God Control

"He thinks like God, but He understands like humans."

TO SAY God is not in control is to say the crucifixion may not have happened. God does nothing at random. He makes no last-minute decisions. He chose Abraham before the foundation of the world (Romans 8:29). He chose Mary over all others (Luke 1:28). He chose the disciples individually (Luke 6:13). We want to say God is not in control to explain people’s choices, but we must elevate ourselves and stop making God flawed humanity. God is human in Jesus Christ, but Jesus is Christ united perfectly with the Father and the Spirit from conception to Resurrection. He thinks like God, but He understands like humans.

They are holy. There is no possibility of sin, no imperfections, no bad choices. God’s mercy allows us to decide whether or not we believe, and His mercy will make of the end of sin and death a beautiful incense. There is no other possible ending to what He sets in motion but peace and fruitfulness. He prevents nothing from happening, but He prevents many things from happening. He is God, all knowledge, complete wisdom, and a continual, constant solution.

God is not in control of you if you choose to ignore Him, to disobey and disbelieve. You have taken control. Yet God is in control because He knows the end from the beginning (Isaiah 46:10). He created Lucifer (Satan) knowing he’d sin and cause sin. He warned Adam of it when sin did not exist. He knew the consequences. He stated them (Genesis 2:16-17). And He stated the solution after it happened because He knew it would happen (Genesis 3:15). See the creation of and the rise and fall of Israel, who would become Jesus’ ancestors, whose line of kings would set Him in place as king (Matthew 1). God was and is in control of His people.

God controls no one, yet He controls everyone. He hardened the heart of Pharaoh, yet it was Pharaoh’s choice to be hardhearted (Exodus 7:3;Exodus 9:34). He forbid idolatry in Israel, and gave them strict laws to prevent it, yet when they disobeyed, He sent nations to capture them, with the intent to rescue them from those places (Jeremiah 29:10). We want everything square and clean and wrapped up. He can handle the unraveled edges, the messy places. Nothing throws Him off. Nothing.

And Jesus, kneeling in the garden, wasn’t pleading to not be crucified. He was not out of control. He knew He must die and how. He cried out there, in that moment, for the spiritual life of Judas. Even the one who betrayed Him, He loved and longed to save. He submitted to the Father’s will, to the prophesy spoken in His presence thousands of years before (Matthew 27:9), and of Judas, of those humans and spirits who’ve done horrible things, He will make peace. They are a loss to Him but not a mess. All events, He knows, all circumstances, all confusion is ordered before Him. He knows all voices, all choices, and all meanings and intents and isn’t overwhelmed by them.

At the heart of all He does is justice – righteousness, or we could say SACRED HONOR. It is why He died. He paid the debt of honor He felt He owed and in so doing, set man free from the slavery of sin. To His own hurt. And yet to His own victory because there is none who will wage war with Him. None. There are no battles, nothing with unknown endings. Nothing outside of His hand.

He is in control.

Ephesians 1:3-12 MSG
“How blessed is God! And what a blessing he is! He’s the Father of our Master, Jesus Christ, and takes us to the high places of blessing in him. Long before he laid down earth’s foundations, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love, to be made whole and holy by his love. Long, long ago he decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ. (What pleasure he took in planning this!) He wanted us to enter into the celebration of his lavish gift-giving by the hand of his beloved Son.”

7-10 “Because of the sacrifice of the Messiah, his blood poured out on the altar of the Cross, we’re a free people—free of penalties and punishments chalked up by all our misdeeds. And not just barely free, either. Abundantly free! He thought of everything, provided for everything we could possibly need, letting us in on the plans he took such delight in making. He set it all out before us in Christ, a long-range plan in which everything would be brought together and summed up in him, everything in deepest heaven, everything on planet earth.”

11-12 “It’s in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for. Long before we first heard of Christ and got our hopes up, he had his eye on us, had designs on us for glorious living, part of the overall purpose he is working out in everything and everyone.”

Illustration by Afrian E. Prasetyo on Unsplash


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Suzanne D. Williams, Author
www.suzannedwilliams.com
www.feelgoodromance.com