Having finished up Hebrews 1 we’ve seen where the writer has taken the time to liken Jesus to
Prophets
God (in verse 3)
And then to heavenly angels in the rest of the chapter.
As I said we entered into a discussion toward the end of our time together about the meaning of verse 13 (which says):
Hebrews 1:13 But to which of the angels said he at any time, Sit on my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool?
I was taken aback by the wording which says Jesus will sit on the right hand of God “UNTIL he makes His enemies His footstool.”
We see the presentation of an age or period of time that will run out here. We see Jesus walk from the side of the glory of God. We see enemies submitting.
This opened us up to a number of ideas which I am going to try and articulate here and now before preceding forward into chapter two.
All of this examination is in reference to verse thirteen:
Why does Jesus remain at the right hand of the God only until all His enemies have been placed under His feet?
Who are His enemies? And where are they located? Are they in hell? The Lake of Fire? And exactly how does God make them His footstool? Are they in a big pile of souls serving as a pillow under his feet?
What does this look like? What does God look like in this picture? What is the imagery suggesting?
And then I wondered “to what purpose” or “what is the end result” of His enemies being placed under His feet?
So, as we would do when faced with any sort of philosophical problem, I went back – way back. And I started at the beginning and appealed to scripture to clarify what the actual picture was of all of this.
Now, the Calvinists have a point of view that is centered on what they call God’s Sovereignty.
To them, He does His will irrespective of the will and ways of Man. This premise is sort of summarized by the “I” in the well-known acronym T.U.L.I.P. (which stands for irresistible grace).
Irresistible Grace essentially says that God is totally and completely sovereign and if He will’s you to believe, you will believe – there’s no choice on your part – His grace is irresistible.
I FULLY embrace the idea that God is sovereign and that His will is done.
Scripture supports this completely. Let me give you some examples which may surprise some of you.
Consider:
Psalms 115:3
“But our God is in the heavens: he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased.”
Proverbs 19:21 which says
“There are many devices in a man’s heart; nevertheless the counsel of the LORD, that shall stand.”
Jesus said in Matthew 19:26
“with God all things are possible.”
Ephesians 1:11 (puts a sharp end on this point saying – speaking of Jesus it says),
“In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will.”
That passage in and of itself seems to support the idea of irresistible grace.
Revelation 4:11 says
“Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.
Daniel 4:35 adds
“And all the inhabitants of the earth [are] reputed as nothing: and 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?”
Psalms 24:1
“The earth [is] the LORD’S, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.”
Proverbs 16:4 says something interesting, something that troubles many:
“The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.”
And listen to Isaiah 45:5-9
“I am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God beside me: I girded thee, though thou hast not known me:
6 That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me. I am the LORD, and there is none else.
7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.
8 Drop down, ye heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness: let the earth open, and let them bring forth salvation, and let righteousness spring up together; I the LORD have created it.
9 Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it, What makest thou? or thy work, He hath no hands?
Echoing these sentiments Romans 9:21 says
“Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor, and another unto dishonor?”
From these passages (and many, many more) we KNOW God does “whatever He pleases” . . . “that His counsels will stand” . . . that “with Him all things are possible” . . . “that we are predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things after the counsel of His own will” . . . and “that He even created all things for His own pleasure ???”
When we read in Proverbs that “He made all things for Himself, even the wicked,” and in Isaiah it says “He created evil” and in Romans 9 it says “He has the power to create one vessel for honor and another for dishonor” (one for heaven and one for hell) what are we to think!!!???
It certainly sounds like God is a sovereign – even a despotic – God . . . at least that is the way Calvinism presents Him.
But then we read passages like James 1:3 which says:
Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man.”
Does this speak to free will of man? In the face of a sovereign God does man have free will?
Consider 1st John 1:5 which says:
“This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, “that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.”
(beat)
There are so many passages that speak of God as loving, more merciful than a cold glass of water in a hot desert, more longsuffering than a thousand Jobs and more forgiving than any human parent.
How to understand?
Would a loving, good, kind, merciful God even create human beings, who He loves, for an eternal hell?
Go back with me, then – way back to before the world or the heavens were. To the “before all things.”
To the place where all we can say is “God.” The first and the last.
Did God know all things about all things prior to creating them? Absolutely.
We have to agree that He is . . .
– Omniscient (all knowing).
– Omnipotent (all powerful).
– Omnipresent (everywhere present).
Being all of these, being all things, being the first and the last, knowing the beginning to the end, did this God WHOM JOHN DESCRIBES AS LOVE know all things about each and every one of us . . . PRIOR to creating us?
(softly) He had to.
Not only because scripture says He did but because if He didn’t He could be surprised by our acts and if surprised then not in control of them – which is counter to scripture.
This leaves us facing a tremendous biblical conundrum. Enormous and one where the answers provided have plagued me since I could think.
We are told He is light. We are told He is love. But we are also told He is in control and He does what He will.
In response to this men have come along and made propositions.
Today we have men who are claiming something called Open Theism which suggests that God does not know everything, He is only fully prepared to response to what comes up.
Intellectually it is a reasonable response but the problem with it is it counters biblical representations of Him. I reject Open Theism as a non-biblical creation of Man.
Then there is Calvin.
He took these concepts and explained them in the form of what has come to be summarized by others in the acronym T.U.L.I.P.
First, God, knowing all things, unconditionally created and elected some of us, before the foundation of the world, for eternal life and others for eternal hell.
Born of flesh and due to the Fall all of us are totally depraved (having no ability to choose God). Then God unconditionally elects (saves, regenerates) those whom He will “to life,” then Jesus came and suffered only for the sins of those whom God elected to save (limited atonement). And because God always gets His way those whom He has elected cannot refuse His call (irresistible grace) and then finally, once He calls or elects a person they will persevere – endure to the end / Once Saved Always Saved because God does not give them a choice . . . His will will be done!
The system is workable through much of scripture but it does not, in my mind, answer a number of other significant descriptions of God and His heart.
For instance
Isaiah 55:8-11 comes to mind where He says
“For my thoughts [are] not your thoughts, neither [are] your ways my ways, saith the LORD.”
And then, knowing God is love and good, how are we to understand Isaiah 45:9-11 where God says:
9 Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me,
10 Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure:
11 Calling a ravenous bird from the east, the man that executeth my counsel from a far country: yea, I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass; I have purposed it, I will also do it.
As a God of love from eternity to eternity, what is His pleasure, His will, His purpose?
What does Jeremiah 29:11 mean when God says
“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.”
What does it mean in the face of all this information when we read in 2nd Peter 3:9 that
“The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”
OR what does 1st Timothy 2:3-4 mean which says
“For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior; who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth?”
Somehow we have to come to terms with ALL of this information – not just some of it and NOT embracing what generations of Men and Women have taught and believed if it is NOT right nor biblically sound.
(beat)
So go with me (again) back to the beginning – prior to where God created the heavens and the earth and all that in them is.
IF God knew He was going to create beings that would become kindling for hell, burning forever and ever and ever in real flames and created them anyway, calling it, His Good Pleasure, we have a serious problem with the other passages that call Him love, and good, and merciful, and Holy.
Calvinism has provided the word with a myopic and therefore limited view of God – emphasizing His sovereignty while either ignoring or redefining what love is.
On the other hand, Arminianism, a response to Calvinism, refutes God’s Sovereignty and places salvation in the hands of man who are responsible for freely choosing all things and then being responsible for keeping their salvation thereafter.
Is there a reasonable, biblical response that offers us a solution to these seemingly contradictory issues and if there is, what does it ultimately reveal to us?
I would strongly suggest there is an alternative view – neither Calvinistic nor Arminianist – that is wholly biblical.
Let me say this from the start – I want nothing to do with the philosophies of Man. I do not want to tickle ears or please men instead of honoring God.
I want to teach what is biblical and refuse that which is not. The Bible must be taken as a whole and I am convinced at this point that the solution to these paradoxical issues exists.
Nevertheless, let me also warn you . . . what the explanation will ultimately reveal or suggest is going to be considered heretical by most . . . and its teacher a heretic.
May God and His Word enable you to decide for yourselves.
So here we go.
First of all, we must admit that God is certainly sovereign and in total and complete control.
Can or will real agape love control the way we define control, the way the Calvinist defines control – I would suggest no way.
Control, as we see and define it, is diabolical in most applications. Love is liberating and free, NOT controlling.
How then, is God (who IS love – pure love, all love, the very definition of love) completely Sovereign?
By His foreknowledge.
He controls by foreknowledge, not force. We get a picture of this in the story of Joseph when he was sold into Egypt by his brothers.
After going through all sorts of hell, he became a mighty prince overseeing the distribution of food.
When the brothers who sold him into Egypt years early came to him in search of food, he revealed himself.
Of course they felt horrible and frightened for having sold him but Joseph said in Genesis 50:20:
“But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as this day, to save much people alive.”
How did a good and loving God, in light of the free will choices He knew humans would take before creating them, still create them, knowing some would burn forever in hell? Additionally, how is He able to have His will done in the face of such free-will choices?
Foreknowledge friends, foreknowledge.
His omniscient foreknowledge existing in the glory of pure love, allows for human beings and angels and saints and demons to freely choose while at the same time giving Him total and ultimate control over all things and for His pleasure.
We’ll get more into what His good will and loving pleasure is next week.
Speaking of His foreknowledge God said through Isaiah (42:9)
“Behold, the former things are come to pass, and new things do I declare: before they spring forth I tell you of them.”
Psalm 33:11 The counsel of the LORD standeth for ever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations.
Speaking to King Nebuchadnezzar, Daniel said:
Daniel 2:28 But there is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets, and maketh known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days.
Speaking of the day when heaven and earth will pass away, Jesus said:
Matthew 24:36 But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.
That’s foreknowledge.
In describing himself, Peter said that he was
1st Peter 1:2 “Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied.”
Even when it came to the suffering and death of His own Son, we know it did NOT occur by the indiscriminate actions of the Jews, or the Romans, or even of Satan Himself, but by and through the foreknowledge of God.
Did God force Satan or the Jews or Romans to do what they did? Not in the least. They chose. But God, knowing all things, allowed them to do what they chose to do to bring about His sovereign will.
In Acts 2:23 Peter is speaking to a group of Jews on the day of Pentecost and says to them:
“Him (meaning Jesus) being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain.”
When Jesus was taken by the Jews was there any surprise to God? Not at all.
Again, listen to what Peter said:
“Jesus was . . . delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God to them, where they took Him and with wicked hands crucified and slayed Him.”
So, again, let’s go back. And ask yourselves,
In the beginning, did God know Adam and Eve would sin? Absolutely. No surprise.
Did Satan get them to? Sure. Did God create Satan. Yes. Did Adam and Eve have the freewill to choose evil?
You bet.
As a result scripture says that Jesus was slain from BEFORE the foundations of the world.
Stay with me now.
We KNOW from scripture that God is good, light, love. He desires a good and expected end, not an evil one.
We know that out of His good pleasure (and out of His loving good pleasure because God is LOVE) that He created all things, knowing before hand how all things would freely live, and walk, and be.
Not forcing us to be, but freely allowing us to be.
Prior to creating all things with a complete foreknowledge of them would a loving God desire or will that only some would be saved or all?
(beat)
Again, we KNOW He is love, and mercy, and forgiving, and longsuffering, so PRIOR to creating all things, having a complete foreknowledge of all things from the beginning to the end, would it be His desire that only some of His creations are redeemed or that all of them are?
We know from scripture that He is sovereign and He will have His way.
But we also know He is all about freedom so He doesn’t have His desire met by and through force, He has it by and through working in and around the free will choices of Man – which He foresaw from the beginning.
Got all that?
Now to help round out the idea and the applicability of the idea to the various things God has done to have His will and pleasure completed let’s talk about the very biblical concept of first-fruits.
The word used for firstfruits in the Greek is (aparchn) and it generally applies to the first-fruits of a harvest – or the that which is first collected and consecrated to God as an offering of gratitude.
The idea is when the blessing of God are poured out we respond by taking the first part of it, in recognition of His love and mercy, and give it to Him.
Built within the concept is an order or rank.
Additionally, first-fruits ALSO applies to the best of the whole harvest.
So let’s say you have a grove of apple trees and you want to give the first fruits to God.
This does NOT mean the very first apples to come to the grove are God’s. In fact, we learn from Leviticus 19:23-25 that when it came to tree firstfruits the Children of Israel were to wait for four cycles of harvests before either offering first fruits or harvesting them for themselves.
So the order and rank part applies to the first acceptable harvest as a whole and the best of the harvest.
Numbers 18:12 says it well:
“All the best of the oil, and all the best of the wine, and of the wheat, the firstfruits of them which they shall offer unto the LORD, them have I given thee.”
When it comes to humans, the firstfruits of the womb, however, are always the firstborn sons, which is naturally a picture of our Lord.
The purpose and symbolism is manifest even in our day and age. The person to be served first is typically someone of highest honor.
Proverbs 3:9 says, “Honor the LORD with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase.”
Additionally, the firstfruits, as we’ve defined them, were very important to God.
Ezekiel 48:14 says:
“And they shall not sell of it, neither exchange, nor alienate the firstfruits of the land: for it is holy unto the LORD.”
So, and in accordance to God and His sovereign ways and perfect foreknowledge, the idea of firstfruits – picturing His Only Begotten Son – was initiated from the beginning.
Remember, firstfruits include the concept of the best, the first, and a rank among others what ARE TO COME.
Did you hear me? Firstfruits include the notions of the best of a crop, the first out of a crop, and a rank (meaning there are other ranks coming in behind the first and best.)
When God created everything in the Garden of Eden it was good.
Adam and Eve were the firstfruits of all humanity. They were first, they were the best (God created them, right) and they were first in rank.
God gave them a choice – to love Him and therefore obey Him, or to choose their own will and way.
Did God know what they would do? Certainly. Which is why scripture says His Son was slain from the foundations of the world.
Did others follow in after the first and best called Adam and Eve?
Certainly. Even all the way down to each of us today.
With the first fruits of the Human race failing to love and choose God, God elected a nation above all other nations.
Romans 11:16, speaking of the Nation of Israel and likening them to a tree God created and elected for specific purposes, Paul wrote to gentile believers in Rome:
“For if the firstfruit be holy, the lump is also holy: and if the root be holy, so are the branches.”
See, the firstfruit nation, like the firstfruit couple, failed to live the law and choose God.
Now listen – this is key –
Just as more individuals came after the firstfruit couple Adam and Eve, filling the earth, so did other nations follow in after the firstfruit nation failed to choose God and ultimately rejected the Messiah.
Listen – ALL OTHER NATIONS, right?
God has elected (based on His foreknowledge of what Adam and Eve and the Nation of Israel would choose to do) to use them so He would achieve His good pleasure and will, not because He respected them any more but because of His foreknowledge of what they would do.
We know that God sent His Only Begotten Son, right?
The firstfruits of God (now the Father) and of Mary and the ONLY one up to this point in history to do His will.
In many ways, Jesus was the first and only of the church.
First and only born of a virgin.
First and only without sin.
First and only to come down from above.
First and only to obey the Law.
And having been the best, the first, and the first of an order of humanity, he became the firstfruits in overcoming the grave by overcoming sin and death.
Listen.
1st Corinthians 15:20 says it:
“But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.”
Because of Him, all of mankind (every rank) will be resurrected , or as it says in 1st Corinthians 15:23
But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.
From His ascension on, the Church – His church, comprised of individual believers, have become the firstfruits of believers.
Romans 8:23 calls us, the firstfruits of the Spirit.
Of the first, of a rank, of therefore, the best of all.
Firstfruits plays such a role in God and His achieving His own pleasure and will, that when a person became a believer in a certain geographical area, they were known as the firstfruits of that area.
In Romans 16:5, Paul is giving greetings, and says
“Likewise greet the church that is in their house. Salute my wellbeloved Epaenetus, who is the “firstfruits of Achaia” unto Christ.”
Here’s the point, which we will build upon next week . . .
Firstfruits does NOT mean there is no fruit coming after. It merely signifies the first of the best, the first in rank, and the first AMONG many.
Adam and Eve were followed by more people.
The Nation of Israel was followed by more nations.
Jesus, the first resurrected, was and will be followed by more.
The first believers of an area will be followed by more, and the church of the redeemed, will be followed by more.
James 1:18 says it well:
“Of his own will (of His own good pleasure) begat he us with the word of truth (according to His election based on His foreknowledge), that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.”
Just as the Nation of Israel thought the sun rose and set on them, and could not accept subsequent nations being His, we, in the church, have made an error in believing that the sun rises and sets on us.
More are coming. I would say, even all, perfectly supporting the fact that God is all knowing, is in control, is Love, supports complete free will, but has His way.
Let’s pray.
