Understanding God - 17

Fellow partakers of God’s grace,

Greetings in the Name of our Lord Jesus. With love and prayers, we send you another instalment of our series on “Understanding God”. So far, we have explored the Person and attributes of God, the make-up of the Godhead and the resultant distribution of roles. This has led to a focus on the Sovereignty of God.

UNDERSTANDING GOD 17

In continuation of our focus on “Understanding God”, we have been considering “The Sovereignty of God”. So far, we have explored the basis and extent of God’s sovereignty, which led us to a consideration of the place of Satan in the scheme of things, a focus on tribulation and a consideration of the place of creation.

In this study, we are focusing on the pillars on which the sovereignty of God is hinged.

Pillars of Sovereignty
These are the instruments by which the sovereignty of God is established. By them is the mystery of God’s sovereignty made plain. They are foreknowledge, election and predestination, and we will explore them in that order.

Foreknowledge
In the world of men, “foreknowledge” is understood as “having advance information on something that is yet to be declared or made manifest”. But, in relation to God, foreknowledge extends beyond the limits of man’s imagination. The doctrine of foreknowledge establishes that, before the foundation of the world, the all-seeing and all-knowing God had information about all things. This includes the people that live upon the earth, their choices, lifestyles and every unfolding event.

It is a well established fact that the Lord is an all-knowing God. In the Psalms, David testifies thus: “Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off. Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O LORD, thou knowest it altogether…Such knowledge is too wonderful for me…” (Psa.139:2-6). Yet foreknowledge goes beyond this. The implication is that everything that exists or will exist was known to God before the foundation of the world.

For instance, God said to Jeremiah, “Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee…” (Jer.1:5). Likewise, James, in acknowledging the place that God has given to the Gentiles, said: “Known unto God are all His works from the beginning of creation” (Ac.15:18). In addition, Peter testifies that Jesus was delivered unto death by “the predeterminate counsel and foreknowledge of God” (Ac.2;23). Again, God introduces Himself thus: “…there is none like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done…” (Isa.46:9-10). It is quite obvious that He cannot declare the end from the beginning if he does not know the end from the beginning. The entire Bible (in general) and the prophetic books (in particular) are filled with evidence of God’s foreknowledge.

How does this apply to us? In the midst of the ever changing circumstances of life, we need to retain our confidence in God, for nothing takes Him by surprise.