10
Jesus
Finally, the most glorious landmark of all among the Biblical
witnesses of the absolute sovereignty of Almighty God. He ordained the man
Jesus, whom Paul in Hebrews 7:26 describes as "...holy, harmless,
undefiled, separate from sinners..." the man Jesus who was also God in the
flesh, the Son, the second person of the Trinity, of Him we read in Isa. 53:10,
"Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when
thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin...."
God delivered Him up to make Him the Lamb of God that takes away
the sin of the world. He became the Sin Offering for His own. Acts 2:23,
"Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of
God,..."
This, then, is the final Biblical proof of God's sovereignty, that
He could ordain that the God-man Jesus would become the reality on which the
Old Testament Sin Offering was based.
That the Lord of Glory should be made sin, and a curse, was such a
tremendous and wonderful act of divine sovereignty that it has never been and
can never be paralleled, and so should forever close the lips of sinful man
from ever having one word to say about God or His work, His will or His Plan.
It should certainly close the mouths of men and keep them from their vile
accusations when they speak about His will in disposing of His creation, for
the Creator has become the Sacrifice to save such of His creation as He
desires.
Cautions
Before going on I want to warn you against the wicked thoughts our
deceitful hearts can draw in the misinterpretation of these sovereign truths
that we tried to bring out of the Word of God.
Do not, from the arguments presented, try to make God the author
of sin by charging His sacred decree with man's sin and error, as if the decree
were not only the cause but the occasion for them. It can not be the cause or
occasion for man's sin anymore than the sun can be the cause or occasion of
darkness. God is light and can not be darkness. His will and desires can never
be the cause of sin.
Remember one thing, the Lord's rejecting of men puts no evil into
them, nor does it dictate a change of their will to sin. His rejection of men
simply leaves them to their own ways and they freely choose their own way. Men
choose sin.
But God does bank them in and hems them in just as He has the
great seas and oceans of the world so that they can not deluge the world with
sin.
He will not let them rot the entire world around themselves with
sin but has called His own and made them the salt of the earth that for now
holds back the rot. But the day will come when the rot will have free rein.
Again, do not try to ease or give your sin extenuating
circumstances by arguments based on God's decree. The sin of the Jews in
"crucifying the Lord of glory" was in no way lessened because He was
"... delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of
God...." It was the hands of the Jews that actually brought about the
crucifixion.
Nor is men's unbelief less criminal and he less deserving of
punishment, for it is not the question of his punishment that causes them to
cast aside the Word of God, to turn a deaf ear to it. It is their own natural
blindness and their hatred of it and what it teaches.