THE DIVINE PURPOSE OF GOD continued

THE DIVINE PURPOSE OF GOD continued

Act 2:23 

"Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God,"

"Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain: Act 2:24

Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was

not possible that he should be holden of it." 

          Then came King Jesus.  The Jews rejected Him from being their Messiah.  They spat on Him.  They mocked Him.  They crowned Him but with thorns.  Finally, they crucified Him.  Was all this in that determinate counsel too?  That is the crux of it.  Let us look at Acts 4:23ff.  “And being let go, they went to their own company, and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said unto them.  And when they heard that, they lifted up their voice to God with one accord, and said, Lord, thou art God, which hast made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is:  Who by the mouth of thy servant David hast said, Why did the heathen rage and the people imagine vain things?  The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ.  For of a truth against the 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.  And now, Lord, behold their threatenings:  and grant unto thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak thy word.”

          The beauty of it all, however, is that death could not hold Him.  See Acts 2:24.  Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it."  In the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, Christ being crucified was not enough.  Had it stopped there, it would have been a failure, but it didn’t stop there.  As the scripture said, Christ could not be held by death.  He came out of that tomb by virtue of the same decree, and now He is alive never to die again.  In this He purchased our redemption, and we are eternally saved. 

Jesus has promised to come back again.  The same determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God will see to that return as well.  What think ye?