Morning, August 2
Charles Spurgeon · Morning and Evening: Daily Readings
Ephesians 1:11
"Who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will."
Ephesians 1:11
Our belief in God's wisdom supposes and necessitates that he has a
settled purpose and plan in the work of salvation. What would creation
have been without his design? Is there a fish in the sea, or a fowl in
the air, which was left to chance for its formation? Nay, in every
bone, joint, and muscle, sinew, gland, and blood-vessel, you mark the
presence of a God working everything according to the design of
infinite wisdom. And shall God be present in creation, ruling over all,
and not in grace? Shall the new creation have the fickle genius of free
will to preside over it when divine counsel rules the old creation?
Look at Providence! Who knoweth not that not a sparrow falleth to the
ground without your Father? Even the hairs of your head are all
numbered. God weighs the mountains of our grief in scales, and the
hills of our tribulation in balances. And shall there be a God in
providence and not in grace? Shall the shell be ordained by wisdom and
the kernel be left to blind chance? No; he knows the end from the
beginning. He sees in its appointed place, not merely the corner-stone
which he has laid in fair colours, in the blood of his dear Son, but he
beholds in their ordained position each of the chosen stones taken out
of the quarry of nature, and polished by his grace; he sees the whole
from corner to cornice, from base to roof, from foundation to pinnacle.
He hath in his mind a clear knowledge of every stone which shall be
laid in its prepared space, and how vast the edifice shall be, and when
the top-stone shall be brought forth with shoutings of "Grace! Grace!
unto it." At the last it shall be clearly seen that in every chosen
vessel of mercy, Jehovah did as he willed with his own; and that in
every part of the work of grace he accomplished his purpose, and
glorified his own name.