“The Secret Things Belong to the Lord" — Deuteronomy 29:29
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Is there anything wrong with speculating about God’s will, his revelation, and his actions? Are there any limits?
God has revealed all things necessary and sufficient for salvation.
We can gain insight regarding such limits from Deuteronomy 29:29 where Moses is speaking the words of the covenant to the people of Israel in the land of Moab:
“The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.”
The Bible is the word of God supernaturally revealed to us by the Holy Spirit through the means of human writers (2 Tim. 3:16, 1 Pet. 1:12). In his word God has revealed all things necessary and sufficient for salvation. But he has not revealed all things about himself nor his creation—in fact, finite humans are incapable of understanding all things about our infinite Creator. As the historic Belgic Confession states:
We do not wish to inquire with undue curiosity into what he does that surpasses human understanding and is beyond our ability to comprehend. But in all humility and reverence we adore the just judgments of God, which are hidden from us, being content to be Christ’s disciples, so as to learn only what he shows us in his Word, without going beyond those limits. — The Belgic Confession, The Doctrine of God’s Providence, Article 13.
Believers need to focus on the things God has revealed in his word.
As God teaches us, there are secret things in his providence that he alone knows. The things he has graciously revealed to us in the Bible are for us. Therefore, rather than trying to speculate about the secret things of God, it is better to humbly focus on the things he has revealed in his word.
Believers are to avoid foolish arguments about things about God that he has not revealed to us, and focus instead on what he teaches us in Scripture. Trust that God the Holy Spirit will enlighten your mind and assure you by faith of God’s sovereignty over all things, even when events might seem hard to understand and hopeless. Our Father in heaven loves us, he knows what we need, and he neither sleeps nor slumbers (Ps. 121).
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Justified by Faith Alone by R. C. Sproul