Almighty In Authority, part five

Well, here we are at the final part of this chapter. I hope I haven't lost too many readers, I certainly would be disappointed but God always has a plan. Like I said last night, I have been doing lots of my own research on the more unpleasant side of God and I plan on posting the Scripture I've found. I want to make sure that I'm not just taking this author's word for it, I want Biblical proof from God Himself. It actually wasn't hard to find, but more about that a little later. Right now, I want to give you the rest of this chapter for you to chew on. God bless!

The Culprit, continued

If, then, the judge of all the earth finds it in His best interests--finds it to be that which glorifies Him the most--to harden Pharaoh's heart, to ensure that Pharaoh will act stubbornly so God might work wonders before and for His people, He can do that. He does not merely wait for it to happen. He does not merely hope it will happen. He does not merely see ahead of time that it will happen. He makes sure it happens. He planned for it to happen, and He set things up to ensure it would happen.

He can, if He wants, hire someone to make it happen. If it is His desire, He can hire a character assassin. God could have, and might have, summoned His servant Satan. He might have said, "Satan, go on down there and get to work on Pharaoh. Make him mean, plenty mean. I've got a plan I'm working on."

But even if God works through secondary causes--hire someone else to do the work for Him--He cannot cease to be the primary cause. In a human trial, we recognize that hiring a hit man does not shift the blame from the hirer to the hiree. Both the trigger man and whoever ordered the hit stand trial fro the crime. And both can hang for it.

The same could apply to Adam and Eve and the fall. God might not have operated on Eve personally. He might not have flipped the switch, changing her inclinations from good to evil. He must, however, have been the ultimate cause. He could have set things up advance, arranged the possibilities such that it would happen. But as the sole creator and controller of those possibilities, the trail ultimately leads back to God.

It was His desire to make His wrath known. He needed, then, something on which to be wrathful. He needed to have sinful creatures. He wanted to make His mercy known. He needed, then, something that deserved wrath on which He could show mercy instead. All of this serves His eternal and ultimate desire, to glorify Himself.

Somehow, though, this doesn't seem quite so glorifying, does it? Somehow we think that this smears His character more than reveals His glory. Did He make a mistake? Did He, in trying to manifest His glory, instead somehow diminish it? Of course not.

Often when we think of God's glory we think of those things which impress us. We look out at a range of mountains, or a giant redwood tree, and think, "Wow, God, you sure are great to be able to make such beautiful things." When a new baby is born, we are reminded of God's glory. These are all legitimate responses to God's glorious works. The problem is that we praise Him more because we like what He has done, because it benefits us, than because He is pleased with it. His glorification of Himself is not ultimately dependent on our reaction of awe. It is His own reaction that matters. If He is pleased, then He is glorified, even if we think it's not so great. We don't oft think, for instance, of the glory God receives from the torment of souls in hell. We are willing to jump up and down praising God when He redeems a sinner, but when He damns one, we look away. Our problem is that we identify more with, or rather root more for, our fellow humans than for God. We are not as offended at sin as God is. We don't recognize the beauty of His wrath and so miss the glory in the execution of His wrath.

Naturally, then, we're going to have a terribly difficult time trying to see the glory in His bringing to pass the fall. Nevertheless, we ought to see the glory. We ought to jump up and down praising God for His strength, that He alone has the power and authority to change the inclinations of moral agents. More important, perhaps, we ought to be jumping up and down for the sublime wisdom of His plan. It is an incredible plan. He creates a world. He stamps His image upon two of His creatures. He declares them to be good. He then changes their inclination, either directly or indirectly, such that they fall into sin. That discordant note, however, resolves in an even greater harmony. For out of that very fall, He will will exercise His wrath and show His mercy. And how will He show His mercy and yet remain just? That is the glorious story of the incarnation, the crucifixion, the resurrection, and the ascension.

All these events in Eden were so that the Son might glorify the Father and the Spirit, that the Spirit might glorify the Son and the Father, and that the Father might glorify the Spirit and the Son. It all hinges on the fall, on the changing of Eve's (and Adam's) inclination from good to bad, an event which was, on the one hand, a terrible tragedy but, on the other, the means by which God might be glorified.

All the rest of history, not just Biblical or church history, but all of history, is the unfolding of this plan, of His plan. It is the story of His acting for His glory. He acts not to impress us, not to make us happy and comfortable, but to manifest His awesome strength and authority... He is sovereign; there's no great mystery in that.

The above quote was copied from the book
Almighty Over All, Understanding the Sovereignty of God
by R. C. Sproul Jr
Published by Baker Books