The Sovereignty of God in Missions

Editorial Comment: This post is the fourth of 10 articles explaining Reaching & Teaching’s 10 Missiological Distinctives.

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We believe God is sovereign in salvation; we rely on the Holy Spirit to convict and regenerate all whom the Father has chosen, graciously bringing them to repentance and faith in Jesus Christ.

When we speak of God’s sovereignty, we are speaking of his absolute lordship. God reigns and governs the entire cosmos with supreme authority. As the psalmist powerfully proclaims:

The Lord reigns; he is robed in majesty;

the Lord is robed; he has put on strength as his belt.

Yes, the world is established; it shall never be moved.

Your throne is established from of old;

you are from everlasting (Ps 93:1-2 ESV).

God is the everlasting King. There is no need for the psalmist to state what the Lord reigns over. The Lord reigns. Period. From eternity past to eternity future, he is the sovereign King.

Moreover, God’s sovereignty actively plays out in time and space as he works out his purposes. As he declares through Isaiah:

“I am God, and there is no other;

I am God, and there is none like me,

declaring the end from the beginning

and from ancient times things not yet done,

saying ‘My counsel shall stand,

and I will accomplish all my purpose’” (Isa 46:9b-10 ESV).

In this distinctive, we have chosen to focus on one realm of God’s reign: his sovereignty in salvation. God is sovereign in salvation in that he planned and executed it. As David writes and Jonah proclaims from the belly of a fish, “Salvation belongs to the Lord” (Ps 3:8a, Jonah 2:9c ESV).

The Father Sovereignly Elects

That salvation was planned by God is seen most clearly in the Father’s sovereign election. Peter writes to the exiles who are “elect [“chosen,” NASB] according to the foreknowledge of God the Father” (1 Pet 1:1-2 ESV). According to Jesus, all those whom the Father has given to the Son (and by implication chosen) will come and look to him in faith, will never be cast out or lost, and will assuredly be raised up on the last day (John 6:37-40). Jesus makes it plain that the Father’s sovereign election is the only soil from which true faith, perseverance, and final resurrection grow.

The Bible tells us both when and why God chose his people.  His sovereign election took place “before the foundation of the world” (Eph 1:4a ESV). Before he declared, “‘Let there be light!’” (Gen 1:3a ESV), the Father chose us in his Son.

Why did the Father choose us? Was it based on his prior knowledge of our future faith or acts of obedience? Paul answers this question directly when he writes that God’s purpose in election “depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy” (Rom 9:16 ESV). The Father’s election of rebellious and guilty sinners from every tongue, tribe, people, and nation is completely and entirely rooted in his great mercy.

The Spirit Sovereignly Convicts, Regenerates, and Converts

Not only was salvation planned by God, but it is also executed by him. Here we turn our attention to the sovereign work of the Holy Spirit in salvation.

Prior to his departure, Jesus told his disciples that when the Holy Spirit arrived, he would “convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment” (John 16:8 ESV). This happened initially on the day of Pentecost. That day “men from every nation under heaven,” indeed, the world, gathered in Jerusalem (Acts 2:5 ESV). As promised, Jesus poured out his Spirit, and the disciples were empowered to proclaim the good news of Jesus’ death and resurrection. As a result, 3,000 men were convicted of their sin and “cut to the heart” (Acts 2:37a ESV). Why? Was it ultimately Peter’s exceptional preaching? No, it was the work of the Spirit. And it is this same work that we depend on today when we preach the gospel among the nations. God must open hearts (Acts 16:14) and draw rebellious sinners to himself (John 6:37, 44).

In John 3, Jesus explains this work of the Spirit to Nicodemus: “‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God’” (John 3:5 ESV). Jesus’ words draw directly from Ezekiel’s promises of God’s future new covenant work in which sinners would be washed by clean water, given a new heart, and receive the Spirit (Ezek 36:22-38). This is what it means to be born again. It’s the Spirit who washes and transforms hearts. Paul writes, “[God] saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5 ESV). This regenerating work of the Spirit is nothing less than a miraculous resurrection (John 5:25-26) and new creation (2 Cor 5:17; Gal 6:15).

Finally, it is the Holy Spirit who converts. Paul reiterates the convicting and regenerating actions of the Holy Spirit we’ve already discussed. Against the backdrop of the Roman Empire, a converted soul would boldly declare, “Jesus is Lord!” Paul writes, “Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says ‘Jesus is accursed!’ and no one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except in the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor 12:3 ESV). A true, cost-counting, persecution-accepting, repentance-indicating declaration of “Jesus is Lord” is only possible from a person who has been converted by the Holy Spirit.

Even repentance and faith, although they are steps of obedience taken by the individual, are themselves rooted in the sovereign grace of God. Paul explains to the church in Philippi that both believing in Christ and suffering for him have been granted to them (Phil 1:29). Faith is God’s gift. As Paul writes in Ephesians 2:8, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.” The repentance and faith that God rightly demands of us he gives to us by his Spirit (2 Tim 2:25).

As Isaiah so powerfully writes:

[The Lord] saw that there was no man,

and wondered that there was no one to intercede;

then his own arm brought him salvation,

and his righteousness upheld him” (Isa 59:16 ESV).

God scans the entire globe to see if there is any man who can deliver lasting salvation but finds no one. If salvation is to occur at all, it must be by his mighty arm. Salvation is of God alone.

God’s Sovereignty in Salvation Shapes Our Evangelism

Now, if all this is true, and if this truth not only fills our minds but permeates our souls, it has a host of implications for our evangelism.

Although the Holy Spirit convicts, regenerates, and converts, the Lord invites us to join in this work. How is this participation possible? By his word, “the sword of the Spirit” (Eph 6:17 ESV). This means that the word of God is central to all we do in making disciples. The sword of the Spirit is not just one of many useful tools. It is the tool.

Because God uses his word to accomplish his saving work in the life of a sinner, we strive for biblical fidelity in our evangelism. We seek to “rightly [handle] the word of truth” (2 Tim. 2:15 ESV). This is doubly true in contexts where we are communicating the word of God in a language that is not our own. In many of our contexts, the slow, arduous mastery of another language (or two) is necessary to accurately communicate the word. If “faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (Rom 10:17 ESV), our paramount concern is that what we say is heard rightly.

Additionally, since God alone knows whom he has chosen, we recognize that our job is not to discern who is or isn’t elect. We cannot determine whether individuals are chosen by examining their ethnicity, their cultural or religious background, their most pleasant virtues, or their most pernicious vices. Such visible characteristics are not clues for us to follow. Instead of trying to determine who will or will not respond to the gospel call, we sow the seed of the gospel generously and indiscriminately, casting it far and wide (Acts 11:19-20).

Believing that God is sovereign in salvation propels us forward with evangelistic diligence. In Corinth, Jesus appears to Paul and says, “‘Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent, … for I have many in this city who are my people’” (Acts 18:9b, 10b ESV). Many have accused the reformed understanding of election of being a death blow to diligent evangelism and missions. Paul would beg to differ. It is God’s election of many in the city of Corinth that propelled him to remain in the city “a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them” (Acts 18:11 ESV). The Father’s sovereign election of people from every tongue, tribe, people, and nation propels us into faithful missions. We learn languages. We translate the Scriptures. We preach the word. We equip the church to obey all that Jesus has commanded. We labor, often without seeing any visible fruit. Why? Because of God’s sovereignty in salvation. Because Jesus has other sheep to bring in (John 10:16).

Further, belief in God’s sovereignty pushes us to our knees in prayer. Prayer is the dialect of humble, dependent faith. In prayer we beg of God to do what he alone can do. If our desire is for those once “dead in … trespasses and sins” (Eph. 2:1 ESV) to be spiritually vivified, then we recognize that our desire is for something that God alone can do. If there is even an inkling in us that we could accomplish 1% of this task, it would undercut our prayerfulness. But we cannot. As Jesus reminds us, “apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5c ESV). And this realization pushes us to our knees in prayer. We humbly entreat our sovereign, saving God to shine light into darkness, open ears that are closed, open eyes that are blind, and breathe life into hearts that are dead (Matt 11:5).

Finally, God’s sovereignty in salvation liberates us to rest in God and his work. Like Paul, because of our belief in God’s sovereignty in salvation, we are propelled to labor diligently (1 Cor 15:10). Also, like Paul, we can truly rest in God because we understand that ultimately the grace of God is working in us, through us, and at times in spite of us. Like the farmer in Jesus’ parable, we can sow diligently and sleep peacefully (Mark 4:26-27). We recognize that it is God alone who gives growth in his perfect timing (1 Cor 3:6). We do not need to pretend we are sovereign. We do not need to cosplay as though we are the Holy Spirit. We labor with diligence. We pray in humble dependence. And we rest in joy. Why? Because “salvation belongs to the Lord!” (Jonah 2:9c ESV).