Is it possible to know the big picture? Can we know the plans of God?

The bible, through the philosopher in Ecclesiastes, tells us that God has the whole picture. God himself is the artist, and has set out everything in place, from births and deaths to when to laugh and when to cry. Contrary to the post-modern thinking of this age, which says there is no meta-narrative, or story upon which our lives are interweaved.

As human beings we don’t know what God has set out. We become frustrated in not knowing the big picture, because of our separation from God. This same frustration bears out that their is a story upon which our lives are a part. With hindsight, we can see how God has worked in the past, performing his purposes.

Yet, we are not called to understand the big picture, but to trust God who has the big picture to show us our place in the big picture. As human beings we can become very much preoccupied with trying to know why things happen, whereas very often we should spend our time determining what our reaction should be and to do it.

The philosopher points out that we find satisfaction in doing God’s will, by doing good. Yet, as fallen human beings, in our our strength we cannot do that, and need to trust in Christ for our salvation from sin, that his Spirit will enable us to do good. We may even get a glimpse of the bigger picture.

This evening’s sermon was a deeper look into what the apostle Paul says about marriage in his letter to the church in Ephesus.

Before we try to explain how wives are to submit to their husbands, we need to understand how husbands should love their wives and exercise authority. After all, marriage is a picture of Christ and his church.

Christ loved the church so much that he laid down his life for it. This was not some foolish sentimentality, but was a costly selfless act with a purpose. For God the Son to lay down his life to take on the sins of his people, with its consequences was not something he did because he was obliged to, but because loves his people. Similarly, a husband should be willing to put his wife first, sacrificing his needs and desires when necessary that his wife might benefit.

When Christ laid down his life, it was for those who had no claim to him, for they had sinned against him. Similarly, a husband is to sacrifice his needs and desires even when his wife is not reciprocating. His love for his wife should be unconditional.

In his love for the church, Christ also encourages it and guides it to its full potential. A husband is not to extinguish the God-given gifts and talents and talents of his wife, but should encourage and nurture them that they might be fully developed. This will fall in the orbit of the husband’s authority, from which the husband should not abdicate.

Yet, all these things are impossible on our own. Paul does not write these words separate from the rest of the Epistle, but within the context of the Spriti working in us, which is only through faith in Jesus Christ as one’s Lord and Saviour.