God’s Providence
The word providence is not found in the Bible. It is used as a name for the biblical teaching that God is the everywhere-present ruler of the whole creation.
As the sovereign ruler of the creation, God takes care of and provides for the needs of all His creatures. But providence does not just refer to this providing, but also to God’s controlling, directing, and using all things for His own purposes: “He doeth according to his will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou?” (Dan. 4:35).
Providence means that nothing just happens. There is no such thing as “chance” or “luck” (Matt. 10:29-30). All things are the work of God. Even the sinful deeds of wicked men and the activity of the devil are completely under God’s control (Exod. 4:21; I Sam. 2:25; II Sam. 16:10, 24:1; I Kings 22:19-22; Ps. 139:1-13; Prov. 16:1, 4, 9, 21:1; Isa. 10:15, 45:7, 63:17; Jer. 10:23; Dan. 4:17; Amos. 3:6; Matt. 8:31; Acts 2:23, 17:28; Rom. 9:18). Yet God is so great that He is not responsible for any of the wickedness which men do. Truly His ways are not our ways nor His thoughts our thoughts (Isa. 55:8).
This is a wonderful truth for God’s children. Believing that He is their heavenly Father, this doctrine of providence teaches them that their Father is almighty. He is able to do all things necessary for their salvation. He controls all the things that seem to be against them and all the circumstances of their life. Sickness, death, poverty, affliction and persecution do not come by chance, but all under the sovereign control of the one who loves them and gave His only-begotten Son for them. Surely, then, all things must work together for good to those who love God (Rom. 8:28), and nothing can separate them from the love of God in Jesus Christ. Rev. Hanko
Pleasure In Death? (4)
“Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? saith the Lord God: and not that he should return from his ways, and live?” (Ezekiel 18:23).
“Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?” (Ezekiel 33:11)
In treating these verses in the last three articles, we noticed several things:
1) That they have often been quoted in support of “the free and general offer of the gospel”—that is, the idea that God, out of a love for all men, desires the salvation of all men. 2) That these verses teach nothing of the kind, but can have two possible meanings: the one being a reference only to the elect (God expressing that He has no pleasure in the death of the wicked elect, but desires rather that they turn from their evil ways), the second being a reference to the command of the gospel which comes to all men and requires of all men that they forsake sin and turn in repentance to God. 3) That if the latter interpretation is the correct one, God manifests His righteous demands that all men forsake their sin and turn to God. God has no pleasure in sin but rather has pleasure in obedience to His command.
We ended the last article with this question: Does this imply that God has two wills—one that sovereignly determines election and reprobation, and another that commands man to turn from his evil way?
We noticed that Calvin, in treating this very text (as well as others) insists that the will of God is one.
To this question we now turn.
It is important to notice in the first place that God’s demand which comes to all men and which insists that man turn from his evil way is rooted in man’s creation. God created man upright. Man, by his own perverse will, turned from God into sin. This sin brought upon man total depravity so that man is incapable of doing any good.
The question is this: since man can do no good, does God simply stop demanding the obedience He required of Adam in Paradise? Does God, as it were, say, “I feel so sorry for you that you cannot keep my law, so I will no longer require it of you”?
Obviously not. God does not relinquish the just demands of the law. God still insists that man keep the law perfectly.
An illustration will make this clear. If you hire a builder to construct a house and you pay the full price in advance, you have every right to insist that he build it. Even if he squanders the money on a round-the-world cruise, you still have the right to demand the house. His complaint that he cannot build because he has no money does not alter your demand in the least. So God justly requires perfect obedience, even though man cannot keep God’s law.
Are there, then, two wills in God? Does He will, on the one hand, that only the elect be saved, while, on the other hand, insisting that all men keep the law?
We cannot thus argue. Not only does God require of man perfect obedience even though man is totally depraved and incapable of doing good, but God also determines that He will Himself save some (the elect) and not save others (the reprobate). God has the perfect right to do this, for no man deserves salvation. It is God’s sovereign choice.
But the unity of the two ideas lies here: God uses the universal command to repent and believe to accomplish His sovereign purpose. Though the command comes to all to obey God, no man can keep that command. But when the command is preached, God so works by His Spirit in the hearts of the elect that they hear and obey the command to turn from sin and cling to Christ their Saviour by faith.
At the same time, when that universal command is heard by the reprobate, they refuse to obey it, turn in scorn away from it, and continue in their wicked way. In this way, God sovereignly accomplishes His purpose in reprobation, for the terrible punishment of the just God comes upon them, and His judgment is shown to be just.
And so to you too comes the command from God to repent of sin and turn to Christ. Do you hear that command and obey? Thanks be to God for His mercy towards you. Do you scorn that command? God’s just and righteous wrath comes upon you in this world and in everlasting hell. Prof. Hanko
Salvation by Faith?
A very interesting and important question from a reader asks about the relation between faith and salvation: “Is a man saved because he believes, or is it that he believes in Christ because he is saved?” This question gets at the very heart of Calvinism and Reformed truth.
Everyone who is in any sense of the word an evangelical Christian believes that faith in Jesus Christ is the only way of salvation. But this question of the relation between faith and salvation divides these same Christians from one another. It is, in fact, the very essence of Arminianism and Free-willism to say that we are saved because we believe. This makes faith a work of man himself and teaches that God’s work of salvation follows man’s activity of believing. Man is first and God is second in salvation if salvation is because of faith.
The idea that the gospel is an “offer of salvation” really implies this same relationship between faith and salvation: God “sincerely offers salvation” to sinners in the gospel, but before He is able to give that salvation to the sinner, the sinner must accept the offer by believing in Jesus Christ. The sinner, then, is saved because he believes.
This makes salvation by faith another form of work-righteousness. According to this view, we are not saved by works but by one work: that of believing. It is a flat contradiction of what Paul says in Romans 9:16: “It is not of him that willeth.”
Nowhere does Scripture say that we are saved because of faith. According to God’s Word, we are saved by faith and through faith, but never because of faith. And to say that we are saved by faith does not imply that faith is something a man must produce of himself before he can be saved, but only that faith is the way of salvation; and when you have said that faith is the way in which a man is saved, you still have not said where that faith comes from. Where does it come from? Ephesians 2:8-10 answers this question clearly: it is the gift of God.
The truth of Scripture is that a man cannot and will not believe until God has already begun to save him by regenerating him and by putting the new life of Christ in his heart: “Except a man be born again, he cannot SEE the kingdom of God”! To say, therefore, that a man believes only because he is saved (or because he is being saved) is the only biblical answer to our question.
All this becomes clearer when we remember what faith is in its essence and deepest reality. It is not first of all the activity of believing. Believing and trusting is only the activity of faith. Faith must already be present in order for someone to believe and trust. Faith in its deepest reality is union with Christ. We believe “in” Him (cf. John 15:4-7). This is something a man cannot possibly accomplish of himself. How can a man unite himself to Christ? Can a branch graft itself into a tree, or a stone mortar itself into place in a building? If faith is union with Christ, it cannot be something we do of ourselves.
The activity of faith, then—that blessed activity of believing in Christ and trusting in Him as the Saviour—must be the result of God’s work in us. Only if God has already begun His wonderful work of grace and salvation in us, can we believe in the Saviour. Rev. Hanko
