Chapter 5 - OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE
1 God, the good Creator of everything, in His boundless power and perfect wisdom, upholds, directs, arranges, and governs all creatures and things, from thegreatest to the least. He does this through His supremely wise and holy providence, ensuring they fulfill the purpose for which they were created. This is all
in accordance with His infallible foreknowledge (meaning His perfect and unchangeable knowledge of everything that will happen) and the free and unchanging plan of His own will. Ultimately, all of this serves to praise the glory of His wisdom, power, justice, infinite goodness, and mercy.
2 God's foreknowledge and decree mean that everything happens exactly as He intends, undeniably and without fail. He is the First Cause of all things, so nothing occurs by chance or outside of His perfect providence. However, through this same providence, God orchestrates events to unfold according to
the nature of second causes, meaning things happen in one of three ways:
• Necessarily: This refers to natural laws and the inherent properties God
has given to creation (e.g., gravity, or the way plants grow).
• Freely: This applies to beings with genuine will, like humans and angels,
who make choices for which they are truly responsible.
• Contingently: This refers to events that seem random or dependent on
various factors from our perspective, yet are still perfectly ordained by
God.
In essence, God is absolutely sovereign over everything, but He typically works through the created order and the choices of His creatures, rather than bypassing them.
3 In His providence, God typically uses ordinary means to achieve His purposes. However, He is entirely free to act independently of, beyond, or even contrary to these means whenever it pleases Him.
4 In His almighty power, unsearchable wisdom, and infinite goodness, God so clearly reveals Himself through His providence that His settled plan extends even to the first fall into sin, and to all other sinful actions of both angels and humans. This is not merely a bare permission on His part. Instead, He most wisely and powerfully limits, directs, and governs these sinful actions through a complex series of events, all to achieve His own most holy ends. However, it is crucial to understand that the sinfulness of these actions comes solely from the creatures themselves, and not from God. As the most holy and righteous God, He neither is nor can be the author or approver of sin.
5 Sometimes, the wisest, most righteous, and most gracious God allows His own children to face many temptations and the corrupt desires of their hearts for a time. He does this for a number of reasons:
• To discipline them for past sins.
• To reveal the hidden strength of their corrupt nature and the deceitfulness of their hearts so they will be humbled.
• To make them depend more closely and constantly on Him for support.
• To make them more watchful against all future opportunities for sin.
• For other just and holy purposes.
Therefore, everything that happens to any of His chosen people is by His design, for His glory, and for their ultimate good.
6 God, as a righteous judge, sometimes blinds and hardens wicked and ungodly people because of their past sins. He not only withholds the grace that could enlighten their minds and change their hearts, but sometimes also takes away the spiritual gifts they once had. He exposes them to situations where their sin-
ful nature leads them to sin further. At the same time, He gives them over to their own desires, the world's temptations, and the power of Satan. As a result, these individuals harden their hearts using the very same means God uses to soften the hearts of others.
7 God's divine plan extends to all creation, but He takes a special interest in His church. He orchestrates all events and circumstances for the good of His people.