"Confident In His Confidence"

     God is supremely confident of Himself and in His ability to fulfill His determinations.  "Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh.  Is anything too hard for me?" (Jeremiah 32:27).

    Only a Creator sure of Himself could grant to angelic and human beings the freedom to rebel against him and disobey Him in the foreknowledge that such a moral calamity would transpire.  Indeed, our Lord know that He can weave all things into His ultimate purposes, including both righteouness and unrighteousness.  The former He determines by providing the power necessary for obedience in those who trust Him.  The latter He allows, at the greatest cost to Himself, the very sacrifice of His beloved Son on the cross of Calvary.   All occurs as "God… worketh all things after the counsel of His own will" (Ephesians 1:3; 11).   Such working does not imply the Lord's determination of rebellion and sin.  Note that the Apostle Paul does not suggest that God works all things after the "forced implementation" of His will, but rather by it's "counsel."   Again, He knew and He knows that nothing can thwart His "eternal purpose in Christ Jesus," being supremely confident of His ability to weave all things together for the ultimate fulfillment of His intentions (Ephesians 3:11).  

    We must ourselves embrace this confidence, this confidence of God in Himself.  Is anything too hard for Him?  And does He always act in full awareness of His own abilities?  In principle, every believer will strongly respond in the affirmative.  In practice, however, we may not be so sure.  Or at least, we may behave as if we are not completely confident in God's confidence in Himself.  Moreover, we may also succumb to a weak doctrinal view of our Lord, believing that He must impose His will on free beings in order to fulfill His purposes.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  God is not some grand chessmaster, moving hapless pieces on a cosmic gameboard in order to achieve His ultimate intention and victory.  Nor does He need to be.  Our Lord rather knew from everlasting that making free angels and humans would require far more wisdom, power, involvement, and most of all, love, than any chessmaster could possibly muster. Creation would necessitate the determination and empowerment of glorious good.  Creation would also necessitate the allowance of evil, and most horrifically, the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Both actualities would transpire within the scope and measure of God's purposes and His confidence that He could and would fulfill His ultimate will.  This He knows.  This we must believe about Him, namely, that He is that glorious, that powerful, that involved, and that loving.  Moreover, we must be confident in God's confidence not merely in principle, but along the pathways of life whereupon faith discovers not merely a chessmaster.  We rather find an infinitely wise and devoted Father more intricately involved in creation and in our lives than we can possibly fathom.  Little wonder that the Apostle Paul proclaimed His Lord's knowledge to be unfathomable, and His devoted involvement to be complete…

"Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!  How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out!" 

(Romans 11:33).

"For we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, and who are the called according to His purposes."

(Romans 8:28)

Weekly Memory Verse

    Ye are not in the flesh but in the spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you.

(Romans 8:9)