Q. 11 // What are God’s works of providence?
A // God’s works of providence are his most holy, wise, and powerful preservation and control of all his creatures, and all their actions.
Psalms 145:17; Psalms 104:24; Hebrews 1:3; Nehemiah 9:6; Ephesians 1:19-22; Psalms 36:6; Proverbs 16:33; Matthew 10:30
Q. 12 // What special act of providence did God exercise toward man in the state in which he was created?
A // When God had created man, he entered into a covenant of life with him, on condition of perfect obedience, forbidding him to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil on penalty of death.
Genesis 2:16-17; James 2:10
This world is not just circumstance. Proverbs 16.33 tells us: The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the LORD. Even those things that seem like chance are orchestrated by God. He providence flows out of His wisdom and righteousness, so we can be confident that there is an ultimate purpose (that is good). The question this presents is: why aren’t ALL things good?
The way that this question is often presented is: Is God all-powerful or all-good, because the presence of evil in the world makes one of these two impossible? This is not a new question. God’s perfect goodness and the earth’s obvious not-goodness create an inherent conflict that needs to be explained. The way that theologians have done this is by describing God’s will as existing in two forms:
Will of Desire | those things that God commands and delights in flowing from His character.
Will of Decree | how God orchestrates the events of the world in His sovereign control.
This dichotomy was not created by theologians, it exists clearly in Scripture. In Genesis 1, God reveals His will of Desire in the creation of the world, and all was GOOD. In Genesis 2, we see God create Adam and Eve and He gives them the Covenant of Life (sometimes called the Covenant of Works) which required obedience to God but gave them the ability to disobey. In Genesis 3, we see the two forms of God’s will, Desire and Decree, separate as sin enters the world and makes this world an imperfect reflection of the Creator.
The question we must answer is: For what reason would God suspend His will of Desire in order to Decree something else? The two answers that people give are:
Worship | God allowed this because it was the only way to allow for true love and worship from His people.
Glory | God allowed this because he has a much larger, more complete plan that requires sin and redemption.
The best place to look to work through this is the gospel. In the work of Jesus Christ on the cross, God allows His Will of Desire to submit to His Will of Decree. The work of Jesus was more important than avoiding the suffering and sin. God’s plan for His glory through redemption was worth the cost. This doesn’t always match our math. The gospel is a concentrated version of what God is doing cosmically down to the hairs on our head at all times, so we will never be able to see all of the pieces or understand how they fit together. What we can do is embrace His complexity and care as we trust Him with the details.
Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen. | Ephesians 3.20-21