We are further told that everything has a part in His purpose and
plan. In Acts 3:17, 18, the Apostle Peter says of the crucifixion
of our Lord, the wickedest act in all the history of the human
race: +"And now, brethren, I wot that in ignorance ye did it, as
did also your rulers. But the things which God foreshowed by the
mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ should suffer, he thus
fulfilled."+ In Acts 2:23 Peter declared on the day of Pentecost
(although the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus was the wickedest act in
all history) that nevertheless the Lord Jesus was +"Delivered up by
the determinate council and foreknowledge of God."+ According to
the Psalmist (Ps. 76:10) God takes the acts of the wickedest men into
His plans and makes the wrath of men to praise Him, and the remainder
of wrath doth He restrain. Even the present war with all its horrors,
with all its atrocities, with all its abominations and all its nameless
wickednesses, was foreknown of God and taken into His own gracious plan
of the ages; and He will make every event in this present war, even the
most shocking things, designed by the vilest conspiracy of unprincipled
men, utterly unhuman and beastly men and Devil inspired men, work
together for good to those who love God, for those who are the called
according to His purpose (Rom. 8:28).
_The whole plan of the ages, not merely of the centuries, but of
the immeasurable ages of God, and every man's part in it, has been
known to God from all eternity._ This is made very clear in Eph.
1:9-12, where we read: +"Having made known unto us the mystery
of his will, according to his good pleasure which he purposed in
him unto a dispensation of the fullness of the times, to sum up all
things in Christ, the things in the heavens, and the things upon the
earth; in him, I say, in whom also we were made a heritage, having
been foreordained according to the purpose of him who worketh all
things after the counsel of his will; to the end that we should be to
the praise of his glory, we who before hoped in Christ."+ And in
Eph. 3:4-9, we read: +"Wherefore when ye read, ye can perceive my
understanding in the mystery of Christ; which in other generations was
not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his
holy prophets and apostles in the Spirit; to wit, that the Gentiles are
fellow-heirs, and fellow-members of the body, and fellow-partakers of
the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel, whereof I was made a
minister, according to the gift of that grace of God which was given me
according to the working of his power. Unto me, who am less than the
least of all saints, was this grace given, to preach unto the Gentiles
the unsearchable riches of Christ; and to make all men see what is the
dispensation of the mystery which from all ages has been hid in God
who created all things."+ There are no after-thoughts with God.
Everything is seen, known, purposed and planned for from the outset.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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