GOD’S SPECIAL ACT OF PROVIDENCE

 

GOD’S SPECIAL ACT OF PROVIDENCE 

Westminster Shorter Catechism 12

Quest. What special act of providence did God exercise toward man in the estate wherein he was created?

Ans. When God had created man, he entered into a covenant of life with him, upon condition of perfect obedience; forbidding him to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, upon pain of death.

Introduction

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Is there anyone on the planet who does not think that the way of scoring points with God is through obeying Him? Or to put it another way, is there anyone who thinks God will not reward you for being good? But where does this idea come from? How come Mankind thinks God has promised to reward a good life? This view seems to be built into man, doesn’t it?

If some “good” person is killed or some little child is injured, the question is inevitably raised: What did they ever do to deserve this? Which is to say: Why has this bad thing happened to this good person? They’ve been good. Shouldn’t they therefore receive good instead of bad? We could pile up illustration after illustration to show that this is how people think. However, suffice to say that though Man doesn’t necessarily expect bad in return for bad, he expects good for good – even from God. In Christian circles we might call this “a salvation by works mentality,” which is to say that it is the view that a man can be right with God by his/her being good.

In the following we’re going to look at the source of this idea. We’re going to see that this was indeed the way things were in the beginning. If Man, i.e., Adam, did what God told Him to do, then he would be right with God, and God would have rewarded him with good for good. Of course, Mankind (as represented by Adam) actually blew the whole covenant arrangement. But we’ll look at that aspect of things when we get to it.

In the following we’re looking at the special arrangement God had with Man when He created him.

The Covenant

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We call the pre-Fall arrangement God had with Man in Adam a “covenant”. We believe that Hosea refers to this pre-Fall covenant when he says, “Like Adam they transgressed the covenant” (Hos. 6:7). However, since some theologians are not convinced that Hosea is referring to God’s covenant with Adam, we’ll need to consider a couple of things. We’ll need to first off consider what constitutes a covenant. And then whether the arrangement between God and Adam was covenantal.

Now, I’m sure most of you will know a covenant is a conditional promise. Charles Hodge puts it like this, “A covenant is a promise suspended upon a condition.”[1] Hang on to that word “suspended” as I’ll pick up on this again a little later. Reformed theologians speak of two Bible covenants where this idea of conditional promise applies. The two related covenants are the Covenant of Grace and the Covenant of Works.

Now, just before we get going, let me mention a couple of things. The Covenant of Life mentioned in the Catechism is simply another name for the Covenant of Works. And, though some theologians speak of the Covenant of Redemption, we’ll simply incorporate it into the Covenant of Grace for the purpose of simplicity. So, we’re speaking about only two covenants then, the Covenant of Redemption/Grace and the Covenant of Life/Works.

Now then, if you rent one of those covenant properties you see around the place, you’ll know that you only get to rent their property upon a certain condition. If you obey the terms of the covenant you get to live – there. If you disobey the conditions of the covenant, then they have grounds for removing you. It’s not hard to understand a covenant arrangement; Obey the covenant and all will be well with you. Disobey the covenant and you and your family will be ousted from your home! You can see very easily how this fits with Adam in the Garden before the Fall. God had entered into a covenant with him. This then, was God’s special act of providence toward Man.

God’s works of providence are His most holy, wise, and powerful preserving and governing all His creatures and all their actions. But God’s particular or special act of providence is His entering into a covenant with Man. If Adam had kept the covenant, then he (and Mankind in him) would have received the promised reward, i.e., everlasting life. But as both you and the prophet Hosea know, Adam broke that covenant.

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Now, if you were to carefully read through the Bible, you’d see that it is full of “ifs and thens” from cover to cover. “IF” you do this “THEN” God will do such and such. This is “covenant language” i.e., conditional promises. For instance we see the LORD use this language in the form of a conditional promise in Jeremiah, “Thus says the LORD: ‘IF you can break My covenant with the day and My covenant with the night, so that there will not be day and night in their season, THEN My covenant may also be broken with My servant David” (Jer. 33:20-21). In other words, the condition for breaking God’s covenant with David is our stopping day and night on the planet earth.

So, you can see that the LORD’s covenant with David is a rock-solid conditional promise. Who is ever going to be able to fulfil its conditions in order to break it? IF you can stop day and night, THEN you are able to break God’s covenant with David. We see this “IF – THEN” tension going on, e.g., in one of the favourite verses of Evangelicals. “IF you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, [THEN, albeit an implied THEN] you will be saved” (Rom. 10:9).

Do you see what I mean? Confess and believe and you will live. But what then happens if a person does not confess and believe? Do you think that it is okay to ask that question? It’s an obvious question to ask, isn’t it? If you don’t confess and believe then what? Well, you will not live, which is another way of saying that you will die, isn’t it? To not confess and believe is to do the opposite of what God is telling you to do. And if you do the opposite of what God tells you to do, then you will die. The condition then, of God’s promise of life is that you obey Him by confessing the Lord Jesus and believing that God has raised Him from the dead. Romans 10:9 again, “IF you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” The writer to the Hebrews speaking of the same thing says, “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful” (Heb. 10:23).

So, we see then, that the condition for receiving what God has promised is our unwavering confession of our hope in the Lord Jesus and His resurrection. Simply put, we are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. Thus, God by His grace supplies what He demands, for He gives us the gift of faith to believe in Christ Jesus. These are the conditions of what is called the Covenant of Grace as it applies to fallen men.

The Covenant of Grace and the Gospel are synonymous terms. The Gospel is the Promise of life everlasting to everyone on condition that they believe in God’s only begotten Son. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). So, conversely, what happens to you if you don’t believe, i.e., if you don’t keep the condition of this promise of everlasting life? IF you don’t fulfil the condition, THEN you perish. “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already” (John 3:18a). And “He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him” (John 3:36).

So, we see then, that the condition of receiving everlasting life is belief or faith, same thing. This is the way God has arranged things after the Fall. And we are thankful that what God demands of His elect He supplies in accordance with His covenant arrangement.

Having established that the nature of God’s Gospel Covenant a.k.a. the Covenant of Grace is a Conditional Promise, we are ready to turn back to the Pre-Fall Adam.

The Condition

The Condition for receiving the everlasting life Promised by God after the Fall is faith in Christ and His works of Redemption, i.e., His life of obedience to God’s Law, cross and resurrection. However, the Condition for receiving everlasting life Promised by God before the Fall was works. Hence, we refer to the Pre-Fall arrangement between God and man as the Covenant of Life or the more well-known, Covenant of Works. Of course, it goes without saying, that this way of “earning” everlasting life (as per God’s most gracious agreement) ended for every human being (bar One), when Adam broke that covenant. For as Paul says to the Romans, “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous” (Rom. 5:19).

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So, we see then that we all became sinners when Adam broke the condition of the covenant by his disobedience. But all true believers became righteous when Jesus, the Second Adam obediently kept this same covenant’s condition. The Promise of everlasting life then, is no longer in Adam or you and me doing good works. Rather, the Promise of everlasting life is in Jesus Christ who alone is the doer of good works. But either way, the Promise of God has a condition attached – it’s covenantal. And this just underlines once more the fact that a covenant is conditional promise.

So, let’s look a bit more closely at the condition attached to the Covenant with Adam. The Westminster Shorter Catechism says that the condition for everlasting life was perfect obedience. Obey and receive everlasting life. Disobey and receive everlasting death. Now then, as we today are not in the final state of everlasting life, neither were Adam and Eve in the Garden before the Fall.

Adam in the Garden did not have unlosable everlasting life in the same way that we true Christians have unlosable everlasting life today as promised in Jesus Christ. No, Adam was promised everlasting life upon condition of his own good works of obedience to God’s Law. Or, if you will, Adam had losable everlasting life. So long as he kept on perfectly obeying God, he had everlasting life. Obedience to God was the condition. So, in the beginning, in a special act of providence toward Man – the crown of God’s creation – God threatened or promised man death if he did not keep the covenant, i.e., the covenant of life/works. So, conversely God promised Adam life upon condition he keep the covenant arrangement.

To be sure, the covenant condition before the Fall was different to that after the Fall. Adam, before the Fall didn’t have to confess the Lord Jesus and believe in His resurrection to receive life, rather he had to “work” in order to receive the wages of life not death. This is why we ordinarily refer to this Pre-Fall covenant as the Covenant of Works. The condition for Adam to receive life was “good works,” which is to say that he was to be obedient to the covenant as it was arranged at that time.

But let’s not forget that this covenant was full of grace too. For God did not need to enter into a covenant with Man. Yet He did. That is grace! Scripture says God had created Man in His own image and likeness (Gen. 1:27), and that God had written His Moral Law (albeit in positive terms) upon Man’s heart (Rom. 2:15). Next, we note that God entered into a covenant arrangement with Man. And here’s how the LORD God covenanted with Man: “Then the LORD God took the man and put him in the garden to tend and keep it” (Gen. 2:15).

What do you have to do to tend and keep a garden? You have to work, don’t you? You have to work the garden. And think about it, Adam didn’t say to God, “No way!” He didn’t object to this arrangement and say, “I’m not going to work in Your garden, God!” No, Adam accepted the conditions of his employment with God, i.e., the conditions for living in the Garden of Eden. And neither did Adam disapprove when, “The LORD God commanded the man, saying, ‘Of every tree in the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (Gen. 2:16-17).

So, we see then that Adam accepted, he agreed to, the covenant arrangement. He accepted the “commandment” of God, the commandment with promise, which is to say that he accepted the conditional promise. He agreed to the terms or stipulations or conditions or commandments of the covenant. Therefore, God covenanted with Adam in the Garden and Adam covenanted with God. So long as Adam was perfectly obedient to the covenant, he wouldn’t forfeit his life and the lives of his descendants.

Now, it’s not hard to see that this covenant arrangement could only continue indefinitely. In other words, how long would Adam need to be obedient to the covenant before he would receive what the covenant promised – i.e., unlosable everlasting life? Remember, Adam only had the promise – not the reality. If God promised or threatened Adam with death for his breach of the covenant, then conversely God was promising life on condition of Adam’s keeping of it.

This is where some people start to come undone. They come undone because they fail to grasp the temporary aspects of this Pre-Fall covenant with Adam. So, let me state it like this: Heaven, among other things, is everlasting communion with God. Would you agree that Heaven is a place where Christians have uninterrupted fellowship, i.e., everlasting blissful communion with God? Now let me ask you: Did Adam before the Fall have everlasting blissful fellowship with God? You’d have to say that he didn’t. Why would you have to say that? Because Adam fell – he broke that communion with God. He broke the terms of that fellowship. He broke God’s Covenant. Therefore, Adam’s fellowship with God was temporary. It was not an everlasting communion. Therefore, though Adam was in the Garden of Eden, he was not in Heaven. He only had a foretaste or a preview of Heaven. You’d have to say that he only had the promise of everlasting blissful communion. Therefore, in the Garden, Adam only had the promise of heaven. This promise was suspended upon condition of his obedience. 

What does the word “suspended” mean? What happens when something is suspended? It means that it is delayed or postponed until a certain point in time. When it comes to the Covenant of Life/Works, as with the Covenant of Grace, we call this suspension or delay or deferment a promise.

So, Adam, as Man’s representative in the Covenant of Works, was promised everlasting, i.e., uninterrupted blissful communion with God in Heaven. The condition to be fulfilled was his perfect works of obedience. Heaven hung on Adam’s perfect keeping of God’s Moral Law which was written on his heart. Heaven for Adam was suspended until all his covenant obligations were perfectly met. The LORD had threatened death to Adam upon pain of breaking the covenant. Conversely, the LORD also was promising Adam everlasting life upon keeping of it. Life is everlasting spiritual fellowship with the LORD in Heaven. And death is everlasting spiritual separation from the LORD in Hell.

Adam, then, in the Covenant of Works was to choose which of the two he wanted; everlasting life or everlasting death – Heaven or Hell. Therefore, the promise of life and the threat of death were suspended upon the condition of Adam’s obedience to the LORD. The prohibition from eating of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was simply the outward test of Adam’s obedience. And, of course, Adam flunked this exam, didn’t he? And the rest is history. Man fell into the estate of sin and misery.

Now, as we try to bring it all together, think about this: Heaven was suspended upon a condition. That condition was the perfect keeping of all God’s Commandments. IF any man can fulfil that condition, THEN Heaven is no longer suspended, is it? It is no longer postponed. Is there anyone on the planet who doesn’t believe this? Is there anyone who does not think that you get to Heaven by being good? Scripture does say, “Yet the law is not of faith, but ‘The man who does them shall live by them’” (Gal. 3:12). That line, “The man who does them shall live by them” is taken from Leviticus 18:4-5 where the LORD says, “You shall therefore keep My statutes and My judgments, which if a man does, he shall live by them: I am the LORD your God.” Paul also quotes it in Romans 10:5, “For Moses writes about the righteousness which is of the law, ‘The man who does them shall live by them.’”

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From these and similar verses we see that the way into life is still open to any man who can keep God’s Law perfectly. However, we need to add with haste that this way of getting into Heaven has been closed to Adam and all his children bar one – Jesus Christ.  When Adam broke the Covenant of Life/Works, all men, like Adam, broke the covenant. Therefore, we need to tell all men that since the Fall no one gets into Heaven by being good, i.e., by his own good works. And we’ve already considered the fact that this is the way that people think. Therefore, people need to be told that there is only one way into everlasting life. And that way is through Jesus Christ. “IF you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, [THEN and only THEN!] you will be saved” (Rom. 10:9). This is the condition of the new covenant God has made, even the Covenant of Grace.

As you know, this Covenant of Grace began to be revealed immediately after the Fall (in Genesis 3:15 in particular to start with). It didn’t begin with Jesus. It began immediately after the Fall and was brought to fullness in Jesus.

Conclusion

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The Covenant of Works was left open for Jesus Christ. He was like us in every way apart from our sin. We get into Heaven on account of His perfect keeping of the Covenant – His good works. This He did by living the perfect life (full and total obedience to God’s Law in thought, word, and deed!) that none of us could live because of our sin. And His death on the cross was to pay the penalty every fallen human being owes to God for breaking His covenant.

IF Christians would view the Covenant of Life/Works as being made with “the last Adam”, i.e., Christ, as well as the “first man Adam”, THEN they would easily understand what Jesus was doing in His life and His death. He was fulfilling the conditions for the everlasting life that was promised in the pre-Fall covenant, and was paying its penalty for disobedience, yes, we Christian’s disobedience to it (Hos. 6:7; Rom. 3:23, 6:23). As Levi was in the loins of Abraham (Heb. 7:5-10), so Jesus was in the first man Adam’s loins (Luke 3:23-38). Thus, the Gospel is about Jesus doing what Adam failed to do and His paying the price for that failure.  

Jesus Christ, the second Man, the Last Adam died that we might have life – everlasting life in everlasting communion with the LORD. And He died that we might escape death – everlasting death in everlasting separation from the LORD. John 3:16 once more, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

There is much, much more that we could have looked at. But I hope what we’ve considered will be helpful to you. We all now know a little bit more of what our Shorter Catechism means when it asks: What special act of providence did God exercise toward man in the estate wherein he was created? To which it answers: When God had created man, he entered into a covenant of life with him, upon condition of perfect obedience; forbidding him to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, upon pain of death.

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[1] Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, Michigan, (1871-73), Reprinted 1981, Vol. 3, 549.

GOD'S WORKS OF PROVIDENCE

 

GOD’S WORKS OF PROVIDENCE 

Westminster Shorter Catechism 11

Quest. What are God’s works of providence?
Ans. God’s works of providence are, His most holy, wise, and powerful preserving and governing all His creatures and all their actions. 

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In Acts 17 we find the Apostle Paul addressing the Athenian philosophers on the Areopagus, or the easier to pronounce, “Mars Hill.” Here he elaborates on an inscription found on one of their altars: “TO THE UNKNOWN GOD” (Acts 17:23). He explains to them that this “unknown” God is the Creator of the world and everything in it. He explains that God the Creator doesn’t live in temples made by hands. He tells them that it is this God who gives to all, life, and breath. Indeed, it is from this Unknown God that all things come.

In Acts 17:28 the Apostle makes the profound statement, “For in Him we live and move and have our being.” We live in God, we move in God, and we have our being in God. Our life is dependent upon God. Our movement is dependent upon God. And our is-ness is dependent upon God. In a word, everything about us, the time and place of our birth, our actions, every sneeze we sneeze, every breath we take, our very being and existence, and all creation is under God’s sovereign control. We are dependent upon God.

Preserving

When we think of preserving something we tend to think of pickling it or maybe freezing it. In the old days before refrigeration, they used to salt meat to preserve it. Nowadays as well as pickling and freezing we’ve also got into the habit of just adding a bunch of chemicals to the food to preserve it. We call these additives “preservatives.” 

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To preserve something, anything, is to maintain it, which is to guard it, keep it safe. Well, God does this on a grand scale, a very grand scale. He maintains and guards the whole of creation, which is to say that He preserves all His creatures. Space, time, and matter are all creatures of God every bit as much as birds, fish, animals and man. God preserves all these things, and He governs all these things. And we call this God’s works of Providence. In general, Providence is God caring for His creation.

Now then, would it be true to say that fallen men accuse God of not doing a very good job of preserving His creation? Fallen man sees in history, and when looks around the planet, death and decay. “So how then…”, says fallen man, “How then can God be preserving the universe and all its creatures?” Fallen man sees only chaos and blind forces directing history and creation when he looks around. God is invisible to him. Therefore, fallen man does not see the invisible hand of God at work. But what does fallen man think is holding the universe together? Crazy Glue? Gaffer tape?

But even sadder than the plight of fallen man is the plight of some Christians today. Some Christians think that God has handed over control of the universe to the Devil! They, too, consider history and look around at the world today and conclude that it’s chaotic. Therefore, it seems that God is invisible to them also! They, too, do not see the invisible hand of our God at work. But we have to keep reminding ourselves of what God says to fallen man, “‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,’ says the LORD” (Isa. 55:8).

When fallen man considers creation and the death and decay in it, he can’t help but think to himself, “If God is in control, He has a strange way of showing it!” So, how can we say that God is preserving His creation when things in His creation die? How can we say that when, according to the 2^nd Law of Thermodynamics, entropy, Creation itself is dying? But is all creation dying and decaying, and slowly grinding to a halt? Will there come a day, if things keep going the way they are, when the universe will have used up all its energy and become a “flat line” because of entropy? Well, let me reassure you that God is still preserving His creation. How He does it is His business.

Could I suggest a better way to God for preserving His universe rather than allowing death and decay? Maybe! But then again, His thoughts are not my thoughts. Therefore, though I perhaps might not understand how God is preserving His creation, surely, I must concede that He is preserving it, even though I might not understand it? Therefore, I must conclude that death and decay in creation are part of God’s preservation.

So, does this mean to suggest that paradoxically things must die in order to be preserved? Well, I ask you, why then did Jesus Christ die if it wasn’t to preserve God’s creation? “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son…” But you might ask, What about all those creatures that have become extinct? Aren’t they lost forever? And what about all those books that were lost in the fire in the Great Library of Alexandria? What about all those great paintings, and great works of art, that have perished through the ages. Well, I ask you, is God able to preserve or not? Do you think because something has burned in a fire God cannot restore it? Do you think because something has decayed in the ground that God cannot restore it? Of course He can. But will He? That is the question. Will He? We know that God can restore the years the locusts have eaten. For the LORD blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning.

Now, the proof that God is able to restore is in the raising of Jesus Christ, isn’t it? Did God preserve Jesus Christ even in death? Of course He did. Christ’s human body didn’t even see any decay while He was dead. But here’s something I don’t want you to miss, because a lot of what we’re looking at is answered by it. Did God receive back His own Son from the dead or just some replacement? Jesus went to great lengths to demonstrate to His disciples that it was He and not another. He invited Thomas to put His fingers in the nail prints and so forth. So, God, in the raising of Jesus from the dead, halted and reversed the death and decay process.

And does not all creation now belong to the Man, the God-Man, Jesus Christ? But what about those creatures that have become extinct? Are they not part of ALL creation? What about all the books, the paintings, the works of art? Are they not part of all creation? And what about you and me? Are we not part of all creation? Is God able to raise us from the dead? But what if your body becomes dust and is scattered to the four winds?

Do you see what I’m driving at? Either God is able to preserve all creation as opposed to just SOME of it or He is not able. Which do you think? All of it? Me too! Therefore, where in the Bible does it say that any created thing is ever lost for all eternity?

Now, I know what you’re thinking. What about the Devil? What about the demons? What about the non-elect? What about all their works? Well, the truth of the matter is that none of these will have any part in the LORD’s restored and renewed and everlasting creation. And don’t forget, God is even right now preserving them for the Day of Judgment. E.g., “And the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own habitation, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day…” (Jude 6).

So, don’t think for a moment that anything has disappeared forever just because it has changed its chemical composition, i.e., has become dead or decayed into powder, even dust. If God is able to reconstitute the human body, then a book or a picture or a work of art, or even a sparrow can be restored (though see Ecclesiastes 3:21). Yes, this old creation will be purged by fire on the last day. But out of those flames, like the mythical rising phoenix, comes “…the new heavens and the new earth in which righteousness dwells” (2 Pet. 3:13).

The rising phoenix is a myth, but the new heavens and earth are for real. They are as real as the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ, Creation’s Redeemer. “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him” (1 Cor. 2:9).

The Psalmist in Psalm 145:17ff. says, “The LORD is righteous in all His ways, gracious in all His works. The LORD is near to all who call upon Him, to all who call upon Him in truth. He will fulfil the desire of those who fear Him; He also will hear their cry and save them. The LORD preserves all who love Him, but all the wicked He will destroy.”

The LORD preserves all who love Him. Have not Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob been preserved by God as Jesus says?  Then God truly is the God of the living, and all things live and move and have their being in Him.

Governing

To govern is to rule or direct by right or authority. It is also to influence or guide or control actions. God governs all His creatures and all their actions. This, of course, is an anathema to the non-Christian. He’s still operating under the old Covenant of Works (or “Covenant of Life” as it’s sometimes called).

Under the Covenant of Works Adam, as man’s Covenant or Federal Head, or Covenant Representative before God, declared autonomy from God by eating the forbidden fruit. Hence every unregenerate child of Adam detests the very notion of God’s absolute sovereignty over all creation.  However, having said that, there are many in the Covenant Community who also think this way. They detest with a passion the orthodox confessions of the Church after its Reformation. They still cling to the faulty idea of the autonomy of man in the universe. But as the Reformed Confessions state, as summarized in Westminster Shorter Catechism 11, God governs all His creatures and all their actions.

Think about it, if God didn’t govern or rule all His creatures and their actions, then how could He preserve His universe? How could He be sure that some thing or being would not thwart whatever plan He had? Indeed, this is the belief of many who follow the teaching of Dispensationalism. But the Calvinist, i.e., the consistently Reformed Christian, believes that if the Bible says God is Sovereign in all things, then God is Sovereign in all things in all places and at all times!

Is Jesus Christ the Lord of lords and the King of kings? Or is He just the Lord of some lords and the King of some kings? Well, is Almighty God all mighty over all things or just some things? Is He Governor over all creatures and all their actions? Or is He just Governor over some creatures and some of their actions?

Do you see what I’m driving at? If there is any part of creation that is not under the government of God, then that part of creation is independent of God. It is autonomous. But David the Psalmist says of the LORD in Psalm 103:19, “The LORD has established His throne in heaven, and His kingdom rules over all.” And the writer to the Hebrews informs us that God upholds “ALL THINGS by the Word of His Power” (Heb. 1:3). And Jesus says of God in Matthew 10 that not even one little sparrow falls to the ground without the Father’s will!

He is sovereign right down to the number of hairs we have on our heads – that’s sovereignty! But what about those rebellious creatures such as demons and unregenerate men? What about the Devil?  How can we say that God governs him and his actions and them and their actions? This is one of those places where some people become undone. This is one of those places where sound theology can begin to unravel. So, let’s be careful here. So again, let me remind you what the LORD says, “The LORD is righteous in all His ways, gracious in all His works” (Psa. 145:17). God then, is not the Author of sin. He does not make any moral creature sin. For He is righteous in ALL His ways.

So, what are we to make of sin and evil in God’s Creation? If God governs all His creatures and all their actions, how do we account for sin? Well, first off, we all should agree to let God be God and govern the way He wants to govern! We’re told that God governs righteously. Therefore, God doesn’t sin when He governs.

Right, if I tell you to bring me a hammer and some nails knowing full well that you will not, does that mean I have made you to disobey me? The LORD says, “Get me a hammer and some nails.” “No!” says you. Who’s sinning you or God? You! Now, would the LORD be sinning if He knew beforehand that you would disobey? No. Why? Because you are the one who has been commanded to do an action, and, because you are the one who is refusing to do it, therefore, it is you who are sinning, not the LORD.

But is the LORD sinning by withholding from you the knowledge of the fact that He knows that you will refuse to do what He has told you to do? Of course, the LORD is not sinning. He’s especially not sinning since He’s warned you of the dire consequences of your disobeying Him. So, the choice is all yours to obey or disobey. This was something of the case for Adam, Man’s Covenant Representative, before the Fall. But - and here’s where you need to put on your thinking cap - the LORD from all eternity had purposed or foreordained that Man, at a predetermined point in time, would bring Him a hammer and some nails. The fact is that God governed all His creatures and all their actions towards that end. God in His holy and wise counsel purposed therefore, or with intention permitted, Adam to disobey Him. And it was through this disobedience that Man would do what God had predetermined, which was that Man would bring the Lord a hammer and some nails – and that Man would use them to nail the LORD of glory to a tree!

You might think that this is all a bit strange that God would go to such great lengths to accomplish His great plan. But again, remember what He says, “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,’ says the LORD” (Isa. 55:8).

So, is God the Author of sin by determining the Fall of Man in the Garden for His own glory? Of course He isn’t. It was Man that sinned. The Fall of Man was all part of God working His purposes out. Louis Berkhof offers us some help here where he says, “The decree of God with reference to sin is usually called a permissive decree. It renders the future sinful act absolutely certain, but this does not mean that God will by His own act bring it to pass. God decreed not to hinder the sinful act of the creature’s self-determination, but nevertheless to regulate and control its result…”[1]

In a nutshell, God permissively decreed for Man to put to death the Son of Man. The Son of Man, Jesus Christ, is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world (Rev. 13:8b). Therefore, God permissively decreed that Man in time would put to death His only begotten Son.

So, does this mean that men didn’t sin when they brought the hammer and nails to the Lord and used them to pin Him to a cross? Of course, Man sinned by doing this even though it was what God purposely permitted or permissively decreed for them to do! As Peter puts it, “Him, being delivered by the determined counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death...” (Acts 2:23).

God had predetermined, even in eternity past for the good of Man. But Man in space and time did it out of rebelliousness against God. So, either way, God’s secret will was done! Man brought the Lord His hammer and nails. However, like the brothers of Joseph, Man meant it for evil, but God meant it for good. The question that remains is why? Answer? “For God so loved the world…” He did it because He loves His creation. He did it in order to preserve His creation forever.

Jesus Christ had to die in order to preserve God’s creation from everlasting destruction. Jesus Christ died as Substitute not only for you and me but also for ALL creation, (those foreordained for everlasting destruction excepted of course). So, this means that the death and decay of creation has been/will be reversed by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

This means that the curse God put on creation on account of Adam’s sin has been/will be lifted in Jesus Christ. It means that the 2^nd Law of Thermodynamics, i.e., entropy, need not apply for a job in the New Creation. Entropy has been reversed by the resurrection of Jesus Christ! In Him ALL things are new. Therefore, ALL creation is not grinding to a halt. ALL creation is not on an irreversible downward spiral into destruction!

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The Good News is that Jesus Christ is risen. He is risen indeed! His resurrection has changed things for this universe. So why do we Christians insist on basing our worldview on the Fall of Man instead of the Redemption of Man, even the Resurrection of Man, i.e., Jesus Christ? Don’t we know that God is powerfully preserving and governing all His creatures and their actions?

Don’t we know that by having Man nail His Son to a tree God has in principle set creation free from its bondage? Haven’t we learned from Christ’s death that death is one of God’s ways of preserving? We refrigerate things, we used to salt things, and we add chemicals to preserve things. We pickle things, but we’ve seen that God kills things, even His creatures, even His own creation, to preserve them and it.

The only way that this makes any sense to us is when we look at the birth, life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ the Son of God/Son of Man. If you look to Adam, Man’s Covenant Representative, you will see the death and decay of yourself and creation. But if you look to Jesus Christ, the new Adam, the Christian’s new Covenant Representative, you will see life and regeneration of yourself and creation. Therefore, keep on looking unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of our faith.

For Jesus said after His resurrection that ALL authority in heaven and on earth had been given to Him. Therefore, this means that He is now powerfully preserving all His creatures and all their actions. As Paul says to the Colossians, “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over ALL creation … ALL things were created through Him and FOR Him. And He is before ALL things and in Him ALL things consist” (Col. 1:15;16b-17).

Conclusion

We can rest assured that Jesus will do a good job of preserving and governing His creation. We can rest assured that His great enemy, the Devil, will have no victory whatsoever over Jesus. And we can rest assured that Jesus Christ is able to restore what the locusts have eaten. We can rest assured that of the increase of Christ’s government and peace there will be no end. Those who are in Christ have a wonderful future ahead of them.

We’ve looked all too briefly at God’s Works of Providence. And we’ve seen but a glimpse that, God’s works of providence are, His most holy, wise, and powerful preserving and governing all His creatures and all their actions.

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[1] Louis Berkhof, Manual of Christian Doctrine, (Eerdmans Publishing, Grand Rapids, Michigan,1933, reprinted November 1989), 86.

GOD CREATED MAN

 God Created Man

Westminster Shorter Catechism 10

Quest. How did God create man?

Ans. God created man male and female, after His own image, in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness, with dominion over the creatures.

Introduction

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On the sixth day the triune God created and formed man. Man is the crown of God’s creation. As He, the triune God, was just about to create man in His own image and likeness, the Godhead seemed to pause. We believe the pause at that point was for the three Persons to reaffirm the eternal covenant. For, as if looking at each of the other Persons in the triune Godhead God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth” (Gen. 1:26). Therefore the triune God used Himself as the blueprint or pattern for man, (indeed, with the Word who would become flesh fully in mind).

Out of the dust of the ground God made a mini representation of Himself. Of all the earthy and earthly creatures, only man was made in the image and likeness of God. Man, therefore, is a miniature of God on a creaturely level. Man, as God’s vicegerent or vice-regent, is to rule over all other creatures.

Now, it has long been debated among Christians as to whether man is made up of one part, two parts, or three parts. But let’s keep in mind that man is the image and likeness of God. Let’s be clear, there are no “parts” to God. God is one. God cannot be dissected. God does not consist of a father part, a son part, and a spirit part. No, there are no parts to God. Rather there are distinctions. Likewise, if man truly is the image and likeness of God, then man too is one. There is not, therefore, a body part, a soul part, and a spirit part to man. For each of us is rather one whole person consisting of body, soul, and spirit.

The Apostle Paul says, “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thess. 5:23). The Apostle in this verse would seem to refer then to the triune-God-reflecting nature of man, viz. spirit, soul, and body – i.e., the whole man.

When the triune God created Adam on the sixth day He created a whole person from the soil.  “The LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being” (Gen. 2:7).

There’s a very interesting and illuminating comment on this verse made by my old theological professor Dr Francis Nigel Lee,

 

“It is not stated that (only) man’s body is soil, as if his soul were a spark of divine non-soil! Rather it is stated that the (whole) man (comprising unannihilable soul and unannihilable body and unannihilable spirit) is soil (Gen. 3:19,23 & Ps. 103:14). For man is not monochotomous (or a one-part being) nor dichotomous (or a two-part being) or trichotomous (or a three-part being), but triunichotomous (or a trinifold being), cf. Gen. 1:26 & 1 Thess. 5:23 – as too is the Trinity Himself Whose image man is. For God and His image man are not monistic or dualistic nor tri-istic, but triune or Trinitarian. Moreover, that the whole man (soul-body-spirit) is essentially ‘earthy’ and ‘earthly,’ is also evidenced by the word for man here used in the original Hebrew (adam).”[1]

So much then for Plato’s “divine spark” or the “spark of divine non-soil” as Dr Lee calls it. For the whole you, not just our body, but body-soul-spirit, like Adam before us, is made of the dust of this earth.

Now, I know that this is not the popular view of man, but I believe it’s the biblical view. The triune God does not consist of parts; neither does His image. Man also reflects God who is Triune in the human family of father, mother, and child.

As God is One and Many so man is one and many. The same one person may be a father, husband, brother, and son all at the same time. He may, as they say, wear many different “hats” – plumber, soccer referee, president of the stamp-collectors’ club and so forth.

In the following we shall look at three aspects of man in particular, viz., Knowledge, Righteousness, and Holiness.

Knowledge

God alone has infinite knowledge of Himself and His creation. However, God imbued man with a true knowledge of God, of creation and of himself. We see indication of Adam’s true knowledge of God in the fact that God entered into a covenant with Adam.

Adam knew who God was and he understood God’s authority, even the terms of the covenant. For the LORD God commanded Adam not to eat the forbidden fruit. Also, Adam knew what all the birds and animals were. He catalogued them. He named them. He would have been glorifying God as he examined the creatures God had made. And it’s fair to say that Adam would have gained an even deeper knowledge of God through his study of God’s creation and the creatures in it.

And finally, Adam had a true knowledge of himself. He knew there were no animals comparable to himself. And what did he say when he saw Eve? “This is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called woman because she was taken out of man” (Gen. 2:24).

God created man male and female. So, Adam could tell you all about God, God’s creation, and man. He entered into God’s covenant. He gave names to the animals. And he called his wife “Eve,” because she was the mother of all living. By definition, this makes Adam a prophet. A prophet is able to recognize God’s truth and speak it forth for the benefit of others. “Woman, I’ll call you ‘Eve’ Why Eve? Because you are the mother of all living!”

So, Adam, in his role as prophet would have told his wife about God and His covenant. He would have been able to tell her all about the creatures God had made. And he certainly told Eve all about herself – “Mother of all living – bone of my bones, flesh of my flesh!” and so forth.

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So, we see then, that to have knowledge, true knowledge of God and His creation, and to share that knowledge makes one a prophet. A prophet by definition is one who forth-tells true knowledge. Yes, there were prophets in Scripture who would not only forth-tell but also foretell. But even so, whether forth-telling or foretelling, being a true prophet is all about having a true knowledge of God and telling others about Him.

Adam then, in that he was created with true knowledge of God, creation and himself, was a prophet. He was the Lord’s anointed prophet. He had knowledge in his understanding. But not only did God create Adam with true knowledge. Adam was also created in righteousness.

Righteousness

Adam was to subdue God’s creation, and he was to have dominion over God’s creatures. In his role of subduing and dominion he was to operate with the utmost respect for God. He was to deal justly in all roles. He was to act responsibly. In a word, Adam was to be righteous.

God created him in righteousness and Adam was to function righteously. In order to function righteously there needs to be a code of ethics. There needs to be a rule of Law for any kind of righteousness to exist. And so, Adam was to rule God’s creation according to God’s righteousness, which is to say that he was to rule according to God’s Law, which is an expression of God’s righteous character.

Adam wasn’t to make it up as he went along. He was created in God’s image with a true knowledge of God. So, it’s not hard to see that Adam was created with God’s Law written on his heart, as we say. Adam knew right from wrong in that he knew true from false. He could tell the difference between what is real and what is fake.

He didn’t know good and evil experientially. But he knew that good was doing God’s will, and evil was going against it. He knew it was right to believe God and accept everything He said as truth. He knew it was wrong to disobey God, for that would be to go against what is true. It would be to believe the lie instead of the truth. So, everything about Adam was righteous.

He willingly did everything according to the will of God. He had a righteous knowledge of God, a righteous knowledge of God’s creation. And he had a righteous knowledge of himself and the rest of mankind (at that time, his wife).

By definition, one who rules righteously is a king. Conversely, one who rules unrighteously is not a king but a despot! To be sure a wicked ruler might be called a king. But the reality is that a wicked ruler is a tyrant, not a king. A true king is one who rules righteously over his dominion. Adam therefore at his creation was a true king in every sense. He was like a sort of extension of God on earth. And it was God who ordained him, and it was God who crowned him. Therefore, Adam in the Garden was truly the Lord’s anointed king.

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Adam had dominion over all the creatures of the earth, the sea, and the sky. And something we tend not to think about, Adam had dominion over himself. He ruled over his own affections, feelings or emotions. In other words, Adam was able to control himself. He exercised self-control.

With his true knowledge and his righteousness Adam was the ideal person to represent God on earth. He wouldn’t do anything out of ignorance. To be sure, Adam didn’t have infinite knowledge. But, if there were something he wasn’t sure of, he would have been able to righteously consider all the implications before he acted.

Righteousness means operating according to a set of principles. True righteousness is operating according to God’s true Law. The overarching principle that governed Adam’s kingship was God’s Moral Law. To be sure, the form of God’s Moral Law wouldn’t be exactly like the Ten Commandments as we know them. For the Ten Commandments presuppose sin. The Law of God for Adam before the Fall would have been in positive terms:

1.        Worship God exclusively.

2.        Worship God spiritually.

3.        Worship God sincerely.

4.       Worship God as He will to be worshipped.

5.        Respect authority.

6.        Respect the life and rights of others.

7.        Be pure and loyal.

8.       Be honest.

9.        Be truthful.

10.     Be happy and content.

I got that list from Dr. Francis Nigel Lee who got it from a fellow by the name of Yost. But anyhow, it simply shows the Ten Commandments stated positively. The way it’s presented in the Ten Commandments as given at Mount Sinai presumes that man is already fallen. But needless to say, Adam was created in an upright or unfallen state. As it says in Ecclesiastes 7:29: “God made man upright.”

Therefore, like Jesus Christ, Adam didn’t need the constant reminder of what constitutes the breaking of God’s Law. He had true knowledge, and he had been created with a bias toward doing what is right. Therefore, he knew how to rule in righteousness. He didn’t have to be taught like those after the fall. Hence Adam had the Ten Commandments on his heart in their positive form, which is to say that he knew how to love God with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his mind, and love his neighbour as himself. He knew how to do unto others as he would have them do to him.

Before the Fall, the “Law of Love” lodged in his heart. Adam was righteous and he acted in righteousness. He had righteousness in his will. He was the Lord’s appointed and anointed king.

Thus far we’ve seen that Adam was created in knowledge. And that on account of his use of this true knowledge he was a true prophet. And we’ve also seen that Adam was created righteous. And that on account of his acting on this true righteousness he was also a true king.

Holiness

When something is holy it is said to be set apart, sanctified, and pure. The very first commandment speaks of the holiness, i.e., the set apartness of God. “You shall have no other God’s before Me” (Exod. 20:3). Or as Adam would have known that Commandment before the Fall, “Worship God exclusively.”

God is exclusive – there are no other gods like Him. God alone is God. Man is exclusive. There are no other creatures comparable to him. Man alone is man. Big Foot, Sasquatch, Yeti, the Abominable Snowman are not man. Neither are gorillas or chimpanzees even close to man. Man alone is man just as God alone is God. However, man is like God in that man like God is holy. Man was, consecrated, set apart by God to use his true knowledge to rule in righteousness in the service of God.

Adam was created in holiness to serve God in whose image and likeness he was made. Therefore, Adam was to put God first in all his undertakings. He was to worship God exclusively. Therefore, this by definition makes Adam a Priest.

A priest is one who ministers on behalf of others. Adam served or ministered to God. And as an individual he was designed by God to serve or minister to his fellow man. He was designed with a pure heart of love toward God and love toward neighbour. In other words, Adam had holiness in all his affections, which is to say that he had a disposition toward serving God and his fellow man. His bias was toward caring about and for others even more than he cared for himself. Therefore, Adam wasn’t created as a neutral being. He was created to love God with all his heart, with all his soul, with all his strength and with all his mind, and love his neighbour as himself.

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Therefore, Adam was a true priest. For a true priest intercedes on behalf of others. And of course, before the Fall, Adam wasn’t interceding in any sense of dispute. Rather, his intercession was on behalf of the wellbeing of himself, his wife and future family. He was the Lord’s appointed and anointed Priest. As Thomas Vincent put it “[Adam had] knowledge in his understanding, righteousness in his will, [and] holiness in his affections.”[2]

We must note, of course, that Adam rebelled against God. He broke God’s Covenant when he ate the forbidden fruit. And in this we see that Adam’s knowledge, righteousness, and holiness were corrupted by sin. Adam, therefore, became a false prophet, a false king, and a pseudo-priest.

The Apostle Paul spells some of this out in Romans chapter one. “[Man] exchanged the truth of God for the lie…” (Rom. 1:25). Paul is saying that the Fall made man’s knowledge corrupt. The prophet no longer speaks according to knowledge in understanding. But his foolish heart was darkened. Therefore, man in Adam became a false prophet espousing much false knowledge.

One only has to look around at the false religion and the pseudo-science that pervades the world today to see evidence of this. Man, in our own day, has re-catalogued and renamed all the animals according to a Darwinian template. Man no longer is made in the image and likeness of God, say the pseudo-scientists. Man now is thought to be a by-product of time and chance. Therefore, man has lost the true knowledge of God, God’s creation, and of himself.  In brief, because of the Fall, man no longer knows who he truly is, or what is his true purpose. This is what happens when you exchange the truth of God for the lie. Fallen man, then, is a not a true prophet. He is a false prophet.

The Apostle Paul also goes on to say, “[Man] exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator…” (Rom. 1:25). In this we see that man has lost his righteousness and holiness. He was to righteously rule over all creation and its creatures as king. But now he, in all unrighteousness, worships the created things of God rather than God exclusively.

Man no longer rules according to God’s Law. But he rules according to what he understands to be the “Law of Nature.” But his understanding of God, His creation (i.e. nature) and himself is not according to true knowledge.  To be sure, fallen man can fire rockets to the moon, and design and build computers. However, he is supposed to be subduing the earth and ruling over its creatures to the glory of God alone. In order to glorify God alone man must operate righteously, which is to say that man must rule according to the principles of God’s Moral Law. However, man goes to two extremes. He either lets nature rule over him, (for example, like some North American Indians, and some Australian Aboriginals), or he exploits nature (perhaps like, for example, some Western mining Corporations, and some Japanese Whalers and such like).

Fallen man either abuses fallen creation, or he lets fallen creation abuse him. But either way, it is an abuse of his God-given kingly rule. Man is supposed to rule nature for God in all righteousness. But instead, he worships and serves the creature rather than the Creator. Man therefore, since the Fall, is a pseudo-king. And, as we’ve just seen, he is also a pseudo-priest.

Instead of serving God and his fellow man, fallen man serves creation, i.e. the creature. And he abuses these things. As a pseudo-priest he intercedes on behalf of trees, whole rainforests. He intercedes on behalf of whales, koalas, and rare tree frogs, etc. Yet he turns a blind eye to the plight of the millions of unborn infant human beings who are being murdered by abortion daily.

Fallen man is very affectionate toward creation but is not so affectionate toward his fellow man. It’s good to care about creation and look after it, for that’s what man was designed to do. However, we are to do these things in holiness, in our priestly service to God. But instead fallen man views creation apart from the living and true God. Therefore, in his heart and in his actions, he serves the creation exclusively to his own end.

Fallen man, then, is a pseudo-priest, a pseudo-prophet, and a pseudo-king. But the Good News is that God has done something about this. In Colossians 3:9-10 the Christian is told that he has: “put off the old man with his deeds [and has] put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him.”

So, the Christian is renewed in knowledge. This means that the Christian has had his understanding of God, God’s creation, and himself renewed. To be sure the renewed man still suffers the effects of the Fall. But all in all, with his renewed knowledge he can now tell others true knowledge about God, God’s creation, and himself. By definition, this makes him a true prophet, so long as he doesn’t contradict God’s Word.

And also we read these words in Ephesians 4:24, “Put on the new man which was created according to God, in righteousness and true holiness.” So, we see then that the Christian has also regained righteousness and true holiness. He is now able to rule once more as God’s vicegerent in accordance with God’s Law. Although still suffering from the effects of the Fall he is able to subdue his own sinful affections progressively. The Christian has been consecrated or set apart by God. Although he is already sanctified, he becomes progressively more sanctified as he applies the knowledge God has given him to his daily living.

By definition this makes the Christian a true king in that he rules righteously. And also, because he is renewed in true holiness, he is able to serve God and his fellow man, which is to say that he is now able to love God and his neighbour as himself. This is illustrated by his actions toward God’s worship and glory and his dealings toward man. Like a true priest he now intercedes on behalf of others before the throne of God.

Conclusion

The Christian is renewed in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness. In brief, the Christian is renewed as knowledgeable prophet, righteous king, and holy priest. However, there is one Man who is THE true Prophet, THE true King, and THE true Priest. He is, as the writer to the Hebrews says, the “express image” of God’s Person.

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It is in Jesus Christ that the Christian is prophet, king, and priest. Because it is in Him that the Christian has true knowledge, true righteousness, and true holiness. He, Jesus Christ, is the new Man, the new Adam. Jesus Christ is the new and everlasting replacement for the Fallen Adam. Therefore, if we want to see what man is supposed to be, we look to Jesus Christ.

He is the true Prophet in that He is the Word of God become flesh. He is the knowledge of God incarnate. He is the true King in that He rules in righteousness. He is the true Priest in that He is truly Holy. And, as our High Priest, He intercedes on behalf of His people. 

Jesus redeems the whole man, body-soul-spirit. We know this because Jesus is a whole man, body-soul-spirit. And as such He was raised from the dead. And it was the whole Man, body-soul-spirit, who ascended into Heaven. Jesus is not half a Saviour; nor is He a third or two-thirds of a Saviour. Therefore, I urge you to keep on trusting in Jesus for total salvation, body-soul-spirit.

We asked the question as it is found in Westminster Shorter Catechism Q&A 10: How did God create man? And we saw something of the fact that God created man male and female, after His own image, in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness, with dominion over the creatures.

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[1] Francis Nigel Lee, Creation and Commission: A New Translation and Commentary on Genesis One Through Three, Jesus Lives Series, Tallahassee, Florida, no date, footnote g, 19.

[2] Thomas Vincent, The Shorter Catechism Explained from Scripture, The Banner of Truth Trust, Edinburgh, Scotland, first published 1674, 1980 edition, 48.