Sovereignty of God and the Gospel

What does the recent tsunami, the terrorist attacks on 9/11, The Holocaust, the Great Depression, the sinking of Titanic, the rise and fall of the great Roman Empire, and the execution of Jesus all have in common? The God of the Bible is ultimately responsible for all seven events in history! There is a powerful yet obscure verse in the Bible that I believe heralds this the loudest. The Old Testament book of Isaiah reads, "That they may know from the rising of the sun to its setting that there is none besides Me. I am the Lord, and there is no other; I form the light and create darkness, I make peace and create calamity; I, the Lord, do all these things" (Isaiah 45:6, 7). In other words, the God of the Bible controls all things at all times. If you have been blessed in life, those blessings have ultimately come from this God. If you have experienced suffering or have been beset by tragedy, this too, ultimately came from the hand of the same God. The Creator of the universe is sovereign over His universe; otherwise He is no God at all. God makes no apologizes for how He governs the world, nor does He seek counsel as to how to rule it. He is God. He is the independent, self-existent, and self-sufficient One. One of the age old questions that skeptics demand answered is, "If God is all-powerful and all-loving why does He allow suffering and evil in the world?" That is a legitimate question if the ones asking it desire to know the Biblical truth behind it. Though that question cannot be adequately addressed for lack of space, the Bible does address it. In short, the God of the Bible wants you to know that though He is sovereign and has predestined all things, whether good or bad, to accomplish His eternal purposes, He is also a God of divine and perfect love. Do you need biblical proof of that? The Apostle John stated two thousand years ago that "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life" (John 3:16). How did God give His Son? God "gave" His Son over to wicked men to be crucified in order that sinners like you and I can be reconciled to the very God we have offended by our lawlessness against Him. Who ultimately killed Jesus? The same sovereign God did! In the same book of Isaiah, less than ten chapters from the first text we read, and centuries before Christ came to earth, we read of Jesus the Messiah, "But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him and by His stripes we are healed...And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all...Yet it pleased God to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief" (Isaiah 53). The tragedies mentioned above are but a few reminders that mankind cannot control his or her destiny. God does. And though calamity is often included in His plan, He has also decreed love to be found only in Christ Jesus. And He demonstrated His love in the crucifixion of His Son.