Acts 15:18 “Known to God from eternity are all His works.
A leaf is blown by the wind across a mountain meadow. A tiny ant carries a green leaf back to the colonies nest. A grain of sand is moved by the raging surf of the ocean. One of a billion tiny birds, falls dead to the ground. Exponentially, the number of minute and detailed acts of all the living creatures and inanimate matter on the earth and in the universe, being born, living, moving, changing and dying. All of these, known to God. Nothing moves, lives or dies without passing his gaze. No tiny creature or insignificant grain of sand is hidden from his eyes. Every single microsecond of every day for all things, are seen, known, and under the watchful care of our great God.
An even greater revelation, is the fact that all these micro events have been known by God, long before they ever occurred. Eternity past, before God conceived in his mind to create a universe with living beings within, he knew all the events of linear time, planned and ordained each of these living beings for a specific purpose. No event, no person, no plant, animal or tiny dust particle exists in the Universe, except that God designed it to be where it is and fulfill his specific purpose.
People often wonder if events happen in their life according to a specific plan. Yes, of course they do. God has foreordained all things by the counsel of his will.
Ephesians 1:11 In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will,
Nothing has happened, or will happen unless God both knows about it, and works it for a specific plan and purpose that he alone has in mind. This is why it is a colossal wast of time to fight against the circumstance of your life when things do not go according to your plan. The truth is, all events are already following his plan and will accomplish all that he purposes.’
Isaiah 55:11 So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.
Ezekiel 24:14 I, the LORD, have spoken it;It shall come to pass, and I will do it
In order for God to be God, everything in the universe must be known to him and under his control. If it were ever possible for any event to happen apart from God, or without his direct permission or will, those events would be independent of God and he would cease to be God. Nothing can happen to you or any other person, apart from God’s permission or as a direct act of his will for you. Since he has determined that you shall overcome all things and finally be with him, there is no person, event from the past of future, or any other event that can prevent you from receiving his love and care.
Romans 8:38-39 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Nothing that happens in the universe is dependent on the action of others. God has determined the exact course that everything in this universe will take and how it will come to a conclusion. One of the most compelling proofs that God has both knowledge of the future, and control over each tiny event of the future, is by predictive and fulfilled prophecy. If you examine the prophecies of the coming Messiah that are fulfilled by Jesus Christ, you will discover that the smallest of details in these events have been pre determined and controlled by God. It is not as if he knew in advance what would happen and then told us, he actually controlled those events once they did happen to bring about the end he willed.
The events of the universe and those specifically on the earth, which are under the constraints of linear time, were not caused by themselves. Nothing has happened or will happen simply because God knew in advance that they would happen. Every event, past, present and future happens as a result of the will of God.
God saw in advance all of your failures, all of your sins, every time you backslid and turned away from his commandment in disobedience, and even your every thought before they even were thoughts. Yet he loves you, has always loved you, and has ordained that you live forever with him, if you have exercised your own will in obedience to his word and have believe in his son Jesus Christ for the salvation of your soul.
There are some theologians who would like you to believe that you have no choice in the matter of your salvation. That God’s choices supersede your own choices. That he has foreordained certain persons to eternal life with him, and others to eternal hell apart from him. Basing this belief on the principle that to place any of the responsibility for salvation on man, is to place some good or worth in man that God should respond to. That by man’s ability to choose to obey God or not, that the total depravity of man is canceled. That to give man a choice in which God will respond, takes away the independency of God, making his will depend on what his creatures do.
This writer believes that this viewpoint is due to the fact that those who see God in this way, think of him as being too small. By the immenseness of God, he has ordained that he will allow man a choice in his own eternal destiny. That being made in the image of God and created in his likeness, as God is a self determinant being, God has allowed man this single self determinant privilege, to decide his own eternal destiny, by either obedience or disobedience. This does not rob God of his rights as God, nor diminish him. In fact it accentuates the power and immensity of God. That the sovereign God of the universe would permit his highest creation to have a choice that he can respond to, is truly amazing and shows just how great God is. The angels had no opportunity to be redeemed, either by their own desire or choice, or God’s will. For no angel was offered redemption upon their fall. Only man has been given this supreme privilege to cause God to make a choice, based on our choice. Before the world was ever created, God knowing who would exercise their free will and chose Jesus Christ as their Savior, God would choose and foreordain these to eternal life.
God is supreme over every event in the universe, but he has given man one choice that he will respond to; whether a person will believe his word concerning salvation in his son, or not. For God to take this choice away from man is to create a race of beings who are nothing more than robots who do as God commands. All of us are aware that in any meaningful relationship, there can be no genuine relationship unless the love given and received is done so by an act of the free will of the individuals who are seeking a relationship with each other.
Romans 8:28-29 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.
The purpose of this single variance in the sovereignty of God appears to be for the purpose of displaying to all creation, for all eternity, the complete and total justice of God. That although man was worthy of eternal death, God sent his only Son to die for man. That by each man’s exercise of their own free will, they could change their eternal destiny to heaven from hell. Having punished all of man’s sin in Jesus Christ, he could now offer eternal life to all those who would believe it and receive it. Through all the ages, every creature who beholds those redeemed by Jesus will understand the complete justice and love of God. That the claim that God is not fair, not righteous, is a false claim. That God has given to man an opportunity and privilege not offered to any other creature, and this choice offered, to display forever the true nature of our great God.
Rob Robinson
