Question 12. What is the decree of God?

 

Question 12. What is the decree of God?

Answer. The decree of God is a wise, free, and holy act of his own will, whereby he has for his own glory, and especially concerning angels and men, he has from all eternity determined, without change, whatsoever shall come to pass.

 

God's decree means all that He plans and executes regarding the fallen angels. Jude 1:6 says, "And the angels who did not keep their own position but abandoned their proper dwelling, He has kept in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day." 2 Peter 2:4 says, "For if God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but cast them down to hell and committed them to chains of darkness to be kept until the judgment."

There is no specific biblical passage that states that the spirit of a fallen angel was confined to dust and made into a human being, but it can be understood through Genesis 2:7, “And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.”

The concept of dust is the opposite of the spirit given by God. Ecclesiastes 12:7 “Remember that the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.” Here, dust means the body. When the spirit is in the body, it becomes a living being, but when the spirit leaves, the body becomes lifeless. Luke 8:54-55 “Jesus took her by the hand and called, ‘Child, get up.’ Her spirit returned, and she got up immediately. And Jesus commanded that something be given to her to eat.”

Genesis 6:1-13 speaks of the union of spirit and flesh to become man: "When men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose. And the LORD said, My Spirit shall not always strive with man, for he is flesh; yet his days shall be a hundred and twenty years."

The sons of God represent angelic spirits, and the daughters of men represent flesh. Spirit and flesh were combined to become man, but because the Spirit of Jehovah was not with them, they became a life that had to die.

Regarding God's plan, God created the material world to confine the spirits of the fallen angels, and confined their spirits in the dust to make them human, but He predestined Christ and brought them back to the kingdom of God through Christ.

Matthew 13:34-35 “Jesus spoke all these things to the crowds in parables; without a parable he did not speak to them, that it might be fulfilled what was spoken through the prophet: ‘I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things kept secret since the creation of the world.’”

The hidden secret is the death and resurrection of the cross, and now the secret has been revealed through the prophets in the Old Testament, through the disciples of Jesus in the New Testament, and through the testimonies of the saints today. The secret is that the angels who committed a crime in the kingdom of God are imprisoned in darkness (the world), but Christ, who is light, comes to the world and takes them to the kingdom of God. It means that those who are in darkness must die (be imprisoned in the world of darkness) and die (die with Jesus) in order to return to the kingdom of God.

Ephesians 5:31-32 says, "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. This is a profound mystery, but I am talking about Christ and the church." The relationship between Christ and the church is a mystery.

God created man and woman not only to continue to propagate and distribute the body of sin to future generations, but also to show people through man and woman that Christ and the spirit of the fallen angel were originally one and must become one again.

The death of the cross is the death of the body of sin. Sin is the greed to become like God. This greed is contained in the body of sin. All people who came from the first man inherit the body of sin. Jesus also inherited the body of sin from Mary. However, in the kingdom of God, the sin of greed of the angel who committed a crime enters the body of sin and becomes a sinner, but Jesus was the body of God in the kingdom of God, so he could not have sin. He has the appearance of a sinner in the flesh, but he is not a sinner spiritually.

Nevertheless, Jesus died on the cross to resolve the body of sin. Romans 6:6 "For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin." Therefore, those who are united with the death of Jesus also have their sinful body dead. The blood that Jesus shed on the cross atones for sin. Therefore, even though he was sinless, those who are united with his death have their sinful body dead and are sinless.

John 6:40 "For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him may have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day." God's will is to predestinate Christ and to save all sinners who enter into Christ.

In order to return to the kingdom of God, there must be a resurrection life that is born again by the Holy Spirit. The word resurrection does not mean that the dead body is reborn, but that it came from the kingdom of God and is returned to the kingdom of God. Therefore, it is to return to the kingdom of God with a spiritual body.

While living on this earth, those who are in Christ will realize the kingdom of God. This is the kingdom of God in the soul, expressed in Greek as "he basiliea ton uranon", which is heaven. The moment the saints on this earth become the kingdom of God, they become sons of God. They become the temple (church). This is God's plan.