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The Sovereignty of God


John Murray


The sovereignty of God I take to be the absolute authority, rule, and
government of God in the whole of that reality that exists distinct from
Himself in the realms of nature and of grace. It is a concept that respects
His relation to other beings and to all other being and existence. It is,
therefore, a relative concept, or a concept of relation.

If God possesses and exercises this absolute authority, rule, and
government, the necessary presupposition of it is the oneness, or unity, of
God. It is a fact to which Scripture bears constant witness in a great
variety of contexts because it is a truth that underlies and determines the
whole superstructure of divine revelation.

An examination of this witness will show that it is not mere uniqueness or
supremacy or even transcendence in the realm of Deity. It is not as if there
were a host of lesser deities over whom God is supreme and therefore demands
from us supreme worship and devotion. It is rather that he alone is God.
"The Lord he is God; there is none else besides him." "He is God in heaven
above, and upon the earth beneath: there is none else" (Deut. 4:35, 39).
"Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God is one Lord" (Deut. 6:4). "See now that I,
even I, am he, and there is no god with me" (Deut. 32:39). "Thou art the
God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth" (2 Kings 19:15).

It is significant that it is precisely this line of Old Testament witness
that is appealed to by our Lord as the answer to the question, "What
commandment is the first of all?" "The first...is, Hear, O Israel; the Lord
our God is one Lord" (Mark 12:29). And the necessary consequence for us is,
"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul,
and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength" (Mark 12:30). "Thou shalt
worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve" (Matt. 4:10). The
pivotal character of the oneness of God appears, for example, in Paul's
Epistle to the Romans, when it is made the hinge upon which turns and hangs
no less important a doctrine than that of justification by faith. "Or is he
the God of the Jews only? Is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the
Gentiles also: seeing it is one God, which shall justify the circumcision by
faith, and uncircumcision through faith" (Rom. 3:29-31). And again in the
First Epistle to the Corinthians, the foundation that "to us there is but
one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord
Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him" (1 Cor. 8:6) is the
first principle regulative of worship.

The concept of divine sovereignty presupposes also the fact of creation,
that is, the origination of all other existence by the fiat of God. The
moment we posit the existence of anything independent of God in its
derivation of factual being, in that moment we have denied the divine
sovereignty. For even should we grant that now or at some point God has
assumed or gained absolute control over it, the moment we allow the
existence of anything outside of his fiat as its principle or origination
and outside of his government as the principle of its continued existence,
then we have eviscerated the absoluteness of the divine authority and rule.
Scripture is paramountly conscious of this fact, and so its witness to the
absolutely originative activity of God is pervasive. It does not depend
wholly upon a few well-known texts, however important these may be.

Perhaps no word expresses it more pointedly than that of the Psalm: "By the
word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the
breath of his mouth" (Ps. 33:6). The import is that the word, or breath of
God, breath being the symbol of His almighty, creative will, is the
antecedent, or prior cause, of all that is. "For he spake, and it was done;
he commanded, and it stood fast" (vs. 9). This mode of statement harks back
to the first chapter of Genesis, where on some eight occasions the
successive steps of the creative drama are introduced with the formula "and
God said."

God made heaven and earth; by his spirit the havens were garnished; he laid
the foundations of the earth; by wisdom he founded the earth; by
understanding he established the heavens; his hands stretched out the
heavens, and all their host he commanded; heaven and earth, his hand made,
and so all those things came to be; he made the sea and the dry land; he is
the first and the last, the Alpha and Omega; he is the beginning of
creation; by his will, heaven and earth were, and were created (2 Kings
19:15; Job 26:13; 38:4; Prov. 3:19; Isa. 42:5; 44:6; 45:12; 66:2; Jonah 1:9;
Rev. 1:8; 3:14; 4:8).

The piety on which the Scripture places its imprimatur is true piety; this,
we find, rests upon, and is necessarily suffused with, the recognition of
God's creatorhood. The address to God in adoration, prayer, and praise
begins with it; the address to men in law and gospel rests upon it. The
faith that is "the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not
seen," the faith through which the catalogue of saints had witness borne to
them that they were righteous, is the faith through which "we understand
that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are
seen were not made of things which do appear" (Heb. 11:3). And when Paul
made his appeal to the idolatrous Athenians that God now commandeth men that
they should all, everywhere repent, he began his address by saying, "God
that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven
and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands" (Acts 17:24).

If the sovereignty of God rests upon the fact of his oneness and upon the
fact of creation, it may be said to consist, first of all, in the right of
dominion and rule over all and in the fact of universal possession. The
Psalm sounds this note succinctly. "The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness
thereof" (Ps. 24:1). The prophets do the same when they affirm that he is
"the God of the whole earth" and as the "Most High ruleth in the kingdom of
men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will" (Isa. 54:5; Dan. 4:17, 25). In the
formula of Melchizedek and of Abraham, he is the "possessor of heaven and
earth" (Gen. 14:19, 22), and in the words of Paul, "in him we live, and
move, and have our being" (Acts 17:28).

But, secondly, sovereignty, as the right of dominion and the fact of
possession, comes to its full all-pervasive and efficient exercise in
government. As such it is (1) sovereignty exercised in accordance with
antecedent decree. What God decrees is infallibly determined and
accomplished. "Hast thou not heard," he protests, "long ago, how I have done
it, and of ancient times that I have formed it? now have I brought it to
pass, that thou shouldest be to lay waste fenced cities into ruinous heaps"
(2 Kings 19:25). "Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as
I have purposed, so shall it stand" (Isa. 14:24) "My counsel shall stand,
and I will do all my pleasure" (Isa. 26:10). In Job's words, "He is in one
mind, and who can turn him? And what his soul desireth, even that he doeth.
For he performeth the thing that is appointed for me: and many such things
are with him" (Job 23:13-14). "I know that thou canst do everything, and
that no thought can be withholden from thee" (Job 42:1-2). It is that "the
counsel of the Lord standeth forever, the thoughts of his heart to all
generations," that he "worketh all things according to the purpose of him
who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will" (Ps. 33:11; Eph.
1:11).

This purposive decree is not only stated positively but also negatively. No
purpose of his can be restrained, and every creature purpose that is
contrary must be frustrated. "For the Lord of hosts hath purposed, and who
shall disannul it? and his hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it
back?" (Isa. 14:27). "He maketh the devices of the people of none effect"
(Ps. 33:10). "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).

As sovereignty coming to all-pervasive and efficient exercise in government,
it is (2) sovereignty exercised with omnipotent and undefeatable efficiency.
The mighty hand of God is the executor of his will. He is the great, the
mighty, the terrible. He rideth upon the heavens and, in his excellency, on
the skies. There is none who can deliver out of his hand, for he frustrateth
the devices of the crafty, and the counsel of the cunning is carried
headlong. He breaketh down, and it cannot be built up again. There is no
wisdom nor understanding nor counsel against him. None can stay his hand nor
say unto him, "What doest thou?" for human might is of one sort with that of
the Egyptians, and they are men and not God, and their horses flesh and not
spirit (Deut. 10:17; 13:26; Job 5:12-13; 12:14; Prov. 21:30; Dan. 3:35; Isa.
31:3).

It is (3) sovereignty that is all-pervasive. This all-pervasiveness rests
upon his omnipresence. "Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall
I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I
make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the
morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there shall thy
hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me" (Ps. 139:7-10).

We may illustrate this all-pervasiveness in three of the ways in which
Scripture exhibits it:

(a) It respects the events of ordinary providence. It is God who gives rain
upon the earth and sends water upon the fields. He makes his sun to shine
upon the evil and the good: and sends rain on the just and the unjust. He
clothes the grass of the field, causing the grass to grow for cattle and
herb for the service of man. He feeds the birds of heaven. Not a sparrow
falls to the ground without his knowledge and will. He gives us our daily
bread. He gives wine that makes glad the heart of man oil that makes his
face to shine, and bread that strengthens man's heart. He crowns the years
with goodness and the paths drop fatness. He even gives that which is abused
and used in the service of another god. He gave grain and new wine, and the
oil, and multiplied silver and gold, which they used for Baal. He makes the
wind his messengers and flames of fire his ministers. The whole earth is
filled with his glory. So that the pious contemplation of his working brings
forth the exclamation of adoration: "O Lord, how manifold are thy works! in
wisdom hast thou made them all: the earth is full of thy riches" (Job 5:10;
Matt. 5:45; Ps. 104:4, 14-24; 63:11; Hos. 2:8).

(b) It respects the disposition of all earthly authority. He alone is God of
all the kingdoms of the earth. He removes kings and sets up kings, for as
the Most High, he rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whomsoever he
will. He sets up over them even the lowest of men. It is he that gives even
to ungodly men the kingdom, the power, the strength, and the glory. He
overthrows the throne and strength of kingdoms (Deut. 4:35, 39; 2 Kings
5:15; 9:15; Isa. 37:16; Dan. 4:11; 5:18, 21; Hag. 2:22).

The very division of the kingdom of Israel fraught with dire consequences
for the true worship of Jehovah was yet a thing brought about of the Lord
that he might establish his word (1 Kings 12-15). "Thus saith the Lord, Ye
shall not go up, nor fight against your brethren the children of Israel:
return every man to his house; for this thing is from me" (1 Kings 12:24).
For he ordains kings for judgment and establishes them for correction, so
that Assyria is the rod of his anger and the staff of his hand the divine
indignation to perform the divine judgment upon Mount Zion and on Jerusalem
(Hab. 1:12; Isa. 10:5, 12).

It is not simply, then, that the powers of civil government are ordained by
God to be the ministers of equity and good and peace, for the punishment of
evildoers and for the praise of them that do well (Rom. 13:3; 1 Pet. 2:14),
but it is also true that usurped and corrupt government that violates the
very principles of government itself is within the government of God and
fulfils his sovereign purpose. In perpetration of iniquity, they fill up the
cup of divine indignation. "Wherefore it shall come to pass, that when the
Lord hath performed his work upon Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, I will punish
the fruit of the stout heart of the king of Assyria, and the glory of his
high looks" (Isa. 10:12).

(c) It respects good and evil, so that even the sins of men come within the
scope of his rule and providence. "What," asks the oppressed and the
afflicted Job, bereft of flocks and herds and smitten with sore boils from
the sole of his foot unto the crown, "shall we receive good at the hand of
God and shall we not receive evil?" (Job 2:10). For "with God," he says
again, "is wisdom and strength, he hath counsel and understanding. Behold,
he breaketh down, and it cannot be built again; he shutteth up a man, and
there can be no opening" (Job 12:13-14). He forms the light and creates
darkness; he makes peace and creates evil. He kills and he makes alive; he
wounds and he heals (Isa. 45:7; Deut. 32:39). He "hath made all things for
himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil" (Prov. 16:4). "Shall
there be evil in a city, and the Lord hath not done it?" (Amos 3:9).

I am not in the least forgetful of the very acute problems raised by such
pronouncements of Scripture. It will be the task of other speakers at this
conference to deal with these in more detail, and I have no doubt but they
will be ably and judiciously handled. Nevertheless it does appear necessary
to the topic assigned me to affirm that the teaching of Scripture on the
divine sovereignty requires us to recognize with Calvin that all events are
governed by the secret counsel and directed by the present hand of God and
that God's omnipotence is not the vain, idle possession of potency but the
most vigilant, efficacious, and operative, "a power constantly exerted on
every distinct and particular movement" (Inst. I, xvi. 3). "Whence we
assert, that not only the heaven and the earth, and inanimate creatures, but
also the deliberations and volitions of men, are so governed by his
providence, as to be directed to the end appointed by it" (Inst. I, xvi. 8).

The problems raised come to their most acute expression in those instances
where the agency of God is affirmed in connection with what is not only evil
in the generic sense but evil in the specific sense of sin and wrongdoing.
It appears to me that Calvin again is right when he contends that "nothing
can be desired more explicit than His frequent declarations, that he blinds
the minds of men, strikes them with giddiness, inebriates them with the
spirit of slumber, fills them with infatuation, and hardens their hearts.
These passages also many persons refer to for permission, as though, in
abandoning the reprobate, God permitted them to be blinded by Satan. But
that solution is too frivolous, since the Holy Spirit expressly declares
that their blindness and infatuation are inflicted by the righteous judgment
of God. He is said to have caused the obduracy of Pharaoh's heart, and also
to have aggravated and confirmed it. Some elude the force of these
expressions with a foolish cavil-that since Pharaoh himself is elsewhere
said to have hardened his own heart, his own will is stated as the cause of
his obduracy; as though these two things were at all incompatible with each
other, that man should be actuated by God, and yet at the same time be
active himself. But I retort on them their own objection; for if hardening
denotes a bare permission, Pharaoh cannot properly be charged with being the
cause of his own obstinacy. Now, how weak and insipid would be such an
interpretation, as though Pharaoh only permitted himself to be hardened!
Besides the Scripture cuts off all occasion of such cavils. God says, 'I
will harden his heart'" (Inst. I. xviii. 2). 

In this connection it is noteworthy to observe that the prophet was
commanded to go and tell the people, "Hear ye indeed, but understand not;
and see ye indeed, but perceive not. Make the heart of this people fat, and
make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes lest they see with their eyes,
and hear with their ears and understand with their heart, and convert and be
healed" (Isa. 6:9-10). In the Gospels and Acts of the Apostles we have
allusion to this part of Isaiah's prophecy (see Matt. 13:14-15; John 12:40;
Acts 28:26-27). In Matthew and Acts the blinding of the eyes is represented
as the blinding on the part of the people of their own eyes; in John it is
represented as blinding on the part of God. This variation should serve to
remind us that the positive infliction on the part of God must not be
abstracted from the sinful condition of the heart, the moral perversity and
responsible action of those who are the subjects of the divine retribution.
Paul tells us that, because men will not receive the love of the truth that
they might be saved, "for this cause God shall send them strong delusion
[working of error], that they should believe a lie: that they all might be
damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness" (I
Thess. 2:11-12 cf; I Kings 22:19-23). But while we may not abstract the
divine infliction from the moral situation in which those concerned find
themselves, we must frankly acknowledge the reality of the divine action and
the sovereignty of his agency. "Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have
mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth" (Rom. 9:18).

Perhaps most familiar to us in the matter of the divine agency as it
respects evil are Acts 2:23; 4:28, where the arch-crime of human history is
referred to the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God and the
treatment meted out to Jesus. In the conspiracy devised against him by Herod
and Pontius Pilate and the Gentiles and the people of Israel is that which
the divine hand and counsel foreordained to come to pass.

We are now attempting-only very briefly-to show some of the ways in which
the witness of Scripture establishes the all-pervasiveness of the
sovereignty of God. When we find this sovereignty coming to expression in
the most unequivocal way, even in those acts of subordinate agents where
their moral responsibility is most intensely active in the perpetration of
wrong, we can hardly go any farther in demonstrating the all-inclusiveness
of it.

But just then we must ever remind ourselves that God contracts no defilement
or criminality from such agency. He is just in all his ways and holy in all
his works. While everything that occurs in God's universe finds its account,
as B. B. Warfield says, "in His positive ordering and active concurrence,"
yet "the moral quality of the deed, considered in itself, is rooted in the
moral character of the subordinate agent, acting in the circumstances and
under the motives operative in each instance" (Biblical Doctrines, p. 20).
God is not the author of sin. Sin is embraced in his decretive
foreordination; it is accomplished in his providence. But it is embraced in
his decree and effected in his providence in such a way as to insure that
blame and guilt attach to the perpetrators of wrong and to them alone.

And again there comes to us with renewed force the significance and even
preciousness of the truth that inscrutable mystery surrounds the divine
working. "As thou knowest not what is the way of the spirit, nor how the
bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child: even so thou knowest
not the works of God who maketh all" (Eccl. 11:5). We cannot rationalize it;
we cannot lay it bare so as to comprehend it. We bow in humble and
intelligent ignorance and reiterate, "Canst thou by searching find out God?
canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection? It is high as heaven: what
canst thou do? deeper than hell; what canst thou know? The measure thereof
is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea" (Job 11:7-9). His way is
in the sea and his path in the great waters. His footsteps are not known
(Ps. 77:19). Clouds and darkness are round about him. Yet, in accordance
with his holiness, Scripture never permits us to forget that justice and
judgment are the habitation of his throne (Ps. 89:14).

The sovereignty of God is in a unique and peculiar way exemplified in the
election to saving grace. In the Old Testament one of the most significant
episodes is the revelation of the redemptive name "Jehovah." There have been
various attempts to interpret the precise meaning of the name. The older
view that it expresses the self-determination, the independence, in the
soteric sphere, the sovereignty of God, appears to be the most acceptable
and tenable. It finds the key to its meaning in the formula, "I am that I
am" (Exod. 3:14). In all that God does for his people, he is determined from
within himself. Paraphrased, the formula would run, "What I am and what I
shall be in relation to my people, I am and shall be in virtue of what I
myself am. The rationale of my actions and relations, promises and purposes,
is in myself, in my free self-determining will."

The correlate of this sovereignty in the choice and salvation of his people
is the faithfulness and unchangeableness of God. He consistently pursues the
determinations that proceed from himself, and so his self-consistency
insures steadfastness and persistence in his covenant promises and purposes.
"For I am Jehovah, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not
consumed" (Mal. 3:6). [1] <http://opc.org/cce/sovereignty.html#footnote1> 

Perhaps the most plausible and subtle attempt to eliminate the sovereignty
of God in the election to saving grace is the interpretation that posits
foreknowledge in the diluted sense of foresight or prescience as the prius,
in the order of divine thought, in predestination to life. The locus
classicus in the argument is Romans 8:29. It is contended that the
foreknowledge spoken of is the divine foresight of faith, or, more
comprehensively, the divine foresight of the fulfilment on the part of men
of the conditions of salvation. Those whom he foreknew, therefore, are those
whom he foresaw as certain to fulfill the conditions of salvation.

It is thought that this removes the reason for the discrimination that
exists among men in the matter of salvation from the sovereign
discrimination and fore-ordination on the part of God to the sovereign
volition on the part of man. Of the Pelagian or Arminian conception of the
origin of faith, it must be understood that it makes no real difference that
the matter concerns the eternal decree of God. The question really is, what
is the crucial and determining factor in predestination to life? Is it a
sovereign act on the part of God or is it an activity or exercise of will on
the part of man? Once the predestinating decree of God is made contingent
upon the divine foresight of an autonomous action or decision on the part of
man, then it is that action on the part of man that accounts for
discriminating foreordination on the part of God. And so the sovereignty of
God in the election to life is eliminated at the crucial point.
Predestination is made to rest upon a condition resident in, or fulfilled
by, man.

If, for the sake of argument, we were to adopt this diluted interpretation
of the verb "foreknow" in Rom. 8:29, we are not to readily conclude that
what we call the particularistic exegesis would have to be abandoned and the
absolute sovereignty of God in the matter of election to life be eliminated.
If we say that the meaning of the verb "foreknow" in Rom. 8:29 is "whom he
foresaw as believing and persevering," we are not to think that we have
ended the matter, for we are compelled to ask the further question: Whence
this faith which God foresees?

The answer that Scripture itself affords is that faith itself is the gift of
God, not of course gift in some mechanical sense, but gift in the sense of
being graciously wrought in men by the operation and illumination of the
Spirit (see e.g. John 3:3-8; 6:44, 45, 65; Eph. 2:8; Phil. 1:21). Since
faith is thus given to some and not to others, and given to those who are
equally unworthy with those to whom it is not given, the ultimate reason is
that God is pleased thus to operate in some and not in others. The divine
foresight of faith, therefore, would presuppose an antecedent decree on the
part of God to work this faith in some and not in others. The foresight of
faith would have as its logical prius the sovereign determination to give
faith to them. And so even foresight would, on a biblical conception of the
origin of faith, throw us back on the sovereign determination of God.

This exegesis, however, though really providing no escape from the
sovereignty of God in the decree of salvation, is nevertheless not to be
favored, and that for the following reasons: (1) It is extremely unlikely
that Paul, in tracing our salvation to its source in the mind and will of
God, would have omitted reference to the originative decree, namely, the
decree to work faith.

(2) According to the teaching of Scripture in general and Paul in
particular, faith is included in, or associated with, klisis, and klisis is
in this very passage made the consequence of foreknowledge and
predestination. It cannot be both the condition of predestination and the
consequence of it. This consideration is confirmed by verse 28: "All things
work together for good to them that love God, to those who are the called
according to his purpose." If called according to his purpose, the purpose
is antecedent to the calling, and if faith is embodied in or associated with
calling, the purpose itself cannot be conditioned upon faith.

(3) This exegesis is in conflict with what is said to be the end of
predestination-conformity to the image of his Son. Conformity of this kind
is surely meant to include every phase of likeness to Christ. Conformity to
the image of the Son, no doubt, points to the ultimate perfection to which
the elect will attain. If so, then the whole process by which that
conformity is secured and realized must be in subordination to this end. In
other words, the end is surely prior in the order of thought to the process
by which it is to be achieved. But the process by which the end is to be
achieved includes faith and perseverance. Faith cannot then be the logical
antecedent of predestination; it is rather that predestination is the
logical antecedent of faith, even if faith is foreseen by God in his eternal
counsel. That is just saying that faith is consequent, in the order of
divine thought, upon the destined end of conformity to the image of the Son.
But the antecedent of predestination faith would have to be if foreknowledge
is the foreknowledge of faith.

Faith, therefore, is two removes in the order of divine thought from
foreknowledge, and two removes posterior, not prior, two removes in the
order of consequence, not of causation.

(4) This line of interpretation is in accord with Paul's teaching elsewhere
and particularly in that one passage which more than any other expands the
very subject in debate. It is Ephesians l:4.

(a) Paul there affirms that God chose us in Christ "before the foundation of
the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love:
having predestinated us unto adoption of children by Jesus Christ to
Himself." The elect are chosen to holiness; in the divine love, they are
predestinated to adoption.

(b) This election and predestination are according to the good pleasure of
his will and according to the purpose of him who worketh all things
according to the purpose of his own will. Paul, it is to be noted, piles up
expressions almost to the point of what might be, on superficial reading,
considered redundancy, in order to emphasize the sovereign determination of
the divine will and purpose: "being predestinated according to the purpose
of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will" (Eph.
1:11). To find the determinating factor in this predestination in a human
decision would be to wreck the whole intent of Paul's eloquent
multiplication of terms.

(c) The choice in Christ and the consequent union with him is the antecedent
or foundation of all the blessings bestowed. It is in the Beloved we were
abundantly favored with grace (vs. 6); it is in him we have the redemption,
the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace (vs. 1); the
making known of the mystery of his will was purposed in Christ (vs. 9); it
is in him that all things in heaven and earth will be summed up (vs. 10); it
is in him we are called (vs. 11); it is in him that the Ephesians, when they
had heard the word of truth and believed, were sealed with the Holy Spirit
of promise (vss. 13, 14). It is obvious that the very exercise of grace,
believing and persevering grace, is grace exercised in the sphere and on the
basis of union with Christ, and so the union with Christ which has its
genesis in the choice of Christ before the foundation of the world, must be
regarded as the prius and basis of that rather than, by way of prescience,
its conditioning cause.

If this exegesis, which takes the verb "foreknow" in the diluted sense of
prescience, is not acceptable, what then, we may ask, is the meaning of
foreknowledge? The answer, given repeatedly by the ablest commentators, is
not difficult to find. The words yadha in Hebrew and ginosko in Greek are
used quite frequently in a pregnant sense, that is, with a fuller meaning
than that of merely perceiving or taking cognizance of a fact. It often
means to "take note of," to "set regard upon," to "know with peculiar
interest delight, affection, and even action." Indeed, it is the practical
synonym of "to love" or "set affection upon." "The compound proginosko," as
Sanday observes, "throws back this 'taking note' from the historic act in
time to the eternal counsel which it expresses and executes" (Comm., in
loco). So that we should paraphrase by saying, "Those whom he loved
beforehand."

This pregnant meaning of the word is in accord with contextual
considerations. In every other link of this "golden chain of salvation," as
it has been called, it is a divine activity that is spoken of. God is
intensely active in every other step. It is God who predestinates; it is God
who calls; it is God who justifies; it is God who glorifies. It would be out
of accord with this emphasis, a weakening at the point that can least afford
it, to make the originative act of God less active and determinative. The
notion of foresight has distinctly less of the active and distinctly more of
the passive than the divinely monergistic emphasis of the whole passage
appears to require. It is not a foresight of difference but a foreknowledge
that makes difference to exist. It does not simply recognize existence; it
determines existence. It expresses the volitional determinative counsel of
God with reference to those who are the objects of it. It is sovereign
distinguishing love.

If this is the meaning, the question may well be asked: What is the
difference between foreknowledge and predestination in the text concerned?
For, after all, some distinction there must be. The distinction is simple
and significant. Foreknowledge is the setting of loving and knowing
affection upon those concerned. It concentrates attention upon the love of
God. But it does not of itself intimate the specific destiny to which the
objects of love are appointed. That, in turn, predestination precisely does.
it reveals to us the high and blessed destiny to which the objects of his
distinguishing and peculiar love are assigned. And it reveals, in so doing,
the greatness of his love. It is love of such a sort that it assigns them to
conformity to the image of him who is the eternal and only-begotten Son. 

When we ask the reason for the love that foreknowledge intimates and the
greatness and security of which predestination expresses, we are uniquely
confronted with the grandeur of the divine sovereignty. It is love that is
according to the counsel of the divine will. The reason is enveloped in the
mystery of his good pleasure. We are face to face with an ultimate of divine
revelation and, therefore, an ultimate of human thought. This love is not
something that we can rationalize or analyze. We are in its presence, as
nowhere else, overwhelmed with a sense of the divine sovereignty. We are
struck with amazement. It is amazing, inexplicable love. But to faith it is
a reality that constrains the deepest and highest adoration. It is love, the
praise of which eternity will not exhaust. "Herein is love, not that we
loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for
our sins" (1 John 4:10). "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and
knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past
finding out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his
counsellor? or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto
him again? For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom
be glory forever. Amen" (Rom. 11:33-36)


Endnote


1. <http://opc.org/cce/sovereignty.html#return1>  Cf. Oehler, Old Testament
Theology, Eng. trans., vol. I, pp. 139 ff., Geerhardus Vos, Lectures on the
Theology of the Old Testament, ch. VIII.

Dr. Murray was an OPC minister and professor of systematic theology at
Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia. This paper was published
as a long tract by the Committee on Christian Education in the early days of
the OPC.

 

 

Thanks.

 

For the King's honor,

 

Charis,

 

Mike Abendroth

 

 <http://www.bbcchurch.org> www.bbcchurch.org

 

Ephesians 3:21 auvtw/| h` do,xa evn th/| evkklhsi,a| 

 

2 Tim 1:2b  "Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our
Lord."

 

"Faith is not our physician; it only brings us to the Physician ... Faith is
not our saviour. It was not faith that was born at Bethlehem and died on
Golgotha for us. It was not faith that loved us, and gave itself for us;
that bore our sins in its own body on the tree; that died and rose again for
our sins.  It is a sin-bearer that we need, and our faith cannot be a
sin-bearer. Faith can expiate no guilt; can accomplish no propitiation; can
pay no penalty; can wash away no stain; can provide no righteousness. It
brings us to the cross, . but in itself it has no merit and no virtue.
Faith is not Christ, nor the cross of Christ. Faith is not the blood, nor
the sacrifice; . Our faith does not divide the work of salvation between
itself and the cross. It is the acknowledgment that the cross alone saves,
and that it saves alone. Faith adds nothing to the cross, nor to its healing
virtue. It owns the fulness, and sufficiency, and suitableness of the work
done there, and bids the toiling spirit cease from its labours and enter
into rest. Faith does not come to Calvary to do anything. It comes to see
the glorious spectacle of all things done, and to accept this completion
without a misgiving as to its efficacy. It listens to the "It is finished!"
of the Sin-bearer, and says, "Amen."   

NOT FAITH, BUT CHRIST 

by Horatius Bonar 
(1808-1889) 

 

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