Chapter 32: Five Uses of the Former Doctrine
and be careful not to allow our thoughts to become presumptuous when we seek to look into this profound mystery.
Chapter 32:
Five Uses of the Former Doctrine A word or two further in applying this (for something has already been covered in the last chapter), and then we shall proceed to another point.
Use 1 Here we see the infinite love of God, that He has been pleased to think of us poor creatures from everlasting, making it His work to reconcile us to Himself. This is the foundation of the sweetness and comfort of all the mercies of God to those who are reconciled unto
Him, for they are the fruits of God's eternal love towards us.
Likewise, here lies the foundation of the assurance of the saints; their happiness does not depend so much on the covenant that God has made between Himself and them, but rather on the covenant that God has made between Himself and His Son.
For the covenant is twofold: either between God and Christ, or between Christ and us. Now, it is true that much depends upon our keeping covenant with Christ; but our happiness, salvation, and indeed all our good, depend chiefly upon the covenant between the Father and the Son.
Use 2 Again, here we may find an answer to the question posed by some atheists: What was God doing before the world began? I remember it is said that when this question was asked by some in the primitive times, the answer was that God was making hell for such curious inquisitors. But we have a further answer to give: namely, that God was engaged from all eternity in the work of reconciling the world to Himself.
God had, as it were, the idea and the plan of all things before Him.
He saw how man was created in his innocence, how he would fall, how he would rise again, and how he would be converted and glorified. The plan for all these things was before God from all eternity.
Just as a workman, when he goes to build a house or a ship, has the design in his mind before he strikes the first blow, so too the great works of our election, vocation, justification, reconciliation, adoption, sanctification, and glorification were all present before God; they were all, as it were, in His mind, and He was engaged with them before the world began.
Therefore, if you are a believer, it is now evident that the Lord has been engaged from all eternity with you, concerning your good and the design of your salvation. He foresaw how you would fall from Him and become a child of wrath, an heir of hell. He also foresaw how to recover you from that condition and how to bring this about— how He would determine your place of dwelling, the time in history in which you would live, an age when the Gospel and its mysteries would be preached. He foresaw that you would come under a particular ministry, and that just during the preaching of a specific sermon, a certain truth would be impressed upon your heart and
applied to you. It was then that He would send His Holy Spirit to fasten that truth upon your heart. The Lord planned all this from eternity, and this is what He was engaged in (as we may speak with reverence) before the world began.
Use 3 Another use is this: it serves as a firm foundation to help us believe in the eternal happiness that is to come, that part of eternity which lies ahead. Because we have God revealing His love to us in that part of eternity which lies behind, He has shown that from eternity He has been planning our good. Surely then, it is no more for God to make us happy on the other side of eternity than it was for Him to plan our happiness in the former part of eternity.
Thus, a believer may see his happy condition in this: he is now enjoying that part of God's love which lies between two oceans of eternity. Imagine there being a little river, and on either side, a mighty ocean of water. Now, the stream of God's love and mercy runs towards you, and you are presently receiving an abundance of good from God. The Lord sweetens your life, comforts, and refreshes your heart with His grace. Are you glad of this, and does this portion of God's mercy bring sweetness to you?
Poor soul, look on this side, and then look on the other side, and behold those oceans of eternal love on both sides directed towards you. Alas, what you have now is little in comparison. But if you look back, you will see that eternal love of God that was directed towards you before the world was made. And if you look ahead, you will see eternal life in all its glory, which shall never end, and which you shall actually possess. What you are presently experiencing is but a small stream compared to these two great oceans of love, flowing from eternity to eternity.
And when you hear that God intends to make you happy forever, that you shall remain a glorious and blessed being as long as God Himself lives, and that you shall be happy as long as God Himself is happy, perhaps you wonder, "How is this possible? Is it possible for such a poor, frail creature as I am to be happy for as long as God is happy?"
Yes, do not doubt it, though it may seem an immense thing, for God has loved you from all eternity. Therefore, even though you have many frailties and sins, they cannot hinder you from receiving that eternal mercy which God has been planning for you.
I believe the Apostle argues in this way in Galatians 3:17: "The covenant that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of no effect." Observe the Apostle's argument: the law, he says, cannot disannul the promise of grace.
Why? Because it came four hundred and thirty years after the promise was made, and that which came so long afterward cannot disannul what was established before.
We may apply this argument in this way: surely, if you belong to this transaction between God and His Son, the sins you now fall into cannot take away God's love from you or prevent you from being happy forever. Why? Because God's covenant with His Son for your happiness was not merely four hundred and thirty years ago but countless millions of years ago. Therefore, what is happening now cannot annul what was established from all eternity. Comfort yourself with this when you hear that God was reconciling Himself to the world even before the world itself existed, yes, from all eternity.
Use 4 Again, it should encourage everyone to begin early in seeking grace and reconciliation with God. You who are young and in the prime of
your youth, crowned with the flowers of youth, consider this: God was working for your good before the world began. You should therefore be working for His glory as soon as you can. Should I not give the beginning of my years, my first fruits, to God, who loved me and was working for me before I was ever born? Therefore, it is fitting that He should have as much of my time as possible.
Use 5 Indeed, this should also serve as a powerful argument to motivate us all to be constant in holy living with God, because the Lord has been working from eternity and will continue working for our good into eternity. Therefore, whatever time we have, we should use it to serve and glorify God.
For, suppose we were to live ten thousand years, or ten thousand million years in this world; suppose God were to require us to live and serve Him in the way we do now, eternally; we should not think it too much, for we serve God only in one part of eternity, which is the part that is yet to come. But God is merciful to us in both parts of eternity; His mercy extends to us from everlasting to everlasting.
God is ahead of us in His mercy and love; His love was from eternity and shall continue to eternity. Therefore, we should not think it a burden to serve God and glorify Him in ways of holiness for all the time we have been appointed to live. And when we have done all, we still cannot match the workings He has undertaken for us.
But I shall leave this point, and may the Lord seal it with His blessing upon our spirits.