Old Sandals

Of God’s Covenant with Man

The first covenant made with man was a covenant of works.

God did not say, “In the day you eat of the tree, I’ll surely kill you”, but rather, “In the day you eat of the tree, you will surely die”. The communion with God was broken. Adam cut himself off. The judgement is more a consequence than it is a divine sentence.

Although there are elements of a covenant described in Genesis 1-3, I’m not sure there was a covenant per se. The lone scriptural reference in Hosea 6:7 is far from conclusive.

Of the Fall of Man, of Sin, and the Punishment thereof

“This their sin God was pleased, in His wise and holy counsel, to permit.”

I don’t believe “pleased” is the best word to use here. How can we say God was pleased to permit their transgression, when in Genesis 6 we read that “…the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth”?

Adam and Eve, and their progeny, “became…wholly defiled in all the parts and faculties of soul and body”.

As sinners because of the fall, our souls are defiled, our “mind and conscience” according to the epistle of James. Our bodies are defiled in that they are subject to disease and death, but we should be careful here that we don’t say too much; the Word became flesh.

“They, being the root of all mankind, the guilt of this sin was imputed.”

I certainly believe all men are born with a sinful, human nature, inherited from Adam, i.e., Adam’s sin, together with all of its consequences and penalties, is transferred by means of natural heredity to the entire human race.  As Cyril of Alexandria observed, “Since [Adam] produced children after falling into this state, we, his descendants, are corruptible as the issue of a corruptible source”.  But if this is the case, how is it that souls are created?

Turretin: “Now although it is curious to inquire and rash to define why God infuses a soul tainted with sin and joins it to an impure body, it is certainly evident that God did not will (on account of the sin of man) to abolish the first sanction concerning the propagation of the human race by generation. Thus the order of the universe and the conservation of human nature demanded it.”

Of Providence

“…and that not by a bare permission”

This chapter has to do with God’s sovereign control over everything.  “God doth uphold, direct, dispose, and govern all creatures, actions and things from the greatest even to the least.” This is what is known as meticulous providence, that everything— even seemingly random thoughts that go through our heads every day—was ordained of God down to the minutest detail, even before the foundation of the world.  Is this really the best way to understand God’s sovereignty?

On the opposite side of the sovereignty spectrum is what is known as open theism; God really cannot know our thoughts and actions before we do, but He can react to them with lightning speed. He is likened to a master chess player playing a billion games at once. Surely this way of explaining God’s sovereignty is way off the mark.

What then do we mean when we say “God is in control”? As the Scriptures declare, a day is coming when Christ will “rule the nations with a rod of iron”. Christ will be in control then. But He is no less in control now, albeit in a different way. In fact, the awesome truth is that Christ was no less in control when He hung on the cross! “[Jesus], being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death.” Acts 2:23.

The awesome truth is a mystery, an antinomy. God’s purposes are eternal and transcendent, even as they are worked out in the messy, often seemingly random events of human history.

It is not that God wanted Adam to fall, and so decreed it from all eternity. God deals with Adam’s fall to be sure; that is what the great plan of redemption is all about. “God is not willing that any should perish.” Yet it is also true that the fall did not take God by surprise. “The Lamb was slain before the foundation of the world.”

Before. What does before even mean to the One who “inhabits eternity”? God’s foreknowledge and his decrees are simultaneous. He is Alpha and Omega, at the same time.

Of Creation

“For the glory of His eternal power, wisdom and goodness…to create.”

Certainly God created all things ex nihilo (Latin meaning out of nothing) by his power and wisdom. This explains how He did it. That God would create anything at all speaks of His goodness, for everything that exists is radically contingent, i.e., nothing would have to be.

But yet the why of creation is not adequately addressed, it seems to me. This is not to say that God’s primary motivation is other than His own glory, but what do we mean when we affirm that God created all things “for His glory”? God is ultimately glorified when His purposes are fully realized at the end of history, the eschaton. And what will it be like when God’s purposes are fully realized? The book of Revelation offers us a glimpse in chapter twenty-one where we read that “the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God”.

I agree with C.S. Lewis when he said “we were made not primarily that we may love God (though we were made for that too) but that God may love us!” How amazing! To God be the glory.

“…nor is the liberty or contingency of second causes taken away, but rather established.”

This is very Thomistic (not a bad thing). Another way of putting it might be, “We are free because God is so transcendent.” God is at work in us, both to will and to do.  Accordingly, there is nothing wrong with singing, “I have decided to follow Jesus.”  Second causes are not taken away, but rather established. Aquinas reconciles freedom with predestination by saying that God’s sovereignty is such that he not only gets what he wants but he also gets it in the way that he wants. Not only is everything done that God wills to be done, but it is also done in the way he wants it to be done. It happens without freedom in the case of natural things like falling rain and freely in the case of human choices. Our choices are real; they are not illusory.

I do not believe the Scriptures teach a “double-predestination”, for “God is not willing that any should perish”. My choice matters, and yet faith is a gift.  The way the two work together is, in a way, as mysterious as the Incarnation itself.

Of God, and of the Holy Trinity

“…most free, most absolute, most loving”

I can’t help noticing that, in the list of the divine attributes, love is number seventeen.

God is:
1. One only
2. Living
3. True
4. Infinite
5. A Pure Spirit
6. Invisible
7. Without Body, Parts or Passions
8. Immutable
9. Immense
10. Eternal
11. Incomprehensible
12. Almighty
13. Most Wise
14. Most Holy
15. Most Free
16. Most Absolute
17. Most Loving

The Bible certainly teaches us that God is all of these things. In fact, if He lacked any of them, He wouldn’t be God.

“For in [Christ] dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.” (Colossians 2:9) Everything the Father is, the Son is also. Which of the divine attributes listed above best describes the Son of God, who “for us and for our salvation came down from heaven”? Surely love comes quickly to mind. If this so, it seems odd that the list is arranged as it is.

It is interesting, I think, to note that St. Augustine, in his later years, described God as being “most high, utterly good, utterly powerful, most omnipotent, most merciful and most just.”

Of the Holy Scripture

“Although the light of nature, and the works of creation and providence do so far manifest the goodness, wisdom, and power of God”

The Psalmist sings that “the heavens declare the glory of God”. (Psalm 19:1)   Creation indeed reveals the glory and the wisdom of God; it reveals to all, as the Apostle Paul writes, His “eternal power and Godhead”. These things are “clearly seen”, so that all “are without excuse”. (Romans 1:20)

That creation, by itself, also reveals the goodness of God is not self-evident. Although the wonderful beauty of a sunset, the brilliant color of a flower and the abundant natural resources everywhere available quietly testify to God’s goodness on display in creation, violent storms, massive earthquakes and destructive fires and floods shout loudly in opposition.

“Oh, that men would give thanks to the Lord for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to the children of men!” (Psalm 107:8)  This cry of the Psalmist is a prayer that men would do what they ought to do—give thanks to the Lord for His goodness.  This prayer springs from a heart rejoicing in God’s faithfulness to and providential care for His (fallen) creation.  It does not spring from a purely intellectual analysis of things as they are.

Things as they are.  A fallen world, filled with mixed messages.  God is good, and His goodness is ultimately revealed in His Son, Jesus Christ.

Revelation 22:6
Then [the angel] said to me, “These words are faithful and true.”

We have the awesome testimony of creation. We have the historical account of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

And we have a Book, the words of which are faithful and true. Foundational. Enduring. Relevant. Timeless. Convicting. Comforting. Compelling.

Read the book. Study the book. What Tertullian said so many centuries ago is still true today: “Whoever takes pains to understand will be compelled to believe.”

Revelation 21:22-23
But I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light.

A garden.  A tabernacle in the wilderness.  A temple edifice.  A called-out people, holding the “treasure in jars of clay”.  All imperfect representations pointing to this ineffable reality, when the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple.  God dwelling with us, and we in God, forever.  Every longing fulfilled.  Every dream realized.  Lost in wonder, love and praise.

Revelation 20:6
Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years.

The truth of God, as revealed to us in the Bible, is foundational. It lies beneath the daily experiences that make up our lives. The truth of God is truer than my ability to express it. The truth of God is not just my truth. It is the truth. Overarching and undergirding at the same time. We are all accountable.