Part 3 (2/2)

Many through the centuries have declared themselves unable to believe in the basic wisdom of a world wherein so much appears to be so wrong. Voltaire in his Candide introduces a determined optimist, whom he calls Dr. Pangloss, and into his mouth puts all the arguments for the 'best-of-all-possible-worlds' philosophy. Of course the French cynic took keen delight in placing the old professor in situations that made his philosophy look ridiculous.

But the Christian view of life is altogether more realistic than that of Dr. Pangloss with his 'sufficient reason.' It is that this is not at the moment the best of all possible worlds, but one lying under the shadow of a huge calamity, the Fall of man.

The inspired writers insist that the whole creation now groans and travails under the mighty shock of the Fall. They do not attempt to supply 'sufficient reasons'; they a.s.sert that the 'creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope.' No effort here to justify the ways of G.o.d with men; just a simple declaration of fact. The being of G.o.d is its own defense.

But there is hope in all our tears. When the hour of Christ's triumph arrives, the suffering world will be brought out into the glorious liberty of the sons of G.o.d. For men of the new creation the golden age is not past but future, and when it is ushered in, a wondering universe will see that G.o.d has indeed abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence. In the meantime we rest our hope in the only wise G.o.d, our Saviour, and wait with patience the slow development of His benign purposes.

In spite of tears and pain and death we believe that the G.o.d who made us all is infinitely wise and good. As Abraham staggered not at the promises of G.o.d through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving the glory to G.o.d, and was fully persuaded that what He had promised He was able to perform, so do we base our hope in G.o.d alone and hope against hope till the day breaks. We rest in what G.o.d is. I believe that this alone is true faith. Any faith that must be supported by the evidence of the senses is not real faith. 'Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.'

The testimony of faith is that, no matter how things look in this fallen world, all G.o.d's acts are wrought in perfect wisdom. The incarnation of the Eternal Son in human flesh was one of G.o.d's mighty deeds, and we may be sure that this awesome deed was done with a perfection possible only to the Infinite. 'Without controversy great is the mystery of G.o.dliness: G.o.d was manifest in the flesh.

Atonement too was accomplished with the same flawless skill that marks all of G.o.d's acts. However little we understand it all, we know that Christ's expiatory work perfectly reconciled G.o.d and men and opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers. Our concern is not to explain but to proclaim. Indeed I wonder whether G.o.d could make us understand all that happened there at the cross. According to the apostle Peter not even angels know, however eagerly they may desire to look into these things.

The operation of the gospel, the new birth, the coming of the divine Spirit into human nature, the ultimate overthrow of evil, and the final establishment of Christ's righteous kingdom - all these have flowed and do flow out of G.o.d's infinite fullness of wisdom. The sharpest eyes of the honest watcher in the blest company above cannot discover a flaw in the ways of G.o.d in bringing all this to fruition, nor can the pooled wisdom of seraphim and cherubim suggest how an improvement might be made in the divine procedure. 'I know that, whatsoever G.o.d doeth, it shall be for ever: nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it: and G.o.d doeth it, that men should fear before him.'

It is vitally important that we hold the truth of G.o.d's infinite wisdom as a tenet of our creed; but this is not enough. We must by the exercise of faith and by prayer bring it into the practical world of our day-by-day experience.

To believe actively that our Heavenly Father constantly spreads around us providential circ.u.mstances that work for our present good and our everlasting well-being brings to the soul a veritable benediction. Most of us go through life praying a little, planning a little, jockeying for position, hoping but never being quite certain of anything, and always secretly afraid that we will miss the way. This is a tragic waste of truth and never gives rest to the heart.

There is a better way. It is to repudiate our own wisdom and take instead the infinite wisdom of G.o.d. Our insistence upon seeing ahead is natural enough, but it is a real hindrance to our spiritual progress. G.o.d has charged himself with full responsibility for our eternal happiness and stands ready to take over the management of our lives the moment we turn in faith to Him.

Here is His promise: 'And I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not; I will lead them in paths that they have not known: I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them, and not forsake them.'

Let Him lead the blindfold onwards, Love needs not to know; Children whom the Father leadeth Ask not where they go.

Though the path be all unknown, Over moors and mountains lone.

Gerhard Teersteegen G.o.d constantly encourages us to trust Him in the dark. I will go before thee, and make the crooked places straight: I will break in pieces the gates of bra.s.s, and cut in sunder the bars of iron: and I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that thou mayest know that I, the Lord, which call thee by thy name, am the G.o.d of Israel.'

It is heartening to learn how many of G.o.d's mighty deeds were done in secret, away from the prying eyes of men or angles.

When G.o.d created the heavens and the earth, darkness was upon the face of the deep. When the Eternal Son became flesh, He was carried for a time in the darkness of the sweet virgin's womb. When He died for the life of the world, it was in the darkness, seen by no one at the last. When He arose from the dead, it was ,'very early in the morning.' No one saw Him rise. It is as if G.o.d were saying, 'What I am is all that need matter to you, for there lie your hope and your peace. I will do what I will do, and it will all come to light at last, but how I do it is My secret. Trust Me, and be not afraid.'

With the goodness of G.o.d to desire our highest welfare, the wisdom of G.o.d to plan it, and the power of G.o.d to achieve it, what do we lack? Surely we are the most favored of all creatures.

In all our Maker's grand designs, Omnipotence, with wisdom, s.h.i.+nes; His works, through all this wondrous frame, Declare the glory of His Name.

Thomas Blacklock

Chapter 12.

The Omnipotence of G.o.d Our Heavenly Father, we have heard Thee say, 'I am the Almighty G.o.d; walk before me, and be thou perfect.' But unless Thou dost enable us by the exceeding greatness of Thy power how can we who are by nature weak and sinful walk in a perfect way?

Grant that we may learn to lay hold on the working of the mighty power which wrought in Christ when Thou didst raise Him from the dead and set Him at Thine own right hand in the heavenly places. Amen.

In the time of his vision John the Revelator heard as it were the voice of a great mult.i.tude and as the voice of many waters and as the voice of mighty thunderings sounding throughout the universe, and what the voice proclaimed was the sovereignty and omnipotence of G.o.d: 'Alleluia: for the Lord G.o.d omnipotent reigneth.

Sovereignty and omnipotence must go together. One cannot exist without the other. To reign, G.o.d must have power, and to reign sovereignly, He must have all power. And that is what omnipotent means, having all power. The word derives from the Latin and is identical in meaning with the more familiar almighty which we have from the Anglo-Saxon. This latter word occurs fifty-six times in our English Bible and is never used of anyone but G.o.d. He alone is almighty.

G.o.d possesses what no creature can: an incomprehensible plenitude of power, a potency that is absolute. This we know by divine revelation, but once known, it is recognized as being in full accord with reason. Grant that G.o.d is infinite and self-existent and we see at once that He must be all-powerful as well, and reason kneels to wors.h.i.+p before the divine omnipotence.

'Power belongeth unto G.o.d,' says the psalmist, and Paul the apostle declares that nature itself gives evidence of the eternal power of the G.o.dhead (Rom 1:20). From this knowledge we reason to the omnipotence of G.o.d this way: G.o.d has power. Since G.o.d is also infinite, whatever He has must be without limit; therefore G.o.d has limitless power, He is omnipotent. We see further that G.o.d the self-existent Creator is the source of all the power there is, and since a source must be at least equal to anything that emanates from it, G.o.d is of necessity equal to all the power there is, and this is to say again that He is omnipotent.

G.o.d has delegated power to His creatures, but being self-sufficient, He cannot relinquish anything of His perfections and, power being one of them, He has never surrendered the least iota of His power. He gives but He does not give away. All that He gives remains His own and returns to Him again. Forever He must remain what He has forever been, the Lord G.o.d omnipotent.

One cannot long read the Scriptures sympathetically without noticing the radical disparity between the outlook of men of the Bible and that of modern men. We are today suffering from a secularized mentality. Where the sacred writers saw G.o.d, we see the laws of nature. Their world was fully populated; ours is all but empty. Their world was alive and personal; ours is impersonal and dead. G.o.d ruled their world; ours is ruled by the laws of nature and we are always once removed from the presence of G.o.d.

And what are these laws of nature that have displaced G.o.d in the minds of millions? Law has two meanings. One is all external rule enforced by authority, such as the common rule against robbery and a.s.sault. The word is also used to denote the uniform way things act in the universe, but this second use of the word is erroneous. What we see in nature is simply the paths G.o.d's power and wisdom take through creation. Properly these are phenomena, not laws, but we call them laws by a.n.a.logy with the arbitrary laws of society.

Science observes how the power of G.o.d operates, discovers a regular pattern somewhere and fixes it as a 'law.' The uniformity of G.o.d's activities in His creation enables the scientist to predict the course of natural phenomena. The trustworthiness of G.o.d's behavior in His world is the foundation of all scientific truth. Upon it the scientist rests his faith and from there he goes on to achieve great and useful things in such fields as those of navigation, chemistry, agriculture, and the medical arts.

Religion on the other hand, goes back of the nature of G.o.d. It is concerned not with the footprints of G.o.d along the paths of creation, but with the One who treads those paths. Religion is interested primarily in the One who is the source of all things, the master of every phenomenon. For this One philosophy has various names, the most horrendous that I have seen being that supplied by Rudolph Otto: 'The absolute, the gigantic, never-resting active world stress.' The Christian delights to remember that this 'world stress' once said 'I AM' and the greatest teacher of them all directed His disciples to address Him as a person: 'When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.' The men of the Bible everywhere communed with this 'gigantic absolute' in language as personal as speech affords, and with Him prophet and saint walked in a rapture of devotion, warm intimate and deeply satisfying.

Omnipotence is not a name given to the sum of all power, but an attribute of a personal G.o.d we Christians believe to be the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and of all who believe on Him to life eternal. The wors.h.i.+pping man finds this knowledge a source of wonderful strength for his inner life. His faith rises to take the great leap upward into the fellows.h.i.+p of Him who can do whatever He wills to do, for whom nothing is hard or difficult because He possesses power absolute.

Since He has at His command all the power in the universe, the Lord G.o.d omnipotent can do anything as easily as anything else. All His acts are done without effort. He expends no energy that must be replenished. His self-sufficiency makes it unnecessary for Him to look outside of Himself for a renewal of strength. All the power required to do all that He wills to do lies in undiminished fullness in His own infinite being.

The Presbyterian pastor A. B. Simpson, approaching middle age, broken in health, deeply despondent and ready to quit the ministry, chanced to hear the simple Negro spiritual, Nothing is too hard for Jesus, No man can work like Him.

Its message sped like an arrow to his heart, carrying faith and hope and life for body and soul. He sought a place of retirement and after a season alone with G.o.d arose to his feet completely cured, and went forth in fullness of joy to found what has since become one of the largest foreign missionary societies in the world. For thirty-five years after this encounter with G.o.d, he labored prodigiously in the service of Christ. His faith in G.o.d of limitless power gave him all the strength he needed to carry on.

Almighty One! I bend in the dust before Thee; Even so veiled cherubs bend; In calm and still devotion I adore Thee, All-wise, all-present friend Thou to the earth its emerald robe hast given, Or curtained it in sow; And the bright sun, and the soft moon in heaven, Before Thy presence bow.

Sir John Bowring

Chapter 13.

The Divine Transcendence O Lord our Lord, there is none like Thee in heaven above or in the earth beneath. Thine is the greatness and the dignity and the majesty. All that is in the heaven and the earth is Thine; Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever, O G.o.d, and Thou art exalted as head over all. Amen.

When we speak of G.o.d as transcendent we mean of course that He is exalted far above the created universe, so far above that human thought cannot imagine it.

To think accurately about this, however, we must keep in mind that 'far above' does not here refer to physical distance from the earth but to quality of being. We are concerned not with location in s.p.a.ce nor with mere alt.i.tude, but with life.

G.o.d is spirit, and to Him magnitude and distance have no meaning. To us they are useful as a.n.a.logies and ill.u.s.trations, so G.o.d refers to them constantly when speaking down to our limited understanding. The words of G.o.d as found in Isaiah, 'Thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity,' give a distinct impression of alt.i.tude, but that is because we who dwell in a world of matter, s.p.a.ce, and time tend to think in material terms and can grasp abstract ideas only when they are identified in some way with material things. In its struggle to free itself from the tyranny of the natural world, the human heart must learn to translate upward the language the Spirit uses to instruct us.

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