God’s Actions Are Not Experimental

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Known unto God are all His works from the beginning of the ages (Acts 15:18).

Sometimes it appears that Christianity views God as having somehow lost control of His universe, and is now bumbling His way through the course of time trying to see what will work to accomplish His will. Nothing could be further from the truth!

God is not operating on the fly. He does not rule over His universe by the seat of His pants. God possesses all knowledge. There is absolutely nothing lacking in His understanding. There is nothing that He does not know.

Regardless of what His finite creatures may have to say, the infinite God of Scripture is all-knowing. Period. Not only does God have all knowledge, He also possesses “wisdom, of innumerable aspects” (Ephesians 3:10, Weymouth).

God is NOT conducting an experiment. God is NOT attempting to find out what will work and what will not. Creation is NOT God’s guinea pig or some kind of continuous experiment in a cosmic research lab. God is filled with complete knowledge and wisdom; He always knows exactly what He is doing. None of His actions are experimental. We can have absolute confidence in Him.

Clyde L. Pilkington, Jr.
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The Divine Drama

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Can you imagine going to the Broadway premier of Les Miserables. The house is full. The intro music is playing. The curtains pull back and the actors come out bowing as though the audience was to appreciate them. No acting. No story. No villains. No fear. No redemption. I doubt you or anyone in the audience would applaud.

This scenario can help us to understand what God is doing.

Mike Owens
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All Our Days

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My days, all of them were written in Your book; the days, they were formed when there was not one of them (Psalm 139:16).

It is comforting to know that God knew us long before we were ever born. It is reassuring to understand that the details of our lives on this very day were written in His book before we ever lived them. It is a cause of rest to our hearts to know that He has designed the details of our lives; that we are not living our life on our own, but that He is God – large and in charge – of all that this day, and every other one, brings forth.

After all He is the God Who is,

… declaring the end from the beginning … and … from ancient times the things that are not yet done (Isaiah 46:9-10).

It is a great relief to recognize that we can’t disappoint Him nor surprise Him as we live out our day. For He alone is the Author of our lives; the Sovereign Scribe Who has masterfully crafted the script of our days upon the pages of His epic work.

We are not self-made: we are God-made. We are “His workmanship,” “His achievement” (Ephesians 2:10), and of course,

Known to God are all His works from the beginning of the ages (Acts 15:18).

We can rejoice today that we are His, and that He is fully in charge of our days.

For in Him we live, and move, and have our being (Acts 17:28).

Clyde L. Pilkington, Jr.
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Man Can’t Rule Apart from God

 

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It is not God’s object to fill the world with peace at the present time. It will help us in the terrible time we are going through to realize this. God wants to teach man that he cannot rule apart from Him. Man is made to rule and he is going to rule, but he is not able apart from the Deity.

A.E. Knoch (1874-1965)
Unsearchable Riches, Volume 36, 1945
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His Work!

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You think you’re bad or not good enough to be used by God? Just remember that God is never hindered by our incompetence. On the contrary. His preference, by definition, goes out to those who are, by our standards, (totally) unacceptable. There are many examples of this in the Bible.

Jacob was a deceiver. David had an affair. Paul was a murderer. Thomas was a doubter. Elijah was depressed and Moses stuttered. Sara was impatient. Noah got drunk. Peter was a hothead. Zachaeus was too short. Jonah did not want to go. Martha was over-concerned and Gideon was insecure. Rebekah was barren and Lazarus was even dead.

But God does not call the qualified. He qualifies the called!

André Piet
The Netherlands
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God’s Guarantee to Adam’s Race

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The pattern of harvest, as established in the Old Testament, begins with “firstfruits,” then the main harvest, and finally the gleaning of the fields by the needy and destitute, assuring that not one kernel would be lost.

The very fact that we have borne the image of Adam guarantees that we will also bear the image of Christ. First the flesh, the earthy, then the spirit, the heavenly. First the man of earth, then the man of heaven. Thus Paul so confidently declared,

As we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly (I Corinthians 15:49).

He could not more forcibly present God’s guarantee that the very fact you exist as a human being is proof and assurance that one day you will bear the image of God’s heavenly Adam, Jesus Christ. God always finishes the work He begins, including that of making man in His Own image which He began in the Garden of Eden.

The “Last Adam” is not an idle poetic expression that Paul used referring to Jesus. As the context of his words show, he intended to establish the fact that just as we all sprang from Adam the first man, and therefore bear his image, so in the very same way the “Last Adam” is the first spiritual man. The first Adam was the first of the old and earthy creation; the “Last Adam” is the first of the new and heavenly, or spiritual creation.

In Romans 5, the inevitability of bearing the image of the Man from Heaven is underscored. Jesus is the firstborn of the new creation just as Adam was the firstborn of the old creation. The work of Jesus far surpasses the work of Adam. What Adam did unto death, Jesus much more accomplished unto life. Jesus, the “Last Adam,” will make alive all who died in the first Adam.

For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive (I Corinthians 15:22).

Bert Bauman
The Gospel, page 16
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God’s Demonstrations in Government

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God is “trying” a great number – I should not say of experiments – but a vast variety of demonstrations to shut man’s mouth; so that he cannot say that he has not had a fair opportunity to prove that he can govern apart from God. … Apart from all being subject to God there cannot be and should not be a perfect government.

A.E. Knoch (1874-1965)
Unsearchable Riches, Volume 38, 1947
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