Take Inventory
Right at this very moment you are at the place God needs you to be.
Setting aside the whole predestination/free will question, you are at the place God needs you to be. So am I. It is God’s providence. “Providence: The efficacious administration by the all-wise God of His eternal decree. Berkhof defines it as ‘that continued exercise of the divine energy, whereby the Creator preserves all His creation, is operative in all that comes to pass in the world, and directs all things to their appointed end.’ ” (From: Dictionary of Theological Terms Cairns, page 350) Yes, I said set aside the whole predestination/free will question.
Reformed theologians have given “providence” a lot of thought; Lutherans not so much. Sure, we will use the term, cautiously, so to side step predestination; however that is not where I want to go. Being a creature, in linear time, it always seems to slip into those concepts.
Why are you reading this at this very time? Why have I written this for you to read at this very moment? Stop and take inventory. Run down the Law side of the list first.
A man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.’” And he said to him, “Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.”
From <https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark%2010&version=ESV>
And God spoke all these words, saying,
“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
“You shall have no other gods before me.
“You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
“You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.
“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God.
From <https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Exodus+20&version=ESV>
Now take inventory of the Gospel.
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.
From <https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%205&version=ESV>
But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
From <https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans%203&version=ESV>
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
From <https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans%205&version=ESV>
In God’s Providence, then, why are we in this place? To confess our failure in sin? To confess the grace of our Redeeming Savior? A lawyer was where God needed him to be:
And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.”
But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
From <https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%2010&version=ESV>
“And who is my neighbor?” The lawyer answered his own question after the parable of The Good Samaritan (Luke 10:30 ff). He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.”(v 37)
Like the lawyer, you are where God needs you to be. Finish taking inventory… The people near you, the specific situation you find yourself, the mercy that needs to be shared. You go, and do likewise. What ever that means for you, “For God speaks in one way, and in two, though man does not perceive it.” (Job 33:14 ESV) The one Word of God is spoken in two ways: Law and Gospel. By God’s providence, did you hear Law or did you hear Gospel? Hear the Word of God: You go, and do likewise.
Trust the Promises,
Steve Skiver
Bonus Scripture verse (Any guesses as to why I didn’t use it?):
We know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.
From <https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+8&version=ESV>