Providence
In our own lives, God works miraculously—raising us from spiritual death to life by his direct command: “Let there be light!” (2 Cor. 4:6; Eph. 2:1–5; etc.) Yet we mature in Christ daily as we bring forth the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22–23). It is God’s providence that completes this work, guiding us not in extraordinary ways but through his ordinary means of both common and saving grace. “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father” (Matt. 10:29).
God’s Sovereignty and Human Responsibility
Scripture has no difficulty attributing the same action or event to both God and creatures. God is different from us—not just quantitatively (e.g., having more power and knowledge) but qualitatively. God freely acts as Creator, and we act freely as creatures. There is no “freedom pie” divided between God and us. It is not only that God has more power than we do but that he has all the power of deity and has given us all the creaturely power he deems appropriate for those created in his image.
Consequently, God’s providence ordinarily works with nature, not against it. Christian theologians call this concursus (“going together”), where God’s activity and human activity are involved in bringing about the same effect but in different ways. When Joseph as prime minister of Egypt confronted his brothers who had sold him into slavery, he could say, “You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today” (Gen. 50:20). The apostle Peter makes the same point with regard to Christ’s crucifixion, where the people are blamed for crucifying Christ and yet God had foreordained it for their salvation (Acts 2:23).
Key Distinctions
In considering providence, two distinctions are worth bearing in mind.
First is the distinction between God’s common and saving grace. After the fall, no one deserves God’s gifts of existence and the goods of daily life. Nevertheless, God is good to all his creatures (Ps. 145:9, 15–16). Jesus reiterates this general kindness in his Sermon on the Mount: God “makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matt. 5:45). Believers and unbelievers alike share in the common curse of a fallen creation and the common grace of a generous King. For believers, every common blessing is a foretaste of heavenly joys, and “the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Rom. 8:18).
Second is the distinction between God’s hidden decree and his revealed will. We know from Scripture what God was doing in and through Israel. But we have no revelation about God’s purposes for our own countries or even our own lives apart from his moral and saving will in Scripture. We know from Scripture that we are not to marry unbelievers, but God does not tell us whom we will marry. Although God has decreed everything that comes to pass, he has not revealed everything he has decreed (Deut. 29:29; 1 Cor. 2:7–10). It is not only unexpected that we should know God’s secret purposes; such inquisitiveness is treated in Scripture as an affront to God’s majesty (Rom. 11:34). Therefore, we are responsible to understand and apply God’s Word and also to exercise common sense, the wisdom of others, and the ordinary means God has provided for our daily lives.
On the basis of Romans 12:2, some have argued we should strive to discern God’s “perfect” will for our life—that is, his “Plan A.” Sometimes there is great anxiety about stepping out of God’s secret will for our life, falling into “Plan B.” However, this verse promises that “by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” God’s perfect will here is simply what he has revealed in Scripture, not his hidden plan. Although God has “determined allotted periods and the boundaries of [our] dwelling place” (Acts 17:26), we have no way of discovering the details God wishes to remain hidden to us.
We may not know how God will work together our mistakes, sins, and foolishness for our good and his glory. However, we do know that he has triumphed over evil ultimately in Christ (1 Cor. 15:25). The revelation now of this mystery is all we need for our confidence that our lives are not tragic and meaningless, as they might seem to us at times.
Evil and Suffering
If God is good and created a world that reflects his goodness, how can there be evil and suffering? In the history of religious philosophy, there are really only three answers to this question. First is dualism, according to which evil is attributable to an equally sovereign deity—for example, the creator of matter, indistinguishable from Satan, as the Zoroastrians and Gnostics held. Second is monism, where evil is simply darker than light but a necessary counterpart to goodness.
Third is the biblical worldview, which teaches that God is sovereign and that evil is only possible as the twisting, distorting, and depraving of God’s good creation. In this third view, for example, God is the author of human liberty to choose, but wrong human choice has warped and corrupted that liberty. Evil, in this view, is not caused directly by God but is also impossible apart from God. It is always parasitic, depending on God’s good creation as the masterpiece it disfigures. Satan and sinful human beings have no independent existence or power, so their determination to do evil is a corruption of the power of self-determination that God gives humanity as his creatures. In this view, God is not responsible for evil; neither does evil have an independent existence apart from his sovereignty.
This still does not explain the “problem of evil.” In Eastern religions, evil and suffering are simply illusions, and we experience them only when we assume they exist. One can adopt this explanation only at the cost of denying not only God’s Word but also the obvious facts of the daily news and our own lives.
There are myriad attempts to solve this vexing conundrum in Western philosophy as well. Christianity does not claim to offer a resolution that would satisfy our intellectual dilemma. Ultimately, evil is a mystery. However, God’s Word does provide something more important, namely, the assurance of a historical resolution of the problem of evil through Jesus Christ. In spite of the fact that sin is first of all an assault upon God and his good creation, he took the initiative to assume our humanity, fulfill the law, bear our curse, and be raised as the beginning of the renewal of the whole created order. The Son’s incarnation and his redeeming work underscore that evil is contrary to God’s nature and will, and that he is nevertheless sovereign over it. Not even the concerted rebellion of Satan, his angelic minions, and the human race can thwart God’s purposes to redeem sinners and bring a new creation into being by his grace.
Prayer
Some wonder why we should pray if God is sovereign. If God has already determined the end from the beginning, how do our prayers have any impact? Even if God merely knows infallibly everything that will happen, then what he knows is already eternally certain. This is true, but we must remember that God has determined not only the goal but also the means. Just as God has decreed that a child will be born through a host of decisions and actions of the parents, he has chosen to make our prayers the means through which he will bring these plans to pass. The real question, then, is why we would pray if God were not sovereign (that is, not in ultimate control of our circumstances) but had instead left that ultimate sovereignty to chance, fate, or the whims of others.
It is because the biblical story of God’s loving grace in Jesus Christ is true that we can pray to God. If God were not sovereign, there would be no reason to seek his intervention. Yet if God were not good, we would have no reason to imagine he would care. Since the Father to whom we pray “so loved the world, that he gave his only Son” for us and for our salvation (John 3:16), we are confident not only that he can make “all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose” (Rom. 8:28), but that he is indefatigably committed to doing so.