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The Bible contains words like
“foreknowledge,” “predestination,” “election,” and “chosen.” By
God’s use of these words, did He let something slip that would
later become an embarrassment to Him? Should God somehow be
ashamed and humiliated because He has chosen to use these
words? Should He apologize for them? How absurd! God the Holy
Spirit penned these words in the Bible centuries ago and they
mean exactly what God intended for them to mean. Let’s back up
and take a short glimpse into God’s eternal plan of grace.
In the
Beginning God
The whole story begins with God!
In the beginning there was God and God alone.
"Lord, You have been our
dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were
born or You gave birth to the earth and the world, even
from everlasting to everlasting, You are God."
(Psa. 90:1-2)
“Blessed be the LORD, the God
of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. Amen and
Amen.” (Psa. 41:13)
“Blessed be the LORD, the God
of Israel, from everlasting even to everlasting. And
let all the people say, ‘Amen.’ Praise the LORD.” (Psa.
106:48)
Before there was
darkness, there was God! Before there was light, there was God!
Before there were angels, there was God! Before there was
Michael, there was God! Before there was Gabriel, there was God!
Before there were fallen angels, there was God. Before there was
a created universe, there was God! Before anything existed,
there was God and God alone!
God is from
everlasting to everlasting! If one could go back billions and
billions of years, there would be God. If one could go forward
throughout everlasting, there will be God! That means that there
never was a time when God did not exist! He is the self-existent
One. He had no beginning! No one or no thing created Him. God
had no beginning and God will have no end. God did not will
Himself “to be.” He always was what He is now and forever shall
continue to be (Heb. 13:8).
Making His
Glory Known
God brought the cosmos out of
chaos, turned darkness into light, made divisions between them,
transformed cursing into blessing, and moved from what was evil
and darkness to what was holy. But why did God choose to do all
of this? It is His plan to make known the riches of His
glory upon His vessels of mercy that He prepared beforehand
for His glory (Rom. 9:23; Eph. 1:6, 12, 14, Eph. 3:16, Col.
1:27). That’s it! That is God’s stated motive behind all that He
has done, is doing, and will do. This is why Scripture makes
clear that God’s creation and man’s redemption are entirely the
work of God (Eph. 2:8-10; Jn. 1:12-13). God has left nothing
for man to do, and so God alone is to receive all of the
glory.
It was God’s will to create all
things precisely the way that He did in order to place on
display His awesome power and His wisdom.
“Lift up your eyes on high
and see who has created these stars, the One who leads forth
their host by number, He calls them all by name; Because of
the greatness of His might and the strength of His power,
not one of them is missing.” (Isa. 40:26)
“For since the creation of
the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and
divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood
through what has been made, so that they are without
excuse.” (Rom. 1:18)
“It is He who made the earth
by His power, Who established the world by His wisdom, and
by His understanding He stretched out the heavens.” (Jer.
51:15)
God alone determined when and how
life would be formed, and He has reserved for Himself the right
to determine exactly how it will be used.
“You are worthy, O Lord, to
receive glory and honor and power; for You created all
things, and by Your will they exist and were created.”
(Rev. 4:11)
"I have made the earth, the
men and the beasts which are on the face of the earth by My
great power and by My outstretched arm, and I will give it
to the one who is pleasing in My sight." (Jer. 27:5)
God alone made all of these
creative decisions before there was anything that is. He is the
ultimate Executive! He is the ultimate genius! He did not
consult anyone or anything. He did it all according to His plan
and by means of His power.
"For from Him and through Him
and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory
forever. Amen" (Rom. 11:36)
Vessels of Mercy
It was God’s choice to create man
in His image and for man to rule over His creation.
“Then God said, ‘Let Us make
man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them
rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky
and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every
creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’ God created man in
His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and
female He created them. God blessed them; and God said to
them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and
subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the
birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on
the earth.’” (Gen. 1:26-28)
It was God’s will that man be
tested in the Garden of Eden (Gen. 2:17-18). It was also within
the confines of God’s will to allow man to plunge himself into
the slave market of sin. Are we to believe that the sin of Adam
took God by surprise? God clearly permitted the fall in order to
make known the exceeding riches of His glory through the
immeasurable riches of Christ (Rom. 9:22).
It was God’s predetermined plan
that the Lord Jesus Christ take on human flesh in order to
redeem man from the slave-market of sin. The worth and work of
Jesus Christ is obviously the crown jewel in God’s glorious
plan. God always knew that there was going to be a slave market!
He knew because He foreordained the work of the Savior before He
made the world.
“For He (speaking of Jesus
Christ) was foreknown before the foundation of the world,
but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you.”
(1 Pet. 1:20)
Listen to these searching words
of Jesus Christ!
“Father, I desire that they
also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so
that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for
You loved Me before the foundation of the world.” (Jn.
17:24)
Dr. Lewis Sperry Chafer, the
founder of Dallas Theological Seminary, stated:
“It will be remembered that
God ordained a Lamb before the foundation of the world and
that Lamb was to be slain at God’s appointed time and way.
By so much it is made clear that God anticipated the sin of
man and his great need of redemption. God, however, told
Adam not to sin, yet if Adam had not sinned there would have
been no need of redemption which God had before determined
as something to be wrought out. Was God uncertain whether He
would save life on earth until Noah consented to build an
ark? Was the nation Israel a matter of divine doubt until
Abraham manifested his willingness to walk before God? Was
the birth of Christ dubiety until Mary assented to the
divine plan respecting the virgin birth? Was the death of
Christ in danger of being proved untrue until Pilate made
his decision regarding that death? Could God promise a
kingdom on the earth knowing and so planning that it would
be rejected in the first advent but in sincerity knowing and
determining that it would not be established until the
Second Advent?” (. S. Chafer Systematic Theology
(Dallas Seminary Press, 1947), 5:347-34.
It was God’s predetermined will
that Christ die! It was not mere chance that our Lord died when
He did, where He did, and exactly how He did.
“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)
It was also God’s will that His
vessels of mercy receive an eternal inheritance. God chose to
reveal the riches of His glory to vessels of mercy. He purposed
all of this after the council of His will.
“In Him also we have obtained
an inheritance, having been predestined according to His
purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will,
to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ
would be to the praise of His glory.” (Eph. 1:11-12)
God alone will accomplish that
which He has purposed. And God alone is to receive all the
praise and all the glory for the way in which He has chosen to
do it.
“Yours, O
LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the
victory and the majesty, indeed everything that is in the
heavens and the earth; Yours is the dominion, O LORD, and
You exalt Yourself as head over all. “Both riches and honor
come from You, and You rule over all, and in Your hand is
power and might; and it lies in Your hand to make great and
to strengthen everyone. Now therefore, our God, we thank
You, and praise Your glorious name.” (1 Chron. 29:11-13)
Sources
New American Standard Bible
Chafer’s Systematic Theology
New Commentary on the Whole Bible; Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown
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