The best way to frame up our discussion of God’s sovereignty is to ask this question: Are there things that happen in the world that are contrary to the will of God?
Most of us would instinctively say yes. Jesus’ model prayer, what we call the Lord’s Prayer, seems to indicate that there are. Otherwise why would he teach us to pray, “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10b)?
But Calvinism answers the question of whether anything happens contrary to God’s will with an emphatic no. Everything that happens in the world is ordained by God and part of his sovereign will. Here’s the way the Westminster Confession puts it: “God, from all eternity, did, by the most wise and holy counsel of His own will, freely, and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass.”[1]
In answer to question 7, the Westminster Shorter Catechism, says, “The decrees of God are, his eternal purpose, according to the counsel of his will, whereby, for his own glory, he hath foreordained whatsoever comes to pass.” Notice that all things are ordained by God and are therefore according to his will. Everything that happens is what he planned and decided would happen. A. W. Pink explains that God “has determined in Himself from all eternity everything which will be.”[2]
So, everything that happens in the world is according to God’s will, and there is nothing therefore that is not according to his will. This perspective is essential to how Calvinism understands God’s sovereignty. According to Calvinism, anything less than this would mean God is not sovereign.
“Calvinism answers the question of whether anything happens contrary to God’s will with an emphatic no.”
Now we must also acknowledge that most Calvinists and the Westminster Confession do talk about secondary causes, such as human beings. But these secondary causes only operate under and according to what God has already ordained would happen. God is the first and ultimate cause in a comprehensive and absolute sort of way, so that these secondary causes only do what God has already determined they will do. If these secondary causes are in any way independent of God as ultimate cause, then according to Calvinism, God would cease to be God.
How then can humans be described as making free choices? According to Calvinism, they are free in that they act according to what they want to do, even though what they choose is the result of God’s sovereign will.
Playing Chess with a Jedi
Imagine a chess match between a Jedi knight and someone else (we’ll call him “Craig”). The Jedi uses his mind tricks to sway Craig’s motivations, and thus the Jedi guarantees that he wins the game by controlling what chess moves Craig “chooses” to make. Craig moves his pieces exactly the way the Jedi planned for him to, and yet according to a Calvinist account of free will it’s also accurate to say that Craig chose to make those moves because each move was something he wanted to do at the time he made the move.[3]
According to the way Calvinism speaks of God’s sovereignty and human choice, Craig was a real and free participant in the chess match. He moved his pieces according to his own desires during the game, and therefore he genuinely chose his actions. But he also acted only in keeping with the sovereign will of the Jedi who was ultimately in charge of the game.
To the best of my understanding, this is how Calvinism speaks of God’s sovereignty in relation to human freedom. God uses his power as the sovereign cause to guarantee that every choice is what God himself wants. Calvinist author Ronald Nash has a lengthy discussion of this subject in his basic philosophy textbook and describes this position like this: “as long as his act is an expression of what he wants, then his action is free even if his wants are themselves determined.”[4] I think most of us would admit that, unless we were imposing Calvinist language, we would never actually say that Craig was the cause of his actions in any meaningful sense or that he was really free.
“Craig moves his pieces exactly the way the Jedi planned for him to, and yet according to a Calvinist account of free will it’s also accurate to say that Craig chose to make those moves.”
If God is the sovereign cause of everything that occurs in the world, then even the fall of man and the ruin that followed is God’s will. He ordained it. Calvin himself acknowledges this. He writes, “Nor ought it to seem absurd when I say, that God not only foresaw the fall of the first man, and in him the ruin of his posterity; but also at his own pleasure arranged it.”[5]
So, Calvinism emphasizes God as the ultimate cause who determines and orders all that happens in the world. He is even the prime causative agent in the choices of other beings in his universe. In Calvinism, this is necessary to preserving God’s sovereignty. This is what it means for him to be in charge.
A More Complex Sovereignty
But the Bible presents a more nuanced and complex understanding of God’s sovereignty. There are some things God causes to happen. For example, we could think of God causing Balaam’s donkey to speak in order to redirect the prophet’s actions (Numbers 24:1ff). Jesus’ miracles also are examples of God overriding the normal course of things to bring about results that would not otherwise happen. God directly intervened and made these things happen. Scripture affirms that God can and sometimes does do this.
Yet the Bible also portrays God as using more indirect means to achieve his purposes. One example could be the life of the apostle Paul. His whole life seems to have prepared him for the unique role he would play in God’s redemptive plans. In God’s providence, Paul was born a Roman citizen, which means somewhere in his family history, somehow someone became a Roman citizen. Not only that, but he was born in Tarsus, a well-known city of Greek learning. Yet he was also brought up in Jerusalem, studying under one of the greatest rabbis of the day. All of these factors converged to make Paul the perfect candidate for the role of apostle to the Gentiles. 
All of these factors in Paul’s family history and life were ordinary things in the world of that time. There is nothing that indicates God caused all these things to happen, although he could. At the very least, in his providence, God knew these events beforehand and perhaps guided them so that he could use them for his purpose.[6]
“The Bible also portrays God as using more indirect means to achieve his purposes.”
There are also other things which God simply permits to happen. In his foreknowledge and power, he could have stopped them from happening, but he chose not to. He allowed them to happen. This is a better explanation for humankind’s rebellion against God in humanity’s fall into sin. There’s no need to say that God caused this to happen, as Calvin does. And certainly much of our ordinary daily behavior fits this category of things that God allows to happen, unless God is somehow a puppet master pulling the strings of every little thing you and I do each day.
In the story the Bible tells, it appears that God sovereignly and willingly limited himself by creating other creatures with their own wills, other creatures who have the real ability to cause things to happen, even things that are contrary to God’s will. They can do things that God does not want to be done—hence the reason we need to pray for God’s will to be done on earth as in heaven.
Another way to say this is that humans have a measure of independence. This independence is not absolute or comprehensive. It’s a relative independence under the authority of God, but it is real, nonetheless. And God in his knowledge and power can use human choices to further his purposes.
“God in his knowledge and power can use human choices to further his purposes.”
Joseph provides an example of this when he says to his brothers, “You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to keep many people alive” (Genesis 50:20). God used their evil choices for his redemptive purposes. Peter even says this is the way God orchestrated the crucifixion of Jesus: “This Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death” (Acts 2:23). Here we have human choice (“you nailed…and put to death”) and human character (“godless men”) woven into God’s plan by his foreknowledge.
A Master Chess Player
Does this interplay compromise God’s sovereignty? I say not. I contend that it enhances God’s sovereignty because even with the existence of relatively independent wills who are capable of doing something other than what God himself wants, God is so wise, so skilled, and so powerful that he is still able to bring about his purposes and plans. He still works out all things according to the counsel of his will in spite of wills which act contrary to his own.
So, in this case you might imagine a master chess player, one who is so skilled that he can anticipate the other player’s moves. In fact, he is so competent that he can even influence the other player’s moves by moves he himself makes. And thus, he wins the match, all while the other player is freely making his own moves. I’d suggest that kind of ability is far more impressive than that of the Jedi who makes the other player do what he wants, even as the other player is led to believe that they have agency in the matter.
“He wins the match, all while the other player is freely making his own moves.”
And as I read the Bible, God is more like the chess master. In addition, God also has the ability to know the future and therefore can make his plans based on what he knows will happen. He uses both direct and indirect means to control the affairs of the world, and even though there are other wills at work in this world, many of which are hostile to his own, God still achieves his plans and purposes fully and completely. He doesn’t have to play both sides of the chess board to achieve this. His knowledge and power are so great that he can allow his creature a relative independence and still sovereignly control all things. Such is the sovereignty of our God!
[1] Westminister Confession, III.I
[2] In Jack Cottrell, God the Ruler. (Joplin, MO: College Press, 1984) p. 171.
[3] This Jedi approach is fairly explicit in Calvinism when it comes to how people choose the gospel, as explained in the discussion of Irresistible Grace above.
[4] Ronald Nash. Life’s Ultimate Questions. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1999) 328.
[5] John Calvin. Institutes. III. 23. 7 accessed at https://www.ccel.org/ccel/calvin/institutes.v.xxiv.html
[6] A helpful summary of the means God might use to exert indirect control can be found in Jack Cottrell, God the Ruler (Joplin, MO: College Press, 1984) pp. 199-203.
