First Christian Voices: Practices of the Apostolic Fathers

Chapter 2: The Godhead

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kind and good and free from wrath and true and the only one who is good. And He formed in His mind a great and unspeakable plan which He communicated to His Child alone. Now, as long as He held and preserved His own wise counsel in secret, He appeared to neglect us and to have no care over us. But after He disclosed it through His beloved Child and revealed the things which had been prepared from the beginning, He gave us every blessing all at once so that we should both share in His benefits and see and watch what we could not have imagined. Sovereignty of God’s Plan F irst C lement 26–27: Do we then consider it any great and wonderful act for the Maker of all things to raise up again those who have sincerely served Him in the assurance of a good faith when even by a bird He shows us the mightiness of His power to fulfill His promise? For it says in a certain place, “You will raise me up, and I will confess to You” ( Ps 28:7 ). And again, “I lay down and slept; I woke again, for the Lord sustained me” (Ps 3:5). And again, Job says, “You will raise up this flesh of mine, which has suffered all these things” ( Job 19:26 ). Having then this hope, let our souls be bound to Him who is faithful in His promises, and just in His judgments. He who has commanded us not to lie, will not lie Himself. For nothing is impossible with God, except to lie. Let faith in Him therefore be stirred up again within us, and let us consider that all things are near to Him. By the word of His might He established all things, and by His word He can overthrow them. “For who will say, ‘What have you done?’ or can withstand the might of your arm?” (Wis 11:22; 12:12). When and as He pleases, He will do