God's Plans for You E-Book

J. I. Packer

• Herausgeber: Crossway
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 393

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2001

Beschreibung

Dr. J. I. Packer offers biblical reflections on life's tough issues. Discussing topics like pleasure, health, disappointment, and holiness, he maps out problematic situations and then superimposes relevant biblical teachings.

Leseprobe

God’s Plans for You

Copyright © 2001 by J. I. Packer

Published by Crossway Books a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers 1300 Crescent Street Wheaton, Illinois 60187

Some of the material in this book was originally published in 1987 by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., under the title Hot Tub Religion.

“A Christian Style of Life” appeared in an earlier form in D. A. Carson and J. Woodbridge, eds., God and Culture (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1993).

“The Transformation Track” was originally an article in The Standard (January 1999).

“Power Path” started as an article in Faith and Renewal (January 1992).

The four “Musings on the Life of Faith” were featured in Eternity magazine (November, July, January 1988, April 1987).

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, except as provided by USA copyright law.

Cover design: David LaPlaca

Cover photo: Wonderfile

First printing 2001

Printed in the United States of America

Unless otherwise designated, Scripture is taken from The Holy Bible: New International Version®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.

The “NIV” and “New International Version” trademarks are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by International Bible Society. Use of either trademark requires the permission of International Bible Society.

Scripture references marked ESV are taken from The Holy Bible: English Standard Version®.

Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. All rights reserved.

Scripture references marked KJV are taken from the King James Version.

Scripture references marked NKJV are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission.

Scripture quotations taken from the Revised Standard Version are identified RSV. Copyright © 1946, 1953 1971, 1973 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A.

Scripture quotations taken from the New Revised Standard Version are identified NRSV.

Copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. Published by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Packer, J. I. (James Innell)

   God’s plans for you / J. I. Packer.

      p. cm.

   Includes bibliographical references.

   ISBN 13: 978-1-58134-290-1 (alk. paper)

   ISBN 10: 1-58134-290-X

   1. Christian life—Anglican authors. I. Title.

BV4501.3.P32 2001

248.4—dc21                                                    2001003934

______________________________________________

VP             17     16     15     14     13     12     11     10     09     08     0717     16     15     14     13     12     11     10      9      8      7     6     5     4

I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for wholeness and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.JEREMIAH 29:11 ESV

CONTENTS

PREFACE

1 DANGER! THEOLOGIAN AT WORKWhat These Chapters Are Meant to Do

2 THE PLAN OF GODThe Basic Christian Orientation

3 MEETING GODThe Basic Christian Relationship

4 HOT TUB RELIGIONToward a Theology of Enjoyment

5 A CHRISTIAN STYLE OF LIFEManaging our Labor, Leisure, Pleasure, and Treasure

6 GUIDANCEHow God Leads Us

7 JOYA Neglected Discipline

8 SCRIPTURE AND SANCTIFICATIONHow the Bible Helps Us to Holiness

9 THE TRANSFORMATION TRACKWhat It Means to Follow Christ

10 POOR HEALTHPhysical Cures and Healing

11 DISAPPOINTMENT, DESPAIR, DEPRESSIONHow the Great Physician Touches Troubled Minds

12 KNOW YOURSELFIdentity and Self-Image

13 POWER PATHTaking the Holy Spirit Seriously

14 MUSINGS ON THE LIFE OF FAITHDouble-Mindedness, Seriousness, Balance, Dying

15 CHURCH REFORMATIONOutward Reordering and Inward Renewal

NOTES

PREFACE

I hope the title of this book does not upset you. I can see that it might seem altogether too bold, as if I were laying claim to the sort of advance knowledge that astrologers and fortune-tellers offer and that Christians emphatically do not have. But, as the epigraph on the previous page shows, my title is no more than an echo of God’s own words addressed to the deported Jews in Babylon and relayed to them in Jeremiah’s letter; and my purpose in choosing it was simply to set before our minds the certainty that God, who is Lord of both his own future and ours, is taking his people somewhere wonderful.

The note on the text in the New Living Translation declares, rightly: “As long as God, who knows the future, provides our agenda and goes with us as we fulfill his mission, we can have boundless hope. This does not mean that we shall be spared pain, suffering, or hardship, but it does mean that God will see us through to a glorious conclusion.”

So John Ryland’s lyric is fully justified:

Sov’reign Ruler of the skies, Ever gracious, ever wise, All my times are in thy hand, All of events at thy command.

His decree who form’d the earth Fix’d my first and second birth; Parents, native place, and time, All appointed were by him.

He that form’d me in the womb, He shall guide me to the tomb; All my times shall ever be Order’d by his wise decree.

Times of sickness, times of health, Times of penury and wealth; Times of trial and of grief, Times of triumph and relief;

Times the tempter’s power to prove, Times to test the Saviour’s love; All must come, and last, and end As shall please my heavenly Friend.

Plagues and deaths around me fly; Till he bids, I cannot die. Not a single shaft can hit Till the love of God sees fit.

The chapters that follow seek to illuminate and apply all this in a variety of different connections. The aim throughout is to show how life looks and feels when lived by faith in the sovereign God of the Bible, and to help in forming attitudes, focusing values, and making decisions amid the perplexing cross-currents of decadence in the culture and the church. The plans of God in which we shall take soundings cover, first and fundamentally, his agenda for leading us from where we are into fullness of fellowship and perfection of life with himself, and within this frame, second and specifically, his agenda for drawing out of us—which means, working in us—the cooperation with him of humble heart, helping hand, and holy hope that is integral to this process. My ideal reader, the “you” of my title, is someone who shares my certainty that in life, in death, and for eternity our relationship with God is what matters most, and therefore should be our main concern here and now. Are you with me? I hope so.

So let us together get down to business.

1DANGER!THEOLOGIAN AT WORKWhat These Chapters Are Meant to Do

A favorite picture book for three-year-olds, I Am a Bunny, looks at life from a rabbit’s point of view. On that basis, this book could well be called I Am a Theologian. Such a title would sound conceited, elitist, and stuffy to the last degree. Like a lead balloon, it would sink the book and its author straight into oblivion. Yet, as a declaration of commitment rather than a claim to competence, it would not be wholly unfit. My goal is to pinpoint some problems that a theologian cannot help but see and to fulfill in relation to them, as best I can, the theologian’s proper and distinctive role.

What is that? Well, what is theology? (Always begin at the beginning!) Theology is one of those terms (there are not too many of them) whose meaning is clear from its derivation. Theology comes from two Greek words, theos (God) and logos (discourse, speech, line of argument), and means simply God-talk or, more fully, thoughts about God expressed in statements about God. God-thoughts are only right when they square with God’s own thoughts about himself; theology becomes good only when we let God’s revealed truth—that is, Bible teaching— penetrate our minds. So theology is an exercise of listening before it is one of talking. It is the attempt to hear what the Westminster Confession I.x calls “the Holy Spirit speaking in the Scripture” and then to apply what Scripture says to correct and direct our lives. We bring our doubts and questions to the Bible’s teaching for resolution, and we allow God in and through that same teaching to question us about the way we think and live. The name of theologian is given to those who help with this process.

There is a sense in which every Christian is a theologian. Simply by speaking of God, whatever you say, you become a theologian, just as by hitting the keys you become a pianist, whatever it sounds like. (My twenty-three-month-old grandson was fulfilling the role of pianist even as I wrote the first draft.) The question then is whether you are good or bad at what you are doing. But as in secular speech the word pianist is normally kept for competent performers, so in Christian speech the word theologian is kept for those who in some sense specialize in the study of God’s truth.

What use are such people? Is there a particular job that we should look to them to do for us? Yes, there is. By the lake in a resort I know stands a building grandly labeled Environmental Control Center. It is the sewage plant, there to ensure that nothing fouls the water; its staff is comprised of water engineers and sewage specialists. Think of theologians as the church’s sewage specialists. Their role is to detect and eliminate intellectual pollution and to ensure, so far as man can, that God’s life-giving truth flows pure and unpoisoned into Christian hearts.

Their calling obliges them to act as the church’s water engineers, seeking by their preaching, teaching, and biblical exposition to make the flow of truth strong and steady; but it is particularly as disposers of spiritual sewage that I want to portray them. They are to test the water and filter out anything that confuses minds, corrupts judgments, and distorts the way that Christians view their own lives. If they see Christians astray, they must haul them back on track; if they see them dithering, they must give them certainty; if they find them confused, they must straighten them out. That is why this book might be called I Am a Theologian, for this is precisely what I am attempting to do.

The chapters that follow deal with some crucial questions about which Christians often feel hesitant and uncertain. These questions all have a directly personal twist. What is God up to in his world, bewildering and agonizing as it so often proves to be? Who is entitled to claim his acquaintance? What will holiness require of me? How will God guide me? Will he guide me at all? Is there such a thing as divine healing? What should I expect from God when I am sick or when I feel broken into little pieces? How should I react to my own reactions to things, and to the present condition of the church? These are some of the questions on which I add my mite to the treasury of Christian discussion. They are important questions that often receive wrong answers, and I want to say what I can about them.

MAP MAKING

What should a theologian do when facing questions of this sort? Picture it thus: He should make a map of each problematical life situation, with all the human factors involved, and then superimpose all the relevant biblical teachings and Bible-based considerations. The scale of the map will need to be fairly large. The map is to be used when walking cross-country, so correctness of detail is important.

The Christian life is cross-country travel all the way, with hedges and ditches, ups and downs, rough places and smooth places, deserts and swamps. There are storms and fogs periodically punctuating the sunshine. The purpose of the map is to enable the walker to find his way at all times, whatever the terrain and whatever the weather. With a good map he will recognize the terrain around him, relate the features he observes to the larger landscape, and see at each stage where he should go. Theology’s proper goal is to equip the disciples of Jesus Christ for obedience. The maps theologians draw are meant, not simply to be possessed as so much intellectual wealth, but rather to be used for the believer’s route-finding in his personal pilgrimage of following his Lord.

Technicalities (sometimes unavoidable in theology, as in any field of scientific study) will be pursued only for the sake of simplicity. Simplicity of principle, once it is achieved, makes for straightforwardness of practice. The best theological maps are clear and have seven basic qualities.

First, they are accurate in their presentation of material, both human and biblical. Nothing can compensate for failure here.

Second, they are God-centered, recognizing divine sovereignty at the heart of everything and showing God’s control of problematical events, both actual and imaginable.

Third, they are doxological, giving God glory for his glorious achievements in creation, providence, and grace, and encouraging a spirit of joyous, trustful worship and adoration in all circumstances.

Fourth, they are future-oriented, for Christianity is a religion of hope. Often the only sense theology can make of present trends, conditions, and behavior patterns, as they both mark society and touch individuals, is to diagnose them as fruits of sin and hold forth the promise that God will one day wipe them out and unveil something better.

Fifth, they are Christ-related in two ways. On the one hand, they proclaim the centrality of Jesus our mediator, prophet, priest, and king, in all God’s present dealings with, and future plans for, the human race. On the other hand, they reformulate our notional perplexities by turning them into practical issues of faithfully following the Savior whom we love along the path of self-denial and cross-bearing, according to his own explicit call (see Luke 9:23). They show us how to walk patiently with him through experiences that defeat our minds and feel like death, into the experienced reality of personal internal resurrection. This is the biblical way to live the Christian life, and good theological maps lead us right into it.

Sixth, such maps are church-centered. The New Testament presents the church as central in God’s plan. Christians are not meant to journey through life in isolation but in company with fellow believers, supporting them and being supported by them.

Seventh, good theological maps are freedom-focused. They are tuned in to the decision-making processes of authentically Christian men and women—that is, people who know themselves to be free from the law as a system of salvation, yet desire to live by it, first, out of love for their Lord who wills this; second, out of love for the law itself, which now delights them with its vision of righteousness; and third, out of self-love, since they know that there is no real happiness for them either here or hereafter without holiness. Freedom from what restricts and enslaves is the negative aspect of freedom for the fulfillment and contentment that constitute true happiness, and it is this positive reality of holy, happy freedom in Christ that theology must always seek to promote.

Good theology constantly calls for deliberate, responsible decisions about how we are going to live, and it never forgets that Christian decisions are commitments to action on principle (not out of mindless conformity), undertaken in freedom (not from external pressure or bullying), and motivated primarily by love of God and of justice (not by fear). Good theology thus molds Christian character, neither demeaning nor diminishing us but rather enhancing our God-given dignity.

Is theology dangerous, as my title for this chapter might seem to suggest? Not in itself, unless it is done on false principles—but dangers certainly exist for those who take theology seriously, though the dangers are greater for those who don’t. Neglect theology, and sooner or later, however well-intentioned you are, you will make big practical blunders that you may never recognize as blunders. The outcome will be sad, perhaps the saddest imaginable.

Attend to theology, however, and you will find yourself lured toward the Pharisaic downfall of the arrogant know-all who tells others what to do while forgetting that he needs to do the same himself. Those who work hard theologizing, whether as professionals or from general interest, have to battle these twin temptations. The first is to see themselves as superior Christians because they know more than others, and the second is to exempt themselves from obligations that bind others, as if their expertise puts them in a class by themselves to which ordinary rules do not apply.

Every member of our fallen race is tempted to indulge pride in some form, for pride is of the essence of our heritage of original sin; and this is the recurring form in which would-be theologians, clergy and layfolk, academics and pastors alike, have to encounter that temptation. God’s ideal for us, however, is that we should always think and speak and live in the manner shown in the previous paragraphs, and humble honesty in seeking to conform to that ideal is the only godly way for any of us to go. Theological discussion of questions involved in knowing God’s plans for us must always seek to point us along that road.

There is no denying that many theological treatments of problem areas fail to measure up to these criteria. Authoritarianism within the church, secularism from outside, and a restless Athenian cast of mind in universities and seminaries have constantly combined to contaminate theology, both past and present. But that need not concern us now. I have written this chapter only so that you will know the standards to which I am trying to work. I may well fail; you shall be the judge of that. But if I do, please remember that, like the pianist whom the wild Westerners in a certain famous cartoon planned to shoot, I am doing my best.

The foregoing paragraphs were drafted in 1987, and it is now 2001. I am often asked whether over the years I have changed my mind about anything in Christianity. The answer is no, at least not consciously; if there is a difference, it is in the way I respond to positions that deviate from my own. The Chilean pianist Claudio Arrau, when asked how aging had affected his playing, replied: “The fingers grow wiser.” I hope something like that might be said of the items in this book, carefully reviewed and sometimes enlarged, that have appeared before.

Now let us move on.

2THE PLAN OF GODThe Basic Christian Orientation

IS THERE A PLAN?

People today feel lost and astray. Modern art, poetry, and novels, or five minutes’ conversation with any sensitive person will assure us of that. It may seem odd that this is so in an era when we have more control over the forces of nature than ever before. But it really is not. It is God’s judgment, which we have brought down on ourselves by trying to feel too much at home in this world.

For that is what we have done. We refuse to believe that one should live for something more than this present life. Even if we suspect the materialists are wrong in denying that God and another world exist, we have not allowed our belief to keep us from living on materialistic principles. We have treated this world as if it were the only home we shall ever possess and have concentrated exclusively on arranging it for our comfort. We thought we could build heaven on earth.

Now God has judged us for our impiety. During the past century we had two “hot” world wars and one “cold” one, the latter in some respects still continuing. We find ourselves today in the age of nuclear warfare, racism, tribalism, global racketeering, torture, terrorism, and all sorts of brainwashing. In such a world it is not possible to feel at home. It is a world that has disappointed us. We expected life to be friendly. Instead, it has mocked our hopes and left us disillusioned and frustrated. We thought we knew what to make of life. Now we are baffled as to whether anything can ever be made of it. We thought of ourselves as wise men. Now we find ourselves like benighted children, lost in the dark.

Sooner or later this was bound to happen. God’s world is never friendly to those who forget its Maker. The Buddhists, who link their atheism with a thorough pessimism about life, are to that extent correct. Without God, man loses his bearings in this world. He cannot find them again until he has found the One whose world it is. It is natural that nonbelievers feel their existence is pointless and miserable. We should not wonder when these bitter, frustrated souls turn to drugs and drink or when teenagers respond to the traumatic chaos around them by committing suicide. God made life, and God alone can tell us its meaning. If we are to make sense of life in this world, then, we must know about God. And if we want to know about God, we must turn to the Bible.

READ THE BIBLE

So let us read the Bible—if we can. But can we? Many of us have lost the ability. When we open our Bibles, we do so in a frame of mind that forms an insurmountable barrier to reading it at all. This may sound startling, but it is true. Let me explain.

When you read a book, you treat it as a unit. You look for the plot or the main thread of the argument and follow it through to the end. You let the author’s mind lead yours. Whether or not you allow yourself to “dip” before settling down to absorb the book, you know that you will not have understood it till you have read it from start to finish. If it is a book that you want to master, you set aside time for a careful, unhurried journey through it.

But when we come to Holy Scripture, our behavior is different. To start with, we are not in the habit of treating it as a book—a unit—at all; we approach it simply as a collection of separate stories and sayings. We take it for granted that these items represent either moral advice or comfort for those in trouble. So we read the Bible in small doses, a few verses at a time. We do not go through individual books, let alone the two Testaments, as a single whole. We browse through the rich old Jacobean periods of the King James Version or the informalities of the New Living Translation, waiting for something to strike us. When the words bring a soothing thought or a pleasant picture, we believe the Bible has done its job. We have come to view the Bible not as a book, but as a collection of beautiful and suggestive snippets, and it is as such that we use it. The result is that, in the ordinary sense of “read,” we never read the Bible at all. We take it for granted that we are handling Holy Writ in the truly religious way, but this use of it is in fact merely superstitious. It is, I grant, the way of natural religiosity. But it is not the way of true religion.

God does not intend Bible reading to function simply as a drug for fretful minds. The reading of Scripture is intended to awaken our minds, not to send them to sleep. God asks us to approach Scripture as his Word—a message addressed to rational creatures, people with minds, a message we cannot expect to understand without thinking about it. “Come now, and let us reason together,” said God to Judah through Isaiah (Isa. 1:18 KJV), and he says the same to us every time we take up his book. He has taught us to pray for divine enlightenment as we read. “Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law” (Ps. 119:18 KJV). This is a prayer for God to give us insight as we think about his Word. But we effectively prevent God from answering this prayer if after praying we blank out and stop thinking as we read.

God wants us to read the Bible as a book—a single story with a single theme. I am not forgetting that the Bible consists of many separate units (sixty-six to be exact) and that some of those units are themselves composites (such as the Psalter, which consists of 150 separate prayers and hymns). For all that, however, the Bible comes to us as the product of a single mind, the mind of God. It proves its unity over and over again by the amazing way it links together, one part throwing light on another part. So we should read it as a whole. And as we read, we are to ask: What is the plot of this book? What is its subject? What is it about? Unless we ask these questions, we will never see what it is saying to us about our lives.

When we reach this point, we shall find that God’s message to us is more drastic and at the same time more heartening than any that human religiosity could conceive.

THE MAIN THEME

What do we find when we read the Bible as a single, unified whole, with our minds alert to observe its real focus?

We find just this: The Bible is not primarily about man at all. Its subject is God. He (if the phrase may be allowed) is the chief actor in the drama, the hero of the story. The Bible is a factual survey of his work in this world—past, present, and future, with explanatory comments from prophets, psalmists, wise men, and apostles. Its main theme is not human salvation, but the work of God vindicating his purposes and glorifying himself in a sinful and disordered cosmos. He does this by establishing his kingdom and exalting his Son, by creating a people to worship and serve him, and ultimately by dismantling and reassembling this order of things, thereby rooting sin out of his world.

It is into this larger perspective that the Bible fits God’s work of saving men and women. It depicts God as more than a distant cosmic architect, or a ubiquitous heavenly uncle, or an impersonal life-force. God is more than any of the petty substitute deities that inhabit our twentieth-century minds. He is the living God, present and active everywhere, “glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders” (Exod. 15:11 KJV). He gives himself a name—Yahweh (Jehovah: see Exod. 3:14-15; 6:2-3), which, whether it be translated “I am that I am” or “I will be that I will be” (the Hebrew means both), is a proclamation of his self-existence and self-sufficiency, his omnipotence and his unbounded freedom.

This world is his, he made it, and he controls it. He works “all things after the counsel of his own will” (Eph. 1:11 KJV). His knowledge and dominion extend to the smallest things: “The very hairs of your head are all numbered” (Matt. 10:30). “The Lord reigns”—the psalmists make this unchangeable truth the starting point for their praises again and again (see Ps. 93:1; 96:10; 97:1; 99:1). Though hostile forces rage and chaos threatens, God is King. Therefore his people are safe.

Such is the God of the Bible. And the Bible’s dominant conviction about him, a conviction proclaimed from Genesis to Revelation, is that behind and beneath all the apparent confusion of this world lies his plan. That plan concerns the perfecting of a people and the restoring of a world through the mediating action of Jesus Christ. God governs human affairs with this end in view. Human history is a record of the outworking of his purposes. History is in truth his story.

The Bible details the stages in God’s plan. God visited Abraham, led him into Canaan, and entered into a covenant relationship with him and his descendants—“an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you. . . . I will be their God” (Gen. 17:7ff.). He gave Abraham a son. He turned Abraham’s family into a nation and led them out of Egypt into a land of their own. Over the centuries he prepared them and the Gentile world for the coming of the Savior-King, “who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, who by him do believe in God” (1 Pet. 1:20ff. KJV).

At last, “when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons” (Gal. 4:4ff. KJV). The covenant promise to Abraham’s seed is now fulfilled to all who put faith in Christ: “If you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise” (Gal. 3:29 NKJV).

The plan for this age is that this Gospel should be known throughout the world, and “a great multitude . . . of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues” (Rev. 7:9 KJV) be brought to faith in Christ; after which, at Christ’s return, heaven and earth will in some unimaginable way be remade. Then, where “the throne of God and of the Lamb” is, there “his servants will serve him. They will see his face . . . and they will reign for ever and ever” (Rev. 22:3-5).

This is the plan of God, says the Bible. It cannot be thwarted by human sin, because God made a way for human sin itself to be a part of the plan, and defiance of God’s revealed will is used by God for the furtherance of his will. Joseph’s brothers, for instance, sold him into Egypt. “You thought evil against me,” observed Joseph afterwards, “but God meant it for good . . . to save much people alive” (Gen. 50:20 KJV); “So it was not you that sent me hither, but God” (Gen. 45:8 KJV). The cross of Christ itself is the supreme illustration of this principle. “Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God,” said Peter in his Pentecost sermon, “ye . . . by wicked hands have crucified and slain” (Acts 2:23 KJV). At Calvary God overruled Israel’s sin, which he foresaw, as a means to the salvation of the world. Thus it appears that man’s lawlessness does not thwart God’s plan for his people’s redemption; rather, through the wisdom of omnipotence, it has become the means of fulfilling that plan.

ACCEPTING THE PLAN

This, then, is the God of the Bible—a God who reigns, who is master of events, and who works out through the stumbling service of his people and the impudence of his foes his eternal purpose for his world. Now we begin to see what the Bible has to say to our generation that feels so utterly lost and bedeviled in an inscrutably hostile order of events. There is a plan, says the Bible. There is sense in circumstances, but you have missed it.

Turn to Christ. Seek God. Give yourself to the fulfillment of his plan, and you will have found the elusive key to living. “Whoever follows me,” Christ promises, “will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8:12). You will have a motive: God’s glory. You will have a rule: God’s law. You will have a friend in life and death: God’s Son. You will have found the answer to the doubting and despair triggered by the apparent meaninglessness, even malice, of circumstances: You will know that “the Lord reigns,” and that “in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (Rom. 8:28). And you will have peace.

The alternative? We may defy and reject God’s plan, but we cannot escape it. For one element in his plan is the judgment of sin. Those who reject the gospel offer of life through Christ bring upon themselves a dark eternity. Those who choose to be without God shall have what they choose: God respects our choice. This also is part of the plan. God’s will is done no less in the condemnation of unbelievers than in the salvation of those who put faith in the Lord Jesus.

Such are the outlines of God’s plan, the central message about God that the Bible brings us. Its exhortation to us is that of Eliphaz to Job: “Now acquaint yourself with Him, and be at peace; thereby good will come to you” (Job 22:21 NKJV). Since we know that “the Lord reigns,” working out his plan for his world without hindrance, we can begin to appreciate both the wisdom of this advice and the glory that lies hidden in this promise.

“ALL THINGS FOR GOOD”?

“The Lord reigns.” This, we now see, is the first fundamental truth we must face. The Creator is King in his universe. God “works all things after the counsel of his own will” (Eph. 1:11 KJV). The decisive factor in world history, the purpose that controls it and the key that interprets it, is God’s eternal plan. The sovereign lordship of God is the basis of the biblical message and the foundation fact of Christian faith, and we have noted that on it is built the great assurance that “all things work together for good to them that love God.” If this is so, it is marvelously good news.

But can this assurance stand? The claim it makes raises problems for sensitive and thoughtful souls at many points. It does not admit of rational demonstration, and circumstances on occasion prompt painful doubts. Some of the things that happen to Christians in particular hurt and bewilder us. How can these misfortunes, these frustrations, these apparent setbacks to God’s cause, be any part of his will? In response to these things, we find ourselves inclined to deny either the reality of God’s government or the perfect goodness of the God who governs. To draw either conclusion would be easy—but it would also be false. When we are tempted to do this, we should stop and ask ourselves certain questions.

THE SECRET THINGS

Ought we to be surprised when we find ourselves baffled by what God is doing? No! We must not forget who we are. We are not gods; we are creatures, and no more than creatures. As creatures, we have no right or reason to expect that at every point we shall be able to comprehend the wisdom of our Creator. He himself has reminded us: “My thoughts are not your thoughts. . . . As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are . . . my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isa. 55:8-9 NKJV). Furthermore, the King has made it clear to us that it is not his pleasure to disclose all the details of his policy to his human subjects. As Moses declared when he had finished expounding to Israel what God had revealed of his will for them: “The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us . . . that we may do all the words of this law” (Deut. 29:29 KJV).

The principle illustrated here is that God has disclosed his mind and will, so far as we need to know them for practical purposes, and we are to take what he has disclosed as a complete and adequate rule for our faith and life. But there still remain “secret things” that he has not made known and that, in this life at least, he does not intend us to discover. And the reasons behind God’s providential dealings sometimes fall into this category.

Job’s case illustrates this. Job was never told about the challenge God met by allowing Satan to plague his servant. All Job knew was that the omnipotent God was morally perfect and that it would be blasphemously false to deny his goodness under any circumstances. He refused to “curse God” even when his livelihood, his children, and his health had been taken from him (Job 2:9-10). Fundamentally he maintained this refusal to the end, though the well-meant platitudes that his smug friends churned out at him drove him almost crazy and at times forced out of him wild words about God (for which he later repented). Though not without struggle, Job held fast his integrity throughout the time of testing and maintained his confidence in God’s goodness.

Job’s confidence was vindicated. For when the time of testing ended, after God had come to Job in mercy to renew his humility (40:1-5; 42:1-6) and Job had obediently prayed for his three maddening friends, “the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before” (42:10 KJV). “You have heard of the perseverance of Job,” writes James, “and seen the end intended by the Lord—that the Lord is very compassionate and merciful” (James 5:11 NKJV). Did the bewildering series of catastrophes that overtook Job mean that God had abdicated his throne or abandoned his servant? Not at all, as Job proved by experience. But the reason God had plunged him into darkness was never revealed to him. Now may not God, for wise purposes of his own, treat others of his followers as he treated Job?

But there is more to be said than that. There is a second question to ask.

Has God left us entirely in the dark as to what he is doing in his providential government of the world? No! He has given us full information as to the central purpose that he is executing and a positive rationale for the trying experiences of Christians.

What is God doing? He is “bringing many sons unto glory” (Heb. 2:10 KJV). He is saving a great company of sinners. He has been engaged in this task since history began. He spent many centuries preparing a people and a setting of world history for the coming of his Son. Then he sent his Son into the world in order that there might be a Gospel, and now he sends his Gospel through the world in order that there may be a church. He has exalted his Son to the throne of the universe, and Christ from his throne now invites sinners to himself, keeps them, leads them, and finally brings them to be with him in his glory.

God is saving men and women through his Son. First he justifies and adopts them into his family for Christ’s sake as soon as they believe, and thus restores the relationship between them and himself that sin had broken. Then, within that restored relationship, God continually works in and upon them to renew them in the image of Christ, so that the family likeness (if the phrase may be allowed) shall appear in them more and more. It is this renewal of ourselves, progressive here and to be perfected hereafter, that Paul identifies with the “good” for which “all things work together . . . to them that love God . . . the called according to his purpose” (Rom. 8:28 KJV). God’s purpose, as Paul explains, is that those whom God has chosen and in love has called to himself should “be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he [the Son] might be the firstborn among many brothers” (Rom. 8:28-29). All God’s ordering of circumstances, Paul tells us, is designed for the fulfillment of this purpose. The “good” for which all things work is not the immediate ease and comfort of God’s children (as is, one fears, too often supposed), but their ultimate holiness and conformity to the likeness of Christ.

Does this help us to understand how adverse circumstances may find a place in God’s plan for his people? Certainly! It throws a flood of light upon the problem, as the writer to the Hebrews demonstrates. To Christians who had grown disheartened and apathetic under the pressure of constant hardship and victimization, we find him writing: “Have you forgotten the exhortation which addresses you as sons?— ‘My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor lose courage when you are punished [better, reproved, RV] by him. For the Lord disciplines him whom he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.’ It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? . . . We have had earthly fathers to discipline us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? . . . He disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant; later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it” (Heb. 12:5-11 RSV, quoting Prov. 3:11-12, emphasis added).

It is striking to see how this writer, like Paul, equates the Christian’s “good,” not with ease and quiet, but with sanctification. The passage is so plain that it needs no comment, only frequent rereading whenever we find it hard to believe that the rough handling that circumstances (or our fellow Christians) are giving us can possibly be God’s will.

THE PURPOSE OF IT ALL

However, there is still more to be said. A third question we should ask ourselves is: What is God’s ultimate end in his dealings with his children? Is it simply their happiness, or is it something more? The Bible indicates that it is the glory of God himself.

God’s end in all his acts is ultimately himself. There is nothing morally dubious about this. If we say that man can have no higher end than the glory of God, how can we say anything different about God himself? The idea that it is somehow unworthy to represent God as aiming at his own glory in all that he does reflects a failure to remember that God and man are not on the same level. It shows lack of realization that, while sinful man makes his own well-being his ultimate end at the expense of his fellow creatures, our gracious God has determined to glorify himself by blessing his people. His end in redeeming man, we are told, is “the praise of his glory” (Eph. 1:6, 12, 14). He wills to display his resources of mercy (the “riches” of his grace and of his glory—“glory” being the sum of his attributes and powers as he reveals them: Eph. 2:17; 3:16) in bringing his saints to their ultimate happiness in the enjoyment of himself.

But how does this truth, that God seeks his own glory in all his dealings with us, bear on the problem of providence? In this way: It gives us insight into the way in which God saves us, suggesting to us the reason why he does not take us to heaven the moment we believe. We now see that he leaves us in a world of sin to be tried, tested, belabored by troubles that threaten to crush us—in order that we may glorify him by our patience under suffering and in order that he may display the riches of his grace and call forth new praises from us as he constantly upholds and delivers us. Psalm 107 is a majestic declaration of this truth.

Is it a hard saying? Not to those who have learned that their chief end in this world is to “glorify God and [in doing so] to enjoy him forever.” The heart of true religion is to glorify God by patient endurance and to praise him for his gracious deliverances. It is to live one’s life through smooth and rough places alike in sustained obedience and thanksgiving for mercy received. It is to seek and find one’s deepest joy, not in spiritual lotus-eating, but in discovering through each successive storm and conflict the mighty adequacy of Christ to save. It is the sure knowledge that God’s way is best, both for our own welfare and for his glory. No problems of providence will shake the faith of the one who has truly learned this.

THE GLORY OF GOD

The crucial fact we need to grasp, then, is that God the Creator rules his world for his own glory. “To him are all things” (Rom. 11:36); he himself is the end of all his works. He does not exist for our sake, but we for his. It is the nature and prerogative of God to please himself, and his revealed good pleasure is to make himself great in our eyes. “Be still,” he says to us, “and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth” (Ps. 46:10 KJV). God’s overriding goal is to glorify himself.

Or is it? Because the claim is so crucial and is so often found offensive and dismissed, I want now to sharpen the focus on it and spell it out more fully. Once this concept is clear in our minds beyond any shadow of doubt, everything else in Christianity will fall into place and make sense. However, as long as we are uncertain about it, the rest of the biblical faith will set us constant problems. Look again, then, at the thing that is being said here about the Maker of us all.

Its reasonableness. That God aims always to glorify himself is an assertion we at first find hard to believe. Our immediate reaction is an uncomfortable feeling that such an idea is unworthy of God, that self-concern of any sort is incompatible with moral perfection and in particular with God’s nature as love. Many sensitive and morally cultured people are shocked by the thought that God’s ultimate end is his own glory, and they strongly oppose such a concept. To them, it depicts God as essentially no different from an evil man or even the devil himself! To them it is an immoral and outrageous doctrine, and if the Bible teaches it, so much the worse for the Bible! They often draw this conclusion explicitly with regard to the Old Testament. A volume, they say, that depicts God so persistently as a “jealous” Being, concerned first and foremost about his “honor,” cannot be regarded as divine truth. God is not like that. It is blasphemy, real even if unintentional, to think that he is! Since these convictions are widely and strongly held, it is important to consider what validity, if any, they have.