We hear the claim that predestination is a doctrine that “can’t be preached.” The foolishness of such talk was resoundingly evident at the large Sunday morning service at the end of the Philadelphia Conference on Reformed Theology in Toronto on April 17. I do not remember ever attending a more profoundly moving church service. The sermon subject was “Predestination and the Glory of God,” based on Romans 11:32, 33, 36. The preacher was Dr. W. Robert Godfrey, a Christian Reformed professor of Church History at Westminster Theological Seminary at Escondido, California. At the beginning of his sermon he observed that Michelangelo’s famous statue of Moses (of which, incidentally, a copy used to stand in the entry of Calvin College) had two horns on his head. Those horns were the result of Jerome’s mistranslation of the Bible in the Latin Vulgate. Where the passage reads that when Moses came down from the mountain “his face shone” (Ex. 34:29, 30) Jerome misread it to say that his head “was horned.” The speaker observed that if this had been accurately translated the artist would have been completely defeated in trying to represent that radiation of the glory of God in the face of Moses. In Exodus 33 Moses, in discouraging circumstances, had asked, “Lord, show me your glory.” As a result of being given only a glimpse of God’s back after He had passed, Moses’ face shone with an intense radiance. A little later we read that God’s great glory came down from the mountain to dwell in the tent of meeting in the middle of the people. In seeking to understand something of that glory of God’s self-revelation, we observe that the root of the word “glory” is also variously translated as “weight,” “wealth,” “importance” and “light”—light, radiating and testifying to Him. Yet, even in this revelation there remains also a measure of hiddenness. This is seen also in Jesus, the Revelation of God. “We beheld His glory . . . full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). In Him the “glory of God” “tented among us,” so that we sing in the hymn, “Hark! the Herald Angels Sing,” “Veiled in flesh the God-head see: Hail! th’ Incarnate Deity.” The glory of God has come down and dwelt among us in the person of Jesus Christ. It is seen in the most unlikely place on the cross where Jesus was “lifted up” to draw all men unto Himself. He declared of the crucifixion that the hour had come for the Son of Man to be glorified. We see that glory on the mount of transfiguration where Jesus talked with Moses and Elijah. And we see it in the opening chapter of Revelation where as the Ascended Lord, He walks in overwhelming splendor among the lampstands of the church. So Paul, in reflecting on God and His Church, is moved to raise his voice in doxology in the text at t he end of Romans chapter 11, “To Him be the glory for ever and ever!”
What in particular had moved Paul to praise God in this doxology? The Apostle had been reflecting in Romans 9–11 on God’s mercy to His people. In 9:5 he quoted the Lord’s words to Moses in Exodus 33:19. Moses’ request to see God’s glory was answered, “I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.” The discussion in Chapter 9 is about God’s mercy and it ends in 11:32 with God’s mercy. That sovereign mercy of God is what provokes the doxology, “For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things.” This doxology structures the sermon as it points to (1) Mercy Planned (“from Him”) (2) Mercy Preached (“through Him”) and (3) Mercy Perfected (“to Him”).
1. Mercy Planned
Out of fallen mankind, God from eternity had determined to raise up a people, to create a people to glorify His Name. And that plan will not be thwarted. Other theologies leave a possibility that He will not succeed, but God declares that He will have a people for His name. This was His promise to Abraham. The speaker recalled a missionary once flying into Calcutta, reflecting on his own inadequacies, but reassured as he thought of God’s eternal purpose and plan and his .own commission to serve Him. God has planned to build a church out of all the peoples of the earth. This is the way in which He determined to show the riches of His mercy, and also of His wisdom. We can’t increase that glory, but we can reflect, and declare it as we “bask” in it. What a contrast this wisdom of God’s plan is to the foolishness of men. Paul had spoken eloquently about that foolishness in chapter 1 where he wrote that, claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged. the . glory of God for images and the truth of God for a he to worship and serve the creature rather than the Creator (vv. 22–25). And so they came to worship their own images of birds snakes, cars, ball-players, drinks, and as the psalm says (Ps. 115:8), those who worship such images become like them. What a tragedy! When we think of the mercy of God, we dare never apologize about being Reformed or refuse to talk of God’s plan or be silent about the riches of His salvation.
2. Mercy Preached
This mercy is preached. It is not only “from” God, but also “through” Him. We see in chapter 10 that it is above all preached by God Himself. God doesn’t make His plan and then stand back. He is not only the “architect,” but is active in the preaching of His mercy. God has “stretched out his hands to a disobedient and contrary people” (v. 21). God calls people to Himself and assures that whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved (v. 13). Him who comes He will not cast out. God remains the Great Preacher and Declarer of His Word.
But He has appointed preachers to carry that message. That is a great privilege and an awesome responsibility. It is an awesome responsibility both to preach and to hear the life-giving Word of truth, the Word that is a savor fro m life to life and fro m death to death (2 Cor. 2:16). The speaker recalled an old Welsh preacher who facing the high pulpit said, “I cannot go into that awful place,” and departed, disconcerting the elders who must provide for the service, but reminding the congregation that preaching God’s Word is never commonplace. God Himself preaches through His preachers in Christ. Christ must always be the center and heart of that preaching. This is stressed in Romans 10.
God’s law must be preached to reveal men’s sin and to drive them to Christ. And so we are called to salvation by faith in Christ. We a re warned against repeating the mistake of Israel , of thinking that we are God’s covenant people and that He is obligated to us. We must rest by faith in Christ and His work and not in ourselves. This is harmonized with God’s election of which Paul had been speaking. Election never undermines our fait h, but undergirds it. Our salvation is not in our own hands, but in the Lord’s. Martin Luther, whose 500th birthday anniversary is celebrated this year, called attention to this very thing and to the certainty which it brings because God is faithful so that no one can snatch me from Him. This is the assurance which God’s election gives. This is the mercy which we preach and which glorifies God. It is mercy “from Him” and “through Him.” It is also mercy “to Him.”
3. Mercy Perfected
God is active in this mercy in the beginning, in the middle and to the end. His purpose is to glorify Himself in glorifying us. God’s original intention was to give glory to His creature. Man was “crowned with glory and honor” (Ps. 8). Man is “the image and glory of God” (1 Cor. 11). God said in Isaiah 42;8 , “I am the LORD: that is my name; and my glory I will not give to another, neither my praise to graven images.” God gave His glory to man, the image which He made. Man, fallen into sin, lost that glory, but God determined to restore it. This was not the fading glory of Moses’ face (2 Cor. 3,4) but a permanent, unfading glory. “We all . . . beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory” (2 Cor. 3:18). Everything that happens to us in this life must come under the arch of God’s coming glory. Paul said (2 Cor. 4: 17), “For our light affliction which is for the moment, worketh for us more and more exceedingly an eternal weight of glory.” Calvin, meditating on the future life, observed that the only way we can bring the present into perspective is to remember that our real home is in glory. Evangelicals are sometimes accused of preaching “pie in the sky by and by.” The meditation on the future glory does not make us of no earthly good, but it gives us the “liberty of the sons of God.” This is the kind of liberty which once made a 16th century Spanish Soldier say, “I’d rather face a whole army than one Calvinist convinced that he’s doing the will of God.” We look ahead toward the future of which our Lord said, “Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father” (Matt. 13:43). And Peter promised to the elders (and evidently to other faithful) “And when the chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away” (1 Peter 5:4). In Revelation 4:10 and 11 we see the twenty-four elders “fall down before Him who sits on the throne, and . . . worship Him who lives forever and ever, and . . . cast their crowns before t he throne saying, ‘Worthy art Thou, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power.’” God glorifies us and we take that glory and consecrate it back to Him, glorifying Him forever.
We Calvinists in the 1980’s are a minority and may sometimes be discouraged by the secularism that is all around us and the observation that sometimes nonCalvinist Christian groups seem more successful in various ways than we. But we have a great task and mission to perform. That is to open to fellow-Christians and others the depths and the riches and the wisdom of God’s mercy and glory for we have, through God’s grace, a profound insight into His Word and His will. And we need to declare it and to spread it to His glory. We live in a day in which many Christians have eclipsed the glory of God by ignoring His perfect plan. Therefore they have ignored His planned mercy, have reduced the sinfulness of sin, and accordingly also the saving work of Christ, because, according to their version, man needs only a partial Savior. But we who have looked deeply into God’s Word know that we are by nature “dead” in our sins and unable to help ourselves. At the right time Christ died for us and by the irresistible work of His Holy Spirit has brought us to faith in Himself. Therefore we must glorify Him. For “from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory for ever. Amen.”
God’s Word “Grows” (Acts 12:24; 19:20)
I asked Dr. Boice to what he attributed the phenomenally increasing interest in these conferences as they have spread across the land. He said that there had been advertising in evangelical magazines and other announcements, currently less than earlier because those who attend are promoting the interest of others. In answer to my question he could only point to an evident wide-spread hunger for this kind of Bible teaching. I believe that he is right. Many are drawn by the two features that characterize these programs (1) the exposition of the Bible as God’s Word (Dr. Boice also took a leading role in the organization of the International Council on Biblical Inerrancy), and (2) the clear and practical presentation of the Bible’s teachings (or doctrines). Many are asking in our confused and troubled times, “Is there a word form God?” There is, and we must set ourselves to preach and live it, instead of, as Dorothy Sayers (in her essay “Creed or Chaos”) saw church leaders doing, “running away from” these doctrines. God is still honoring His Word and those who by His grace seek to live and bring it. If churches and preachers are taught to criticize the Bible and to pare away its doctrines to suit the prejudices of our changing times we can hardly expect the Lord to bless their efforts with real revival. He has revived His church by His Word and Spirit in the past and is plainly doing it in many areas today. His Word will accomplish that for which He sent it (Isaiah 55:11). The critical question for us is whether we are going to hear and bring that Word and its life and health-giving doctrine or, like many other churches around us, lose it through indifference. Let us pray and work that the Lord may grant us a share in the reviving work of His Word and Spirit.