If God is Sovereign

The first rule of Fight Club, they tell me, is that you don't talk about Fight Club. Fiction is all well and good, but the first rule about Christianity is that you have to admit that you're a sinner in need of saving. If you aren't, you have no need of Jesus. It stands to reason, then, that we Christians will have an issue with sin. Paul did (Rom 7:21-24). Any believer who has any awareness of God, His righteousness, and our distance from that, will, at some point (or points), struggle with this problem. I am not who God intended me to be. I will always have the scars of who I am as opposed to who I should have been. It's a sickening feeling. It is impossible to stand next to "You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect" (Matt 5:48) knowing that we are not, never were, and won't be this side of heaven. Let's face it; we're a mess.

Most Christians, to some degree, suffer from this malady. We love God and we want to be what God wants us to be, but we are not and we are not happy about that. Like Isaiah, we will all, in some sense, utter a "Woe is me!" (Isa 6:5) Can God even use a wretch like me? So follow me for a minute thinking about if God is Sovereign. If God is actually Sovereign, then that means that He knew what you were when you met Him. It means He knew what you would be when you were born and could have insured that you remained without sin for your whole life in order for you to be what He intended you to be -- perfect. He did not. So, since He is Sovereign, it must be that He planned for your sin and expected to put you to use for His glory, sin and all. Fine piece of logic, perhaps, but does Scripture offer any support? Yes, it does. Peter, in his first sermon, told the Jews that Jesus was "delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men" (Acts 2:23). Now, certainly, murdering the sinless Son of God was a sin, but God used it. Scripture says that the Jews gathered against Jesus -- both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever God's hand and God's plan had predestined to take place (Acts 4:27-28). God planned and predestined sin for His purposes. He didn't cause it, but He certainly saw it coming and allowed it and used it for good. Does that absolve the sin? Not at all. Jesus told the disciples He would be betrayed. "For the Son of Man goes as it has been determined, but woe to that man by whom he is betrayed!" (Luke 22:22). The betrayal was planned and "determined," but woe to the betrayer. That God can use sin for His glory does not absolve the sinner.

So we, sinners/saints, forgiven by God, have this reality within us. We are not and never have been precisely what God intended -- perfect. We bear within ourselves the scars and damage that all that sin has caused. Taken at face value, it can be quite ugly. But God ... I love that phrase ... loves us, knew in advance of our sin, and allowed it in order to accomplish His will and shape His people. Even in our sin, we are molded by God to be what He wants. So when we complain to God about the mess we've made of our lives, we are the pot saying to the Potter, "Why have You made me this way?" (Isa 29:16). We should, instead, marvel that God would allow us the sin we've done, forgive us for it, and use it to shape and mold us more into the image of His Son (Rom 8:28-29). While we long to "Go, and sin no more," we can be grateful that all our errors have not undone what a Sovereign God has planned. To those of you who are perfect, perhaps that's not a big deal, but for sinners like me, it's a great relief.