“Thy People Shall Be Willing In The Day Of Thy Power”
We
must not think of God as a helpless spectator of the events of creation and
providence. Yet, many so picture him. They think that God, having created man
and given him the power of volition, has created another sovereign. Many think
that all God can do now is to appeal to man to act righteously and accept his
Son as their Substitute and Savior. God is pictured as passively awaiting the
sinner's imperial decision, as though doing anything more would be a violation
of the creature's moral freedom. If this were correct, then God could do no
more than his creature.
But
this is not the God of Ho1y Scripture. The God of the Bible can induce
even the will of a sinner to choose what he wills. In thus disposing,
inclining, bending, and influencing the sinner's will, God, in no way forces
it; he simply changes it. Being thus changed, it acts as freely as before.
This sovereign power of God over the will of wicked
men is repeatedly illustrated in the Scriptures. God kept Abimelech from
sinning against him (Gen.20:6).The Lord stirred up Cyrus the king of Persia to
build his house, fulfilling the "word of the Lord b the mouth of Jeremiah
(Ezra 1:1). And, inorder to bring about the birth of Christ in Bethlehem, God
caused Caesar to make an unheard of decree, so that Mary would be in Bethlehem
at the end of her ninth month (Luke 2:1-7).
Now as God, by an internal act of sovereign power, disposes heathen
monarchs to do his will, so he disposes sinners to repent and believe. God so
graciously and sovereignly changes the hearts of sinners, that in the day of
his power. We were perfectly willing to have Christ as our Savior and Lord.
Else it would be vain for us to pray to God for the conversion of anyone.
Don Fortner