The Purpose of God / The Decrees of God

© May 9, 2001 By Bernie L. Gillespie All Rights Reserved.

The Purpose of God

            Interestingly, the word “plan” is not found in the King James Version of the Bible. The word “purpose” is used instead. Often, when “plan” is used in other translations it refers to human “schemes”rather than those of God. The words that best parallel the idea of “plan” in the New Testament are found in these verses:

Acts 4:28 They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen. NIV

Romans 8:29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. NIV

Romans 8:30 And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified. NIV

1 Corinthians 2:7 No, we speak of God's secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. NIV

Ephesians 1:5 he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will-- NIV

Ephesians 1:11 In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, NIV

            As we see, the word “plan” is found in the New International Version translation of Ephesians 1:11. The word used here for plan (prothesis) refers to “that which is planned or purposed in advance - 'plan, proposal, purpose,'”[i] and is also found in the following verses, which speak about God’s eternal purpose or will:

Romans 8:28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. NIV

Ephesians 3:11 according to his eternal purpose which he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord. NIV

2 Timothy 1:9 who has saved us and called us to a holy life –   not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, NIV

            The word “purpose” is translated from the Greek verb prooridzo, which means “to come to a decision beforehand - 'to decide beforehand, to determine ahead of time, to decide upon ahead of time.”[ii] The truth that God is a personal God assumes the idea of purpose. An eternal God would have an eternal purpose:

That God acts upon a plan in all his activities, is already given in Theism. On the establishment of a personal God, this question is closed. For person means purpose: precisely what distinguishes a person from a thing is that its modes of action are purposive, that all it does is directed to an end and proceeds through the choice of means to that end.[iii]

It would be an irresponsible if not an irrational God who would create the world and direct its course of events with no prior plan or purpose behind such activity – or who would not direct it at all.[iv]

            If God is a personal God, as we believe, he therefore has a purpose. And being God, He, by His very nature, has all power and wisdom to make sure His purpose or plan is completely carried out.

If we believe in a personal God, then, and much more if, being Theists, we believe in the immediate control by this personal God of the world he has made, we must believe in a plan underlying all that God does, and therefore also in a plan of salvation. The only question that can arise concerns not the reality but the nature of this plan.[v]

            Many Christians (as evidenced by the “Openness of God” debate[vi]) have a severe allergy to the idea of God’s exclusive, sovereign control of the world. They chafe against the notion of an eternal plan and of Divine decrees. They cringe at the thought that God has unilaterally ordained specific things for our lives according to His sovereign will. I have personally heard teachers who instructed their class not to read from certain passages, such as Romans chapter nine, because they said it would be too confusing for people to understand. This thinking has grave implications for one’s knowledge of Scripture, and ultimately of one’s faith in God. Does this imply that God’s Word is too confusing for His people? If so, I am compelled to make this strong response: God has placed in His Word all that is necessary for us to know His will and be comforted by His salvation. If, then, we claim there are statements of His foreknowledge, foreordination, and predestination which we should avoid or neglect, then we usurp God. We suppose that we know more than God. And by avoiding or neglecting these portions of Scripture, we impugn the very character of God, because we say He has put things in His Word which are confusing, unnecessary or detrimental to our understanding. Who are we to tell God that these inspired passages of His Holy Word are too confusing for the “average” Christian?

Therefore we must guard against depriving believers of anything disclosed about predestination in Scripture, lest we seem either wickedly to defraud them of the blessing of their God or to accuse and scoff at the Holy Spirit for having published what is in any way profitable to suppress. . . Whoever, then, heaps odium upon the doctrine of predestination openly reproaches God, as if he had unadvisedly let slip something hurtful to the church.[vii]

            One of the most tragic developments among a number of Christians is a hurtful and irrational prejudice against the biblical doctrine of predestination. Whatever one’s interpretation of predestination may be, all readers of Scripture must acknowledge that God has placed the idea of predestination in His Word (Romans 8:29-30; Ephesians 1:5, 11[viii]) and intended it to bring faith, hope, comfort and security to his children. Instead, being ignorantly misunderstood, it has fomented a near hostility and bitter denunciation among unwitting detractors. What is most tragic is that God intended it for the assurance of salvation for His people, but it is unskillfully obscured and dismissed by those who find it unsavory to their human sensibilities.  

The Decrees of God

            The general idea of a salvation plan in the Bible pertains more to the idea of the decrees of the one Holy God in eternity, than it does to a temporal order with which we must comply. The text of Scripture which expresses this most succinctly is Ephesians 1:9-12:

Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself: That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him: In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:  That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ. (KJV)

            This passage contains several words which communicate the idea of a plan of salvation. In Ephesians, Paul uses words from two Greek word-groups to express the majestic scope of God’s plan. The first group (thelema; boule) speaks mostly of God’s “will” or intention and decision. The second group (proginosko; prothesis; prohoridzo) deals with the notions of foreknowledge, predestination and plan or purpose, as something set forth before time. The fact that Paul uses such a complex of words, compacted into a few verses in Ephesians, reveals the immensity and richness of the subject. Notice that: the emphasis for Paul is on what God does and not what we must do.

            In Ephesians 3:9, the word “will” (qelhma[ix]) conveys the idea of intention. God has decided to do something. The force of the word is that God resolved to do something which He will not fail to do. Next, in the same verse, Paul speaks of God’s “good pleasure” (eudokia[x]). This word connotes that which is good in its nature and what God is pleased to do. That mystery which pleases God is that He will gather together all things in Christ at the fullness of time.  The next word “purposed” (protiqnmi[xi]) -  is that which God sets before Himself to accomplish. It is  the goal of God’s work. He sets before himself a goal or “purpose” toward which He is working. That which God decides to do, which pleases Him and which He sets before Himself to accomplish, is called a “plan” (Proqesis). This plan was formulated within God’s own counsel (Boulh[xii]), known (proginosko) by Him before time, and established - “predestined” (proorizo) by God sovereignly before all created things. The result of all of this is to bring praise to God’s glorious grace as it is revealed in those who trust in Christ.

            If we are to stay close to the Bible’s way of articulating God’s salvation “plan,” we should focus more on the prothesis - the preordination or predetermined plan of God, worked out in and through Christ Jesus. We should avoid applying it to anything that we do in response to what God has done. It is never presented in the Bible as a prescription of personal responses for obtaining personal salvation. It is not a plan “for” salvation, as is supposed by Yohe’s treatment of Acts 2:38. One could say that our response to Jesus (such as Acts 2:38) was planned by God. It is true, that by placing faith in Jesus we do “participate” in God’s plan. But we cannot say that our faith in Christ is the plan “for” salvation. It is Jesus who actively works to fulfill the plan, while we passively through faith receive it. We do not receive it by performing a series of steps. By trusting in Jesus we are, in effect, saying it is Christ who does the work. That is what saving faith truly means. The plan of God always refers to those eternal decrees fulfilled in history by God in the Person and Work of Jesus Christ.

            Certainly, all who use the phrase “plan of salvation” are not referring to a set of steps. It is not wrong to use the phrase “plan of salvation,” because God does have a plan for saving the lost. The problem comes with how some define it. Unfortunately, not all who espouse a “plan of salvation” present it as God’s plan revealed in the Gospel of Christ. There are several serious mistakes made when the Gospel (the culmination of the true plan of salvation) is turned into a subordinate pre-figuring type, while the commands of Acts 2:38, a plan of action that humans must follow, is made the fulfillment of God’s salvation. It is God himself who carries out the plan of salvation which he purposed from all eternity. He carries out His plan in and through the Person and Work of Jesus Christ.

            The last two sections addressing the purpose and decrees of God establish that the emphasis or focus of God’s plan is on God. This is the truth of sola deo gloria - all glory to God alone! The plan of God is cosmic in scope involving Heaven and Hell, angels and Satan, time and eternity, and the whole course of human history. It is about far more than one person’s individual response. The focal point is the work of God to give us redemption and not on what we must do to receive it. It is about the steps God took in his incarnation –  to live, die and live again as our Savior. It is not based on whether or not we have obeyed certain commands, kept the right procedures, or followed the correct steps. The cosmic, holy, eternal plan of God is more than a multi-step instruction sheet for do-it-yourself salvation. It is a mega-story of the purpose, decrees and consequent mighty acts of God carried out in the Person of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.