Saturday, January 18, 2014

talk about sovereignty

"In Revelation 13:8, John writes about 'everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain.' So there was a book before the foundation of the world called "the book of life of the Lamb who was slain." Before the world was created, God had already planned that his Son would be slain like a lamb to save all those who are written in the book.
 Or consider 2 Timothy 1:9: '[God] saved us and called  us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began.' Saving grace was given to us before the ages began. That is, it was given to us before there was any human sin to save us from. Therefore, grace was planned before human sin was there to need it. This means that God's plan to save us through grace was not a response to human decisions to sin. Saving grace was the plan that made sin necessary. God did not find sin in the world and then make a plan to remedy it. He had the plan before the ages, and that plan was for the glory of sin-conquering grace through the death of Jesus Christ.
This is even more plain in Ephesians 1:4-6: '[God] chose us in [Christ] before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.' To what end did God predestine us sinners for adoption? To the praise of the glory of his grace. That is why the plan was made. The ultimate aim of the eternal plan was that praise might be as intense as possible for the glory of God's grace. And the apex of that glory is in the death of Jesus. So much so that the gospel of the death of Christ for sinners is called 'the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God' (2 Cor 4:4)
John Piper, Spectacular Sins (58-59)

If this is Who God is, then I'm sure He's sovereign over all things all the time.

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