August 2, Morning
C. H. Spurgeon · Modern retelling
"Who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will." — Ephesians 1:11 · KJV
Our belief in God's wisdom requires 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 bird in the air that was left to chance for its forming? No; in every bone, joint, muscle, and vein you mark the presence of a God working everything according to the design of infinite wisdom. And shall God rule over all in creation, yet not in grace? Shall the new creation be left to the fickle whim of free will, when divine counsel governs the old? Look at providence! Who does not know that not a sparrow falls to the ground without your Father, and that the very hairs of your head are all numbered? God weighs the mountains of our grief in scales and the hills of our trouble in balances. And shall there be a God in providence and not in grace? Shall the shell be ordained by wisdom and the kernel left to blind chance? No; He knows the end from the beginning. He sees in its appointed place not only the cornerstone He has laid in the blood of His dear Son, but each of the chosen stones taken from the quarry of nature and polished by His grace; He sees the whole, from base to pinnacle. He has in His mind a clear knowledge of every stone that shall be laid in its prepared space, how vast the building shall be, and when the top stone shall be brought forth with shouts of "Grace! Grace! unto it." At the last it shall be plainly seen that in every chosen vessel of mercy Yahweh 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.