It is simple

Paul has an image of God that cannot be more comprehensive. The apostle sees it this way: everything is from Him, through Him and to Him (Rom 11:36). God is in charge of everything. For Paul, God is the one from whom all things have come forth. God is also the one who today “holds this world together in its innermost being” (according to: Faust, Goethe). The third thing mentioned is: All things will lead to Him. All this belongs together for the apostle.

So it is very simple: if God is allowed to be “God,” He is in charge of everything.

Does God have everything in His hands?

Elsewhere, Paul writes that God works all things according to the counsel of His will (Eph. 1:11). It is clear that nothing is excluded here that does not come from Him. For many people, however, this is not very easy to digest. “Trust in God” may be socially acceptable, but “God” is not – all the more so if He were responsible for everything.

It is concluded about the competence of God as if He had to behave like a human being. So one comes to the conclusion: If God is responsible for everything, this current world cannot be explained. This is an understandable statement, but it does not give the defendant (God) a chance to speak.

The question of theodicy also arose in the area of tension between the Bible and actuality. The question of theodicy is nothing more than the attempt to reconcile the suffering and imperfection of this world with an all-powerful and loving God – or to despair of faith. The problem of this question lies in the fact that man wants to conclude about God by himself. However, the Book of Job vividly describes that we are at a different point from God. We cannot take His position because we are standing in a different place. We are not God.

The Bible gives us a different perspective. The suffering of this world is not hidden and our God and Father is working towards a goal. That would be a reason to rejoice. However, this goal has not yet been realized. Man understandably wants suffering to stop now, death to be no more now, although both belong very firmly to this world. So the area of tension is with the human being. God, however, does not seem to have any stress. This does not devalue the stress and hardship of this world. Rather, the whole world is in labor pains, Paul writes (Rom 8:22-23), and we are with the world. All are waiting and hoping for liberation and redemption.

God speaks in the Bible that He is not limited to our short lifetime. Not everything happens now. Many things have already happened, others lie in the future. There is a target. God has a goal. We ourselves stand somewhere between the beginning and the end. We are on the way to the target.

God’s goal

God’s goal is to once become “all in all” (1 Cor. 15:28). We live in expectation today (Rom 8:23-25). But when the end arrives, it’s “all’s well that ends well.” This is not cheap, because God let His Son go to the cross for this. It is the precondition for Him, making peace through the blood of the cross, to reconcile the universe to Himself (Col 1:20).

Paul sees it in this sense. The apostle has the goal of God in mind. From this he lives and draws his confidence. For Paul knows that everything is of God.

The Godhead of God

The “Godhead of God” is a core theme in the understanding of the Bible. He is in charge and no one else. No one is equal to Him. No one can challenge His rank.

However, many a doctrine teaches otherwise. God is humanized and His competence is doubted. The image of God is trivialized. Therefore, for example, the following assumptions occur, all of which question the deity of God:

• The origin of evil lies with Satan (God was not responsible for this?)
• If Man Does Not Believe in Jesus, God Cannot Save (Does My Will Override His Will?)
• Everything is decided in this life (Does man alone decide?)
• The experiment “world” was just messed up by sin. God is surprised and only tries to “patch up” what works (Who planted the tree of the knowledge of good and evil?).

One denies that everything is from God. This is problematic. However, there would be a simple correction for this: one would only have to start to proceed more from the Bible itself instead of from opinions about the Bible and about God. The statements of the Bible are complex, but not complicated. It is unanimously testified: God is responsible for everything. Nothing slipped out of His hands. He will get to the finish line.

Paul talks about this in many letters and situations. In Ephesians, for example, he writes of how God, in His many-sided wisdom, has made a “purpose of the eons” (purpose of the ages) through which He comes to the goal. He has time. He plans ahead. He made this resolution of the eons “in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 3:11). This should give us confidence.

Everything is from God. This is simple and liberating. It is a statement that, starting from the origin, can also see the destination.