Benjamin Keach's Catechism, Q12: Executing His Decrees

Q. 12. How does God execute His decrees?
A. God executes His decrees in the works of creation and providence. (Gen. 1:1; Rev. 4:11; Matt. 6:26; Acts 14:17)

Scripture Proofs

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. (Gen. 1:1)

Worthy are you, our Lord and God,
     to receive glory and honor and power,
for you created all things,
     and by your will they existed and were created. (Rev. 4:11)

Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? (Matt. 6:26)

Yet he did not leave himself without witness, for he did good by giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness. (Acts 14:17)

Compared to the previous question, this one is a breeze. "God executes his decrees in the works of creation and providence." We talked a bit about providence in the last post. Today we'll discuss both providence and creation. To be honest, I don't see this being a very long post; I can't really discuss precisely what God's works of creation and providence are because those answers are covered later in the catechism.

So we learn from this answer that we can define anything that God commands to be a decree. "Well duh," you say. Of course, that makes sense. But I wonder if we often think about how God commanded creation itself to exist? When "God created the heavens and the earth" (Gen. 1:1), he used his words. He told creation to exist. He may as well have said, "Creation, exist now," and creation, which didn't exist before, came into existence out of obedience. It's a philosophical mind-twister, because something that doesn't exist can't obey or disobey anything. But then God, who has the very power of being within his nature, commanded that Creation be, and it had to be. "For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm" (Ps. 33:9). It's pretty crazy to think about, but there you go.

God's works of providence is another thing. This basically refers to God determining what will happen in time. Again, we covered that earlier and will cover it more later.

I think one thing that we should remember when we think of God's decrees is just how sovereign he truly is, and how protected we are as a result.. For one thing, the Bible frequently refers to Creation as a reason to listen to, obey, and praise God (see Job 38:4-7; Ps. 33:6; 136:5; Isa. 42:5; 45:18; Acts 14:15; 17:24; Col. 1:16-17; Heb. 1:10; 11:3; Rev. 4:11). We should praise him as well because he is our Creator. That simple thought ought to be overwhelming to us. As for our protection and provision, just read these two verses: "Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?" (Matt. 6:26), and "he did good by giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness" (Acts 14:17). God has decreed that his people be provided for! Lastly, as an aside, these decrees testify to his existence and character; "he did not leave himself without witness." That affirms even more his sovereignty and faithfulness in provision.

In the next post, we'll consider God's work of creation.

To read the full catechism, click here.