Who's authority? - God's Sovereignty


Vincent Ball

Sovereignty; Jesus Prays for God’s Will to Be Done / John 19:9–11

All about God's sovereignty 

 

John 19:9–11 (ESV)


He entered his headquarters again and said to Jesus, “Where are you from?” But Jesus gave him no answer. So Pilate said to him, “You will not speak to me? Do you not know that I have authority to release you and authority to crucify you?” Jesus answered him, “You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above. Therefore he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin.”





Illustration:


Some of you would know the film "The Dark Knight Rises", the Batman film. In it Bane is a bad guy. And obviously Batman, the good guy. Bane throughout the film is getting the upper hand over Authority. And everything seems to be falling apart for Batman as well. This is a bit like Jesus in a way. Standing before pilot and the end seems to be near. But Pilot doesn't know what's going on. Even though he thinks he's got control over Jesus, he hasn't. Jesus is the I AM. And Jesus is in full control. Even if it doesn't look like he is. God's sovereign will is at play here. We would all like Jesus to defend himself and come away from the cross but he chose to go through with it. Everyone, the Pharisees, the crowd, judas, Pontius Pilate and ultimately us. had a part to play in his death. But God's authority, God's Sovereign Will  knew better and through his death, he defeated death. Ultimately like the Dark Knight rises, Batman wins and good prevails. 


But… it’s not the sovereign will of Batman here though.





Lets talk about God’s sovereign will...


For us


For Him


For mankind


Choosing our own salvation





For Us...


Sometimes, it feels like we are the king of our own castles and we steer our own courses in life. But do we?


It certainly feels that way but what if I told you that God in His sovereign will ordains every step we make. good and bad.


Wayne Grudem’s theology teaches...


We’re responsible for our actions and should never blame God for sin—it’s always the creature, not God, who bears blame.


Though God ordains all things, Paul corrects anyone objecting to God holding us accountable, (Paul raises this objection in Romans 9. After saying that God “has mercy upon whomever he wills, and he hardens the heart of whomever he wills” (Rom. 9:18), Paul then raises this precise objection: “You will say to me then, ‘Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?’” (Rom. 9:19).)


Paul’s response is simple: God has the right to do what he wants because he’s the Creator. He uses an analogy—just as a potter has complete authority over the clay to shape it however he wishes, God has authority over his creation. God can make some things for one purpose and other things for another purpose. God is showing his power and justice by allowing some people to face his judgment, while at the same time showing his mercy and glory through those he saves—both Jews and non-Jews alike. The point is: we don’t get to question God’s decisions the way we might question a human authority, because God is our Maker and we are his creation. and we must accept that God rightly rebukes and disciplines evil. We should never say “God willed it and therefore it is good” about evil, since some things God’s decree planned are not good and shouldn’t receive our approval. When we use our freedom to make choices pleasing to God, we reflect his character and bring him glory—conversely, bad spiritual steps are our responsibility to own and correct, not God’s fault.


Proverbs 16:9 teaches that while people make plans, God ultimately determines the direction their lives take...


The heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps.


. Proverbs 20:24 emphasizes that our steps originate from the Lord, leaving us unable to fully understand our own path.


A man’s steps are from the LORD; how then can man understand his way?


Jeremiah 10:23 expresses this even more directly—a person cannot direct their own way by their own power.


I know, O LORD, that the way of man is not in himself, that it is not in man who walks to direct his steps.


That means good steps from God and even bad steps from us cannot “pluck us from His hand” so to speak.


Jesus, is the author of everything and holds every molecule of creation together by His power. If He didn’t it would cease to be.


This is scary in one sense if you don’t know Him and are against Him but to those who believe it’s concretely reassuring - We are the elect!


The best thing you can do is be on the right side of God!


A great illustration of this is all the bad steps, all the sin of man, every God-ordained bad moves of man which nailed Jesus to the cross, God reversed for our own good. He died so that we yet may live. By whose authority was Jesus crucified by?  Yes God’s





For Him


God planned Jesus’s death from the beginning. The Bible says God’s plan and foreknowledge determined what would happen to Jesus—his suffering and death were part of God’s eternal purpose, not an accident or surprise.


Acts 2:23 (ESV)


this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.





But here’s the key: Jesus willingly chose to obey God’s plan. He prayed in the garden asking if there was another way, but then said “not my will, but yours be done.” No one forced Jesus to die; he chose to lay down his life. He had the power to stop it, but he didn’t.


The people who killed Jesus—the Jewish leaders, Pilate, the Roman soldiers—they made real choices and bear real guilt for what they did. But God used their evil actions to accomplish his sovereign purpose. God didn’t make them do it against their will; instead, he arranged circumstances so that their freely chosen actions fit into his plan.


The bottom line: God’s sovereignty over Jesus’s death doesn’t erase human responsibility. Both are true at the same time. God planned it all, Jesus willingly submitted to it, and the people involved are still guilty for their choices. This death wasn’t a tragedy that God had to fix—it was God’s deliberate plan to save us. God’s complete control over everything, including Christ’s death, actually gives us confidence that our salvation is secure and cannot fail.


It would have been the sovereign will of his disciples and family that he lived For their purposes Jesus even denounced Peter when he said, "Get thee behind me Satan." When he tried to put him off going to the cross . It would have been the sovereign will of the Pharisees and those who hated him that he died For their purposes. Ultimately it was God's purposes that prevailed through His will, His perfect will. His perfect sovereign will, For us.


Jesus never made a wrong move, decision, or sin, He was constantly asking and praying for the father’s will. This led Him to the cross for us.





For Mankind


God’s sovereignty over mankind means He makes His own plans and carries them out in His own way and timing. His will isn’t random or harsh—it flows from His perfect character, intelligence, and goodness. Everything He does ultimately serves His glory.


However, God operates through two different kinds of will. His decretive will is what He ordains to happen—this always comes to pass. His preceptive will is what He commands people to do—this is often disobeyed. God also has an active will (directly bringing things about) and a permissive will (allowing things to happen). Sin falls under His permissive will, since it contradicts His holiness.


Here’s the crucial part: God’s sovereignty doesn’t eliminate human freedom or responsibility. People make real choices—they’re not puppets on strings. Your choices matter and have genuine significance because they fit into God’s overall plan, not despite it. Think of it like a bird flying freely in the air or a fish swimming in the sea—you have real freedom within the framework God created.


God never causes people to sin, even though He sometimes uses sinful actions to accomplish His purposes. When people sin, they’re fully responsible and guilty, even if their actions serve God’s plan. God even judges people for the very sins He uses to carry out His purposes.


The relationship between God’s complete control and human freedom remains a mystery we can’t fully explain with logic. But the Bible teaches both as true: God is absolutely sovereign, and you genuinely choose and are accountable for those choices. You live in God’s sustaining will, and within that, you have real responsibility before Him.





Choosing our own Salvation


God’s election isn’t based on foreknowledge of your faith—He chose you simply because He decided to bestow His love upon you. This is called “unconditional election” because it isn’t conditioned on anything God sees in you that makes you worthy of His choosing. From this angle, salvation originates entirely with God’s sovereign decision, not your merit or ability.


However—and this is crucial—Scripture views you not as a mechanistic creature or robot, but as a genuine person who makes willing choices to accept or reject the gospel. Invitations like “Come to me” are addressed to genuine persons capable of hearing and responding by a decision of their wills. Jesus emphasizes that those who reject Him do so through stubborn refusal: “Yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.”


The critical point: Your choices are real choices because they affect the course of events, and your personal decisions to believe or not believe in Christ decide your eternal destiny. He who believes is not condemned; he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed.


So you don’t choose salvation in isolation from God’s grace, and you can’t claim credit for being saved. If salvation’s foundation is God’s sovereign election, it’s based on grace alone; if the ultimate difference between saved and unsaved is something in you, then salvation depends on grace plus human ability. The Bible teaches the former while still holding you fully responsible for your response. Both are true simultaneously—a mystery beyond complete logical resolution, but not a contradiction.





To wrap this up… isn’t this reassuring. Somehow with our finite minds we understand that we have liberty and scope to live out our days in freedom. But our security, our election, our eternity can be secure knowing that God is in complete control over our choices, Even if we mess up.


God is a good God that loves us from before the foundation of the earth and on into eternity. r


Romans 8:37–39 (ESV)


No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 


For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 


nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.






Exported from Logos Bible Study, 01:17 31 August 2026.