In
the early pages of the book, What is the Name of This Book?,[1] we
are presented with this puzzle: “What happens if an irresistible cannonball
hits an immovable post?” The book explains the details as, “By an irresistible cannonball
we shall mean a cannonball which knocks over everything in its way. By an
immovable post we shall mean a post which cannot be knocked over by anything.”[2]
The
author later explains, “The given conditions of the problem are logically
contradictory. It is logically impossible that there can exist both an
irresistible cannonball and an immovable post.”[3]
The point is simple, that there are some things that do not qualify as
logic-puzzles because they are illogical, contradictory, and without any
possible answer.
What
about when God sets out to make a creature in his own image and likeness,[4]
and he tells this creature that there is a law that if he eats from the tree of
the knowledge of good and evil, “you
shall surely die,”[5]and
the red dragon lures Adam to sin? Both issues are irrevocable. If God wants a
creature in his own image and likeness, he cannot revoke his plan. If the creature
eats from the forbidden tree, he cannot revoke the wage of death. It appears
that the latter irrevocable statement thwarts the earlier irrevocable plan. Can
such a contradiction stand with God?
Answer:
No!
So,
how does God deal with two irrevocable issues that contradict one another? By
setting in place a third irrevocable plan that fulfills them both.
This
past week, as I was considering how the Scriptures speak about seals, and how
that understanding applies to the sealing of the 144,000, I was reminded of an
episode in history where the only solution to one irrevocable declaration was
to set in place another irrevocable declaration.
It
all started with a man named Haman convincing King Ahaseurus that the Jewish
people were a threat, and so King Ahaseurus approved a decree calling for their
destruction. It was stated like this:
Letters were sent by couriers to all the
king's provinces with instruction to
destroy, to kill, and to annihilate all Jews, young and old, women and
children, in one day, the thirteenth day of the
twelfth month, which is the month of Adar, and to plunder their goods.[6]
Later
on, Queen Esther and her cousin Mordecai exposed Haman’s treachery, and the
King put him to death for his crime. However, there was still the problem of a
decree in place that called for the execution of the Jews. The King responded: “But you may
write as you please with regard to the Jews, in the name of the king, and seal it with the king's ring, for an
edict written in the name of the king and sealed with the king's ring cannot be revoked.”[7]
The
King acknowledged that his initial edict, written in his name, and sealed with
his signet ring, could not be revoked. The solution was to write another edict,
also in the King’s name, with the same irrevocable status. It was presented
like this:
...saying that the king allowed the Jews who were
in every city to gather and defend their lives, to destroy, to kill, and to
annihilate any armed force of any people or province that might attack them,
children and women included, and to plunder their goods, 12 on one day
throughout all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth
month, which is the month of Adar.[8]
This
was clever. If one irrevocable edict called for the annihilation of the Jews,
and the King no longer wanted the Jews annihilated, he set in place another
irrevocable edict that the Jews could annihilate anyone who tried to annihilate
them. People were still free to try to annihilate the Jews, but now the Jews
were free to annihilate anyone who tried. Conclusion: no one got annihilated.
While
this whole episode illustrated the irrevocable nature of a seal, something that
helps us appreciate what is meant by the sealing of the 144,000, it was also an
illustration of how God solved the irrevocable nature of his plan to have a
creature in his own image and likeness, and his declaration that if man ate
from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he would die. God’s solution
is stated like this: “For God so
loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in
him should not perish but have eternal life.”[9]
The
redemptive work of Jesus Christ provided us with a Savior who died for sin,
satisfying the edict that Adam’s sin had to be paid for with death, and it
provided us with a Savior who rose from the dead, who saves all those who put
their faith in him, giving God the means of restoring people to the image and
likeness of his Son. Now God can have people in his own image and likeness, and
he can punish with death all those who refuse such an opportunity.
This
God-sized handling of irrevocable edicts is expressed so beautifully in this
description of God’s work:
So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who
have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us.[10]
It
is impossible for God to lie, therefore everything he plans and promises is
irrevocable. When God declared his promise, it was irrevocable. However, to
help us weaklings of faith, he guaranteed the promise he had already made with
an oath that doubled the irrevocable character of his work.
The
result is that people like us can now flee for refuge in the Lord Jesus Christ, receiving the
strongest encouragement to hold fast to the hope still ahead of us, simply
because the God who promised us eternal life cannot lie, and his promise of
eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ is irrevocable. That is why, “We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor
of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, where
Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest
forever after the order of Melchizedek.”[11]
Why
do we have “a sure and steadfast anchor”
for the soul? Because, “he who promised is faithful.”[12]
He wanted a people in his own image and likeness, he promised that there would
be such a people, he gave us a Savior to make it happen, and he will complete
what he started.[13]
When
God’s word says, “For the wages of sin is
death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in
Christ Jesus our Lord,”[14]
it tells us that death as the wages of sin cannot be revoked, and eternal life
as the gift of faith cannot be revoked. We can live in sin so that we receive
the irrevocable consequence of death. Or we can live in Christ and receive the
irrevocable gift of eternal life.
When
we do receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, believing in his name, receiving
new life in him, we experience the transforming journey towards the fulfillment
of God’s irrevocable plan to have a people in his own image and likeness.
During this lifetime we can say, “And we
all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed
into the same image from one degree of glory to another.”[15]
And,
when Jesus comes to gather his elect to himself forever, we have this promise
of God’s irrevocable plan, “but we know
that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.”[16]We
know this is true because we who believe in Jesus have been “sealed for the day of redemption.”[17] And
God’s seal is irrevocable.
© 2014 Monte Vigh ~
Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise
noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible,
English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway
Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.)
[1] © 1978 Raymond M.
Smullyan
[2] Page 8
[3] Page 15
[4] Genesis 1:26-27
[5] Genesis 2:17
[6] Esther 3:13
[7] Esther 8:8
[8] Esther 8:11-12
[9] John 3:16
[10] Hebrews 6:17-18
[11] Hebrews 6:19-20
[12] Hebrews 10:23
[13] Philippians 1:6
[14] Romans 6:23
[15] II Corinthians 3:18
[16] I John 3:2
[17] Ephesians 4:30
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