Divine Decrees (Reformed Theology Series)

The reformed tradition is one of the few that has a well-developed theology of God’s decrees. It often marks off reformed theology from other traditions and tends to invite a good deal of criticism. God’s decree, predestination, and the utter sovereignty of God are hard truths to grapple with, but they are worth the work.

The Decree of God

When thinking of the decrees of God, it is helpful to imagine Him as a king. When a king wrote a decree, what was written in it would unquestioningly happen. Opposition often meant death. His word was final and no one opposed it.

When God decrees something, we have even more reason to trust it than an earthly king’s decree. God is good, making his decrees good, and he is all-powerful, showing us that He will absolutely accomplish them (Isaiah 55:10–11).

The confession states that God, in his holy wisdom did “freely, and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass.” Those are strong words, but they speak of an even stronger God. Some find it hard to believe that God really could have ordained everything. He did not just look down the corridor of time with some things—He really did decree them all. That is the definition of sovereignty—complete and utter control over all things, and with God, that includes past, present, and future.

The decrees of God are strong, but the doctrine speaks of an even stronger God.

The age-old question here is whether the choices we make are legitimate or whether we are robots. The confession tells us that, in all this, no “violence is offered to the will of the creatures.” The key here is understanding that our will is not something arbitrary that can just decide anything. We can only make the decisions God has created us to be able to make. So, when God tells us to choose to serve and honor Him with each day (Josh. 24:15), we are making a legitimate decision, but one within the bounds of what God has ordained us to be able to do. We will unpack this in greater detail in our post on chapter 9 of the confession.

If this sparks unrest in you, think of a nation with no laws. How quickly would mass destruction ensue? Probably rapidly. However, with healthy restrictions in place, mankind is free to move about, work, and engage in society at his will. He cannot murder or steal—but he is free to move within the bounds of the law. Our freedom of will in God is similar to this. It rests wholly inside His sovereignty.

God’s Decree in Salvation

The Bible makes it clear that, based on the above paragraphs, God’s decrees extend completely over the realm of salvation. The reformed hold that God predestined, or predetermined, those who would be saved or not saved. In Romans 9:22–23, Paul writes, “What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory?” It is God’s right as the potter to do with the clay what He wishes.

It is God’s right as the potter to do with the clay what He wishes.

Paul writes that God says, “‘I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.’ So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy” (Rom. 9:16). This text is helpful because it highlights the fact that all people deserve hell. No one deserves God, not even the ability to choose Him. He owes us nothing. The confession affirms this; God saves man “out of his mere free grace and love.”

Our Response

Many people have trouble with accepting God’s decrees. It is hard for the human mind to fathom having an inability to choose God. Our problem is there, though: we depend upon our finite and fallen minds to determine that we should have something we do not. God is bigger than us, his ways are higher than ours, and his thoughts are higher than ours.

There a true mystery here for us. The Westminster Assembly writers tell us that whether God saves someone or allows them to perish as they are, it is to the praise of his glory, either in justice or in grace. When we look at how our minds can make choices and yet how God has laid out everything that will come to pass, we are out of our league. These things are for God to know, not us.

As for our proper heart posture, I will give the confession the final word here: “So shall this doctrine afford matter of praise, reverence, and admiration of God; and of humility, diligence, and abundant consolation to all that sincerely obey the gospel.”

Next Post in Series: Creation>>>

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Recommended Reading:

• Living for God’s Glory, Joel Beeke & Michael Haykin

• The Sovereignty of God, A. W. Pink

• Deity and Decree, Samuel Renihan

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Text of the Westminster Confession, Chapter 3:

1. God, from all eternity, did, by the most wise and holy counsel of His own will, freely, and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass: yet so, as thereby neither is God the author of sin, nor is violence offered to the will of the creatures; nor is the liberty or contingency of second causes taken away, but rather established.

2. Although God knows whatsoever may or can come to pass upon all supposed conditions, yet hath He not decreed anything because He foresaw it as future, or as that which would come to pass upon such conditions.

3. By the decree of God, for the manifestation of His glory, some men and angels are predestinated unto everlasting life; and others foreordained to everlasting death.

4. These angels and men, thus predestinated, and foreordained, are particularly and unchangeably designed, and their number so certain and definite, that it cannot be either increased or diminished. .

5. Those of mankind that are predestinated unto life, God, before the foundation of the world was laid, according to His eternal and immutable purpose, and the secret counsel and good pleasure of His will, hath chosen, in Christ, unto everlasting glory, out of His mere free grace and love, without any foresight of faith, or good works, or perseverance in either of them, or any other thing in the creature, as conditions, or causes moving Him thereunto; and all to the praise of His glorious grace.

6. As God hath appointed the elect unto glory, so hath He, by the eternal and most free purpose of His will, foreordained all the means thereunto. Wherefore, they who are elected, being fallen in Adam, are redeemed by Christ, are effectually called unto faith in Christ by His Spirit working in due season, are justified, adopted, sanctified, and kept by His power, through faith, unto salvation. Neither are any other redeemed by Christ, effectually called, justified, adopted, sanctified, and saved, but the elect only.

7. The rest of mankind God was pleased, according to the unsearchable counsel of His own will, whereby He extendeth or withholdeth mercy as He pleaseth, for the glory of His sovereign power over His creatures, to pass by; and to ordain them to dishonour and wrath for their sin, to the praise of His glorious justice.

8. The doctrine of this high mystery of predestination is to be handled with special prudence and care, that men, attending the will of God revealed in His Word, and yielding obedience thereunto, may, from the certainty of their effectual vocation, be assured of their eternal election. So shall this doctrine afford matter of praise, reverence, and admiration of God; and of humility, diligence, and abundant consolation to all that sincerely obey the Gospel.