out the Christian life should develop. The old religion was simply not capable of coping with the unprecendented pressures and challenges of the new age.”

Out of the Reformation came two great ideas which I think we need to remind ourselves of today - a spirit of creative protest and prophetic criticism (we should call ourselves the Prophetic Presbyterians!!). The great leaders of the reformation were not prepared to sit back and watch the church decline and die but they prophetically called it back to its roots and back to God not only for the sake of the church but for the sake of the culture, the society in which it lived.

The second great Reformation principle was the call to the church to constantly re-examine itself in the light of scripture and what God is revealing in that particular time. The watchword was ecclesia reforma, ecclesia semper reformanda (the reformed church must always be a church reforming itself), reformed and always reforming. It is so easy for a movement of God which is living and dynamic to turn into a monument that is cold and dead, there needs to be that constant questioning and purifying and freshening.

So what we had was this marvellous balance of a calling back to the essentials, the roots of our faith – a quest for purity, for creativity, for freshness, for simplicity; but also an eye to the days in which the church lived and a willingness for the church to engage with the world of its day and be salt and light in that world.

REFORMATION DISTINCTIVES

And so from this time developed Reformation spirituality which had some distinctives. Firstly was the importance of scripture. If we are to understand what God requires of his church we must go to the Bible for there God has revealed his will to us. The importance of scripture was seen in the early reformers by the introduction of Biblical commentaries, of expository sermons where books of the Bible were expounded and applied line by line (Calvin had over 200 sermons on Deuteronomy alone), and by works of Biblical Theology such as Calvin’s Institutes. It was through the study of the scriptures that the rerformation called people back to the three solas - faith alone, through Christ alone by grace alone.

A second distinctive was seeking the knowledge of God. It was not just knowing about God but knowing God himself through a relationship with his Son Jesus Christ. To know God was to change as people. The knowledge of God was also linked to the knowledge of ourselves: Calvin believed that it is only in knowing God that we come to truly know ourselves. And it is only by knowing ourselves fully that we come to know God fully as well. The reformation emphasised the grace of God, the providence of God, the sovereignty of God. God was central.

A third emphasis in the Reformation was what we call the priesthood of all believers. The Reformation rediscovered the body of Christ, the believers, the ordinary church member. Where the Catholic church emphasised the difference between clergy and lay the Reformers sought to narrow the gap and to give more power and education to the people. (This clergy/laity distinction is a constant tension and continues today also within Protestant churches – will return to this later in series).

A fourth emphasis of Reformation spirituality was life in the world. It wanted to equip people to live in and engage with the world and make a difference to the world. The Reformers emphasised home life as a place where faith could be put into practice and if you impact homes you can impact society. This is well summed up by a French historian writing about John Calvin – he said “The first work of Calvin was a book (the Institutes) his second work was a city, Geneva. Book and city complement each other. One is doctrine formulated, one is doctrine applied.” This of course was the pattern of Jesus and Paul. Teach the doctrine and then the so what, the doctrine applied which should make a difference to how we live.

So as Presbyterians we are part of the Reformation family. These distinctives of the Reformation have shaped Presbyterian thought and practice. In the next few weeks I want to look at these distinctives . Today and next week I want to look at beliefs – the sovereignty of God and the idea of covenant. Then look at the Presbyterian view of church and the governing of church life, and finally at the whole side of Presbyterian witness. How do we live as Presbyterians today and that will lead to a concluding sermon on the future of Presbyterianism and what new reforming we may need to do if we are to turn a declining denomination into a thriving one.

THE SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD

I hope that we can say that all Christians believe in the sovereignty of God but it is also fair to say that for Presbyterians it is a major doctrine, a belief that we are prone to emphasise more than others. The early chapters of the Westminster Confession deal with God, his sovereign rule and his providence. In other words God is in control, God is King, God knows all that has happened, all that is happening and all that is going to happen. Indeed more than knowing about these things he is actually governing and directing events to fulfil his purposes and plans.

Some Christians prefer to emphasise God’s foreknowledge (that God knows what is going to happen) over his foreordaining (that God actually determines and directs what is going to happen). Presbyterians emphasise that God’s foreknowledge implies and includes his foreordination – God knows something is going to happen because he is the one who determined such a thing will happen.

Some people like to emphasise the freewill part of human nature for they think that to strongly emphasise God’s election and choosing is to undermine our freedom and our responsibility, to make us more like robots. But Presbyterians (or as some would label them, Calvinists, as John Calvin articulated this doctrine quite fully) emphasise that the Bible teaches both God’s foreordaining and men and women’s responsibility. We need to hold these two things in tension and we find that difficult to do.

But Presbyterians tend to err on the side of God pre-determining things for two reasons. 1) One reason is the sheer weight of Biblical texts which point in this direction and 2) the other is that we are anxious to give God as much glory as possible and if it comes down to leaning towards God being in control of human beings’ future or us being in control of our destiny we would prefer to have God in control and to give God the glory. We find the balance or the tension of God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility in verses like Philippians 2:12-13 “continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling (mankind’s responsibility) for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose”. We work out what God works in.

For some God’s sovereignty and the connected doctrines of God’s grace, God’s election, God’s fore-ordaining is actually the most controversial part of Reformed doctrine and specifically Presbyterian emphases. You can of course be a member of a Presbyterian church and not sign up 100% to this doctrine (although as an elder in the church you must subscribe to the confession) but what I want to show you in the time remaining is that this is a strongly Biblical doctrine that it is taught throughout scripture.

1.The sovereignty of God in creation

Gen.1:1 “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”

Psalm 24:1 “The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it.”

Ps.148:5 “Let them praise the name of the Lord for he commanded and they were created. He set them in place for ever and ever.”

The NT especially highlights the role of the Son in creating and upholding the universe.

Heb.1:3 “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word.”

God is sovereign in creation - he upholds, he directs, he disposes and he governs. In the words of the Westminster Confession “God the creator of all things doth uphold, direct, dispose and govern all creatures, actions and things, from the greatest even to the least, by his most wise and holy providence.” (Ch.5:1)

God is not taken by surprise and when it came to the plan of salvation God knew exactly what he was doing and how he would do it. In the words of Peter in Acts 2:23 “This Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.” Here again we see divine planning and human responsibility. Which leads us to our final point -

2. The Sovereignty of God in salvation

We believe that God is sovereign over who comes to Jesus Christ. Ephesians 2 talks about us being dead in sin - the dead cannot raise themselves, only an outside power, God, can do that. It is God who calls, God who chooses, God who convicts our hearts, God who enlivens our souls, God who saves us, God who regenerates, God who justifies, God who sanctifies, God who adopts us into his family. We are saved by grace, and this is not of ourselves, not by works so that no-one can boast. No we are saved by the mercy and grace of God in Christ. Without God moving in our lives we are lost, helpless and hopeless.

The weight of texts that teach that God chooses and determines who will be saved is heavy. Here are just a few:

Old Testament

Deut.10:14-15 “To the Lord God belong the heavens, even the highest heavens, the earth and everything in it. Yet the Lord set his affection on your forefathers and loved them and he chose you, their descendants, above all the nations as it is today.”

Deut. 14:2 “you are a people holy to the Lord your God and the Lord has chosen you to be a people for his own possession, out of all the people’s that are on the face of the earth.”

Nehemiah 9:7 “You are the Lord, the God who chose Abraham…”

Elsewhere we see that God chose Abel over Cain, Isaac over Ishmael, Jacob over Esau, Joseph over his brothers, David over his brothers, and so on it goes. God chose God chose, God chose is a refrain throughout scripture regarding his people.

Into the New Testament:

The words of Jesus – Matt.22:1 “Many are called but few are chosen…”

Mt.11:27 “No-one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him…”

John 6:37 “All that the Father gives me will come to me”

John 10:27 “My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me and I give them eternal life. My Father who has given them to me is greater than all and no-one shall snatch them out of the Father’s hand.”

John 15:16 “You did not choose me but I chose you and appointed you to bear fruit, fruit that will last.”

The words of Luke who wrote Acts – Acts 13:14 “All who were appointed for eternal life believed”

Acts 16:14 the Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message.”

Paul writes in Rom.8:28-29 “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those god foreknew he predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son..”

Eph.1:4 “For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ in accordance with his pleasure and will. v.11 “In him we were also chosen having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will…”

We cannot fully understand this doctrine but the Bible teaches it. The Confession says that “the doctrine of this high mystery of predestination is to be handled with special prudence and care”. God knows who are his, we are called to be faithful in preaching, witnessing, living for Christ. God saves but he chooses to save through us, through human means. We worship a sovereign God and this is a major emphasis of our Presbyterian church.

And so as Presbyterians we may work like an Arminian, as if everything depended on us, but sleep like a Calvinist knowing that it is God who determines, who decides and disposes resting in the knowledge that those he predestines he calls, those he calls he justifies and those he justifies he glorifies (Rom.8:30) and to God be the glory.