Quote# 106229
There are several Scriptural reasons God reprobates certain creatures to eternal hell.
In the first place, the decree of reprobation must somehow serve to glorify the Name of God. God, the Sovereign One, directs all things that His glory might the more fully be revealed. This is true for everything without exception. Do not the twenty-four elders of
Revelation 4 cry out, "Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive all glory and honor and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created" (vs. 11)? But how, you might ask, can reprobation serve to reveal the glory of God in the best possible way? Through the decree of reprobation, God reveals His eternal hatred and wrath against sin and punishment of the workers of iniquity. Apart from God's decree of reprobation this would never have been so clearly revealed. This contrast is suggested in
I John 1:5: "This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all." The same is found in
John 1, especially verse 5, "And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not." Do you object? Does not that Sovereign Potter have power over the clay also to fashion vessels of dishonor to serve His own pleasure and to reveal His own glory and goodness?
Secondly, one can understand the reason for the existence of reprobate wicked when he begins to see the whole of God's plan. In Holy Scripture it becomes very evident that the heart or center of all the counsel or plan of God is Christ -- and in Christ is the church. God would reveal His glory in the highest possible way by gathering a particular people in Jesus Christ His only begotten Son. This is the truth of which we read in
Ephesians 1:4-6: "According as He hath chosen us in him (Christ) before the foundation of the world... having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace...."
This could be compared, by way of illustration, to the meat or kernel of a nut. The meat or kernel is the significant part of the whole of the nut. Yet there is also a shell around the whole. The shell is not eatable, yet it has a function. When this function has ceased, that shell is broken and discarded. So is the wonder of god revealed in the gathering of the church of Jesus Christ. The cause of Christ, the gathering of the church, is served by all things which take place. Not without reason do we read in
Romans 8:28, "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose." The whole of creation, all things which take place within that creation -- these all form part of the shell surrounding the people of God who are in Christ. That shell has its purpose and place -- but when its purpose is served, it is discarded.
Something similar can be said concerning reprobation. The reprobate too must serve the purpose of God in the gathering and defending of the church of Christ. The evil deeds, in which these evil ones seek to oppose God and destroy His church, can and do work rather to the benefit of the church. The crucifixion of Christ is the prime example. Wicked men sought to remove the Christ from this earth. They made plans to kill Him -- and, in fact, they did crucify Him outside of the walls of Jerusalem. But the result was that the determinate purpose of God to save His people through the shedding of Christ's blood was realized. We read in Acts
4:27-28, "for of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done."
We see then that reprobation is not a "horrible" decree at all. We see too that it is not somehow equal to or on a par with the wonder of the decree of election. God does not arbitrarily declare: "I want to cast some people into hell, and I want to bring some people to heaven." God forbid! But God worked all things (both creation and also this decree of reprobation) to serve His purpose of bringing His elect people through sin and grace to eternal glory in heaven. Even this truth of reprobation must be for my comfort and assurance in this terribly sinful world.
[Hyperlinks in the original]Rev. Gise J. Van Baren ,
Protestant Reformed Churches in America 24 Comments [2/7/2015 6:38:07 AM]
Fundie Index: 8
Submitted By: JeanP