The Order of the Divine Decrees:

God Decrees:

1.)    Out of delight in His own perfections (Jesus Christ) and Divine Nature, to create the full displaying of His Glory, by making Himself to be the only living fountain, the Head, the Supreme Preeminence in all things in His created universe.

2.)    To give infinite happiness to a particular number of persons (this decree creates these people) by communicating to these the greatest possible good and love from Himself by having these brought into and made one into His Son, Jesus Christ. (Election of Love)

3.)    Out of the predetermined wisdom, to give the greatest height of His love to these particular persons, establishes (decrees) this will be accomplished best by tangibly expressing the richest level of His Mercy and Grace for them eternally to hold, cherish, and worship.  (God decrees, in a general sense, to communicate His love by the means of Mercy: to show the height of love by the depth of mercy.)

4.)    In general, to create other particular persons whom He will not show the deepest intensity of His love and goodness but instead planned, in general, for destruction, so that the love and mercy given to the others is heightened.  Furthermore, in general to permanently communicated His Greatness and Holiness. (God simply decrees to create particular persons whom He has no intention of fully and completely loving.)

5.)    To imprison the whole human race to the slavery of sin and disobedience, so that this becomes the means by which, in particular, the previous two decrees may be achieved.

6.)    To elect His Son, Jesus Christ, to come into the world and provide perfect righteousness, complete forgiveness, and the purchasing of the Holy Spirit (gift of faith) for the particular persons whom He created to express infinite goodness and love toward.

7.)    To elect out from the entire disobedient human race the same particular people, whom He decreed originally to crown with His infinite love; to elect these now sinners into the mercy and grace purchased by Jesus Christ, His only Son.  This election into the mercy of Christ insures the faithful applying of that mercy to these persons. 

8.)    To specifically decree the precise degree of sanctification for each of the children of His mercy.  This in retrospect creates the particular rewarding of these persons in Heaven, in all their varying degrees (kings, priests, martyrs, etc.).

9.)    To fulfill the general decree for the reprobate, by specifically decreeing the level of wickedness that each of these will fall while on earth.  Then, for every specific sin, which each individual person committed, He now decrees to punish them to hell, in all their specific tormenting degrees.

10.)      The sending of His Son a second time for the final separation of the people of reprobation and children of His creating love, so that God will have all evil closed off from His presence and the final intimate gathering of His chosen people (and all elect creatures) to Himself.

The result is that God brings all the human children of His love (now of His electing mercy) with all the elect angels of His grace and heavenly creatures of His goodness, IN CHRIST, whom Christ is in the Father, in order that the most indescribable and brilliant display of the Glory of His Supremacy is accomplished for all to marvel and enjoy.  This is why Ephesians talks about the "Glory of His Grace," because the displaying of grace is the height of God's wisdom for the reinforcing and magnification of His Supremacy.  All goodness in life is from free grace, therefore, the source of where this grace flows from has the "Preeminence."  All who receive this grace must boast in that source.  The result is that all of their life, strength, and hope came not from themselves but from the source of free grace.

The creating love of God magnifies His Supremacy, as this is the spring from where all good things flow out, but the free mercy of God, even more, magnifies the Glory of God's absolute Supremacy!  God's mercy does this because it exposes, in a tangible way, our absolute dependence, while, on the other hand, exposing tangibly the sheer beauty of God's absolute Supremacy.

A Scriptural Defense:

I invite my readers to look carefully over these scriptures and ponder on their meanings.  I will be using these to explain exegetically how the Bible explains the order of the Divine Decrees.  I would point out to my readers to take special notice of the grammatical conjunctions, such as "that," for these will reveal the order of God's forerunning decrees and those, which follow in order to accomplish the prior.  I want you to look at the scripture before I go over them so that you look at them purely before I explain what they mean.

Ephesians 1:9, "having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth-in Him."

Colossians 1:18, "And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence (Supremacy)."

1 John 4:9, "In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him."

Romans 5:8, "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

Proverbs 16:4, "The LORD has made all for Himself, Yes, even the wicked for the day of doom."

Romans 9:21, "Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor? 22 What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, 23 (namely) that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory."

Romans 11:27, "For this is My covenant with them, When I take away their sins." Concerning the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but concerning the election, they are beloved for the sake of the fathers. For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. For as you were once disobedient to God, yet have now obtained mercy through their disobedience, even so these also have now been disobedient, that through the mercy shown you they also may obtain mercy. For God has committed them all to disobedience, that He might have mercy on all. Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!  "For who has known the mind of the LORD? Or who has become His counselor?" "Or who has first given to Him and it shall be repaid to him?" "For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen."

Now, I am going to show you through the scripture why I put the Divine Decrees in the order in the way I did.  First, I must note there are not many scriptures that directly deal with this topic of the order of the Divine Decrees.  There are many scriptures that imply or indirectly give us ideas and answers about this.  Yet, there are few which directly deal with this specific question of the Divine Decrees.  It will be these scriptures that directly deal with the subject that I will study.

            To start, I will defend why point 1 of my model of the Decrees is stated like it is.  Ephesians 1:9-10, "having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation of the (completion) of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth-in Him."  

Whatever a persons final goal is, it was their first desire and all other desires are to support that first desire and goal.  These verses state the ultimate goal for why God created everything in the most direct English there is in the Bible.  The mystery being talked about in verse 9 is the gospel of Jesus Christ being wrapped up in the communication of God's Glory.  Verse 10 tells us the long-awaited mystery for why God decreed the gospel to happen.  The verse acknowledged it as God's "will" and "purpose."  This will and purpose is the most fundamental desire and decree of God that gives way to all others after it: to "gather" all things "in Christ," whom Christ is in the Father.  This desire and decree of God is the ultimate reason for all things exist in this universe, both physical and spiritual.

            Here is why: God has a "purpose" for the "completion of time."  This means God had a particular goal so that when all things are completed, a specific thing is accomplished.  Now, what is this thing God sought after to be achieved?  God's chief goal for all things is to have everything summed up in Christ!  There is another verse, which states this same thing, but the English is a little clearer in this meaning.

Colossians 1:18, "And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence (Supremacy)."  Colossians states in clear English that the outcome of God gathering all things in Christ, in Him, is that it showcases God to have absolute Supremacy and Preeminence.  In others words, the act of God to make known His Supremacy is the greatest way in which God makes known the fullness of His Glory.  Therefore, I conclude all other decrees ever decreed are a supporting of this desire and initial decree of God.  As I have stated earlier, this is the reason why I believe God sums up His dealings with the church as simply "the praise of the Glory of His Grace."  God's grace to us through Christ is the greatest display of our absolute dependence and enjoyment on God and, therefore, leads to the greatest display of His absolute Supremacy, His Glory!

 The decree of God to have all things summed up in Christ gives the second foremost decree of God.  This decree is to have humans "gathered" and made "one" into Christ.  This decree is, in the general sense, to have human children of His love gathered into Christ.  The order is this: God wanted to have His Supremacy made known; therefore, He decreed to have all things in Christ.  Then God decreed to create children of love so that He could have people to gather into Christ.  These first particular persons are the affection of His direct fullest love.  His love actually creates these people in Christ.  God's love reaches out in desire to gather all things in Christ and actually gives these particular people their eternal being and happiness in Him.  This is what I call the primary creating or electing love of God.  God's good "will" and "purpose" stretches out and gives existence to a certain number of persons to gather into His Son, Jesus Christ.  This electing love of God is where it all starts for the entire elect church that will one day populate the heavenly Jerusalem with their God.  

To confirm this even more, I would point my readers to Ephesians, chapter 3, verses 1-11.  Here, you will find Paul talking about God's "mystery" (ver. 3,4,9). Paul teaches this mystery is the gathering "in Christ" of the "gentiles" (ver. 6).  Then, in verse 9, the mystery is that God "created all things through Christ."  Therefore, Christ is truly the First and the Last, the Alpha and the Omega.  All things were created in Christ, or began with Christ, so that the mystery might be revealed: All things will be gathered into one in Christ, in the Father.  Next, verse 11 talks of this mystery as the "eternal purpose" which is the same "will" and "purpose" of God, talked about in Chapter 1:9.  This "eternal purpose" is simply stated as "accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord."  Then in chapter 5 of Ephesians, the mystery is referred to the uniting of the church to Christ.  I say this to make an observation.  Paul in Chapter 1 states the foremost purpose of God's will is that all things will be gathered into Christ, so that it fully communicates His Supremacy.  Throughout the same book of Ephesians, when Paul teaches about the mystery of God, in some manner, it refers to people being "in Christ."  My friends, this is not by accident!  Therefore, when Paul specifically talks about the mystery of the gentiles being gathered in Christ, this is nothing more than a specific continuance of God's general decree to "gather in one all things in Christ."  God creates a certain number of people, in love, to gather into Christ; this decree was before the fall.  Finally, the decree to gather gentiles, out of mercy, into Christ was decreed after the fall as a specific continuance of God's first general decree of good pleasure and love.

I would simply like to point out why this is so important to know.  This means God, as the second most forerunning decree at least in the general sense, determined to graft the human Children of His Love into His Son!  This is where almost all other specific decrees afterward find their starting point.  I believe this is about the most important verse to understand on this subject, for it tells us so much about the foundation of God's ultimate "will" and "purpose" of the "completion" of "time."  Most misconceptions about the order of God's decrees start here.

Third, 1 John 4:9, "In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him."  This verse states the third decree of God.  He willed to manifest His love to the elect children of His love, by means of mercy.  Romans 5:8,  "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."  Both of these verses speak how God "demonstrates" and "manifests" His love by means of mercy!  Therefore, since God's first decree was to show the fullest measure of His love to these particular people, I conclude that God's wisdom established He would best "manifest" and "demonstrate" His love by the means of showing mercy in the general sense.  God's wisdom concluded tangibly showing His "mercy" would best show and communicate His first and original desire for them, His love.  God's love to them is their eternal happiness; His decree to show love by mercy insures this. This is the third decree of God: to show the height of love by the depth of mercy.

Fourth, Romans 9:21, "Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor? 22 What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, 23 (namely) that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory."

The fourth decree of God is the broad decree of the people of destruction.  The most significant key to help us understand the doctrine of this passage is the word "that."  This English conjunction makes known what was spoken about in the preceding verse was to support the antecedent desire and decree of God in the following verse.  Different translations transcribe the first word of verse 23 differently, but either way you translate this word, the meaning is still the same.

Verses 21-22 speaks of how God decreed to create people for destruction and so accordingly "prepared" them for destruction.  This is evident to me because God speaks of creating all mankind from a lump of clay.  Then, by taking a lump and with antecedent decisions about each of these, God makes them into a particular type of pot.  The force of the verse is not that God starts to create and then later decides what type of pot to make it.  Indeed, the force of the verse is that God has a plan and will now start to make particular types of pots for that preceding reason.  Now, verse 22 states not only does God specifically make people for "dishonor" but also that He ensures this will happen because He "prepared (them) for destruction."  Therefore, God creates and then prepares certain persons for destruction.  God decrees in part to show them temporary kindness, for "He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good," but does not intend to give them His complete communication of His goodness. Why?

Verse 22 says God "wanted" to show His wrath and power to these people but for what reason?  Verse 23 gives us this reason.  "Namely that" God might fulfill a previous decree of His love to the children of His electing love by the means of mercy.  Their destruction will magnify the height of God's mercy, which heightens the degree of God's love, which heightens God's Supremacy.  Therefore, God creates these people to support the previous two decrees.

God, in order that He might fulfill the communication of His full Holiness, decrees to create these persons.  Yet at this time God's wrath is not against these persons, for they have committed no sin.  At this point in the decrees, God simply creates these persons and has no intention of fully loving them.  A creature's happiness does not come automatically.  For unless God purposes in Himself to fully love a person, then they will never obtain full happiness.  Only if God directly purposes to lavish His full goodness on a person, will they ever find full happiness.  The mere fact that God does not intend to fully love them creates their future doom.  But still, they are before the fall and, thus, sinless.  Therefore, there is no sin to punish and God has nothing against them at this point.  Although God does a have general decree of destruction planned for them, yet at this time He has no anger or punishment decreed for them, because there has to be sin first. 

Fifth, I will be dealing with a passage of scripture, which touches on a number of God's decrees, but for now, I will start with our next decree dealing with the fall of mankind.

Romans 11:27, "For this is My covenant with them, When I take away their sins." 28 Concerning the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but concerning the election, they are beloved for the sake of the fathers.  29 For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. 30 For as you were once disobedient to God, yet have now obtained mercy through their disobedience, 31 even so these also have now been disobedient, that through the mercy shown you they also may obtain mercy.  32 For God has committed them all to disobedience, that He might have mercy on all.  33 Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!  34 "For who has known the mind of the LORD? Or who has become His counselor?"  35 "Or who has first given to Him and it shall be repaid to him?"  36 For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen."

Verses 31 and 32 are parallel verses; they state the same thing twice.  The taking away of sins in verse 27 is parallel to verses 31 and 32 because to take away sins is the descriptive definition when God says He will show mercy!  God's mercy is that He takes away our sins.  Therefore, let us read the force of verse 32 with that in mind to see more clearly the weight of what is being said.  God appointed all to disobedience so that He might take away their sins!  That is an incredible thing to say!  This is why Paul simply ends with praise to God's wisdom and Supremacy after teaching on such incredible doctrines as this.

The "so that" in verse 32 teaches the preceding phrase was decreed to support God's antecedent decree which is after the "so that."  But why would God say this?  It would make sense if it read God sent His Son "so that" He could take away our sins and thus show mercy.  But instead, it goes a step back in what we would conceive to be the logical order of things.  It reads that God decreed the fall of mankind "so that" He could take away our sins!

1 John 4:9,  "In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him."  As said before, God's wisdom concluded that the best possible way for us to enjoy God's love was by us tangibly experiencing it through "mercy."  God's love to us is proven by mercy; this was God's plan.  He conceived it, decreed it, and then made it happen.  God ordained the fall so that He could have mercy on us, which is the absolute and fullest measure of God displaying His love and assuring us of that love.  This was by God's design, not by an accident, which God merely used.

God, therefore, decrees the fall of all mankind so that what He had previously intended and decreed is accomplished.  In this light, the fall becomes the means by which the previous decrees of God are secured.  God wishes to make a distinction of the children of His love and the people whom He does not plan to lavish His full love on.  The decreeing of the fall becomes the means, by which afterward this distinction now may be carried out.

All the decrees after these are done in order to accomplish these first five general decrees.  I call them general because they are in relation to the specificness of the ones to follow.

Sixth, the sending of Christ, 2 Timothy 1:9, "who has 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 to us in Christ Jesus before time began."  For God to give, call, and save His elect "in Christ," God must first decree to send Christ to earth-in order for Him to be the future means of cleansing and righteousness for all those who will believe in His Name, who He originally created out of love to be in Christ.  The death of Christ is very intricate and with a great many things being accomplished and made by it.  However, for now, I wish to address this one particular aspect of it.

 In the death of Christ and His resurrection, every person of the church as a result died with Christ, and as a result, they were raised with Christ.  This being raised with Christ means they are now mystically made part of Christ's body!  God's working of this is so effective that the church is made "one" into Christ (Romans 6:4-8; John 17:21; Ephesians 2:5; Romans 12:5; 1 Corinthians 12:27).  These human children are grafted mystically into Christ's body so powerfully that God the Father looks on these as part of Christ, as a continuance of Christ.  This means the intense infinite love which God the Father has for His beloved Son, Jesus Christ, He now will direct through Christ to these who are in His Son and a part of His same body.  As we look at this, we have a window into the wisdom of God's greatness in that He has designed and infallibly accomplished for finite-created people to experience the immensity of His love-the love He has toward Jesus Christ.  Praise be to our Lord and King!

Seventh, John 15:19, "you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world"(Romans 9:11, 11:5).  God now calls "out of the world" the people whom He desires to be in the election of grace.  Everyone in the world, because of the decree of the fall, is corrupted and enemies toward God, and God is enemies toward them for the direct sins they commit.  But, as a continuance of the original election of love, which created a certain number of persons, God being faithful to this calls these same persons out of the entire sinful world.  Through the election of mercy, God makes a public distinction of the children of love and others who were not.  God's purpose is to establish His mercy so that none will boast.  Therefore, the vivid light and potency of His Supremacy is made absolute.

Eighth, Hebrews 12:2, "[We are to be] looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith."  Jesus is the author of our faith.  Nothing done without faith is acceptable to God as a good work worthy of rewarding (Romans 14:23).  Therefore, since God authors our faith, He controls the precise outcome of how many good works we do.  God describes in Romans 9 that we are clay pots, which He, not us, molds to look exactly how He wants them to be.  This is repeated similarly in Ephesians 2:10, "we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them."  (See also 1 Corinthians 1:8; Philippians 1:6; Galatians 5:22, "fruits of the Spirit"; and Thessalonians 5:23-24.)  Therefore, because God decrees the specific-ness of our sanctification, He accordingly creates the rewarding of each in Heaven.

Ninth, Proverbs 16:4, "The LORD has made all for Himself, Yes, even the wicked for the day of doom."  As already stated, God created some for the general purpose of destruction.  After the fall in order for Him to make this distinction, He leaves these in their sinful fallen state.  He simply chooses not to call them to be recipients of Jesus Christ's accomplishments.  God's callings are "irrevocable" (Rom. 11:29); therefore, He never calls for Christ's merits to be applied to them; if He did, they would irrevocably have it.  God did not include them in the everlasting covenant of grace. Because they are His creation and especially because they are guiltily sinners, He has a right is to do with these as He so pleases.  Therefore, He "endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction."  To prepare in the sense, which this verse is communicating, means to prepare the precise way to destruction-for the preceding verse talks about how God molds clay pots for dishonor.  The doctrine we get is that God molds each particular sinner to the way He desires, which He as the master has the right.  God does this by means of permitting them to fall both in manner and degree as He wishes.  If it were not for God holding back the hearts of sinful men, every sinner would sin to the fullest extent possible.  Therefore, God now decrees the exact punishment for each individual sinner for each of his or her sins, which they committed against His marvelous and Holy Name.  The teaching is clear: God decrees the specific punishment for each sinner after the fall when they commit each of their sins.

Tenth, Matthew 25:31-34, 41, "When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats.... Then the King will say to those on His right hand, 'Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world....'  He will also say to those on the left hand, 'Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.'"

In these verses, we see the decree of God for the second sending of His Son, Jesus Christ.  This decree is for the eternal separation of evil and the eternal gathering of all His elect into Christ, just as in God's first decree in Ephesians 1:10.

To the sinners and all evil creatures, God says, "depart from me" (2 Thessalonians 1:9).  This demonstrates the fundamental desire of God toward evil: separation!  This lines up with God's first decree to gather all the creatures of His love unto Himself.  The opposite of gathering creatures of His love in Christ would be the departing of all evil.  As a result, the amplification of His Grace, which in return magnifies His "Supremacy," is accomplished.  The eternality of the creatures who are put away in Hell, who had not received His love and grace, will magnify the absolute dependence of the creatures who are objects of His love and mercy upon the absolute Supremacy of Christ.

The boasting and praises of these in heaven will be a sound of the most energetic, thankful, and beautiful sounds the universe will have ever heard.  Therefore, the magnification of God's grace and Supremacy will find its completion, as these look on the One who was pierced for them.  The Glory of Christ's dying love for sinners is the greatest and most central revealing of God's grace, wisdom, and power.  Furthermore, the gathering of all the elect into Christ in Heaven, as this being the completion of His wisdom, goodness, and grace, will be the most public display of His goodness and Supremacy.  There will be no sin, no misconceptions; the display of God's Glory will be as a light shining through the purest of crystal and akin to the brightest celestial star shining out its fame.

 I believe the scriptures give the best way to sum up this doctrine: "The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light ... the water of life, [bright] as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb" (Revelation 21:23; Revelation 22:1).

The gazing admiration of every creature will be focused on Christ Jesus shining the radiance and brightness of His Glory, and the thirst of every creature will be directed to Christ, for He is the Fountain of Living waters freely given for all to fill themselves with His love and joy forever.  Praise the glory of His Grace!