Divine vessel meaning2/24/2023 ![]() ![]() 24:22, 24, 31 Luke 18:7), and Paul clearly endorses this concept (Rom. Christ speaks of those elected for salvation (Matt. God also elects individuals for salvation. For instance, Jeremiah and Paul were chosen by God to have special missions even before they were formed in their mother’s wombs (Jer. This involves His ability to choose individuals and groups for special purposes in the outworking of this plan. God directs the history of the universe along the course of His foreordained plan. As He says through Isaiah, “To whom can you compare me? Whom do I resemble?" (40:25).īecause of His complete uniqueness and sovereignty, God is able to declare, “Truly I am God, I have no peer I am God, and there is none like me, who announces the end from the beginning and reveals beforehand what has not yet occurred, who says, 'My plan will be realized I will accomplish what I desire ….'’’ (Isa. Nothing can change it, for there is no authority above God. All that God has preplanned is as good as done. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not establish it?” (Num. “God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a human being, that he should repent. “Certainly you must have heard! Long ago I worked it out, in ancient times I planned it and now I am bringing it to pass ” (2 Kings 19:25). The Lord carries out everything exactly as planned. “He does whatever he pleases in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all the ocean depths” (Ps. ![]() “I know that you can do all things no purpose of yours can be thwarted” (Job 42:2 NET Bible). Do the Scriptures really say that man is completely responsible for what he does even though God planned everything that would come to pass? III. We will examine this age-old problem in chapter 5.īut first we need to demonstrate from the Word of God the truth of the two basic propositions in this mystery. It also relates to the problem of evil, that is, how evil could enter the creation without God being responsible for it. For instance, it relates to the issue of election and faith in the doctrine of salvation, as we will see later in this chapter. This mystery manifests itself in different ways. When people face it, they tend to overemphasize one truth (God’s sovereignty) or the other (human responsibility). And they will genuinely affect and modify the rest of his life.īecause this mystery more intimately affects us than most of the others, it is one of the most difficult to accept. These choices are his he cannot blame God for them. But here is where the mystery comes in: even though God is sovereign, man still has real responsibility and freedom in the choices he makes. He actively decreed every detail of this reality, and He is sovereign over all. He both knows everything that has happened and everything that is yet future. God has revealed to us in the Bible that He not only created all things but He also preplanned everything that would happen in His creation. Neither do we need to adopt Tertullian’s position: “I believe it because it is absurd.” Christians should say instead: “I believe it because God says it in the Bible.” II. ![]() Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” 1 “When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. “I dare say you haven’t had much practice,” said the Queen. “There’s no use trying,” she said, “one can’t believe impossible things.” “Try again: draw a long breath, and shut your eyes.”Īlice laughed. ![]() “Can’t you?” the Queen said in a pitying tone. There is no need to abandon rationality for nonsense as the White Queen does in Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass: Thus, when the biblical facts warrant them, we can embrace incomprehensibles in the Bible and relate them to the omniscience and omnipotence of God. In God’s higher rationality, things that we think must be either-or can in reality be both-and. Since His written revelation teaches concepts that appear to be mutually exclusive, we must realize that with God both truths are friends, not enemies. Mysteries are forced upon us by the facts of God’s Word we are not inventing them ourselves. This is a chapter from my book, God, I Don't Understand. ![]()
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