Q. What are the decrees of God?
A. The decrees of God are His eternal purpose, according to the counsel of His will, by which, for His own glory, He has foreordained whatever comes to pass.
Commentary
From the being of God the catechism turns to the eternal plan of God. The decrees of God are His one comprehensive purpose, formed in eternity, by which He has foreordained whatever comes to pass. Nothing in all creation lies outside this purpose. The rise and fall of nations, the number of our days, the salvation of every soul that is saved, and even the smallest event that seems to us a mere chance. All of it was settled in the eternal counsel of God before the world began. As the apostle declares, He “works all things according to the counsel of his will” (Ephesians 1:11). There is no realm of bare contingency where God does not reign, no event that catches Him by surprise, no rival will that can overturn His own.
Two qualifications keep this doctrine from every distortion. First, the decree proceeds according to the counsel of His will; it is not arbitrary or capricious, but the expression of infinite wisdom, holiness, and goodness. Second, its final end is His own glory. God ordains all things ultimately for the display of His own perfections, which is the highest and worthiest end any purpose could serve. Yet in ordaining all things, God is in no way the author of sin, nor is the freedom of His creatures destroyed; as the Confession carefully states, the liberty and contingency of second causes is not taken away but rather established (3.1). How God’s sovereign decree and human responsibility perfectly cohere lies beyond us, but Scripture affirms both without apology, and so must we.
Far from being a cold or fearful doctrine, the decrees of God are a deep well of comfort for the believer. Because God has foreordained whatever comes to pass, the Christian may rest in the assurance that nothing befalls him by accident, that his trials are measured and purposed, and that all things are working together for his good and God’s glory. “From him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever” (Romans 11:36). The proper response to this truth is not fatalism or presumption, but humble adoration, patient trust, and diligent obedience, leaving the secret things to God while attending faithfully to the things He has revealed.
Scripture Proofs
“All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, ‘What have you done?’” (Daniel 4:35).
“For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen” (Romans 11:36).
“In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will” (Ephesians 1:11).
2nd London Baptist Confession of Faith of 1689
3.1: God hath decreed in himself, from all eternity, by the most wise and holy counsel of His own will, freely and unchangeably, all things, whatsoever comes to pass; yet so as thereby is God neither the author of sin nor hath fellowship with any therein; nor is violence offered to the will of the creature, nor yet is the liberty or contingency of second causes taken away, but rather established; in which appears His wisdom in disposing all things, and power and faithfulness in accomplishing His decree.
3.2: Although God knoweth whatsoever may or can come to pass, upon all supposed conditions, yet hath He not decreed anything, because He foresaw it as future, or as that which would come to pass upon such conditions.