Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries |
The sovereignty, righteousness, and justice of God as it relates to the theology of God’s plan.
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Point 2. The Essence of God Is Necessary to Understand the Theology of God’s Perfect Plan.
God is sovereign. Sovereignty means that God is supreme in rule and has authority over all things.
DEU 4:39Â “Know therefore today, and take it to your heart, that the Lord, He is God in heaven above and on the earth below; there is no other.”
1SA 2:6-7 “The Lord kills and makes alive; He brings down to Sheol and raises up. The Lord makes poor and rich; He brings low, He also exalts. He raises the poor from the dust, He lifts the needy from the ash heap To make them sit with nobles, And inherit a seat of honor; For the pillars of the earth are the Lord’s, And He set the world on them.”
1SA 2:8 “He puts poor people on their feet again; he rekindles burned-out lives with fresh hope, Restoring dignity and respect to their lives– a place in the sun! For the very structures of earth are GOD’s; he has laid out his operations on a firm foundation.”
The sovereign will of God for mankind is expressed entirely in one verse in the Bible,
1TI 2:4, where He desires all men to be saved and to come unto the epignosis knowledge of the truth.
The very fact that all men are not saved and that all believers do not come unto the epignosis knowledge of the truth reveals that although God is sovereign He will not violate or coerce human volition.
All three members of the Trinity possess the attribute of sovereignty.
PSA 83:18 God the Father is the Most High over all the earth.
MAT 28:18 “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.”
1CO 12:11 But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually just as He wills.
God also is perfect righteousness.
The Bible teaches that there is no one Holy like the Lord, 1SA 2:2, LEV 19:2.
1SA 2:2 “There is no one holy like the Lord, Indeed, there is no one besides Thee, Nor is there any rock like our God.”
LEV 19:2 Speak to all the congregation of the sons of Israel and say to them, “You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.”
God is not simply righteous by comparison with someone else, His righteousness is independent and incomparable.
The bad people have some good in them and the good people have some bad in them.
We have set up certain standards in our soul and through relativity and comparison we make evaluations.
How can we who are imperfect ever have fellowship with God who is totally perfect, who says in HAB 1:13, He can’t even look upon sin or iniquity?
God took cognizance of this fact and billions of years ago He made a provision to solve our problem.
2CO 5:21 He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
It is impossible to have perfect righteousness without having perfect character and a perfect personality.
The key to personality is not charisma or a sparkling intellect.
The key to personality is righteousness.
True righteousness does not look down their nose at others who appear to be worse than themselves.
True righteousness is a very relaxed and wonderful state to be in as well as wonderful people to be around.
The righteousness of God is related to His work, His ways, and His faithfulness.
Faithfulness is mentioned along with perfect righteousness because we need to think of God in terms of, not only His perfect attributes, but perfect coordination between the attributes or the essence of God.
PSA 119:137 Righteous art Thou, O Lord, And upright are Thy judgments.
REV 19:2 His judgments are true and righteous;
They seem to be unfair, but in the end, you will find out that God was exactly right and just in dealing with the situation the way that He did.
2SA 22:31 “As for God, His way is blameless; The word of the Lord is tested; He is a shield to all who take refuge in Him.”
The righteousness of God is active.
As a primary motive, it incites all that He does; therefore He is righteous in His ways.
Though infinitely holy, He nevertheless maintains a relation to fallen creatures; not with an inactive detached-attitude from them, but a vital, faithful, availability.