"I perceived that whatever God does endures forever; nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it. God has done it, so people fear before him." ( Ecclesiastes 3:14 )
"Be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God, for God is in heaven and you are on earth." ( 5:2 )
"...then I saw all the work of God, that man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun. However much man may toil in seeking, he will not find it out. Even though a wise man claims to know, he cannot find it out." ( 8:17 )
The first mark of a "true church" according to the Church Fathers, faithful Bible teachers, Reformation theologians, biblical scholars, ( and even AI agreed, lol ) is: The true preaching of God's Word. ( 2 Timothy 4:1-4 )
God has revealed himself in this way in his Word to his Church. God says who He is - not us.
I think of the Farmer indulging in one of his favorite pass times, walking along the far reaches of the waves with his earphones on his head and his metal detector in hand, hovering it over the terrain, listening intently for the beep.
He's also found antiquated pieces of the past at our farm, some broken and chipped, no matter, I display the vintage dishes, rusty tools, and cloudy, glass bottles on shelves in my little cabin - tangible heirlooms of those who came before me. Artifacts I can wrap my dirty fingers around and imagine more clearly the life they lived. One man's trash is another man's treasure.
I think about that this morning as I awake in the sweet, little guest room of my son and daughter-in-law's Atlanta home for a long weekend visit, and my heart is overwhelmed with gratitude to the Farmer who will watch over the farm and my dad to make this possible for me. It's those type of treasures, like the priceless, fragmented pieces of pottery on my fireplace mantel, that I am most thankful for in this life.
God's grace, his amazing grace. This truth is not hidden in the least.
My personal Bible reading plan has me excavating in the Book of Ecclesiastes today, along with Proverbs and Job they are known collectively as Scripture's "wisdom literature." With this in mind, I feel it best I read at least one portion out of them daily.
Although Solomon never directly states in Ecclesiastes that God is sovereign, the truth weaves itself through every thought and verse. Man can not escape this reality of the God who created him, from his birth to his death to everything that lies in between. To not understand this biblical truth and live in light of it is foolishness Solomon warns.
And yet, man is not a puppet on a string; man makes decisions. He has a free will. Or does he?
When asked which of his theological writings he would hope to survive above all others, Martin Luther replied, "The Bondage of the Will." I think it's fitting that this year marks the 500th anniversary of that book. And thankfully it has survived.
The book was in response to the on-going, and perhaps most famous, certainly I believe most important, debate in church history, between Luther and Erasmus, at least as important as St. Augustine and Pelagius in the 4th century, over freewill and predestination.
Luther unpacks man's depravity, sin, God's sovereign grace, and explains how even though we may seem to be free spirits, ( I'm paraphrasing a bit ) when our first parents fell, it not only effected our physical bodies in sickness and death, but their sin also tainted our free spirits - including our minds and our wills. In other words, no part of us or our agency was left untouched by the power of that first sin.
We have a will, but it is in bondage.
If we think we are free - try not to sin. It's impossible. One may possibly make a good effort at first, but the flesh eventually caves in on itself. Read Romans 7. Contrary to what some will have you to believe, in this chapter Paul is talking about being a saint - the verbiage is present tense.
"Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin." ( Romans 7:24&25 )
We are waiting for the redemption of our bodies. ( Romans 8:23 ) We are slaves to sin. We choose only in accordance with our nature. "no one seeks for God." ( Romans 3:11 )
We need God to be sovereign, and He is. Even if it were possible, do we really want man to be in charge? I do not. Look around at us. The only reason the earth doesn't crack down the center and split wide open from the power of sin is due to God's common grace and mercy over this place.
"He has mercy over all that he has made." ( Psalm 145:9 ) "He rains on the just and the unjust" ( Matthew 5:45 ) "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy." ( Exodus 33:19, Romans 9:15 ) "His mercies are new every morning." ( Lamentations 3:23 )
It took only one sin in the Garden of Eden to ruin all of humanity throughout the entire history of the world. Think about the power of that!
Sin left without God's sovereign grace and mercy is hell.
But what about our decisions? I don't know. Even the greatest theologians couldn't thoroughly explain it. Charles Spurgeon said that the two don't need reconciled because they are friends. It's known theologically as "compatibilism" - God's sovereignty and man's responsibility working some mysterious way together.
Not only is this truth found in Ecclesiastes, but it cuts straight through the Scripture and spreads to every passage.
From the life of not just Joseph, perhaps the most well-known example, but to all of the saints. And to his Son Jesus Christ as Peter tells the Jews gathered on the day of Pentecost that they were responsible for crucifying and killing Jesus. ( Acts 2 )
And yet it was also God's definite plan, Peter preached, without letting them off of the hook for their sin or by excusing them for being coerced. No, they were held responsible. "Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him.." ( Isaiah 53:10 ) This is the verse the Farmers says overwhelms his heart the most for the love and grace of God.
For some, this tension between God's sovereignty and man's responsibility causes great angst, not to mention a headache, but for me, it brings great comfort. In this world that seems to be getting crazier by the minute and determined to bust hell wide open, I rest my body and spirit in the soft feather bed of this comforting doctrine.
One man's angst is another man's refreshment and joy, I guess. I thank God for his sovereignty in the midst of this messy world full of man's sinful debacles and frailty. What a hope for us to cling to.
It's like one of those hidden treasures that has been unearthed in the red clay of Healing Brook. I love to pick it up from time to time and explore with visitors the mystery of what it means and where its been, and then place it back on the mantel to marvel at and enjoy.
As I've pointed out before, in Christ, we are all learning and growing, and even the Church corporately, we see throughout her history, has followed in this painful and ponderous path of faith. And that doesn't happen over night. This is how God in his sovereignty has chosen to do things with his children, and we should all display grace to each other in these journeys.
On the surface this can look like an ugly place, but the beautiful explanation is found hidden beneath the waves and beyond the clay and the sand.
One day we will all have a new, perfect, resurrected body with a perfect will to match. For now, let's find comfort and unity together in Christ's Church in the mysterious ways he has seen fit to build us.
Because what I do know is that while we were sinners, slaves to sin, Christ died for us, making us slaves instead to righteousness, clothed before God in His righteousness. Because of the sovereign grace of God alone, he has not allowed us to remain dead in our trespasses and sins. When we could do nothing to help ourselves, God sent his Son to do what we could never do.
We could not unlock the shackles, but Christ has set us free. ( Galatians 5:1, John 8:36 )
Repent and believe.
💜
"And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said, “Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them, who through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit,and the peoples plot in vain?
The kings of the earth set themselves,
and the rulers were gathered together,
against the Lord and against his Anointed’
for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place." ( Acts 4:24-28 )
"This is the end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every evil deed into judgement, with every secret thing, whether good or evil." ( Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 )
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