God's Master-Workman

„Then I was beside him, like a master worker; and I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always.“ (Proverbs 8:30)

In this glowing and mysterious passage, in which Wisdom is personified, the full answer to that which is here by the Spirit testified, is found alone in Christ. For who save He answers to the claims here made? The apostle tell us in 1 Corinthians 1:24 that “Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God.” All that God is manifesting of His might in this season of His grace is made known in Christ. And all that God is displaying of His wondrous resources and ways is exhibited and displayed by Christ.

The revelation here given is of Christ as “set up” in the eternal counsels, before the beginning of God’s way, and before His works of old (v. 22) as “daily His delight,” and “always by Him.” And this as a “Master-Workman” (v. 30 R.V.), always ready to carry out the Divine decree and to fulfil the Divine purpose. What an answer is this to those who speak of our Divine Lord as being a “child of His time,” with limitations in knowledge, and having His thoughts formed by the time in which He lived, while here among men. Here in the earlier Scriptures, the true Eternity, the full Deity, and the Supreme Power of our Lord is told out in such language and after such a manner as none can answer to, save He of whom it is testified in the later Scriptures; “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:2), who Himself claimed unity and equality with the Father (John 10:31; 14:1-10), and is acknowledged as God (Heb. 1:8) “for ever and ever”—words that can have no application to any save “He who s over all, God blessed for ever” (Rom. 9:5), “The only wise God our Saviour” (Jude 25), whose “goings forth have been of old, from everlasting” (Micah 5:2),—“from the days of eternity” (margin.)

He is here brought forth as the One who was “set up” in the eternal counsels, as Executer of all the Divine decrees, in mercy and in judgment, God’s “Master-Workman,” to whose hand has been committed all that men and angels shall ever see of the Divine love and power and wisdom of the Godhead, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, in accomplished fact. Here we are told that “He was ever by Him,” always at hand, ready for action, as God might determine and command. How good it is to know that all the Divine purposes are therefore sure of fulfilment. Nothing can fail. Man’s sin may, for a season, hinder, but it can never cause to fall to the ground one thing that God has promised. For the outworking of all these purposes is in the hand of God’s all-wise and all-powerful Master Workman. And it has been through Him “whose goings forth have been of old” that all we know of Creation and Redemption has been wrought. And “in Him” all stands secure, as the eternal Rock.

The story of this working is told out through all the pages of the Sacred Word. As to Creation, it did not come into being by its own act. It was not “evolved” as modern agnostics, who see no Divine hand in anything, assert. It was the work of God’s “Master-Workman.” For an inspired apostle tells us that, “All things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made” (John 1:3, R.V.). And another apostle tells us that, “In Him were all things created, in the heavens and on the earth—all things have been created through Him and unto Him” (Col. 1:16-18, R.V.). Unbelievers allow that there is a “First Cause” in creation, but they deny to the Lord Jesus Christ the honour and the glory of God’s Master-Workman, in the creation of worlds, although God has given the honour of this to His Son. Then, when sin came in, and man became a fallen creature, and creation a groaning ruin (Rom. 8:22) in need of a Redeemer and a Restorer, this work was placed in the hands of the only One who could undertake the task. And it was at once announced that the Seed of the woman (Gen. 3:15) should be the Bruiser of Satan, the Deliverer of sinners, and the Redeemer of men. The work of man’s redemption was thus committed to the hands of Christ, and in His hands its issues both in present grace and in coming glory are secure for ever.

In the language of the Types, as in the predictions of the Prophets, all that is there foretold “in all the Scriptures of things concerning Himself” (Luke 24:27) He will as surely work out to God’s satisfaction as God has said it. And the blessings secured by His work, and ensured in His person to all who believe, are inviolable: they cannot be lost or marred. Blessed be His Name! Let the peace, the assurance, and the enjoyment of them be ours, without the shadow of a fear or a doubt. For whatever is entrusted to the hands of God’s Master-Workman can never be shaken, nor can the hand of man undo that which He has wrought. The Cross and its conquests is past, the Resurrection and its triumphs His people already share, and the Coming of the Lord, with all that it is to bring of grace and glory to the redeemed, is as sure as the Word of Promise. For “I will come again and receive you to myself” (John 14:3) is as sure as the Word that declares it. The glory to follow (1 Pet. 1:11), in the saints of the heavenly calling, the regathering of the scattered house of Israel, the bringing into subjection to God and under the rule of His kingdom of all Creation, and the final triumph of the glorified Lord over all His foes, until “every knee shall bow and every tongue confess” Him Lord (Phil. 2:11), to the Glory of God the Father, will as surely come as the Hand of the Victorious Lord can bring it, and as the Word of the eternal God has spoken it. All is sure, because all stands in the eternal counsels of the Triune God, and all is committed to the hand of God’s Master-Workman.

J.Ri.

Article series: Our Glorious Lord