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the punishment of sin is the maintenance of right and justice. Of course, it may incidentally
serve, and may even, secondarily, be intended, to reform the sinner and to deter others from
sin.
D. Attributes of Sovereignty.
The sovereignty of God is strongly emphasized in Scripture. He is represented as the Creator,
and His will as the cause of all things. In virtue of His creative work heaven and earth and all
that they contain belong to Him. He is clothed with absolute authority over the hosts of heaven
and the inhabitants of the earth. He upholds all things with His almighty power, and determines
the ends which they are destined to serve. He rules as King in the most absolute sense of the
word, and all things are dependent on Him and subservient to Him. There is a wealth of
Scripture evidence for the sovereignty of God, but we limit our references here to a few of the
most significant passages: Gen. 14:19; Ex. 18:11; Deut. 10:14,17; I Chron. 29:11,12; II Chron.
20:6; Neh. 9:6; Ps. 22:28; 47:2,3,7,8; Ps. 50:10-12; 95:3-5; 115:3; 135:5,6; 145:11-13; Jer. 27:5;
Luke 1:53; Acts 17:24-26; Rev. 19:6. Two attributes call for discussion under this head, namely
(1) the sovereign will of God, and (2) the sovereign power of God.
1. THE SOVEREIGN WILL OF GOD.
a. The will of God in general.
The Bible employs several words to denote the will of God,
namely the Hebrew words chaphets, tsebhu and ratson and the Greek words boule and
thelema. The importance of the divine will appears in many ways in Scripture. It is represented
as the final cause of all things. Everything is derived from it; creation and preservation, Ps.
135:6; Jer. 18:6; Rev. 4:11, government, Prov. 21:1; Dan. 4:35, election and reprobation, Rom.
9:15,16; Eph. 1:11, the sufferings of Christ, Luke 22:42; Acts 2:23, regeneration, Jas. 1:18,
sanctification, Phil. 2:13, the sufferings of believers, I Pet. 3:17, man’s life and destiny, Acts
18:21; Rom. 15:32; Jas. 4:15, and even the smallest things of life, Matt. 10:29. Hence Christian
theology has always recognized the will of God as the ultimate cause of all things, though
philosophy has sometimes shown an inclination to seek a deeper cause in the very Being of the
Absolute. However, the attempt to ground everything in the very Being of God generally results
in Pantheism.
The word “will” as applied to God does not always have the same connotation in Scripture. It
may denote (1) the whole moral nature of God, including such attributes as love, holiness,
righteousness, etc.; (2) the faculty of self-determination, i.e. the power to determine self to a
course of action or to form a plan; (3) the product of this activity, that is, the predetermined
plan or purpose; (4) the power to execute this plan and to realize this purpose (the will in action
or omnipotence); and (5) the rule of life laid down for rational creatures. It is primarily the will