Gods Grace His sovereign will

Spoke 1 - Aleph

Genesis, Isaiah, Romans
God's Sovereign Will (Aleph in Hebrew Grammar)

Thus saith the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker, Ask me of things to come concerning my sons, and concerning the work of my hands command ye me. I have made the earth, and created man upon it: I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their host have I commanded.

Isaiah 45:11f (Spoke 1, Cycle 2)
Table Aleph KeyWords

The role of Aleph in Hebrew grammar is similar to the Yod Prefix (BW book pg 112). When prefixed to a verb, Aleph signifies the grammatical conjugation called the "first person imperfect" which expresses the idea of I WILL. It is essentially equivalent to the "first person future tense" in English grammar. God used it this way in the five Alphabetic Verses listed in the table. It links directly to the primary Spoke 1 theme of God's Sovereignty (BW book pg 61). We have a perfect correspondence of the meaning of Aleph as the symbol of beginnings and leadership with its role in Hebrew grammar as the Sign of Intent, the Sign of I Will. This is further amplified in the dominant Spoke 1 theme of God as Creator which manifests in the maximized distribution of the creation words bara and ktidzo on the First Spoke (BW book pg 103). We have here two overlapping themes based on the fundamental Christian Doctrines of God's Sovereignty and His identity as Creator integrated with the symbolic meaning of Aleph. Berkhof discussed the intimate relation amongst these Doctrines in his Systematic Theology:

Creation in the strict sense of the word may be defined as that free act of God whereby He, according to His sovereign will and for His own glory, in the beginning brought forth the whole visible and invisible universe, without the use of pre-existent material, and thus gave it an existence, distinct from His own and yet always dependent on Him.

God created by a free act of His Will. This Divine Attribute is reflected in us, who are made in the Image of God, in that everything we do begins with the Will to Act. This is the wisdom built into the Hebrew language; we can not express the idea of "I will" without the Aleph Prefix, so the mind enlightened by its symbolic halo (God, Leader, Teacher, etc.) can not express the idea of "I will" without being drawn into remembrance of the Lord's Will and so we are led and taught by Aleph to obey God's command "For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that" (James 3:15).Regeneration is specifically the work of the Holy Spirit, and our appreciation of the economy of salvation demands that we honor him in the distinctive functions he performs.

No ingredient in the manifold of God’s saving operations bears more relevantly on the subject of irresistible grace than does regeneration. Again, our Lord’s own teaching is basic. “Except a man be born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God. . . . Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God” (John 3:3, 5). The impossibility we found earlier in connection with faith appears here in connection with understanding of and membership in the kingdom of God, and birth from above, of water, and of the Spirit is the interposition that meets human impotence. It cannot be questioned that our Lord’s assessment of man’s situation is the total incapacity in reference to what is most germane to his well-being and is to the same effect as Paul’s indictment of the natural man (I Cor. 2:14).

The provision of grace appears in this connection, as in John 6:44, 65, in the exception, born from above, of water, and of the Spirit, the exception that insures understanding of and membership in the kingdom of God. And the certainty of this outcome is implied not only in the “except” of verses 3 and 5 but is expressly affirmed in verse 6: “That which is born of the Spirit is spirit,” a new person indwelt, directed, and controlled by the Holy Spirit.

It is John alone who records for us the Lord’s discourse to Nicodemus. The profound effect this teaching impressed on John’s thinking is evinced in his first epistle. On six occasions reference to regeneration occurs (I John 2:29; 3:9; 4:7; 5:1, 4, 18). Pertinent to our present interest is the emphasis upon the invariable concomitance of birth from God and new life. “Every one who is begotten of God does not do sin . . . and he cannot sin because he is begotten of God” (3:9). “Every one who is begotten of God overcomes the world” (5:4). Every one who is begotten of God does not sin . . . and the evil one does not touch him” (5:18). So the person born or begotten of God no longer lives in sin but has the victory, in a word, is converted.

When these data are placed in contrast with the impossibility of which our Lord spoke to Nicodemus, the only inference is that the new birth is invincibly efficacious and this is just to affirm irrestible grace.In concluding, may we return to John 6:37, 44, 65. When a sinner comes to Christ in the commitment of faith, when the rebellious will is renewed and tears of penitence begin to flow, it is because a mysterious transaction has been taking place between the persons of the Godhead. The Father has been making a presentation, a donation to his own Son. So perish the thought that coming to Christ finds its explanation in the autonomous determinations of the human will. It finds its cause in the sovereign will of God the Father. He has placed upon this person the constraint by which he has been captivated by the glory of the Redeemer and invests in him all his interests. Christ is made wisdom from God, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. Here is grace surpassing; and it is grace insurmountable