Scripture Reading: Proverbs 8 — The Wisdom of God

Our scripture reading this evening is from Proverbs chapter 8, which we read in its entirety. While this chapter is often read as a literary personification of wisdom, Mr Steward draws out its deeper identity: the speaker from verse 4 onwards is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ, the second Person of the Godhead — Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 1:24).

“The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old. I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was… Then I was by him, as one brought up with him, and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him.” (Proverbs 8:22–23, 30)

Here Proverbs 8 does a remarkable thing: it draws back the veil on a time before time and grants us an insight into the eternal state of God before this present creation was brought into being. We behold God the Father and God the Son in the pre-eternal glory of their existence. Christ is here — without Him was not anything made that was made (John 1:3). He upholds all things by the word of His power, by whom also God made the worlds (Hebrews 1:2–3).

The Question: What Is a True Christian?

Our study concerns the identity of the true Christian and what it is that defines and makes a person a Christian in the proper and biblical sense of that word. There are certain things to be considered both in the present and equally in the future, but also in the past. Just as the means whereby a person arrives at a destination will tell us much about their right to be there, so too in the matter of the Christian faith. A person may claim to be a Christian or may outwardly appear to enjoy certain aspects of Christianity, but the question is: how do they come to be there? What course have they followed? Because this will be highly revealing about their genuineness or otherwise.

When we inquire how far back we must go to trace this course, we find that it vastly precedes anything in our own present experience or our present lives. Indeed we must go beyond the beginning of this present sphere of existence into a past eternity and to the being of God. The biography of every true Christian begins in a past eternity and begins with God — with God’s divine purposes and with God’s divine choice in that doctrine which we call unconditional election.

Proverbs 8 and John 17: The Pre-Eternal Glory

John chapter 17 gives us another glimpse into this same pre-eternal existence. On the night of His betrayal, the Lord Jesus in direct communion with His heavenly Father speaks of matters with which they are both gloriously acquainted:

“And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.” (John 17:5)
“For thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.” (John 17:24)

We behold the Father and the Son in the past eternity in the glory and love of their divine existence. That existence was characterised by glory. It was characterised by love. And it was characterised by a plan already established.

The Lamb Foreordained Before the Foundation of the World

In 1 Peter chapter 1, the Apostle speaks of believers being redeemed with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:

“Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you.” (1 Peter 1:20)

We have spoken of the work of election which God has made in respect of those who will afterward be Christians. But there is another work of foreordination alluded to here: that Christ was foreordained to be that Lamb of God who should take away sin, to be that sacrifice for sins to end all sacrifices — the Lamb without blemish and without spot whose blood should be shed. These things, Peter tells us, were foreordained before the foundation of the world.

And in Revelation 13:8 and 17:8 we read of the book of life of the Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world. How do we explain such a statement? It was not that God had to implement emergency measures because something went wrong with creation. It was not that God reacted to the unforeseen devices of the devil or the unpredicted sinfulness of humanity. These things were ordained — foreordained — from before the foundation of the world. They were decreed by God. His word and His will is settled forever in heaven (Psalm 119:89).

Hebrews 10 gives us as it were another insight into the pre-eternal councils of the Godhead — a conversation between the Father and the Son regarding what Christ is ultimately to come and to do:

“Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me… Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God.” (Hebrews 10:5, 7)

It is appointed, it is decreed, it is already divinely planned. The Lord Jesus Christ is like a Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world — so certain a thing it is that this work will be accomplished. And all creation, and all humanity, and all events that occur to humanity whether good or ill, are all simply the setting for this greatest work of all: the work of salvation.

Chosen in Him Before the Foundation of the World

But there is yet another consequence to this arrangement of things. God is there. Christ is there. The work of salvation is there. The method by which it is to be performed is there. And what else is there?

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will.” (Ephesians 1:3–5)

God is there. Christ is there. Glory is there. Love is there. Salvation is there. And you are there, fellow Christian — and I am there. We feature in these eternal councils of the Godhead, though the world had not yet been framed and Adam had not yet breathed a breath, and hundreds and hundreds of generations of humanity were yet to come into existence before any of us would even be born. We were there in the purposes of God, in the heart of the Lord Jesus Christ, chosen in Him before the foundation of the world.

Nothing about the work of salvation is merely left to chance. It is not the product of some contingency following some unforeseen emergency. Every detail about salvation — specifically and especially the persons to be saved — are known, appointed, decreed, chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world.

The Wisdom of God Ordained Before the World Unto Our Glory

In 1 Corinthians 2:7, the Apostle Paul speaks of a hidden wisdom which God ordained before the world unto our glory — our glorification. We who were nobodies, who had not yet even come into existence, are one day to be raised to glory. Romans 8 connects all of this together:

“For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son… Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.” (Romans 8:29–30)

There are in those verses many of the mileposts we shall consider upon the course of the true Christian: foreknowledge and predestination in an eternity past; the work of calling and justification in time; the work of glorification hereafter.

And in 2 Timothy 1:9, the Apostle speaks of God who hath saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. Grace — because it was not the case that we had anything to plead or to claim or to merit. We did not even exist yet. It must be all of grace.

Eternal Life Promised Before the World Began

The Apostle Paul writes to Titus:

“In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began.” (Titus 1:2)

The whole work of salvation from beginning to end — every aspect of it, not simply the matter that the Lord Jesus Christ must become incarnate, live, suffer, die, and rise again, but every individual who is to be saved, their calling in time, their saving in time, and all that shall be done to them thereafter and in eternity — everything up to and including eternal life is promised, established, and settled before the world began.

Hebrews 4:3 reminds us that the works were finished from the foundation of the world. The design and purposes of God were complete and entire from the beginning — commencing, middle, and finish. And the Lord Jesus Christ in Matthew 25 gives us the glimpse from the other end of time:

“Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” (Matthew 25:34)

Heaven was appointed for us before the foundation of the world. That kingdom was prepared from the foundation of the world. It was always God’s purpose, always His design — a thing established and decreed from before the beginning.

Isaac Watts: The Hymn of Pre-Eternal Election

There is a hymn not in common use today which speaks upon this theme in delightful language — a hymn of Isaac Watts. Mr Steward quoted it in full at this point in the sermon:

Jesus, we bless thy Father’s name,
Thy God and ours are both the same;
What heavenly blessings from his throne
Flow down to sinners through his Son!

“Christ be my first elect,” he said,
Then chose our souls in Christ our head,
Before he gave the mountains birth,
Or laid foundations for the earth.

Thus did eternal love begin
To raise us up from death and sin;
Our characters were then decreed,
“Blameless in love, a holy seed.”

Predestinated to be sons,
Born by degrees, but chose at once;
A new regenerated race,
To praise the glory of his grace.

That is your biography, Christian. That is what has already been done for you. And that which remains to be done in your experience and in time is as certain and sure and settled as that which has already been accomplished.

The Response: Set Your Affection on Things Above

In view of all these things, what should our response be? The Apostle outlines it in Colossians 3:

“If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.” (Colossians 3:1–3)

Your life is hid with Christ in God. There is this union that exists between us and the triune Godhead — we are chosen in Christ, and Christ is one with God, and thus we are all one together. Since there is this divine arrangement made, since there is this eternal union already appointed, what a difference it should make. We should set our affections on things above, not on things on the earth.

Chosen in Christ Jesus — 1 Corinthians 1

In 1 Corinthians 1, the Apostle describes the nature of those who are God’s elect — this body of individuals chosen in Christ from before the foundation of the world:

“Not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; and base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: that no flesh should glory in his presence.” (1 Corinthians 1:26–29)

This disparate remnant of humanity — the weak and the foolish and the base and the despised and the nobodies and the nothings in this world’s assessment — these are the ones chosen unto salvation. And verse 30 is the crown of it all:

“But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: that, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.” (1 Corinthians 1:30–31)

We are of him — of God, according to His will and to His good pleasure — chosen in Christ Jesus, united unto Him, reckoned to be one with His own Son and by extension one with Himself. And the Lord Jesus Christ supplies and provides it all: wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. If we are going to glory in these things, let us glory in the Lord.

The Closing Prayer of John 17

Mr Steward concluded with the words of our Lord’s high-priestly prayer in John 17, which encompasses in its reach every subsequent generation of believing Christians:

“Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; that they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us… Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.” (John 17:20–21, 24)

Never was there a prayer in which we had a greater interest in saying Amen.

Comments or QuestionsIndependent Baptist Persuasion — Thanks for visiting, please come again!