Can I have secrets?
Some of us may do something good and we want the action to remain anonymous, not wanting anyone to find out what we have done.
Some of us may have done something wrong or hurtful and we think that no one will find out about it.
But are our actions, either good or bad, secret?
To be quite blunt the answer is. “No!”
Why do I say that?
It is because of a particular part of God’s character known as His omniscience. So, what is meant by God’s omniscience?
It is His ability to know all things at once, to have universal knowledge, knowledge which is unbounded and infinite. It is His ability to perceive, understand, to find out and recognise. It means that He knows by experience and has knowledge of the past, the present and the future.
He knows both the beginning and the end of circumstances and actions, and even our thoughts.
PSALMS.
PSALM 139.
1. LORD, you have examined me and you know me.
2. You know everything I do; from far away you understand all my thoughts.
3. You see me, whether I am working or resting; you know all my actions.
4. Even before I speak, you already know what I will say.
And another verse from the same Psalm says this –
PSALMS.
PSALM 139.
7. Where could I go to escape from your Spirit or from your sight?
And notice the Psalmist makes it personal. Not where can we go but where can I go. Is that something that you and I have thought about – the fact that we cannot escape the presence of God or His knowledge of us and our doings? Nothing is secret. God knows it all.
And another verse –
PSALMS.
PSALM 139.
16. but with your own eyes you saw my body being formed. Even before I was born, you had written in your book everything I would do.
Did you get that? Before we were born God knew everything we would do, both good and bad.
His omniscience makes it impossible to conceal anything from God.
MATTHEW.
CHAPTER 6.
8. Do not be like them. Your Father already knows what you need before you ask him.
And here in the prophecy of Isaiah we read this –
ISAIAH.
CHAPTER 37.
28. “But I know everything about you, what you do and where you go. I know how you rage against me.
Or this through the prophet Ezekiel to the people of Israel.
EZEKIEL.
CHAPTER 11.
5. The spirit of the LORD took control of me, and the LORD told me to give the people this message: “People of Israel, I know what you are saying and what you are planning.
And it was because He knew that humans would do wrong things and think wrong thoughts that God devised a way for humans to escape the consequences of their wrongdoing and evil thoughts.
JEREMIAH.
CHAPTER 32.
19. With great wisdom you make plans, and with your great power you do all the mighty things you planned. Nothing we do is hidden from your eyes, and you reward or punish us as we deserve.
Things were really bad just before the flood.
GENESIS.
CHAPTER 6.
5. The LORD saw how evil humans had become on the earth. All day long their deepest thoughts were nothing but evil.
But what about today? We only have to turn on the news to see how bad things are.
So because of our evil deeds God’s chief plan is called the plan of salvation which He designed so that we could be rescued and escape His judgment against our sinful deeds, which remember, He knows about.
If we accept God’s wonderful plan of salvation we will be blessed by Him but notice the dire warning if we do not accept His plan.
1 CHRONICLES.
CHAPTER 28.
9. Solomon, my son, worship God and obey him with all your heart and mind, just as I have done. He knows all your thoughts and your reasons for doing things, and so if you turn to him, he will hear your prayers. But if you ignore him, he will reject you forever.
You see, the Bible teaches this –
ROMANS.
CHAPTER 6.
23. When people sin, they earn what sin pays—death. But God gives his people a free gift—life forever in Christ Jesus our Lord.
And we need to know that there is a difference between wages and a gift. We have to accept wages because we have earned them but we can refuse to take a gift. And might I add that the death spoken of here includes what is sometimes called a second death which means separation from God forever.
And notice God’s plan involves Jesus. Why is that? There is a simple reason. We ourselves could never pay for the things we have done wrong. As we saw above, the consequence of sinful actions is death. Someone would have to die to pay the wages which our sin incurred. Because every human has committed wrong deeds and had wrong thoughts then no human could pay the wages that was demanded because of sin.
Someone who didn’t have to pay those wages was needed – in other words someone who had never sinned.
So God’s plan was to send His son to earth to live a sinless life and, as our substitute, to pay the wages of our sin. And he did that on the cross. As a result God’s plan of salvation, His desire to rescue humanity from those awful consequences of our sin, has been completed and God now says that if we acknowledge that we have done wrong and accept that Jesus’s death paid for our wrongdoing we can have freedom from those wages we deserved to be paid and now have life, everlasting life, instead. What a wonderful gift, a gift we don’t really deserve, so it is called the gift of God’s grace.
Here are some well-known Bible verses that are in one sense wonderful but if we reject God’s free gift in Jesus, quite sobering.
JOHN.
CHAPTER 3.
16. God loved the people of this world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who has faith in him will have eternal life and never really die.
17. God did not send his Son into the world to condemn its people. He sent him to save them!
18. No one who has faith in God’s Son will be condemned. But everyone who doesn’t have faith in him has already been condemned for not having faith in God’s only Son.
And here is another sobering thought. God knows how long it is before we will depart this life for eternity.
PSALMS
PSALM 39.
4. “Teach me, O LORD, about the end of my life. Teach me about the number of days I have left so that I may know how temporary my life is.
God knows when that will be. But for us that time is uncertain and we should accept God’s plan of salvation now.
So to sum up, realising that God knows all our thoughts and intentions, that He sees and knows every secret in our hearts, that our whole being is exposed to His knowledge, how does that make us feel?
My prayer for you is that it makes you feel guilty and that the thought in you heart is “What should I do?’
Perhaps you might like to read the article on our website titled “How do I become a Christian?”