Divine Freedom Rejoiced In

The Bible is God’s gracious self-revelation of His person and His purposes in creation.  He reveals Himself as eternal spirit, unbounded by time and space, who created man for His glory – that the infinite perfections of His being, first displayed in the natural creation, would be most profoundly and purposefully displayed in His creation of mankind in His image and likeness and in His relationship with mankind, wherein we would know, love and be loved by God and one another under His sovereign rule  (John 4:24) (Psalm 19:1-6)  (Isaiah 43:7) ) (John 17:1-3) (Exodus 20:1-3).

To this end, we see God, guided by His infinite wisdom and enabled by His majestic power, weaving from Genesis to Revelation a tapestry of His glory.  Most prominently we see His goodness, mercy and grace woven together with His justice, judgement and wrath.

God does so unhindered by anything in His creation as He alone has liberty of will, the freedom and ability to do whatever He pleases, whenever He pleases, however He pleases, achieving His perfect will in His perfect way (Psalm 135:5-6) (Psalm 115:1-3) (1 Chronicles 29:10-12).

Thus, the following represent the freedoms of God that are behind all things that occur in human/redemptive history, as God ordains and orders all of human history according to the wise counsel of His will to achieve His eternal purposes (Isaiah 46:8-10) (Lamentations 3:37-39) (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8) (Isaiah 45:5-7).

These freedoms include but are certainly not limited to:

Freedom (and ability) to speak into existence a universe and world of beauty, splendor and wonder that reveals His glory to the race of beings (mankind) He creates in His image and likeness to know our greatest joy, our greatest pleasure, our greatest satisfaction in that which God finds His greatest joy, pleasure and satisfaction – namely His glory, such that life would center around Him, and enjoying all that He created for us to freely enjoy in Him (Colossians 1:16-17)  (Psalm 16:11) (1 Timothy 6:17).

Freedom to design, order and ordain that which will best display His glory and promote human flourishing and individual happiness in Him, and to establish, impose and enforce laws that will preserve that design and order and uphold His glory (Proverbs 3:19) (Genesis 1:27-31) (Exodus 20:1-17) (Deuteronomy 28:1-14).

Freedom to determine the just consequences for men and women choosing to violate those laws, what the Bible refers to as sin (1 John 3:4) (Genesis 2:15-17) (Ezekiel 18:4)(Genesis 3:16-19).

Freedom to allow men and women to sin, to freely exercise their will in opposition to His, to live contrary to His design and order for human flourishing, what the Bible refers to as wickedness or evil. He is free thus to give them over to and subject them to the natural and judicial consequences of that evil, both in this world and the world to come (Deuteronomy 30:19-20) (Romans 1:18-32) (Exodus 28:15-67) (Psalm 9:17).

Freedom to exercise His will in nature and in all human affairs, even using the evil acts of men and women to bring about His good purposes in all things, even using such acts to bring about His glorious plan of salvation (Daniel 4:34-35) (Genesis 50:15-20) (Romans 8:28) (Acts 2:22-24).

Freedom to determine the outcome of all human acts and decisions (James 4:13-16) (Proverbs 16:9) (Psalm 127:1) (Proverbs 16:33) (Proverbs 19:21).

Freedom to determine the destinies of nations (Job 12:23) (Deuteronomy 4:37-39).

Freedom to determine the rulers and leaders of those nations and to exercise sovereign authority over their rule (Romans 13:1) (Proverbs 21:1) (Daniel 4:17).

Freedom to create and utilize angelic beings, both holy and fallen (the devil and his demons) according to His eternal purposes (Luke 1:26-28) (Hebrews 1:13 -14) (Revelation 12:7-12) (Proverbs 16:4).

Freedom to bring human life into this world through human procreation, determining who will be born, when they will be born, to whom they will be born, where they will live while on this earth, and when they will die (Psalm 139:16) (Isaiah 44:24) (Acts 17:26-27) (Job 14:5).    

Freedom to determine the natural characteristics, abilities and limitations of each person He brings into the world (Exodus 4:11-12) (1 Corinthians 4:6-7).

Freedom to give certain gifts – talents, freedoms, and riches to some that He does not give to others, holding the recipient of the gifts accountable for how they utilize them for His glory (Matthew 25:14-30).

Freedom to answer our prayers as He determines best for our eternal joy in Him (1 John 5:14) (2 Corinthians 12:8-10) (Luke 22:42).

Freedom to reveal truth about Himself and His ways to mankind only on a need-to-know basis (Deuteronomy 29:29) (Isaiah 55:8-9).

Freedom to display His common grace and mercy, as well as to display His wrath and judgement throughout human history as He desires (Matthew 20:1-15) (Exodus 33:18-20)(Romans 9:14-18)

Freedom to determine if He will save any of fallen, rebellious humanity from His ultimate and eternal judgement, and if so on what basis He will do so (Titus 3:3-6) (Ephesians 2:8-9) (Mark 1:14-15).

Freedom to send His eternally begotten Son, Jesus Christ, into the world as a man, to demonstrate the glory of His mercy and grace and the certainty and righteousness of His divine justice, accomplishing through Jesus’ sinless life, substitutionary death on the cross and miraculous resurrection, everything necessary for sinful men and women to be justly saved from His judgement and reconciled to the glorious relationship with God for which man was created and lost because of sin (John 3:16) (Romans 3:21-26) (Ephesians 2:4-7).

Freedom to choose, for His glory, out of rebellious race of mankind, those whom He will display the merciful benefits of His saving work, creating in them a new heart with new affections, desires and longings that are centered on knowing, loving and being loved by God as He opens their spiritual eyes to see His glory revealed in the person and work of Jesus, granting them the faith and repentance necessary for entrance into His eternal kingdom (Jeremiah 24:6-7) (Ezekiel 36:26-28) (2 Corinthians 4:3-6) (2 Timothy 2:24-25) (Ephesians 2:8-9).

Freedom to judge and destroy this present evil world/age in the time and manner He chooses, putting an end to human rebellion, suffering and all evil, and creating for Himself a new heaven (universe) and new earth, having freely determined from the foundation of the first earth who will populate the new (Galatians 1:4) (John 12:30-31) (2 Peter 3:10-13) (Revelation 21:1-8)  (Ephesians 1:3-6).

I pray that these wonderous freedoms of our sovereign God would redound onto His praise, honor and glory in our hearts and minds both now and forever, Amen.

Grace and Peace ×