God's Unlimited Power and Sovereignty

[KenH]

' That there is a God, appears by God's unlimited power and sovereignty. He who can work, and none hinder him, is the true God; but God can do so, Isaiah 43:13., "I will work, and who shall let it." Nothing can hinder action but some superior power; but there is no power above God,—all power that is, is by him,—therefore all power is under him; he hath a 'mighty arm,' Psalm 89:13. He sees the designs men drive on against him, and plucks off their chariot-wheels; he maketh the diviners mad; Isaiah 44:25.; he cutteth off the spirit of princes; he bridleth the sea, gives check to the leviathan, binds the devil in chains; he acts according to his pleasure; he doth what he will: "I will work, and who shall let it?" '

- excerpt from Thomas Watson's A Body of Divinity

 

[Van]

The issue is not that God is all-powerful and does as He pleases. He is and He does! The issue is that it pleased God not to cause everything, but rather to allow some things to happen by chance, and to allow humans to make autonomous choices to sin and to trust fully in Christ or not! That is why God is just to punish the lost for their sins, as God did not author them. And that is why salvation is by grace and not works, because faith is according to grace.