“All
Things Are Of God”
By
Arthur J. Licursi
Philip.
4:11b …I have learned to be content
(Greek, autarkes, self-complacent) in whatever circumstances I am.
(NAS) To
be “self-complacent” is to not rely upon ones self. It is to opposite of
self-reliant. This paper is to explain how it is that the Apostle
Paul could possibly be self-complacent in every state of being or every
circumstance that he suffered and endured. 2
Cor. 6:4-5
But in all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God, in much
patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses, 5In
stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labours, in watchings, in fastings;
Paul suffered these things and yet
did not react to these circumstances out of self-reliance because he trusted
that God’s sufficiency was to be found in each and every happening in his
life.
Recently
I had conversations with a born-again Christian in which an important
difference in understanding was discussed. I expressed the “rest and
peace” that I’ve come to enjoy by trusting the fact that God is
my loving Father, that He is in control of ALL things, including ALL the
circumstances and situations that come upon me; and … and that no
matter how bad or good these happenings may be, they are working for my good.
Sadly, these Christians then replied, “I don’t think God cares about
your little situations and decisions concerning all the small details of
your life.” Well, I believe My Father is over ALL things; otherwise He
is not the sovereign God. I believe He rules over ALL with
justice, wisdom and grace, out of a heart of pure love, desirous of a mutual
love relationship with us.
The
term “the sovereignty of God” expresses the supreme rulership of God.
Sovereignty is not an attribute of His character; it is His due prerogative
or right of choice. He is not bound by any restraint external to Himself.
All forms of existence, spiritual and physical, are within the scope of His
dominion. Believing this to be true is part of our proper conception of God.
This is the great confidence of God’s people, and it is widely declared
throughout Scripture as seen in these verses.
Psalm
66:7 He
ruleth by his power for ever; his eyes behold (observe) the
nations …
Psalm
93:1 The Lord reigneth, he is clothed with majesty; the Lord
is clothed with strength, wherewith he hath girded himself: the world
(tebel, the inhabited earth, its people) also is stablished, that it
cannot be moved.
Isaiah
40:15 Behold, the
nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the
balance…
Isaiah
45:7 I form
the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create
evil: I the Lord do all
these things.
Romans
11:36 For of
him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory
for ever. Amen.
2
Cor. 5:18 And all
things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus
Christ, …
1
Cor. 8:6 But to
us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are
all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by
whom are all things, and we by him.
Ephes.
1:11 In whom also
we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the
purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his
own will:
1
Tim. 6:15 Lord
… who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord
of lords;
God
is the supreme dispenser of all events and yet the only thing God will not
do is violate or abridge the free will choices of mankind. Man has the power
to say no to God, thus we see the terrible condition of mankind in the
world. This is clearly seen in that God does not hinder man’s moral
freedom and even man’s rebellion toward Him. Men are arbiters of their own
destinies. God saw fit to create creatures that have the power of choice
between good and evil. Thus, though God is sovereign, we have a fallen
corrupted world as result of man’s making, being under the dominion and
influence of Satan’s deceptions. Romans
7:18-21 For I
know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will
is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. 19For
the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. 20Now
if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth
in me. 21I
find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.
Jesus
said, John 12:25
He that loveth his life (psuche, soul or self life) shall lose it; and he
that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life (zoe, spirit) eternal. When we make the singularly
greatest free will choice that any human can make, which is to
say “yes” to receive God’s reconciliation in Christ and the gift of
His Son’s life to dwell within as our new life, then we have irrevocably
given up the right to self-rule in our life. Paul
writes of “Christ who is our life” (Col 3:4a). Given the
foregoing facts, we then have our life entirely within His prerogative and
the loving care of God as our Father. Let us consider, “Does the
sovereign God rule Himself by His own prerogative” Yes, of course!
Since we’ve given up our right of self-rule in our life, and since now “Christ
is our life”, our life then is one with His life (1Cor 6:17), … then
all that concerns us is ruled by His loving hand, at His prerogative. We, as
His loved offspring, are not clones, just as our physical children certainly
are not our clones. We however do live under our almighty Father’s divine
providence at work in our lives. Oh, we still have free will expressed by
choice, but it is a choice within the circumstantial handiwork designed by
our loving Father. After receiving Him into our lives and our living, He has
done just that, without recall. He will never leave us nor forsake
us. We, as His rebirthed children, are still free to choose in every
situation. When we may make a wrong choice, we will bear the consequences of
our actions in this earthly sphere, but He is there at the end or outcome of
that wrong choice, still loving us, able to make it work for the good.
Christians and non-Christians alike will suffer consequences to their free
will choices Col. 3:25
he that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done:
and there is no respect of persons., but we will
not lose our salvation. 1
Cor. 3:15 If any
man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be
saved; yet so as by fire. Our Father will make the
consequences suffered as result of our wrong choice “work for the good”
for us, in the view of His eternal purpose for us. Romans
8:28-29 And we
know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to
them who are the called according to his purpose. 29For
whom he did foreknow, he also did
predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might
be the firstborn among many brethren.
If
the all things are for the good and are according to His purpose, we must
ask then, what is His purpose for us? We must see His purpose in
“all the things” circumstantially, all that goes on in our
lives. It’s clearly stated in v29; its purpose is that we
might “be conformed to the image of His Son”.
Why? “that he might be the
firstborn among many brethren”. We can deduce from this
verse that God’s desire is to have an increase in His family – more of
Christ’s brethren. Ephes.
1:5 Having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according
to the good pleasure of his will, Oh, the love and wisdom
of God.
Good
happenings obviously seem good, but how can evil work for the good? I know
that the sufferings of my life have worked for the eternal good. In fact,
most all of the significant growth in my life has come out of suffering
physically and in every way. Paul tells us of the good that was purposed to
come when he was befallen with the pressured situations of his life. 2
Cor. 1:8-10 For
we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in
Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we
despaired even of life: 9But
we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that
(so that) we should not trust in ourselves, but in God:
This trust in God is good, and Christ-like.
Many
rebirthed Christians who cannot accept that God is in all the happenings of
the believer’s life apparently think our Heavenly Father is too busy and
only concerned with big things, such as black holes in space. They
apparently think their lives are to be navigated by themselves, or by
following what they can learn from scripture as rules of laws, and that they
are otherwise independent of His oversight, guidance, and care. This makes
God very small in their eyes and results in more anxiety in living. This
actually is reflective of the original sin of man – the sin of
self-dependence – to be like God (Gen 3:27), through knowledge, apart from
intimate relationship with Him. They obviously miss the point. This view
serves to reveal that such Christians do not really know their loving
Father, in the relationship He procured for them, not only by the offering
of His dear Son for their reconciliation, but also in the provision of His
indwelling Son as their new and overcoming life (Gal
2:20, Col 1:27).
To
not trust His love and absolute sovereignty by “seeing
through” all situations, to see His hand, as being in all things
is to say one or more of the following; 1) To deny His sovereignty, 2) To
deny the providence of God in our lives, 3) Our Father is negligent, 4) He
is impotent, or 5) He just does not care so much about us and the happenings
in the lives of His children on this earth.
These
folks then beg the question saying – “Do you believe God really cares
about your little issues of life - what you buy, where you go, or what you
do, what you say, even when they are not particularly sinful?” To this
I say yes! Why would God, who knows the number of hairs on our heads, being
so involved as that, not care about us in such detail of our lives? By this
I do not mean that He tells me every detail of what to do; no, I’m free to
live until I inwardly sense His guiding restraint. I do know that He
inwardly lets me know when I’m about to go wrong, and what not to do. He
does this by giving me the inner sense in my spirit. I typically will then
sense a knot in my gut as an obstruction within. Otherwise, I’m free to
live spontaneously, even without a consciousness of His leading. Philip.
2:13 For it is
God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. After
all, He is now my life (Col 3:4). I can assume my leading is His leading,
unless I become aware otherwise by His inner constraint. I do not seek or
wait for a “Thus saith the Lord” to know His will, that is of another
dispensation. Our conscience, part of our human spirit where Christ dwells,
is only at work when we have done, or are about to do, wrong. So we just
live, traversing life’s situations, knowing and trusting Him who lives in
us, that He is fully capable of communicating a midcourse correction to us,
at just the right time. This is to walk according to spirit, Galatians
5:16 This I say
then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. Galatians
5:25 If (since) we live (have life) in the Spirit, let us also walk in
the Spirit.
Paul
often uses the term “all things” in his writings, but I
cite only a few to substantiate my trust in His involvement in all the
happenings of my life. But, before I can do that we must do some word study
concerning the two little words, “all” and “of”,
as “in all things are of God,” which
we see in 2 Cor. 5:17-18
Therefore if any man be in Christ… 18And
all things are of God.
From
the following Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance definition we see that,
“pas” is the Greek word for the word “all.” “All” is used
in these verses, means, “all, as absolutely all encompassing”.
All
- pas, Greek 3956, Strong’s
pas; including all the forms of declension; apparently a primary
word; all, any, every, the whole :- all (manner of, means),
alway (-s), any (one), × daily, + ever, every (one, way),
…
We
must note however that in proper Biblical exegesis the term “all” may
mean either “absolutely all”, as seen above in the Strong’s
definition, or just “all of a class”, and this difference is
determined by the context of that which is spoken. Here are 2
examples.
-
In 2Cor 5:17-18 we see that the context is of a class defined as
those who are “in Christ” as “a new creature in Christ”
and who are “reconciled to God by Jesus Christ;” and so “all
things” here are thus interpreted in this limiting way, to include “absolutely
all things for this class of people”, who are “in Christ”.
-
In Rom. 8:28 we see the context is that ALL things are working for
the good to them who “love God and are called according to his
purpose;” so all things here is thus interpreted in this limiting
way, to include “absolutely all things concerning only this class of
people who “love God and are called according to his purpose;”
From
these and more we see that absolutely everything that impacts the life of
a may be seen as being “of God” our Father and for our
“good”. This means ALL our relationships, jobs,
sicknesses, our finances, and unpleasant happenings are part of the
absolutely ALL things permitted by the hand of God, to touch our lives for
our eternal good.
Our
Father of course is absolutely purposeful in all of this as we see in the
verse that answers the “purpose” of God mentioned in Rom 8:28. Romans
8:28-29 And we know that all things work together for good to them that
love God, to them who are the called according to his
purpose. 29For
whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed
to the image of his Son,
that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
Here we see that ALL things are good (whether pleasant or not) in
that they work to mold or conform the Christian’s soul (mind, emotion and
will) to the image of His very Son that they may be “meet” or “well
suited” to express the life of Christ who indwells their spirit.
Now
let us consider the little preposition “of”. From the Louw
& Nida Greek Lexicon we see that when “ek” (plural)
or “ev” (singular) are the Greek words used for the word “of”.
They denote both a marker from which the thing emanates (the
source of something), and … also the very substance
that comes from or transmitted from that source.
Of
- “ek,” 89.142
dên;
Pðüe:
markers (plural) of
the substance of which something consists or out of which it is
made - ‘of, consisting of, out of, made of.
Ex:
Galatians
2:20
“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ
liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by
the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for
me.” KJV
This
verse then says it is not only that Christ lives in the believer as the
believer’s life, but also Christ lives in the believer as the faith by
which the believer lives. So, Christ is both the marker (source) and the
substance (the faith) indwelling the Christian. (Here, this
little word, “of”, is very significant. If you do not have a KJV of the
Bible, “of the Son of God” has likely been changed
to say “faith in the Son of God,” which entirely
changes the meaning. Such a change thereby puts the monkey of having
sufficient faith upon our back. The KJV agrees with the original text (Christo
pistis) where we see that the Christian lives by the all-sufficient
faith of Christ, not our own weak human faith.)
Of
- 89.141
díl:
a
marker (singular) of that of which something consists -
‘in, of, consisting of.’
Ex:
Ephes. 2:15
“Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments
contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one
new man, so making peace;” Again
we see again that “of” is both a marker (of twain, Jew &
Gentile), making them the substance the material of one new man.
Below we see the Greek “apo”,
which is sometimes used for the preposition “of”. “Apo”
simply marks the source of an activity. This “apo”, for
“of”, offers no substance of the sender himself. It could
be seen as if God would send you something that is not part of His own self
– like a fish, etc. Contrast this, the “faith of the Son of
God” as seen in Gal 2:20, which is not only from Christ but it is
Christ’s own actual faith working in us. I hope by now the distinction
seen in the little preposition “of”
is clear to you.
Of
- “apo,” 90.14
ðáñÜd
(with
the genitive): a marker of the agentive source of an activity,
though often remote and indirect - ‘from, by, of. Example:
John 4:9 “Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him,
How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of
Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.” This
verse simply says the woman came from Samaria as a marker of
her source.
Many
of us who have come to His rest by seeing that our Father is involved in
every situation and happening in our lives have come to adopt a little
phrase to describe the situations of our lives, saying, “Well, It’s a
God thing.” When we say this we are acknowledging the fact that
He not only loves us but also is involved in all aspects of our life and
living. But not only so, we are also saying He is actually to be found “in
all those things”, and may be seen to meet us with peace in the midst
of our situation, if we will turn from our situation to see through to Him
who is All and in ALL and above ALL (Eph 4:6).
He
is the supportive substantial supply for us, to be found in the situations
– ALL situations coming “of (from and with) God” our Father.
Noting the above definition for “of” as being “markers
(plural) of
the substance of which something consists or out of
which it is made - ‘of, consisting of, out of, made of.”
permits us to see that He not
only is the source of all things in our lives but He is in or may be found
in ALL things. We are not alone in these situations of life – in them we
may find Christ is the overcomer in us that is manifested as “peace” in
the midst of the disturbing situations we face. By such encounters we find
His sufficiency and, by these situations that cause us to turn within and
find Him, we are reduced to what is key and important in our life – to know
Him and the uplifting power of His resurrection life that is now our
indwelling life. Ephes.
1:17-19 That the
God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the
spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: 18The
eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know
what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of
his inheritance in the saints, 19And
what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe,
according to the working of his mighty power,
By
way of example, the Apostle Paul apparently saw through his Roman
imprisonment, considering it to be “of” the Lord when he writes, Ephes.
4:1 I (Paul)
therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy
of the vocation wherewith ye are called, Paul, being bound in
prison under Cesar was in Paul’s mind, part and parcel of being bound to
his vocation, as the will of the Lord in his life. Reading Paul, we see that
he was at rest, trusting according to his knowledge concerning the God of
ALL things. Philip. 4:12
I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in
all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound
and to suffer need.
With
this understanding, you may consider “all things” as seen
in the following verses. Romans 8:28-29
And we know that all things work together for good to
them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. 29For
whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the
image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many
brethren. <END>
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