The
secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed
belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of
this law (Deut. 29:29).
COMMON GRACE ARGUMENT:
This
text is quoted as justification for ignoring the great doctrines of election
and reprobation. It is argued that the biblical truth of sovereign predestination
ought not to be mentioned or preached because predestination belongs to the “hidden”
things of God. What is “revealed,” so it is argued, is God’s “desire to save
all men.” Predestination may be true, but we have nothing to do with it, for it
is “hidden.”
Thus,
this argument becomes a convenient way to ignore a truth which stands at the
heart of the gospel, and it is used as a means to introduce into the church
some bad theology.
(I)
Prof. Herman C. Hanko
[Source: Covenant Reformed
Fellowship News, vol. 4, nos. 5-6]
This
is an erroneous line of argumentation and does grave injustice to the text
itself. As far as the context is concerned, it is clear that the Lord, through
Moses, connects this passage with the judgments which shall surely come upon
Israel if they forsake His holy law and despise His good commandments.
From
the point of view of the context, therefore, the Lord is saying to His people, “Many
things which I purpose to do in my counsel are hidden from you; but this is
made very clear: If you break my law, judgment shall surely come, and that
judgment will be terrible.” All of this is simple enough, and it ought to
impress upon us the crucial importance of explaining any passage in
Scripture in the light of the context. Without explaining verses in the
light of the context, it is possible, as Luther already observed, to make the
Scriptures teach anything one wants.
I
had a Bible teacher in High School many years ago who, in impressing upon us
the importance of explaining texts in the light of their context, said once, “Look
what can happen if you do not do this. I will quote three texts: “And Judas
went and hanged himself. Go and do thou likewise. And what thou doest, do
quickly.”
Nevertheless,
there is an important truth underlying this passage which can give us some good
and necessary instruction concerning our relation to the will of God.
God’s
will or counsel is all-determinative for all that happens in all the history of
the world, in all the history of heaven, and in all the history of hell. It is determinative
for all that happens from the time of creation to the end of the world; but it
is also determinative for all that happens into all eternity. Nothing happens
by chance. All is according to God’s eternal purpose.
Concerning
that purpose, God has revealed many things to us in Holy Scripture. He has told
us many things which He has done, is doing, and intends to do. He has told us
of His own great purpose to glorify Himself through the salvation of the church
in Jesus Christ in the new heavens and the new earth. He has told us in some
detail how He works that purpose in time. And He has also revealed to us what
is His will for us in our lives. We are to live according to His commandments
and glorify Him through obedience. But many things God has not chosen to
reveal. They remain secret.
God
has not revealed to us the details of our lives in the world. The future for
each of us remains hidden behind the veil of the future. They are made known to
us only step by step as we walk in the way God has planned. Whom we shall
marry, how many children we shall have, what sufferings and sorrows shall be our
lot, what joys and triumphs shall characterize our ways—all these things and
many more we do not know.
Nor,
when it becomes obvious that it is God’s will for us that we suffer, does He
explain how He accomplishes His purpose in all this. We know that all things
work together for good to them that love God. But we do not know how a
particular suffering works this good.
As
far as God’s words in Deuteronomy 29:29 are concerned, God revealed that disobedience
would bring judgment. But He did not reveal how the judgment that did in
fact come upon Israel worked salvation for the elect—for that is part of
the secret things.
We are called to walk by faith, not by sight (II Cor. 5:7).
To walk by faith means simply that in all our way we trust in our heavenly
Father, believe that He knows what is best, wait upon Him, and submit ourselves
to His will. One of the chief petitions which
we are commanded to make is: “Thy will be done.” Nor must this petition be made grudgingly and hesitantly,
saying all the while to ourselves, “Well, we might just as well make the best
of a bad situation; we can do nothing about it at all.” We are called to endure all that God sends joyfully
and confidently in the assurance that it will be for our salvation.
But
this we know. We who are God’s people are called to walk in humble and joyful
obedience to His will, and we have the promise that, whatever happens to us, we
will be blessed. These revealed things belong to us and to our children—to whom
they must be taught—forever. And they belong to us and our children, “that
we may do all the words of the law.”
* *
* * *
*
[With
regard to] the relationship between God’s counsel which is determinative for
all our life (cf. Eph. 1:11; Is. 46:10; Ps. 115:3) and man’s calling to be
obedient to God (Matt. 7:21; Luke 12:47)—or, to put it a little differently, the
relation between God’s command to all men that they obey Him, and God’s
determination to give His grace to walk in God’s ways only to some … I want to
say a few things.
In the
first place, this is an old problem which has been answered before, notably by
the reformers. Luther, in The Bondage
of the Will, and Calvin, in his treatise on The Eternal Predestination of
God, already faced this problem. For very detailed and concise answers, I
refer the reader to these important books (Note: Calvin’s treatise is available
in book-form at the CPRC bookstore, under the title, Calvin’s Calvinism). Nor are these two
reformers the only ones who have faced this question. Turretin, for example, discusses it quite at
length in his Institutes (now available in an English translation).
In
the second place, I do not believe that God’s will to give salvation only to
His people belongs to God’s “secret” or “hidden” will. God has made this purpose abundantly clear in
Scripture. It may be a part of God’s
hidden will who precisely these people are whom God wills to save, but the
fact itself is not hidden.
In
the third place, God’s will that all men without exception obey Him is rooted
in His original creation of man. God created man good and upright, capable in all
things to do the will of God. God does not abandon His original demand. Just because man fell and lost the ability to
do good does not mean that God no longer requires man to do good. This is what the Arminian teaches, but what
kind of God would that be? None of us
would want a god who says to man, “I am so sorry that you lost the ability to
do good that I will just forget about it and be satisfied with your sin.” That would be a denial of God’s holiness and
a caricature of God.
In
the fourth place, it remains man’s responsibility to do good, and man is and
must be punished for his failure to obey God.
From man’s point of view, man justly receives God’s wrath and punishment
in this life and in the life to come for his disobedience. And he himself knows it—into all eternity in
hell.
In
the fifth place, all this does not mean that there is conflict in God when He
wills to deliver some from sin and death and give to them salvation—a salvation
which includes the spiritual ability to do God’s will. God is under no obligation to save anyone. It is His mercy that He saves some. It
is His prerogative to save those whom He wills to save.
Finally,
a perfect harmony exists in God between His will that all men obey Him and His
will to save some. That harmony is this:
God is sovereign over all. He is sovereign over the fall of Adam; He is sovereign
over all sin. He is sovereign in His work of grace. That sovereignty never
destroys man’s own responsibility for sin.
God works all His good pleasure in such a way that man’s will is never
violated. Man sins because he wills to
sin.
And
so, God’s will that all men obey Him does not, in fact, contradict His will to save
only His people. The “will of God’s command,” under God’s sovereign rule, serves
the realization of “the will of God’s decree.”
God demands of all men that they obey Him. He, by grace in Jesus Christ, saves His
people in such a way that He enables them to keep His commands, and He rules
sovereignly over the wicked, but in such a way that they remain responsible.
God realizes His decree of reprobation. He damns the wicked in everlasting hell
in the way of their refusal to obey Him.
And
in this way, God receives all the glory forever.
--------------------------------------------
(II)
More to come! (DV)
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