Systematic Theology, by Louis Berkhof - New Leaven

maintain both the decretive and the preceptive will, but with the definite understanding
that, while they appear to us as distinct, they are yet fundamentally one in God. Though
a perfectly satisfactory solution of the difficulty is out of the question for the present, it
is possible to make some approaches to a solution. When we speak of the decretive and
the preceptive will of God, we use the word “will” in two different senses. By the
former God has determined what He will do or what shall come to pass; in the latter He
reveals to us what we are in duty bound to do. 33 At the same time we should remember
that the moral law, the rule of our life, is also in a sense the embodiment of the will of
God. It is an expression of His holy nature and of what this naturally requires of all
moral creatures. Hence another remark must be added to the preceding. The decretive
and preceptive will of God do not conflict in the sense that in the former He does, and
according to the latter He does not, take pleasure in sin; nor in the sense that according
to the former He does not, and according to the latter He does, will the salvation of
every individual with a positive volition. Even according to the decretive will God takes
no pleasure in sin; and even according to the preceptive will He does not will the
salvation of every individual with a positive volition.
2. THE SOVEREIGN POWER OF GOD. The sovereignty of God finds expression, not only
in the divine will, but also in the omnipotence of God or the power to execute His will.
Power in God may be called the effective energy of His nature, or that perfection of His
Being by which He is the absolute and highest causality. It is customary to distinguish
between a potentia Dei absoluta (absolute power of God) and a potentia Dei ordinata
(ordered power of God). However, Reformed theology rejects this distinction in the
sense in which it was understood by the Scholastics, who claimed that God by virtue of
His absolute power could effect contradictions, and could even sin and annihilate
Himself. At the same time it adopts the distinction as expressing a real truth, though it
does not always represent it in the same way. According to Hodge and Shedd absolute
power is the divine efficiency, as exercised without the intervention of second causes;
while ordinate power is the efficiency of God, as exercised by the ordered operation of
second causes. 34 The more general view is stated by Charnock as follows: “Absolute, is
that power whereby God is able to do that which He will not do, but is possible to be
done; ordinate, is that power whereby God doth that which He hath decreed to do, that
is, which He hath ordained or appointed to be exercised; which are not distinct powers,
but one and the same power. His ordinate power is a part of His absolute; for if He had
33 Cf. Bavinck, Geref. Dogm. II, pp. 246 ff.; Dabney, Syst. and Polem. Theol., p. 162
34 Shedd, Dogm. Theol. I, pp. 361f., Hodge, Syst. Theol. 1, pp. 410f.
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