Why I'm Tapping the Brakes on Molinism--and Potentially Changing Lanes

 Regular readers of my blog (I think there are two of you, so I’ll use the plural) will remember that in the past, I have voiced support for the theological system of Molinism (if you missed that post, you can read it here). I’ve even encouraged you to check it out further, and perhaps you have. Recently, I have been reassessing Molinism in my continuing studies, particularly in light of a philosophical framework known as Thomism, named for the 13^th-century theologian Thomas Aquinas. Allow me to relate a bit of personal history regarding my studies to introduce you to my current concerns about Molinism.

 Why I’ve appreciated Molinism

From my generally Calvinistic upbringing, I’ve always had a non-negotiable commitment to the sovereignty of God. God is in charge, and He is unfailingly causing His plan for this world to come to pass. Yet like all but the most rabid of Calvinists, I’ve struggled to reconcile this belief with man’s responsibility to accept the Gospel to be saved.

 Enter Molinism with its proposal of a solution to this quandary. I became a student of Molinism through my studies in apologetics at Biola University, an institution where evangelical Molinist philosopher William Lane Craig casts a considerably long shadow. My deepest appreciation for Molinism actually came through the application that Kenneth Keathley made of its concepts to the questions debated by Calvinists and Arminians. His book Salvation and Sovereignty remains a favorite of mine among studies of the doctrine of salvation.

Why I’m reassessing Molinism

In my continuing studies, I’ve felt that a stronger grasp of philosophy has been the missing piece in my overall education. To fill this gap and to continue to push myself to learn, I enrolled in the Doctor of Ministry program at Southern Evangelical Seminary in 2020. I was very intrigued by the seminary’s integration of Dispensational theology, Classical philosophy, and Classical apologetics—all inspired by the work of the seminary’s founder, Norman Geisler.

 In his voluminous works, Geisler championed an evangelical version of the philosophy of Thomas Aquinas, particularly with respect to Aquinas’ teachings on the three Classical branches of philosophy—metaphysics (the study of being), epistemology (the study of how we know), and ethics (the study of how we ought to live in light of what we know of being). Being an evangelical, Geisler obviously disagreed with Aquinas’ broader theology but nevertheless felt that his views on Theology Proper and questions of being and knowing have much to offer evangelicals, since Aquinas’ views were arguably just a summation of Christian teaching on those matters up until his time.

I am very intrigued by the philosophical tools and ideas of Thomism because of what they claim to provide. Thomists claim that their system can provide at least the following three benefits, all of which are very desirable in my opinion:

             1. A philosophical framework to undergird the traditional view of God’s attributes

            In various ways, attributes such as God’s omniscience, timelessness, immutability, and others have been modified or outright denied by theologians in recent decades. The result is a portrayal of God that is quite different from the historic Christian tradition. Thomism provides an understanding of metaphysics that serves as a solid foundation on which to build a theological and biblical case for the traditional understanding of God’s being—provided that Thomism’s central claims are true, and I increasingly think that they are.

            2. A philosophy to support the claim that we really do have direct access to reality

            Philosophy since the time of Rene Descartes has spawned no end of nonsense. With what has been called “the epistemic turn,” philosophy has been chasing its tail, seeking to answer the question, “How can we know that we know?” The basic answer has been that we really can’t know anything for sure except our own thoughts; thus we really have no guarantee that those thoughts correspond to the way the world really is. But Thomism boldly asserts that we really do have direct access to reality. Its approach—known as moderate realism—begins with the assertion that we possess knowledge because it’s simply undeniable that we do! Thomism keeps philosophical study in the proper order—examine reality first (metaphysics), then assess how we have come to know it in order to discover how we might know other things (epistemology).

             3. It defends the claim that we can have an objective interpretation of the Bible

            Vast swaths of Christianity today are plagued by subjectivity. The subjective question “What do these verses mean to you?” has supplanted the objective question “What do these verses mean?” Though very few would know it, this situation is a direct consequence of the epistemic turn in philosophy. Thomism, through its claim about reality mentioned above, truly does seem to deliver the philosophical goods that are necessary to make people confident once again that objectivity in biblical interpretation really is possible.

Molinism in light of Thomism

But here’s the rub for my theology—Molinism and Thomism really do seem to have a conflict at a few points. Though these points are admittedly among the finest of the finer points of theology, if a person is going to speak on such points, then he must strive for truth in any statement that he speaks and for consistency with all other statements that he may speak. In that light, I want my theology to be accurate and consistent, so I’m reassessing Molinism right now on the following points:

             1. The doctrine of divine simplicity

            The doctrine of divine simplicity is central to Thomism. In fact, in Aquinas’ magnum opus, the Summa Theologiae, divine simplicity is the first attribute that Thomas seeks to prove after proving the existence of God. Contemporary Reformed Baptist theologian James Dolezal has described this doctrine about as succinctly (and clearly!) as anyone can:

The principal claim of divine simplicity is that God is not composed of parts. Whatever is composed of parts depends upon its parts in order to be as it is. A part is anything in a subject that is less than the whole and without which the subject would be really different than it is. In short, composite beings need their parts in order to exist as they do. Moreover, the parts in an integrated whole require a composer distinct from themselves to unify them, an extrinsic source of unity. If God should be composed of parts—of components that were prior to Him in being—He would be doubly dependent: first, on the parts, and second, on the composer of the parts. But God is absolute in being, alone the sufficient reason for Himself and all other things, and so cannot in any respect derive His being from another. Because God cannot depend on what is not God in order to be God, theologians traditionally insist that all that is in God is God (James E. Dolezal, All That Is in God, 40-41).

            To understand this a bit more clearly, think of what we mean when we ascribe goodness to a person. When you say “George is good,” if you really think about it, you can see that you’re really talking about two different things: George, on the one hand, and goodness on the other. You know this because you know that George could possibly be evil rather than good. Since George and goodness can exist separately like this, you know that you’re talking about two different things.

            But we encounter something different when we say “God is good.” In this case, we’re really not talking about two different things, as if God could possibly be evil rather than good. In the case of God, what we’re really saying is that God just is goodness. Goodness isn’t a quality that is in addition to what God is; goodness just is what He is. And when you ponder it further, we would say the same thing about God’s other attributes—they just are what God is, leading us to conclude that these attributes are not separate “parts” within God’s being. That is the meaning of Dolezal’s last statement that “all that is in God is God.”

            The more I understand it, the more I wish to affirm God’s simplicity, yet Molinism seems to run afoul of this doctrine. In positing three logical moments or stages within God’s knowledge—one stage of which does not result until after an act of God’s will—Molinism seems to create too sharp of a division between God’s knowledge and His will. It seems to treat these attributes as though one can be active without the other. In the light of divine simplicity, it seems better to say, as Geisler does in his book Chosen But Free, that God’s knowing and willing are simultaneous, eternal, and coordinate acts of God (see pp. 52-53 of the second edition).

             2. The notion of passive potency in God

            Thomism relies on the metaphysical insights of the Greek philosopher Aristotle. In fact, Thomas was the first theologian of any consequence who was able to “compare notes” with Aristotle after the latter’s works were rediscovered in the Middle Ages. Thomas, like Aristotle before him, argued that all of existence can be summed up in two categories—act and potency, or in other words, that which actually is existing and that which potentially could exist. God, says Thomas, is pure act—every facet of His being has always actually existed; no facet of God was ever made to exist, or in other words, caused to move from being merely potential to be actual. Something that is made actual by another is said to have “passive potency.”

            With its postulate of three logical moments in God’s knowledge, Molinism seems to say that God has passive potency. This observation seems especially true of God’s middle knowledge, which is said to be caused by the future free choices of God’s creatures. Should this be equated with passive potency? Craig apparently wants to avoid such a notion by arguing for a conceptualist model of divine knowledge, which he explains as follows:

On a conceptualist model of divine knowledge, God does not acquire his knowledge of the world by anything like perception. His knowledge of the future is not based on his “looking” ahead and “seeing” what lies in the future (a terribly anthropomorphic notion in any case). Rather, God’s knowledge is self-contained; it is more like a mind’s knowledge of innate ideas. As an omniscient being, God has essentially the property of knowing all truths; there are truths about future events; thus, God knows all truths concerning future events (Craig, “The Middle-Knowledge View,” in Divine Foreknowledge: Four Views, eds. Bielby and Eddy, p. 133).

            That explanation seems like it could avoid the charge of ascribing passive potency to God, yet in other works such as his podcasts, Craig is very comfortable saying that for any choice I make, God’s knowledge would have been different if I had in fact made a different choice. That admission sure smells like passive potency, making it problematic from a Thomistic point of view.

             3. The grounding objection

            I should say just a brief word about the grounding objection, since many of Molinism’s opponents consider it to be the fatal flaw in the system. Simply put, the grounding objection deals with the question, “What makes statements about the future true or false?” I had heard about the grounding objection before and had more or less rested in the reassurances of Molinists that it wasn’t really a problem. Having examined it a bit more at this point, I must say that it appears to be more of a problem than I acknowledged before. In particular, Molinism would perhaps put pressure on us to abandon the correspondence theory of truth (meaning that statements are true if they correspond to the way things really are), which would simply be a bridge too far for me.

            It is also worth noting that Thomas argued by means of God’s eternality that He does know the truth about statements concerning what is still future to us because they are not future to Him (see Summa Contra Gentiles, Book One, Chapter 67). So Thomism certainly does have a way of explaining how God can know the truth about the future.

Contemplating a Change

Well, if you’ve made it with me this far, I don’t know whether to congratulate you or encourage you to find a hobby to better fill your time! Really though, if you’ve made it this far, I suspect you’re like me and you find value in thinking deeply about theology. Now that we’ve thought deeply about it, I’ll reiterate that I’m considering an embrace of Thomism. To be candid, some of these ideas from Thomism have only become clear to me in the last 15 weeks, so I still need some time to ponder it all. But having read this, I suspect that you won’t be caught off guard if you see me changing lanes.

Are you dissatisfied with both Calvinism and Arminianism? There's another option you should consider...

            For roughly the last 400 years, Protestants seeking a systematic understanding of the doctrine of salvation have basically had their pick of two options—Calvinism and Arminianism. This dilemma has often been unsatisfactory to all but the most dyed-in-the-wool adherents of each system because no matter which system you chose, you would eventually run across passages of Scripture that your system didn’t explain very well. Despite that fact, we’ve felt like we’ve basically just had to pick one or the other and live with its flaws because there didn’t seem to be any other options.

            Could it be that we’ve been caught on the horns of a false dilemma? Is there actually another option to consider—one that can capture the stronger points of Calvinism and Arminianism in a biblically accurate, logically coherent way? I have come to believe that there is, and it is a system known as Molinism.

            Molinism takes its name from the 15th-century Jesuit priest, Luis de Molina. Yes, that’s right—the way through this Protestant impasse may be to rediscover the thinking of a Jesuit priest! The Protestant version of Molinism—to no one’s surprise!—does not embrace every detail of Molina’s theology. It is built upon his unique contribution to the concept of God’s omniscience—namely, the doctrine of middle knowledge. This doctrine asserts that before God ever chose to create this world, He already possessed an accurate and certain knowledge of every decision that every free creature would make in any given circumstance. Molina further asserted that God possessed this knowledge NOT through any process of learning, but simply on the basis of His complete knowledge of His own imagination. Since we are products of God’s imagination, He could know us completely without having to “wait and see” what we would choose, so to speak.

            As you can see, the doctrine of middle knowledge is built upon a prior commitment to the idea that humans possess libertarian human freedom—or in other words, the power of contrary choice. These phrases simply mean that for any choice you make, you could have made a different choice than you actually made. For example, when you made the choice to wear the shirt that you’re wearing today, you could have actually chosen the other shirt that you were also considering. Libertarian human freedom stands at odds with theological determinism (or compatibilism), which asserts that God has ordered all things in such a way that for any choice you make, you could not have made a different choice than you actually made. Theological determinism is the position of logically-consistent Calvinists. I say “logically-consistent” because your average Calvinist in the pulpit or the pew is very inconsistent in his philosophical beliefs. He appreciates Calvinist perspectives on ideas like eternal security and election (as do I), but he would shy away from the full implications of Calvinism’s denial of libertarian human freedom. Yet he does this without realizing he is straining the bonds of logic.

            But let’s get back to Molinism! While Molinism embraces libertarian human freedom, it does not sacrifice a strong view of God’s sovereignty. It affirms that God is in control over all things—even the free choices of humans! This union explains why I’ve come to think Molinism has such promise—it logically and biblically unites libertarian human freedom with a strong view of God’s sovereignty. According to philosopher William Hasker, “If you are committed to a strong view of providence, according to which, down to the smallest detail, things are as they are because God knowingly decided to create such a world, and yet you also wish to maintain a libertarian conception of free will—if this is what you want, then Molinism is the only game in town.” This is precisely what many Christians want after carefully reading the Bible. It seems obvious that God is in control of all things AND that humans make real choices which they could have decided differently. Molinism helps us understand logically the conclusions that so many people have reached biblically.

            Since you might now begin to Google “Molinism,” let me just say that I don’t agree with everything that is promoted under this banner. If you are interested in studying Molinism further, I would recommend Kenneth Keathley’s book Salvation and Sovereignty as a great starting point. If you have mostly understood what I’ve written in this blog post, then you will be able to track with Keathley’s book. Plus, his book is a book, so he goes into more detail to explain ideas than I have in just this one blog post. I may write some additional posts on this topic, but if this post has already piqued your curiosity, you would do well to read Keathley’s book.

How Do We Get to Know God?--Life with God Series

            A few days ago, my family and I were at home, being silly, and my daughter piped up and said, “Take a video and post it on Facebook!” For some reason, I was totally taken aback by her statement. It dawned on me that when I was her age, it wasn’t even possible to make that statement! Internet access at home was still about a dozen years away, and Facebook was even farther still.

            But today, we live in a world where communication is dominated by technology. Many people wonder how well our face-to-face communication skills are going to survive. That’s an important question, because while it can be very convenient to communicate through technology, there’s no good substitute for face-to-face communication.

            We understand this well in our relationships. FaceTime and Skype are great for what they’re worth, but you just can’t beat being in the same room with someone you love. Consistent face-to-face communication really helps a relationship grow deeper.

            This fact presents a bit of a challenge for us, however, when we start talking about having a relationship with God, because we can’t communicate with God face-to-face today. Even though we would love to, we can’t sit down across the table from the Lord and enjoy a cup of coffee together. We cannot choose to visit Heaven and see Him there. So how do we get to know God?

How do we get to know God?

            Since we don’t have the same kind of interaction with God that we do with human beings, God has revealed himself or made himself known in a variety of ways so that we can get to know him. The universe that he created gives us a glimpse of his power and wisdom. The way that he gives all people certain good and necessary things like sunshine and rain testifies to his kindness and love. At times, he has communicated with us through messengers like angels and prophets. But above all, God made himself known to us by sending his own Son, the Lord Jesus, to be a flesh-and-blood example or demonstration of what he is like. So more than anything else…

We get to know God by getting to know Jesus.

            Let me show you how a few passages lay out this truth for us. In John 1 for example, we read in verse one about a divine person whom John simply calls “the Word.” He writes, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Down in verse 14 then, we read something fascinating about this divine person: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

            Now since we’re familiar with the rest of the story, we know now that the Word is none other than Jesus Christ. But notice what John goes on to say about him in verse 18: “No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father side, he has made him known.” This verse gets us into some of the deep waters of the Trinity, but notice that the emphasis here is that although we cannot see God ourselves, Jesus has made him known to us. Jesus was a visible display of the nature of God here on Earth.

            The author of Hebrews makes a similar point in the opening verses of that letter [READ vv. 1-2]. Then in verse three, the author gives us two word pictures to show us how Jesus was the visible display of the nature of God here on earth. First, he wrote that Jesus “is the radiance of the glory of God.” For a bit of a modern-day explanation of this word picture, think about the way that we see the sun with our eyes here on Earth. Space travel and technology have allowed us to get pictures of the surface of the sun from outer space, but of course, those images are not what we see with our own eyes here on the ground. We see the rays of light that have come out from the surface of the sun. The dazzling rays are what the sun looks like on earth. In the same way, Jesus is what God looked like on earth. He was the visible display of something that we could not see with our own eyes.

            Second, the author goes on to write that Jesus is “the exact imprint of his nature.” In our area, many of us have had the experience of branding cattle. I had that experience once with my father-in-law, and let me tell you – I never knew that cows could make noises like that until I got to help with branding them!

            When you brand a cow, the imprint that ends up on its hide is the same pattern or design that’s on the end of your branding iron. It’s the very same pattern, now imprinted on that cow’s flesh. In the same way, Jesus is the imprint of divinity into a human life. So Jesus displayed what God is like in a way that we could see it – by observing a human life.

            Now at this point, we run into another difficulty in knowing God, because as we all know Jesus is no longer on this Earth in the flesh. He has gone to heaven for the time being, until he returns. So if we get to know God by getting to know Jesus, how do we get to know Jesus even though he is not right now here with us in the flesh?

How do we get to know Jesus?

            Fortunately for us, we have the Bible, which is a record of his actions and teachings and descriptions about him. And it’s not just the Gospels that serve this purpose, even though they focus on the life of Christ. The entire Bible – from Genesis to Revelation – teaches us about Jesus. In the Old Testament, it is by way of introduction; in the New Testament, it is by way of description and explanation. Let’s unpack that statement just a bit.

The Old Testament is a grand introduction to Jesus, which is still valuable today!

            When you’re getting to know someone, especially in the early stages, is very helpful to have some introductory information about them. When you meet someone, if you already know that they’re a member of the Jones family or the Smith family, it gives you a head start for getting to know them.

            The Old Testament gives us all kinds of wonderful information about what Jesus would be like when he came to the Earth and what purpose he would serve by coming. Jesus himself illustrated this when he encountered two of his disciples very soon after his resurrection. He could tell they were having a very difficult time understanding what had happened, and in Luke 24:25-26, he said to them “Oh foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” Then Luke adds in verse 27, “And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.”

            Now, Moses wrote the first books of the Old Testament, and the books of the prophets come toward the end. So from the beginning of the Old Testament to the end of it, there are lessons to be learned about Jesus. These lessons are still highly relevant for us today!

The New Testament is a record of the actions and teachings of Jesus, as well as the teachings He communicated through His followers.

            You know that the four Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John record the actions and teachings of Jesus. But the other books of the New Testament are no less teachings of Jesus even though they have come to us through his human followers.

            On the night before Jesus was crucified, he explained to his disciples that he was going to continue to give them his teachings even though he would no longer be with them in the flesh. How would this happen? Well, in John 14:25-26, Jesus said, “These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.” So the Holy Spirit would be a “stand-in” for Jesus, we might say, and He would continue to give them the teachings of Jesus.

            We see this same thought again in John 16:12—“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.”

            So as Peter and James and John and Paul wrote their letters, they were communicating the teachings of Jesus that had been given to them through the Holy Spirit. So from beginning to end, the whole of the New Testament is a record of the teachings of Jesus. As we read it, we get to know his thoughts, and we learn what he values and what he despises.

So we get to know God by getting to know Jesus, and we get to know Jesus by reading about his actions and his own teachings that are recorded for us in the Bible. But there is one final factor in all of this that we need to take to heart…

As we read, we must be willing to embrace the message to properly understand it!

            When you talk with other people and you’re sharing opinions back and forth, there are times when you can tell that another person really isn’t interested in hearing what you have to say. They might let you speak your peace, but you can tell they already have their mind made up and they’re not interested in giving you a fair hearing.

            It is entirely possible for us to read the Bible with that same attitude – and many people do! They’re perfectly happy to read the Bible, but they really don’t give it a fair hearing. They already have their minds made up about what they think is true and false or right and wrong. So when they read something in the Bible that disagrees with their own thoughts, they simply say, “Well now, I don’t think God would really say that, so this part must simply be the human author’s own opinion.”

            Biblical teaching is frequently dismissed in this way when we use our own thoughts to edit the Bible rather than allow the Bible to judge and correct our thoughts. To get to know God through the Bible we must be willing to embrace the Bible’s teaching whatever it may be! Yes, we must study carefully to gain an accurate understanding of the Bible’s message, but our attitude should be the same as little Samuel in the Old Testament when God was trying to talk to him. Whenever we open this holy book, our declaration must be, “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening!”

            In John 7, some of the Jewish people were amazed at the wisdom of Jesus’ teachings because they knew he had not been to one of their “Ivy League” institutions, so to speak. Jesus said to them in verse 16, “My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me. If anyone’s will is to do God’s will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority.”

            Unless we are willing to do God’s will, we will never understand it, and thus we will never understand God. So as we seek to get to know God by getting to know Jesus through the Bible, we must be willing to embrace what it says – not force it to say what we want it to say. Only then will we gain an accurate understanding of what God is like, and thus have a better relationship with him.

           

The Trinity--Definite Convictions Series

            There are many things in life that we don’t totally understand and can’t totally explain, but we know they’re very important—things like:

·         What your health insurance covers

·         How your retirement plan works

            For most Christians, the doctrine of the Trinity falls into a category like this. We barely have the foggiest idea of how to explain it, but we know it’s very important, and we know we’re supposed to believe it, so we do. Today, I hope I can take a bit of the mystery out of this doctrine for you as we look at the second section of our statement of faith, which says this:

We believe in the eternal Triune God; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, each Person being equal, yet there not being three gods, but One. (Gen 1:26a; John 10:30; John 1:1,2; John 14:16; Deut 6:4; John 15:26; 2 Cor 13:14; Acts 5:3,4)

            Before we look at a couple of the specific words of this statement, let’s make sure we have a basic idea of what we’re actually claiming when we say that God is a Trinity. One of the best ways to clarify this claim is by comparison. For example, consider me—I am one being with one mind. I am not two beings or three beings—there is only one of me (even when I wish I could be in two places at one time!). Also, there is only one thinking part to me, not multiple thinking parts.

            In contrast to this, when we say God is a Trinity, we’re saying that God is one being with three minds. God is only one existing thing, but within that one existing thing there are three minds—or three persons we could say, these three persons who refer to themselves as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

            As Christians, we make this claim because it’s the only way to make sense of everything that the Bible says about God. The Bible is quite clear that there is only one God—not many gods or several gods, but one God. In Deuteronomy 6:4, Moses states, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.” God Himself declared this in Isaiah 44:6 and 8: “I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god… Is there a God besides me? There is no Rock; I know not any.”

            And yet the Bible also assigns the same divine powers and honor to three distinct Persons—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Each of them is called “God” in different passages, and they are consistently given the same honor, yet we know they’re distinct because we also read about them communicating with each other and performing different actions at the same moment in time.

            So when we put all of this together, we come up with the doctrine of the Trinity—that God is only one being, within which there are three distinct minds. Now some people have said that this claim is just a bunch of nonsense. Muslims, Mormons, and Jehovah’s Witnesses have all said that its impossible for God to be one being with three minds because that statement is self-contradictory, they say.

            But in reality, that accusation simply is not true. A truly self-contradictory statement would be something like, “George is a married bachelor.” That’s a contradiction because a bachelor, by definition, is not married.

            But you can probably see that the claim that God is one being with three minds simply is not like that statement about George. It’s true that we can’t understand completely what God must be like, but that’s no reason to say that it’s impossible for God to be one being with three minds.

“eternal”

            Let’s take a closer look now at just a couple of the words in our statement of faith. First, our statement correctly says that the Trinity is eternal. Each of the three divine Persons has always existed. There was never a time when only the Father existed, then the Son came along later on, then the Holy Spirit after that. No—each of them has always existed.

“each Person being equal”

            Next, notice how our statement says, “each Person being equal.” There is a true equality between the three divine Persons even though they have played different roles in their interactions with Creation. For example, it wasn’t the Holy Spirit who was born into the world as Jesus, it was the Son. And it wasn’t the Father who then came to live within us, it was the Holy Spirit. But nevertheless, they all have the same traits and abilities, and they are all equally worthy of our worship.

Monday Matters

            Once again now in this series, we need to talk about how this doctrine relates to the matters that concern us in daily life. It can be very tempting for us to think that the doctrine of the Trinity has very little relevance to our daily troubles. Sure, we understand that faith in God and obedience to Christ are very important, but why does it matter if we know that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are all equally divine? Let me briefly point out two ways in which this doctrine is important and relevant for us.

1. The Savior who died for me was nothing less than fully divine.

            The doctrine of the Trinity teaches us that Jesus – God the Son in human flesh – was equally divine with God the Father and the Holy Spirit. He was not on some kind of lower-level – he was fully divine, and so we don’t need to doubt if his sacrifice is truly able to save us.

            This truth is highly relevant to our daily lives. Once we come to acknowledge that we have sinned against God, all of life becomes burdensome and meaningless until we come to know that we have found forgiveness. If Jesus were on some lower level than God, then there might always be some room for us to doubt whether his sacrifice was truly enough to save us. But since he was fully divine, that fact should silence any concerns that we might have about whether his sacrifice was truly enough. The knowledge that Jesus is God is part of the knowledge that can put to rest our troubled consciences and satisfy the intense longing that we have to know we are forgiven.

2. The Holy Spirit who now lives within me is fully divine.

            The New Testament teaches this great truth that the Holy Spirit now lives within every child of God. He does so much to teach us and guide us and comfort us and reassure our hearts, and the doctrine of the Trinity reminds us that all of these things are done for us by someone who is no less than fully divine.

            And so, as we learn more about all that the Holy Spirit does for us, we don’t have to have any doubts about his ability to actually accomplish those things. Can he truly transform me from the inside out? Yes he can! Can he help me so that I no longer fulfill the sinful desires inside my heart? Yes he can! He has nothing less than divine power to transform our lives, so we can have total confidence in his abilities.

            Though the doctrine of the Trinity will always remain a bit mysterious to us, the basic claim of this doctrine is not difficult to understand, and this doctrine also gives us great confidence in the things that God has and will accomplish for us. This doctrine reminds us that God is truly unique – He is unlike any other being that we know. He truly is in a class by himself – God in three persons, the blessed Trinity!

God's Pervasive Presence--Attributes of God Series

            1 Kings 20 records the details of a war between the people of Israel and their northern neighbors, the Syrians. The children of Israel were victorious in the first battle, much to the dismay of the Syrians, and later on, as the Syrian leaders gathered for coffee at the local café, they tried to figure out why they had lost. One of the leaders said, “Aha! Why didn’t we think of this before? They beat us because they had home-field advantage! Their god must be a god of the hills, so next time let’s fight them down in the plains, and our gods will give us the victory.”

            After that conversation, the Lord sent a prophet to the king of Israel, who said, “Because the Syrians think I’m only the god of the hills and not the god of the plains, I’m going to give them all into your hand.” In that moment, God wanted to make a crystal-clear distinction between himself and the so-called “gods” of the other nations—the God of Israel, the God of the Bible, cannot be assigned to one location as if His power were only operative there. Rather, the testimony of Scripture is that our God—the true God—is in all places. He is king in all places and every place at the same time.

            In other words, God’s presence is pervasive—He is in all places at once. This characteristic of God is often called His “omnipresence,” and today, I want to look at this idea so that we can understand our God in better detail, and think about some implications of God’s pervasive presence in His creation.

Where is this idea found in Scripture?

            The clearest expression of this idea is also the most moving and memorable. It is found in Psalm 139:7-12. In this psalm, David had just stated how thoroughly God knows him, and now we read that part of the reason for that knowledge is that God is everywhere. I know in years past, I have read these verses as if David was trying to run away and hide from God—probably because of the word “flee” in v. 7—but upon a closer look, these verses don’t have to be understood that way. In fact, it seems that just the opposite is the case—David sees God’s presence as comforting and reassuring [READ Ps. 139:7-12]. Notice how David considers various factors like distance, speed, and even a condition like darkness and concludes that none of these things can separate us from God. He is with us!

            But how can God be with you in your house and also with me in my house at the same time? It’s important for us to remember that God does not have the limitation of a physical body like we do. John 4:24 states that God is spirit, which means that He doesn’t have flesh and bones like we do. My body can only be in one place at one time, but since God doesn’t have the limitation of a physical body, that is one reason that he can be omnipresent.

“You’ve got some ‘splainin to do!”

            We should clarify at this point just what we are claiming when we say that God is “omnipresent.” As much as it pains me to say this, since I love these movies, the Star Wars movies have popularized some ideas that some people have wrongly associated with God. People have been tempted to draw parallels between God and “The Force” in the Star Wars movies, but we really don’t want to make that connection.

            In Star Wars, The Force is a kind of power that flows through humans and rocks and trees and spaceships and everything that exists. That idea is actually based on a religious belief called “pantheism,” which comes from religions like Buddhism and Hinduism. But when we say that God is omnipresent, we should not be thinking that God is somehow inside the wood that makes up my pulpit, or that He is somehow inside the pew that you’re sitting on.

            What we are actually claiming is that God is aware of all that is happening in every corner of creation and that He is active in every corner of creation—all at the same time. When we say that God is omnipresent, that should be the idea that we have in mind, rather than some notion that God is inside the carpet or the drywall or the lightbulbs.

Unique Reminders of God’s Presence

            Now, God does, at times, give unique reminders of His presence to specific people in specific places. One familiar example of this kind of act of God is the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night that accompanied the people of Israel during the Exodus, when they fled from their slavery in Egypt. That pillar wasn’t visible from every place on the planet! It was in a specific location, and from time to time it would move to a new location to show the people where to go.

            In such moments, when God offers a unique reminder of His presence, He does so to teach people important lessons. Think about what the children of Israel should have learned from that pillar of cloud and fire. God wanted to teach them lessons like:

·         “I am here to guide you”

·         “I am here to protect you” (like when Pharaoh chased after them)

·         “I am here to provide for you” (giving them light and warmth by night).

            Of course, the greatest example of God making His presence known in order to teach us was the Incarnation, when Jesus added a human nature to His person. John 1:18 says, “No one has ever seen God. The only one, himself God, who is in closest fellowship with the Father, has made God known (NET Bible).”

Some Implications of God’s Omnipresence

1. His knowledge about me is first-hand knowledge

            I am repeating this thought from my sermon on God’s omniscience, but I think it bears repeating here. Since God is personally aware of everything that is going on in creation, then He personally knows everything that is going on with me. I think this observation is comforting, because so many of our problems with each other are either created or exaggerated by misinformation—for example, someone hears a piece of gossip about you and they start to act differently around you. Perhaps they’re less friendly or less open with you—all because they heard something about you that didn’t reflect the truth.

            But we don’t have to worry about any such issues with God! He doesn’t have to seek information about us from some other source—He sees us, so He has direct knowledge about us. This thought is also the second implication.

2. God always sees what is happening to us and what we are up to

            Many situations in life can move us to think, “God, where are you?” Though it may not feel like God is always with us, that is only an appearance; it is not the reality. God sees all that is happening to us. He sees when people sin against us; He sees when people are kind to us. He sees it all!

            He also sees what we are up to, and this thought should be a powerful reminder for us as we make choices in life. The temptations we face always look more appealing when we think that no one will see what we’re doing and no one will find out about what we’ve done. We can hide things from each other, can’t we? And when we’re only thinking on that level, our temptations look far more appealing. But when we remember that God is always with us and He sees us at all times, we are reminded that we can’t hide anything from Him.

            You may remember a children’s song that tried to teach us this lesson when we were young. It goes like this: “Oh be careful little eyes what you see, oh be careful little eyes what you see, for the Father up above is looking down in love, so be careful little eyes what you see.” That little song reminds us that God is watching us, and it contains such an important reminder when it says that God is “looking down in love.” God is watching, yes, but He’s watching in love! He is not like some grumpy piano teacher who’s waiting to slap you on the hand any time you play a wrong note. Remembering that God watches us in love will help us think accurate thoughts about God, and it still leaves us with the awesome realization that we will one day answer to God for everything that He has seen us do.

3. I am never alone—God is always with me!

            When God asked His people to carry out some task in Scripture, He always reminded them that they would not be alone—He would be with them. When Moses was preparing to lead the people of Israel toward their first attempt to conquer the Promised Land, God said to him, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest (Exodus 33:14).”

            When the people rebelled before their first attempt, and God prepared Joshua to lead the second attempt, the Lord told him to remember what he had been promised, to remember God’s commands, and he wrapped it all up by saying this: “Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go (Joshua 1:9).”

            When the Lord Jesus was on the earth, and He told His disciples on the night before He died that He would be going away, He said, “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you (John 14:18).” And when He gave those men the Great Commission to make disciples of all the nations, He said, “behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age (Matthew 28:20).”

            We are not alone as we seek to carry out the tasks that God has for us. When you’re going around town and you see that person that you know you should forgive, you are not alone. When you walk into the office to co-workers who do not share your faith, you are not alone. When you are facing down the temptation that has tripped you up a hundred times, you are not alone. The Lord your God is with you wherever you go!

God's Unrivaled Power--Attributes of God Series

            Dr. Seuss once wrote a book called “Yertle the Turtle.” In this story, Yertle the Turtle is the king of the little pond where he lives. He is the king over everything that he can see, but one day, he decides that he can’t see far enough, and his kingdom really deserves to be much bigger. So he commands other turtles to come and stand on top of each other so that he can stand on top of them and expand his view. After spending the day enjoying his new view and the power that is supposed to come with it, Yertle is enraged when the evening dawns and he realizes that the moon is still higher than he is.

            This story is a good analogy for our position with respect to God. No matter how much power we may think we have or how much power we may actually have in this world, we are all still looking up at God! God’s power is truly unrivaled, and when He decides to act, there is no power anywhere in all of creation that can stop Him.

            This attribute of God is often called “omnipotence,” and today we’re going to discuss what this means and how it should be comforting and inspiring for us to know that God’s power reigns supreme.

How is God’s Power Proclaimed in the Bible?

1. Through titles

            Throughout Scripture, God is referred to as “the Almighty,” which is a pretty easy word to understand. God has ALL the MIGHT He needs to do whatever He wants to do. In Genesis 17:1, God appeared to Abraham and said, “I am God Almighty.” Perhaps you have heard the Hebrew phrase el shaddai—that phrase means “God Almighty.” That title was especially meaningful in a time when most people believed there was a god of the rivers and a god of the lakes and a god of the mountains and a god of the plains and so on. This title proclaimed that Jehovah, the God of Israel, was supreme over all.

            At the opposite end of the Bible, we read in the book of Revelation that the people and angels in heaven refer to God as the Almighty (Rev. 19:6, 21:22). So from the first book of the Bible to the last, that title runs throughout to proclaim God’s unrivaled power.

2. Through direct statements

            Some verses simply state that God is all-powerful. Here are just a few examples:

·         Psalm 115:3—“Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases.”

·         Job 42:2—“I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.”

·         Daniel 4:35—“All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, ‘What have you done?’”

            You can probably think of other verses like these because such verses are very popular because of the comfort and confidence that they bring to us.

3. Through rhetorical questions

            On a number of occasions, people used rhetorical questions to say, in effect, “Isn’t it obvious how powerful God is?” When Sarah laughed at the idea that she would have a baby at the ripe old age of 90, God said, “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” (Gen. 18:14). And when Paul was declaring Christ’s resurrection to a Jewish leader, he said, “Why do you think its incredible that God raises the dead?” (Acts 26:8). Even a humanly impossible act like that was no challenge for God.

4. Through His actions

            The reason that the rhetorical questions we just read can work is that God has put His power on full display through His actions. The greatest example of God’s power was in the creation of the universe back in Genesis 1-2. Remember—when God began to create, He didn’t just take “stuff” that already existed and make planets and stars and air and water out of it. When God began to create, nothing existed but Him, and the Bible tells us that He simply commanded things to exist, and they did! That’s why Paul could say, “Why do you think its incredible that God raises the dead?” We’re talking about God, after all—the one who just speaks things into existence.

            The miracles of Jesus also display His power as God. Let’s just think for a moment about the miracle recorded in John 5. In that story, Jesus encountered a man who had been unable to walk for 38 years. He asked the man if he wanted to be made well, then he simply told him to stand up, pick up his bed, and walk—and he did!

            Think about the extreme makeover that this man’s body experienced. His muscles would have been severely atrophied after 38 years, so he probably instantly received new muscle mass. His bones would have been frail from not supporting any weight for all that time, but they instantly became strong. His circulatory system was immediately capable of sustaining him in a standing position. Think about that—have you ever stood up quickly after you’ve been lying down? You get light-headed because your circulation has to catch up. Imagine standing up after lying down and only sitting up on occasion for 38 years!

Miracles like that are an amazing display of power, and they show us that God truly is almighty—He can do anything He chooses to do!

What Does it Mean that God is Almighty?

            We need to spend a little time discussing what it means that God is almighty, because some people have enjoyed challenging this idea with questions like, “Can God make a rock so big that even He can’t pick it up?” or “Can God make 2+2=6?” or “Can God make an elder board so stubborn that even He can’t make it act?” (A little joke among pastors!). So what does it mean that God is almighty? I think we can clarify this idea in two ways.

1. God can do whatever is possible to do

            If something can possibly be done, God can do it if He chooses. Keep in mind that the idea of possibility extends beyond what is merely possible for humans. Even though something may be impossible for us, it is possible for God as long as it is a real, logical possibility.

            Some things are not real possibilities, like making 2+2=6, and so God cannot do something like that. This really isn’t a limit on God’s power, however—its actually just a limit on what is real. I like what Charles Ryrie said about questions like this. He said, “We might as well ask if a nuclear explosion could make 2+2=6.” A question like this isn’t really about how much power something has—its about what sort of actions are real possibilities. So just remember—if something can possibly be done, God can do it if He chooses.

2. God cannot do something that is outside of His nature

            Your nature simply refers to what you are. For example, I am a human being, so I have a human nature, and if you think about it, my nature puts limits on what I can do. I can’t fly like a bird because its not in my nature to do that; I can’t see through a wall because its not in my nature to do that; or, as a male, I can’t give birth to a child because its not in my nature to do that. These things aren’t really limits on my power or strength; they’re just the boundaries of what I am.

            Likewise, God cannot do something that is outside of His nature. So for example, Hebrews 6:18 says that it is impossible for God to lie. Lying is outside the boundary of who God is, and so its not in His nature to do that.

These are some helpful clarifications to keep in mind when you think about God being “almighty.” They may seem a little abstract or philosophical right now, but I know that with just a little bit of thought time, you can understand these ideas. Just bring them to mind again and let them sink in. For now, let’s spend the remainder of our time talking about some implications of God’s unrivaled power

Implications of God’s Unrivaled Power

1. God has no true rival

            By “rival” I mean someone who is on an equal footing and could actually keep God from achieving something that He chooses to do. God certainly has enemies—such as Satan and his demons—but they cannot match His power. In fact, in the book of Job and in the temptation of Peter we discover that Satan has to ask for permission before he can act. Now, the reason that God gives him permission is another sermon for another day, but we can see clearly through this observation that even God’s greatest enemy is no match for His power.

2. God has power over everything that happens to me

            Nothing happens in our lives because God was somehow unable to stop it. We will never hear God say in Heaven, “By the way, sorry about that car accident. I tried my best to stop it, but I just couldn’t do anything about it.” We will never hear anything like that!

            While this doesn’t answer all of our questions about why God allows things to happen, it is comforting to know that we’re not simply at the mercy of fate or chance or karma or anything like that. Everything that happens to us is under God’s control, so there is a purpose behind everything that we face. One part of that purpose is to give us opportunities to express faith in God so that we might earn a greater reward from Him someday. There are likely other purposes as well, but we should be encouraged just to know that everything that happens to us has already passed through the hands of a loving God, so there is a reason for it.

3. God is able to keep His promises

            God is fully capable of doing whatever He chooses to do, so nothing can keep Him from fulfilling His promises. As humans, we sometimes have to deal with broken promises from other humans because we don’t have that kind of power over our circumstances. Perhaps you promise your child that you’ll make it to their ball game, but car problems keep you from getting there, or a broken fence allows the cattle to get out and you have to round them up.

            When we receive promises from each other, we have to allow for things like that, but with God, we don’t have to entertain any doubts about whether He will keep His promises. And so, His promises become a tremendous source of comfort and a solid foundation on which to act in our lives. They are a bedrock on which to build, and that is because of God’s unrivaled power.

            When we consider the ability that God has to do whatever He chooses to do, it is all the more amazing to think that He chose to send His Son to die for us. God has provided us with forgiveness of our sins because He chose to do so, which tells us of His tremendous love, mercy, and grace. God has exercised His unrivaled power for our undeserved benefit, and we praise Him for this today.

God's Eternal Existence--Attributes of God Series

I want you to think about this question for a moment—what comes into your mind when you think about God? More specifically, what characteristics do you think about Him possessing? Pastor A. W. Tozer once wrote, “Were we able to extract from any [person] a complete answer to the question, ‘What comes into your mind when you think about God?’ we might predict with certainty the spiritual future of that [person].”1

That’s quite a claim! Did you think that your answer to that question could actually predict your spiritual future—in other words, your progress in developing Christian character? I must say that I think Pastor Tozer is correct, because in Romans 12:2, the Apostle Paul says that we become transformed or changed “by the renewing of [our] minds.” Christian growth happens as we change the way we think, and the cornerstone of the way we think is the beliefs that we hold about God.

Today, we are going to begin a series on the attributes of God, which is just a fancy term for those things that are true about God—the traits that accurately describe Him. We will continue this series for a while each time that we celebrate the Lord’s Supper together so that we can learn more about this Being who has shown us such love and mercy through the death and resurrection of Christ.

This morning, we are going to discuss an attribute that describes the way in which God exists—namely, that God is eternal. To say that God is eternal means that He had no beginning to His existence, and He will have no end to His existence. He has simply always existed, and He always will exist; or as the angels in heaven declare in Revelation 4:8, God is the one “who was, and who is, and who is to come.” That statement is true at any point in time that you can imagine. If you could travel to any moment of history—past or future—you could truthfully say at that moment, “God was, God is, and God is to come.”

Let’s look at some of the biblical statements that describe this attribute of God. In numerous verses, God is simply referred to as the “eternal” or “everlasting” God. Isaiah 40:28 is a good example of such a verse: “Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.” This attribute seemed to have a particularly strong impression on Moses, perhaps because he was the first to receive from God the divine name Yahweh, or Jehovah—which simply means “I am.” In Deuteronomy 33:27, Moses told the children of Israel, “The eternal God is your dwelling place, and underneath are the everlasting arms.” And in Psalm 90, which Moses composed, he wrote in vv. 1-2, “Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.”

Job and his friends spent a fair amount of the book of Job talking about the nature of God, and in Job 36:26, a man named Elihu says, “God is exalted beyond our knowledge; the number of His years cannot be counted (CSB).” Now think about what this means: if the number of God’s years cannot be counted, then his lifespan must be infinite—without beginning and without end. If God had a beginning or an end—and thus a limited lifespan—you could count the number of His years. It might be a very large number, but you can count to a very large number—it just takes a while! So if the number of God’s years truly cannot be counted, then He must be eternal—without a beginning and without an end.

Paul stated in Romans 1:20 that we can learn that God is eternal simply from observing the world around us. In that verse, he writes, “For [God’s] invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made.” When we look at the world around us, we see a collection of things that all began to exist at some point in time. Even our universe itself began to exist at a point in time, as the Bible tells us, and as all but the most radical scientists will admit. Now, we all know that when things begin to exist, they don’t just come from nowhere—they come from something that existed before them, as you did with your parents. You began to exist when you were conceived, and you came from your parents, who existed before you did.

So we can conclude that if our universe began to exist at some point in time, then there must have been something that existed before the universe that caused it to exist. Now, logic also tells us that something which began to exist at some point in time must ultimately come from something which has always existed—something that did not begin to exist. Something that begins to exist is the effect of something else which caused it, and you cannot have an endless chain of causes and effects.

Think of it this way—suppose that you wanted to build a house. Before you can start, you have to have the necessary permits to build. Now suppose that you had to apply for a literally endless number of permits, and you had to have Permit A before you could get Permit B, and so on. Now, when could you start building your house? The answer is never—because you would never get to the end of this endless string of permits. There would always be one more permit that you had to have in order to start construction.

This scenario illustrates an endless chain of causes and effects. Something that begins to exist is an effect of something else, and there cannot be an endless chain of causes and effects behind that existing thing. Otherwise, the whole chain of cause and effect could never get started. Eventually, there has to be a cause which is uncaused; there has to be something that exists which simply exists and which did not need a cause.

Now that your brain has exploded, let’s remodel it by talking about what this attribute of God means for our lives. We learn several important lessons by reflecting on God’s eternal existence.

1. God does not need you

That statement may sound harsh, but this thought is actually a very healthy one for us to embrace because it puts us in our place, yet it also magnifies God’s love for you. Let me explain.

If God is eternal and thus had no beginning, this means that He exists by His own power. If that’s the case, then He has no needs that He cannot meet for Himself. He is thus self-sufficient, meaning that He doesn’t need anyone else. God doesn’t need someone to look after Him or take care of Him or any such thing. Here is how Paul put it in Acts 17:24-25—“The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.”

What could God possibly need from us since He existed just fine without us? Perhaps someone has told you that God created us because He was lonely. God was never lonely! He is a Trinity—three persons in one being! God doesn’t need us to take care of Him, He doesn’t need us to love Him, and He doesn’t even need us in order to act in the world!

This observation cuts us down to size and keeps us from becoming proud, but here’s the thought the builds us up in a healthy way—God doesn’t need you, yet He chooses to love you. Isn’t that amazing? He doesn’t need you, yet you are not insignificant to Him. He chooses to love you and He chooses to use you to accomplish His will in this world. He sent His Son to die for you—not because He couldn’t stand to live without you, but simply because that’s the kind of God that He is. Here is how God describes Himself in Exodus 34:6-7—“The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.” This awe-inspiring God is completely self-sufficient, yet He chooses to extend mercy and grace to us, as we remember today in the Lord’s Supper.

2. God does not experience urgency

Since God’s existence cannot be measured by time, He does not experience time the way that we do. 2 Peter 3:8 says, “But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” This verse tells us that God’s interaction with time is so different from our own.

This lesson is so important to remember when we’re thinking about God’s work in our lives. When we have problems that feel extremely urgent, or when we pray about something for weeks or months or years and it seems like nothing is happening, we have to remember that God just doesn’t experience time the way we do. Urgency is only experienced by those who feel the pressure of time bearing down on them. We feel urgency when we feel like we are losing time or when we feel like we don’t have enough time.

But God doesn’t have such limitations on Him. The constraints of time do not bind Him. He can literally roll back the clock if He chooses, as He did for Joshua in Joshua 10 and for Hezekiah in 2 Kings 20.

This lesson simply reminds us that we cannot let ourselves become angry with God if He doesn’t seem to be working by our schedule. If He doesn’t seem to be answering one of your prayer requests, or if He seems to be “late” in coming through for you, just remember that God does not have to fit into your Day Timer!

3. God does not act in haste

Sometimes, we make mistakes or we do poor work or we make bad decisions because we act in haste. Sometimes we throw something together just before a deadline, or we make an uninformed decision because we feel the weight of urgency. But God does not have such constraints, so we don’t have to wonder if His work is imperfect because He rushed through it. Nor do we need to ask if God made a bad decision because He “didn’t have time to think through it.”

God’s actions are deliberate and on purpose. He is never forced to act by deadlines or by the fear that He may miss out on a moment in time that will never come around again. And so, this is just one of the reasons that God does not make mistakes. So when God acts in your life or when he allows certain circumstances to come into your life, you can know for sure that He did not make a hasty decision or have a spur-of-the-moment reaction. He knows exactly what He is doing and He does it at exactly the right time.

Learning what we have today about our God magnifies His love, grace, and mercy that we remember in the Lord’s Supper. That such a being would make such a sacrifice for us is indescribable. So as we partake, let us mourn for our sins which have made the Lord’s sacrifice necessary for our forgiveness, and let us rejoice over God’s willingness to provide it.


Notes:
1. A. W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy (New York: HarperSanFrancisco, 1978), 1.