Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Adult Sunday School Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/bb/bb20060101.htm

RELISHING THE ESSENCE AND ATTRIBUTES OF GOD
Part III: The Nature Of God
A. Treasuring The Infinite Freedom Of God
(Romans 11:34-36 et al.)
  1. Introduction
    1. Though God may be a God of infinite love, righteousness and goodness, unless He is FREE to EXPRESS those attributes, His blessings to us in Christ would be limited by His lack of freedom!
    2. Aside from His essence and attributes as viewed by themselves, God relates to His creation, exposing His nature as essentially free from any and all obstacles to His expressions by any entity or combination of entities that exist in creation. This truth provides a great watershed of blessing and judgment to men based on how they relate to such a sovereignly free deity (as follows):
  2. Treasuring The Infinite Freedom Of God, Romans 11:34-36 et al.
    1. When God's essence and His attributes combine, they produce the universe and its plan, and the way God relates to that universe and all things in it reveals His NATURE.
    2. Accordingly, an astounding aspect of God's nature is His capacity to be an infinitely FREE Being:
      1. Paul repeated the rhetorical questions of Isaiah 40:13 that expect the answer, "No one!" when he asked in Romans 11:34 KJV, "For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor?" (cf. Bible Knowledge Commentary, New Testament, p. 486-487)
      2. Then, loosely citing Job 41:11, Paul asked, "or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again?" (Romans 11:35 KJV); Ibid.
      3. Having thus established that NO party knows God's mind or has been His counsellor, nor does God owe any being anything, Paul summarized the absolutely free sovereignty of God over all, Rom. 11:36:
        1. All entities, be they created beings like angels, demons or men or inanimate things have come out from God as His created beings and entities, Romans 11:36a: the preposition rendered "of" in Romans 11:36 KJV or "from" in the NIV and ESV is ek in the Greek New Testament, and it means "out of" as to cause or source of origin, cf. U. B. S. Greek N. T., 1966 ed., p. 563; Arndt & Gingrich, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament , p. 234.
        2. Also, through God all entities and beings beside Himself continue to exist, Romans 11:36b in view of Hebrews 1:3a; Colossians 1:15-17. [The word "consist" in Colossians 1:17 KJV is from the Greek word, sunistaymi in the perfect tense that means, "continue, endure, exist," Ibid., p. 798.]
        3. Finally, all entities and beings besides God Himself exist "unto Him," Romans 11:36c KJV. That is, the very formation and existence of each entity or being in creation points back to God and His will and purpose for the formation and existence of that entity, Ibid., Bible Knowledge Commentary, New Testament, p. 487.
      4. Consequently, since all inanimate and animate entities in creation originated from God in His creation, and they continue to exist by Him alone and will serve to fulfill His every will and purpose in their being, nothing in creation in any way binds or restricts God from freely doing what He wills to do!
      5. Applying this infinite FREEDOM of God to the universe produces remarkably thorough and destiny-altering applications for all who are subject to His headship (as follows):
        1. God's essence that is composed of His self-existing quality, His simplicity and immensity is not in any way bound by any evil spirit or human, deceased, living or yet to be born, and so every believer can rejoice in his sure final destiny under that God and every unbeliever dread His sure judgment!
        2. God's attributes of omniscience, omnipresence, omnipotence, truth, righteousness, goodness and love are not in any way bounded by any evil spirit or human, deceased, living or yet to be born, and so every believer can rejoice in his sure final destiny under that God and every unbeliever dread His sure judgment for not having heeded God's commands, cf. Acts 17:30 with John 3:16!
Lesson: In view of the absolute FREEDOM of Almighty God, we must HEED His call to believe on Christ and obey His Word to enjoy His SURE blessing and ESCAPE His otherwise SURE judgment!

Application: May we REVERE God for the INFINITE FREEDOM of His essence and attributes relative to ALL creation and created beings, and so believe in His Son and OBEY Him in this life!