Our Providence
Our Providence
Worldlings have very strange ideas about Providence. Insurance companies list, under acts of Providence, all the great catastrophes. If a combination of circumstances gives a happy result, men say that the matter is providential.
The Word of God tells us not that Providence is the Author of all the sinister tragedies that come upon men, but that He is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. We know from the Book of Job that it was Satan who, when he was granted the permission, brought war, lightning, rapine, and the great wind from the wilderness, all of which left a trail of death. We also know that it was Satan who, when he was granted further permission, brought disease upon Job. So, in saying that the Lord Jesus Christ is Providence, we are not charging Him with the ills of mankind. It was Isaac Watts who wrote:
His very Word of grace is strong
As that which built the skies;
The voice that rolls the stars along
Speaks all the promises.
Do we have Biblical authority for that statement? We are convinced that we do have such authority. If we turn to the first chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews we find God's great description of His Son, Jesus Christ. Our Lord has been appointed Heir of all things. It is by Him that God made the ages. He is the brightness of God's glory; He is the express image of God's person. We can understand the meaning of this if we think of the relation of the image on a coin to the die which stamps the coin. Christ is elsewhere spoken of as the image of the invisible God (Col. 1:15). The die may be invisible, but our Lord is visible.
After this great series of statements concerning the eternal Son, Paul says of Christ that He is "upholding all things by the word of his power" (Heb. 1:3). Is this not a perfect description of Providence? What is it that keeps the stars in their courses? The Lord Jesus Christ. What is it that keeps us from being whirled off into space by the force of this spinning earth? It is the Lord Jesus Christ. What is it that makes all of the atoms obey the laws which chemistry is charting? The Lord Jesus Christ. What is it that holds the seas in bounds, orders the seasons, causes the trees to bud and the flowers to spring, and brings life from generation to generation? The Lord Jesus Christ.
There is none other that is Providence. Is there another way we can know that all things work together for good to those who love Him? The one who orders the universe is none other than our Redeemer.
1. If the Lord is sovereign and rules all things, how are we responsible then, if he is sovereign over us?
2. If Christ orders the universe much like the Father does in Genesis, how does this begin to develop our understanding of the Trinity?
3. What does this teach us about the deity of Christ?
4. How does the deity of Christ & His Trinitarian nature affect our view of redemptive history and thus build our theology of providence? What other areas of theology are affected by this doctrine?
