I think we miss the boat in attempting to define the Sovereignty of God. In our vain thinking we place on God, our own intellectual definition of what sovereignty is, and in doing so, we define God’s sovereignty within the perimeters of human wisdom.

Sovereignty simply means supreme power, authority, and dominion. Throughout scripture we see that God is supreme, and all powerful, with all authority and dominion belonging to him.

The problem with human wisdom is that it limits God’s sovereignty to what we think a Sovereign God would do. A person may say “man does not have a free will for if man has a free will, God can not be sovereign.”

One who would make such a claim has actually defined the perimeters of God’s sovereignty, for in his futile mind a sovereign God would not allow his creation to have a free will. But what If God wanted to give humanity a free will?

What if, in God’s wisdom (in his sovereign wisdom) he chose to give humanity the freedom of choice, so that he could display his glorious power, and authority, in the midst of opposition and on the behalf of those who set their hearts on him.

In the New Testament, the apostle Paul described the cross as the wisdom of God in the first chapter of 1 Corinthians. We know from the whole counsel of scripture that the cross was a display of the sovereignty of God, yet in his wisdom, God displayed his sovereign power by utilizing those who opposed both him and Jesus.

The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against his Christ. ~ Acts 4:26

Who put it into the hearts of sinful men to condemned Jesus? Was it God?

The scripture says it was Satan who put it into Judas’s heart to betray Jesus, not God (John 13:2). The actions of Judas were foretold in the Old Testament, and played a major role in the crucifixion, but it was Satan and not God who put it into the heart of Judas to betray Jesus.

What if God, in his sovereignty, decided to display his wisdom by utilizing the foolishness of sinful men to carry out his purposes of redeeming them?

What if in God’s sovereign wisdom, he decided to win the hearts of those to whom he gave the freedom to rebel against him, by demonstrating his great love, mercy, and grace to them?

What if God has sovereignly given man the freedom to chose to repent and be saved, or to rebel and be damned? Free will in no way negates God’s sovereignty, if anything, it displays it all the more!