Martin Luther wrote to Erasmus, "Your thoughts of God are too human." With those words he exposed the essential fallacy of all false religion. I lay this charge against all preachers of free-will, works religion – their thoughts of God are too human. God's charge against apostate Israel was, "Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself" (Psalm 50:21). And that is His indictment against the religious world of our day.
Men today imagine that God is moved by sentiment, rather than by the determination of His own will. They talk about omnipotence, but imagine that it is such an idle fiction that Satan and men can thwart the power of God. If they speak of God's plan, the preachers of our day tell us that it must, like the plans of men, be subject to constant change. They tell us that God's power, His plan, His will and His sovereignty must be limited, lest He violate man's free-will and reduce him to a robot. The grace of God is represented as a helpless, frustrated desire of God's heart to save people who will not allow Him to save them. The precious blood of Christ, we are told, was shed in vain for man, wasted upon the multitudes who perish. And the saving power of the Holy Spirit is reduced to a gentle offer of grace which waits upon the will of man to make it effectual. Such thoughts of God are too human! Such a god is no God at all! In reality the religionists of our day are atheists, for there is no possible alternative between a God who is absolutely sovereign and no God at all. A god whose will can be resisted, whose purpose can be frustrated, whose power can be thwarted, whose grace can be nullified, whose work can be overturned, has no title to Deity! Such a god is not a fit object of worship. Such a puny, pygmy god merits nothing but contempt. He is not the God of the Bible. "Our God is in the heavens: He hath done whatsoever He hath pleased." "Whatsoever the LORD pleased, that did He in heaven, and in earth, in the seas, and in all deep places." When I say, "God is sovereign," I am simply saying, "God is God." To deny His sovereignty is to deny His Godhead. You might as well speak of a God who is not eternal, holy and immutable, as speak of a God who is not sovereign. Sovereignty and Deity stand or fall together.
*