Thinking Rightly about God

February 26, 2007

Joe,

Thanks for getting the ball rolling on that question about the day of judgment. I am thinking that I’ll try to respond to that tomorrow, although I’ve got to say that your succinct answer was right on the money. While more could certainly be said, sometimes less is more. Your words were clear and biblical; perhaps the only thing left is to bring in some Scripture to show it and to reflect personally, as you suggested. But that is for another day.

I wanted to simply post a quote that is near to my heart right now. I have been doing some study of Romans 9 which, as you know, is a pretty heavy passage of Scripture. Particularly, Romans 9:18 is a verse that is pretty hotly debated about: “So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.” How are we to understand such amazing words? I am drawn to this quote from John Piper (yikes, that’s two quotes from him in one day; someone is likely to say we are obsessed with the man or something. I guess we’ll have to dig up some quotes from others for the rest of the week!):

“How shall we know God? How shall we know what God is like and how we are to think about him? When I ask myself this question, one response comes crashing into my mind with overwhelming certitude: human opinion counts for nothing. What you feel about the way God should be and what I feel about the way God should be counts for nothing. If someone rises up and makes a pronouncement about what they can believe and can’t believe about God, that is as significant in determining what is true about God as the creaking of a window in the wind. Human opinion counts for nothing in defining God.”

Piper’s words are just a contemporary echo of what Paul had in mind when he penned these words to the Corinthians:

“20Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.” (1 Corinthians 1:20-21)

This is very helpful wisdom to remember as one probes the unsearchable riches of God’s wisdom laid out in Romans 9, and elsewhere in God’s holy Word.