'Legal Rights'

.... The concept of ‘legal rights’ has received wide acclaim in many sectors of the church today. It views the creation as a judicially governed system in which all players must play by the same rules in order to gain access to, and operate in, the ‘earth realm’. The popularity of this doctrine is surprising since such a concept is never mentioned in the Scriptures at all. But it becomes outright troubling when applied to God Himself as a limitation. Let’s think about the ramifications of this belief: .... If there is some sort of ‘law’ or legal framework that even God must answer to, then that law is more of an absolute than He is. It controls His conduct. It tells Him what He can and cannot do. It may even thwart His intentions and constrain His will and power. Basically, it overrules Him. And it means that in some key way, God Himself is ‘under the law’.

.... "Who has assigned Him His way, or who has said, 'You have done wrong'?"

(Job 36:23)

.... The same verse poses another, far more serious question. Who would have given God such a law? For that law-giving entity would be even higher than He is. So a belief of this nature challenges the very essence of what makes Him God. .... But in fact, God would never operate through the constraints of such a judicial system, nor has He ever:

.... "Whatever the LORD pleases He does, in heaven and in earth, in the seas and in all deep places."

(Ps 135:6)

.... "Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done, saying, 'My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure’."

(Is 46:10)

.... ‘All the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing; He does according to His will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth. No one can restrain His hand or say to Him, "What have You done?"’

(Dan 4:35)

.... ‘And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth".’

(Matt 28:18)

.... Furthermore, Satan himself is referred to as being ‘lawless’ and his operations as ‘lawlessness’ (2 Thes 2:7-9). Neither would he have regard for such an abstract system of ‘legal rights,’ for he would disregard them. That’s the essence of what makes him the devil. He is constrained, instead, by the limits that God allows him, as in the case of Job.

. .... In other words, God is always Sovereign, and He can do whatever He likes, anywhere and any time He likes, and there is no consideration, ever, that can restrain Him.

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