When Sovereignty Is Tested by Lawlessness in the Church
Patience, Discipline, and the Cost of Waiting on God’s Work
Belief in God’s sovereignty is rarely tested first by abstract questions of election. For many, the strain comes later, when prolonged exposure to unrepentant sin within the visible church collides with the promises of Scripture. It is one thing to confess that God rules all things. It is another to watch His people ignore plain commands, abandon discipline, and treat covenant faithfulness as a threat rather than a gift.
I have defended the doctrines of sovereign grace for years without hesitation. I have never doubted that God reigns, that He saves whom He wills, or that His purposes cannot fail. Yet there was a season when belief in those truths did not spare me from anger, grief, and rebellion. That season exposed how deeply trust in God’s sovereignty is tested when His people refuse obedience.
This tension arises in real shepherding and covenant faithfulness, where the cost is personal.
The Promise of a New Heart and the Weight of Time
Ezekiel 36:26–27 stands as one of the clearest promises in all of Scripture.
“Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to do My judgments.”
This promise leaves no room for uncertainty about God’s intent. He causes obedience. He does not merely invite it. He does not wait helplessly for cooperation. He acts. Yet the same promise assumes process, discipline, and time. God’s work unfolds through means, often slow and painful ones, rather than through immediate visible transformation.
That distinction matters when obedience seems absent, when discipline is neglected, and when lawlessness persists among those who confess Christ. The promise remains certain. The pathway often involves suffering.
When Lawlessness in the Church Provokes Anger
Around 2019, I entered a dark season. The anger that surfaced was not rooted in disbelief in God’s authority. It grew from grief over His people’s refusal to obey Him. Commands were clear. Discipline was commanded. Repentance was named in Scripture and dismissed in practice. Faithfulness was treated as rigidity. Correction was labeled unloving.
Over time, anger hardened. I watched sin ignored, families wounded, and leaders refuse accountability while demanding submission. The absence of discipline was experienced in real life. Matthew 18 was sidelined. First Corinthians 5 was treated as extreme. Hebrews 12 was preached as metaphor rather than mandate. The letters of Revelation 2 and 3 were treated as records of past failures, not as covenant warnings that still stand over Christ’s church.
That anger turned inward. I rebelled. Not against God’s sovereignty, but against His timing and His methods. I did not excuse my sin then, and I do not excuse it now. Rebellion is rebellion, even when it grows out of grief. I sinned plainly, and I own it without qualification.
God did not abandon me in that season. He corrected me. He disciplined me. He exposed the pride that had confused zeal with control and faithfulness with impatience. He restored me, not by validating my anger, but by humbling it.
Suffering, Isolation, and the Silence of the Church
That season was marked by real suffering. Loss compounded isolation. Meaningful church support was materially absent and plainly felt. When discipline collapses, shepherding collapses with it. People fall through cracks that should not exist.
Suffering sharpened the tension. I believed God governed all things. I also watched unchecked sin produce harm without consequence. The contradiction felt unbearable at times. I wanted resolution. I wanted visible justice. I wanted God to act in ways that aligned with my sense of urgency.
He did not.
Instead, He taught me patience that did not excuse sin and discipline that did not seize control. Scripture binds both together. Righteous correction belongs to God’s design. So does waiting on His hand. Impatience is not faithfulness, even when the cause is just.
Discipline, Patience, and Obedience
Scripture never presents discipline as optional. Matthew 18 establishes it as obedience. First Corinthians 5 shows its necessity. Hebrews 12 reveals its love. Revelation 2 and 3 demonstrate Christ’s active judgment among His churches.
Scripture also never authorizes forcing outcomes that belong to God. Discipline is obedience. Patience is obedience. Both are governed by God’s Word rather than by emotion or frustration. The temptation to demand immediate results reveals a lingering desire for control rather than trust.
God used that season to deepen my understanding of human depravity, especially within the visible church. That knowledge does not produce confidence or superiority. It weighs heavily. It tempers expectations. It removes illusions about quick reform and easy faithfulness.
Sovereignty Tested and Refined
That season deepened my understanding of God’s sovereignty and clarified how it works through correction and patience. I learned that trusting God includes trusting His discipline of His people, His discipline of me, and His refusal to operate on my timetable. Ezekiel’s promise remains true. God causes obedience. He does so through means that expose sin, humble pride, and stretch faith beyond comfort.
The church’s failure to discipline is a covenant failure. It does not merely reflect weakness in leadership or poor judgment. It contradicts Christ’s explicit commands and leaves His people exposed, confused, and unguarded. When discipline disappears, sin gains room to breathe, victims are left without protection, and repentance is treated as optional rather than necessary.
This failure tests belief in sovereignty precisely because it tempts the faithful to conclude that obedience does not matter or that God is indifferent to His own standards. Scripture teaches neither. Christ walks among the lampstands. He rebukes churches. He removes them when they refuse to repent. Revelation 2 and 3 reveal the Lord exercising present authority through warning, correction, and discipline over His people.
God’s sovereignty establishes accountability and judges lawlessness.
That truth reoriented my anger. I learned that outrage over sin must be governed by obedience just as surely as mercy must be governed by truth. God does not call His people to silence, nor does He authorize them to seize control of outcomes that belong to Him alone. He commands correction according to His Word and patience according to His providence.
Ezekiel’s promise remains unbroken. God gives new hearts. God causes obedience. He does so through time, suffering, discipline, and means that expose what cannot be healed by denial. Delayed obedience reflects the unfolding work of God’s promise rather than its collapse.
The visible church will continue to test belief in God’s sovereignty because it continues to reveal the depth of human depravity. That exposure serves to humble. It strips away naive expectations. It presses believers to trust God’s rule without demanding immediate vindication.
I no longer assume that zeal proves faithfulness. I no longer confuse urgency with righteousness. God corrected me by teaching that patience belongs to obedience and discipline belongs to love. Both are acts of obedience when governed by Scripture.
God confronted my rebellion and brought it to repentance. He refined my anger into obedience. And He did not abandon His church, even when its failures cut deeply.
Sovereign grace remains certain. Obedience remains commanded. Discipline remains necessary. And God remains faithful to accomplish what He has promised, even when the path exposes more sin than success.
That is where faith learns to bow.