In Him, Pastor Job

Thank you for your response, although I am saddened by your perception of God’s sovereignty. Perhaps you don’t really understand–at least this part of–theology after all. While my own understanding of God’s sovereignty is not perfect I cannot imagine being truly joyful without it.

In fact, the Bible clearly and consistently connects our joy with His control over all things, even when those things involve great personal pain.

For example, the apostle Peter links our ability to rejoice in heaviness to our knowledge of God’s sovereign mercy that regenerates us and protects us for an eternal inheritance. 1 Peter 1:6 says, In this we rejoice, that is, in His electing grace and His persevering grace (considered in verses 3-5) we exult. And as verse 8 explains, this is no meager or minimal joy, it is joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory. Without His sovereignty, not only would we still be dead in our sin, there would also be no reliable basis for joy now or in eternity.

What enabled Job’s joy? Job immediately recognized God’s control when he was suddenly blindsided by calamity (loss of all his livestock and property) and tragedy (all of his children killed by a windstorm). Not only did Job understand God’s sovereignty, he worshiped the LORD and criticized his wife for her unwillingness to receive evil from God, even when his own health was taken without warning. Although Job had no clue of the purpose of this calamity, his response was not to question God’s control or His character. The sovereignty of God was his comfort.

Certainly Jesus Himself is the ultimate example. It was for the joy set before Him that He endured the cross, which He clearly understood to be His Father’s will. This was the greatest act of evil ever committed, yet it is also the greatest demonstration of God’s love and grace. No other single event in history connects joy with sovereignty like the cross.

But why? How can/does this fit? Though we may not fully understand, God’s Word does reveal the ultimate answer. The following paragraphs are from John Piper’s message, The Suffering of Christ and the Sovereignty of God.

God decreed from all eternity to display the greatness of the glory of his grace for the enjoyment of his creatures, and he revealed to us that this is the ultimate aim and explanation of why there is sin and why there is suffering, and why there is a great suffering Savior. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came in the flesh to suffer and die and by that suffering and death to save undeserving sinners like you and me. This coming to suffer and die is the supreme manifestation of the greatness of the glory of the grace of God. Or to say it a little differently, the death of Christ in supreme suffering is the highest, clearest, surest display of the glory of the grace of God. If that is true, then a stunning truth is revealed, namely, suffering is an essential part of the created universe in which the greatness of the glory of the grace of God can be most fully revealed. Suffering is an essential part of the tapestry of the universe so that the weaving of grace can be seen for what it really is. Or to put it most simply and starkly: the ultimate reason that suffering exists in the universe is so that Christ might display the greatness of the glory of the grace of God by suffering in himself to overcome our suffering. The suffering of the utterly innocent and infinitely holy Son of God in the place of utterly undeserving sinners to bring us to everlasting joy is the greatest display of the glory of God’s grace that ever was, or ever could be.

God was on the throne at the fall as He will be when men are judged to eternal wrath. But God was also on the cross, dying as a sinless substitute for all those who would ever believe, those whom the Father elected to salvation for the praise of His glorious grace. And for believers, our joy and His glory go hand in hand.

As hard as these truths may be, they are our only hope of salvation and therefore our only guarantee of joy. A Scripture-driven, Calvinistic understanding of this world doesn’t make men miserable or cause us to collapse emotionally, it is a life-jacket that preserves joy now and forever.