Finding Peace in God’s Sovereign Plan with Pink
A.W. Pink’s book The Attributes of God is a classic work on the being and essence of God. Each month we’ll explore one chapter, summarize the main ideas, and discuss our favorite passages. Today we examine chapter two: The Decree of God.
Summary
This chapter explores God’s sovereign decree. God’s decree is His eternal, wise, free, and absolute plan for all future events. Humans remain responsible for their actions, making choices permitted by God’s decree. Denying God’s decree would leave us without peace, assurance, or comfort, as everything is determined by His infinite wisdom and goodness.
Discussion
Pink defines God’s decree:
THE DECREE OF GOD IS HIS PURPOSE OR DETERMINATION with respect to future things.
He uses the singular decree because, as He says:
…an infinite understanding does not proceed by steps, from one stage to another: “Known unto God are all His works from the beginning of the world” (Acts 15:18).
In other words, God knows all things, simultaneously. He knows the first and the last step. It’s all one plan.
Scripture uses various terms to denote God’s eternal decree: decree, eternal purpose, determinate counsel and foreknowledge, will, predestinate, and good pleasure.
God wills/decrees everything that happens in time, even sin and evil. Pink writes that:
…while God is the Orderer and Controller of sin, He is not the Author of it in the same way that He is the Author of good. Sin could not proceed from a holy God by positive and direct creation, but only by decretive permission and negative action.
God decrees the course of human history on a grand scale, but also the finite details of the lives of individuals, down to the number of the hairs on our heads!
Pink speaks of four properties of God’s decrees, and the first one is very important. He says:
…they are eternal. To suppose any of them to be made in time is to suppose that some new occasion has occurred; some unforeseen event or combination of circumstances has arisen, which has induced the Most High to form a new resolution. This would argue that the knowledge of the Deity is limited, and that He is growing wiser in the progress of time—which would be horrible blasphemy.
This horrible blasphemy is popular in our day. It’s called open theism. It’s the belief that the future is not yet determined and thus not known, even to God.
In this view, God is learning what happens as time progresses. But this puts God in time, the same as we are, and takes away from Him his eternality.
This would mean that time is actually bigger than God, and God is not God over time. He would not be all-knowing, all-powerful, or ever-present (eternal). That’s not the God revealed in the Scripture!
Pink goes on to say that God’s decrees are wise. Which means God’s plan is based on His infinite wisdom and therefore His decrees are without error.
God’s decrees are free, meaning He wasn’t obligated or coerced in any way, but decreed exactly what He sovereignly wanted to decree.
And God’s decrees are absolute, meaning they can’t be changed by the actions of creations. God isn’t playing a choose your own adventure game as He goes along. Everything that happens, happens exactly as He wisely and freely decreed it to happen eternally, that is outside of time.
Pink affirms that God’s decree is sovereign and free. Yet at the same time, man is responsible for his choices. We aren’t robots. We make real choices, according to our will. But we only make the choices that God permitted to us to make, in His eternal wisdom and decree.
Pink concludes that denying that God decrees in these ways would leave us with no peace, no assurance, and no comfort.
We should be thankful that everything is decreed by God. Pink writes:
It is because of them [God’s decrees]] that “we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose” (Rom 8:28).
In the end, I think the take away from this chapter is that God’s eternal decree is the unshakable foundation of our faith. We can be assured that every detail of our lives unfolds according to His infinite wisdom and sovereign will. As we meditate on His purpose and goodness, we find peace, comfort, and confidence in knowing that all things truly work together for good to those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.
Defining Theology
When discussing theology, defining your terms is important. Brance and Lauren take a look at the theological term The Assembly, discussing the history, purpose, and legacy of The Westminster Assembly.
Resources Mentioned:
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