Hello everyone and welcome back to Deeper Waters where we are diving into the ocean of truth. Right now, we’re going through the doctrine of God in Christian thought and the guide that has been chosen for this is the Summa Theologica of Thomas Aquinas which can be read for free at newadvent.org. As I remarked to a friend this morning, the more we understand the doctrine of God, the more we can enjoy our relationship and appreciate him for who He is for greater knowledge of something increases our enjoyment of it. We’re studying right now the will of God and we’re asking tonight if God’s will is always fulfilled.
This is a more controversial one and as you read over the section, you will notice that many of the questions we ask today are still relevant. For instance, we have the passage of saying that God wills all men to be saved. Anyone who has been in the Calvinist and Arminian debate knows about this verse.
And lo and behold, they knew about it also. Augustine had already said that God wills all men to be saved who are to be saved as Aquinas points out. It is not because there is someone who he does not wish to be saved but no one who is saved whose salvation God does not will.
There is also the possibility that this text refers to every class of men as if to say that God wants all kinds of people to be saved. There is indeed nothing new under the sun. These same debates have been going on in Christian history for centuries and will no doubt continue until the return of Christ.
And of course, there is the view that God does want all people to be saved beforehand, but knows that this will not happen. Aquinas uses an analogy of a judge who would will that all men be allowed to live, but at the same time will will the hanging of a murderer.
In this case, somehow everything does return to the will of God. If you fall out of the will at this point, you will fall in under another point. If you are not saved, you will submit to the will of God in judgment over your soul for instance. Whatever happens to you, you can be sure that God is aware of it.
Aquinas says that all must come under the will of God in some way and come about that way because ultimately, nothing can thwart the will of God. All causes that are secondary will trace back to the cause that is primary and through that cause all things come about. There is nothing that can override that. Now how this works with free-will and such, that is an in-house debate and like all in-house debates, I choose to not comment.
For Christians tonight, consider this. Whatever happens in your life has not escaped the notice of God and he has allowed it. We can often worry about so many things and when we do, it is because we have forgotten that God is in control of the world we live in. Trust him today. His will be accomplished and since we are told that will includes your Christlikeness in passages like Romans 8, that will happen as well.
We shall continue tomorrow.
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