REFORMED WITNESS
Volume XV, May 2009, Number 5
God's Providence and Sin
A two-part article from the December 1 and 15, 1952, issues of the Standard Bearer
By H. Veldman
Part 1
How are providence and sin related?
To understand the relationship between God's Providence and sin, we must ask and attempt to answer the question: What is freedom? Man is certainly free, or to express this thought in a better way, he is certainly a free being. The nature of his being and the character of his operation are such that he is never driven to do anything, but remains free and unhindered in all his operation. This, we understand, applies to man only from the subjective viewpoint of his own activity. From the viewpoint of the living God, Who works all things according to the counsel of His own will, man is clay (and what may be the difference between clay and a block of wood, except that in the one instance a person forms something whereas in the other instance that person carves something?). From man's subjective viewpoint he, however, is not a stock and block, but a free, responsible being.
We must never confuse this freedom of man with sovereignty. This is the error of Pelagianism. The pelagian simply identifies the responsibility of man with his freewill. That man has a free will he understands in the sense that he must be and is free to choose between good and evil in the sense that he is able to choose either of the two. Notice that we add "in the sense that he is able to choose either of the two." We must certainly maintain that man chooses between good and evil and also that he is free in that choice. In fact, as Protestant Reformed Churches, we have been privileged by the Lord to lay emphasis upon the Scriptural truth of man's responsibility and stress its true significance as set forth in Holy Writ. We have been careful during all these years to expose the fallacy of those who would maintain that we, because of our emphasis upon the sovereignty of the Lord, have failed in our presentation of the Scriptural truth of the responsibility of man. Today, in the church-world about us, it is no longer understood that one can be responsible for his actions without being able to choose the good. However, this pelagian conception of things is surely impossible. It is impossible first of all in the light of Scripture. The fact remains that according to the Word of God man does not determine his course of action, the Lord does. This is a Scriptural truth so clearly stated as to tolerate no contradiction. We are born dead in sins and trespasses, and the flesh cannot desire the things that are of the Spirit. I do not determine the actions of my life, but my heart determines all my action.
Throughout Scripture we have the complete refutation of all pelagianism. Every thought and every desire, every emotion of the soul, every action of the will is controlled and directed by God, so that there is no action within us independent of God. Particularly in the book of Proverbs we have this truth clearly set forth. We read, e.g., in Proverbs 16:1, " The preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, is from the Lord." The meaning of the inspired writer in these words is plain. The preparations of the heart in this text are the considerations of the human heart, which lay in order over against each other and among which we must and do make our choices. This is surely the case in the life of every mortal. However, in that choice the Lord rules, inasmuch as the answer of the tongue is from the Lord. This answer of the tongue refers surely to our decisive answer, our choice, how we conduct ourselves; the text informs us that this answer of the tongue is from the Lord. In the same vein we are told in verse 9: "A man's heart deviseth his way: but the Lord directeth his steps." We read it so clearly in Proverbs 21:1: "The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord, as the rivers of water: He turneth it whithersoever He will." We should keep before us the figure of an oriental monarch who had the power to determine the life or death of his subjects, upon whose word a person's life or death depended. We should also bear in mind that the heart, the foundation and deep source of man's spiritual existence, is ruled by the Lord and governed to perform whatsoever the Lord wills. Then we can somewhat understand the thought of the man of God in this particular word of God when he writes that the heart of the king, the fount of man's spiritual life and existence, is ruled and governed by the Lord, and that He turneth it whithersoever He wills. This thought is verified repeatedly in Holy Writ, as in Proverbs 19:21, "There are many devices in a man's heart; nevertheless, the counsel of the Lord, that shall stand." Indeed, this truth is taught us everywhere in Holy Writ, as, e.g., in connection with the Pharaoh, whom God raised up to show His might. It must not escape our attention that the Lord raised up Pharaoh, not merely an Egyptian monarch, but godless Pharaoh (the Old Testament type of the head of the anti-christian power) against God and against His Anointed. Hence, that the Lord raised up Pharaoh does not merely mean that He set the Egyptian monarch upon the throne.
Moreover, it is also wholly untrue that true freedom should consist in being able to choose between the good and the evil, and that in the sense that we are able to choose both. In fact, it is wholly untrue that true freedom should necessarily consist in being able to choose the evil. That man is, therefore, really free, when he is also able to choose that which is evil. We all understand, do we not, that the Lord is surely free in the absolute sense of the word, and we also understand that it is absolutely impossible for the Lord to choose and do the evil. Freedom and being able to sin do not have necessarily, therefore, anything in common. In fact, the highest freedom surely excludes the possibility of sin. God is free and He cannot sin. The Church shall be eternally free in heavenly glory and perfection, and God's people shall forever be unable to sin. Hence, to be free does not necessarily imply that we must be able to choose the evil. The freedom of the Lord is that virtue or perfection of the Lord whereby He, unhindered and unmolested, wills Himself, loves Himself, maintains and seeks Himself, without ever being molested or hindered in that Divine loving, willing, and seeking of Himself. The Lord lives His own infinite and Divine and perfect existence freely. This life of God, we understand, is a life of Divine fellowship and communion, a life of covenant-fellowship in which the Three Divine Persons know and love and seek each other in the sphere of Divine perfection. And, in the living of this Divine life, the Lord is absolutely free. Besides, and this surely lies in the very nature of the case, that Lord God also determines for us what is true freedom. God determines everything. This, we say, lies in the very nature of the case. True freedom for man is and must be the freedom of the Lord. The question relative to our freedom is inseparably connected with the relation in which we stand to the living God. Freedom for me does not imply that I be able to do what and as I please. It is surely not the desire and longing of the newborn child of God to be the master of himself and of all his thinking and willing and desiring, and also to be able to do the evil. It is surely not the longing of the bird to be in the water, or of a fish to move about in the air above us. Birds and fish are not free when they are able to do either-or. But this is my desire, this is my life: to be able to serve the Lord alone and never be able to will or do anything contrary to the will of the God of my salvation; and I am free when I am able, unmolested, to serve that God in uprightness and perfection of heart and mind.
In heaven the child of God will be really and truly free forevermore. Hence, the responsibility of man does not consist herein that I am able to choose and do both the good and the evil, and that I sovereignly determine this choice. If this were the implication of responsibility, then we would declare without any reservation: there is no responsibility of man. We declare this for the simple reason that such human sovereignty does not exist.
At all times, therefore, we must maintain that the responsibility of man is never to be identified with freedom in the sense of sovereignty (vrijmacht), that we determine our course of action. It is true that we shall never declare that the child of God is a slave of grace, inasmuch as freedom consists in the service of God, to Whom I am adapted, and the service of the Lord is eternal life. We are, therefore, not slaves of grace (although it is true that this power of the Lord takes complete charge of all our life and being). Man is by nature a slave of sin, he does not possess the freedom of eternal life, is in the absolute sense of the word a slave, who must do the evil. He cannot desire the good, is wholly darkness in all his thinking and deliberations. This we must clearly understand also according to the sovereign counsel of the Lord, Who performs all His good pleasure.
However, the providence of the Lord and sin are related in such a way that sin is and remains an act of man, is not an act of God, and man is spiritually rationally free, unmolested in all his activity. Although it is true that the sinner does not possess the freedom of everlasting life, to live spontaneously with the Lord in the fellowship of His everlasting covenant, he is nevertheless consciously, morally-rationally free, and I do not believe that this is too difficult to understand as such. Man is a moral-rational being, and therefore, a responsible being. The animal, as we all know, is not conscious of God, does not understand the language of the Lord revealed in the world about it, and never conducts itself in relation to the Lord. Of the animal it cannot be said that it is either for or against God. It cannot be charged with sin. It simply does not possess the consciousness of God and is never prompted by any attitude toward the living God. How different is man! Whatever man does he does in relation to the Lord. He is conscious of God, is essentially adapted to the service of Him, Who alone is the Creator of the heavens and the earth. Man can never escape Him. He, therefore, understands the speech of the Lord in all the works of God's hands and in the Holy Scriptures, and in all his activity he conducts himself in relation to the living God. He loves the Lord or hates Him. He is prompted by love or hatred. He seeks the honour of the Lord or sets himself against the glory of Him, Who alone is worthy of all adoration. This is his moral-rational nature; and because he is conscious of the Lord, knows that he must serve the Lord, has knowledge of the living God and knows how he must conduct himself in the midst of the world, man is a responsible being and is held accountable for all his activity. It is well that we understand this. Man is never free in the true, spiritual, Scriptural sense of the freedom of life - eternal life. This freedom consists of the blessed and unmolested service of the living God. Neither is man free in the absolute sense of the word, free in the sense that he determines his own lot, is the captain and master of his own soul and "fate," is independent of the living God. In this sense he is never free but remains clay even forever. It is surely true that man is always more than a mere instrument. A mere instrument is dead, completely without feeling. Man is and remains a moral-rational being, moral-rational clay. The freedom of man, always subject to the Lord and governed by God, consists herein that he sins consciously, not because he must, but because he wills to sin and desires that which is evil and corrupt. He sins of himself, is never driven to commit evil, never forced to do that which is wrong. He is always the active agent of his own deeds, rejoicing in the iniquity he commits. Sin always remains the object and choice of man's will. This is his ethical freedom and it must always be maintained. This alone establishes man's responsibility and accountability.
This also enables us to understand the distinction between author and origin or source. An origin or source is the willing, decisive cause or source of something. That man sins comes, in this sense, assuredly from the Lord; therefore, we confess without a moments hesitation that the Lord has willed sin and darkness and this entire valley of the shadow of sin and death. Whence came all the host of darkness if not alone from the living God; did He not create the light and the darkness, form the day and the night? How much more comforting it is for the church and the child of the living God, that the Lord and not the devil is in supreme command from moment unto moment! Not only is the Lord the sole sovereignly determining cause of all sin and unrighteousness, but He also realizes His eternal counsel, as far as the coming of sin into the world is concerned, and operates in the life of every mortal from moment unto moment. Indeed, nothing occurs by chance, and this also refers to all the movements and activities of the powers of darkness. This, however, does not mean that the Lord is also the author of sin. How different is the idea of author! An author is the conscious, active perpetrator of an act, spiritually completely in harmony with that act. An author of sin is, therefore, one who loves sin and evil, who commits sin and unrighteousness as the fruit and product of his own existence, and who, when committing that evil, is completely free and unmolested. Therefore, we reject all determinism which reduces man to an irresponsible stock and block, without a will and mind, but we maintain with all the powers at our command that man is a responsible, free-ethical being. In this sense, we understand, the Lord is never the author of sin. The very thought is and should be repulsive to us. For sin is never anything else than the wholly corrupt and evil direction of our moral-rational nature and in which man delights with all that he is and possesses. Man is darkness. To say this of the Lord would be blasphemy. The Lord God loathes sin with all that is in Him. He is too pure of eyes to behold sin and iniquity. The Lord God loves Himself, hates all sin and unrighteousness, and loves only that which is good and pure and holy. Even when He willed sin in His eternally sovereign counsel He willed it as the holy God, not because He delights in sin but because He loves Himself and would glorify Himself, antithetically, unto the greatest glory of His own adorable Name. The Lord willed darkness not for the sake of darkness but to serve as background for the marvelous revelation of the light.
This truth places us before an unfathomable mystery. Man is a morally free and responsible being. He is a being who performs iniquity and unrighteousness because he loves unrighteousness with all that is in him, be it consciously or subconsciously. (Incidentally, it is well to bear in mind that this truth concerning man's responsibility also applies to the child who is, therefore, saved by the Lord as a moral-rational being, through whom, and not apart from whom, the Lord glorifies Himself.) Moreover, man in his sinning is always free and unhindered. This implies that, although he is and remains a slave of darkness, unrighteousness is always the object of his will and desires. This is man's free will, if only we understand this in this sense of the word. On the other hand, God is God Who performs all His good pleasure. Also this truth must be maintained, without ceasing and uncompromisingly. God is God, Who is also the willing source and sovereign Cause of all things, also of all the iniquity of man and demon. He is Jehovah, Who inclines and turns the hearts of kings, Who hardens every wicked heart, Who performs all His good pleasure, Who is the Divine Director of His eternal counsel, through Whom all things are, in the most unlimited sense of the word, God realizes every curse-word, every evil thought, even into the minutest details. However, how the holy God thus realizes His eternal counsel in the all-comprehensive sense of the word without in any way affecting the responsibility of man is an unfathomable mystery. Also our responsibility is of the Lord and of none other. That the Lord hates sin, is pure light and grace and life, and therefore, never can be the author of iniquity, and yet causes all things to happen so that man, in a very real sense of the word, is morally free, unmolested, loving sin and committing it because he loves it, and at the same time rejecting wilfully and consciously that which is good, is for us the mystery. The mystery does not consist herein that man is sovereignly free - this is dualism. It is the experience of the child of God to confesses that he can perform the good only through the grace of the Lord. How God realizes His counsel with respect to sin, Himself hating all iniquity and unrighteousness, is unfathomable. But, and this we must of course maintain: unfathomably deep are the thoughts of the Lord; He surely exceeds all that we know; His ways are past finding out.
This truth we must maintain with all the power at our command. This truth, that man is a morally-free, responsible being, constitutes the basis for the moral-rational character of the gospel. The difference between the child and the adult is surely not that the Lord realizes His promise unconditionally in the former, whereas He realizes His promise in the latter conditionally. The promise of the Lord is always realized unconditionally, and this for the simple reason that it is of the Lord alone. The adult is simply conscious of this unconditional operation of the Lord. Never do the children of the Lord experience the realization of God's promise of salvation except unconditionally. This is the reason why we are saved by faith. How could the Lord bestow upon His people the sovereignly free gift of salvation except through faith (and therein remain God). For whosoever believeth comes to the Lord exactly in the consciousness that he is in himself a wholly lost sinner, conceived and born dead in sin and trespasses and the object of eternal wrath, underneath a mountain of guilt for which he could never pay. However, he also comes to the Lord because the Lord through His Spirit and Word has revealed unto him the marvelous and unfathomable depths of His love revealed in Christ Jesus and upon the cross of Calvary. Whosoever learns to see the love of God to him as revealed upon the cross of Calvary, certainly must confess and adore the wholly unconditional character of that love of God in Christ Jesus. In other words, the Lord never bestows His salvation and promise upon His people except in such a way that they receive it as a purely sovereign and free gift of adorable mercy and grace. Hence, the difference between the child and the adult is not a difference in the operation of God. That operation of the Lord and of His grace is equally sovereign in both. The distinction between them lies simply in the fact that the adult is privileged to stand consciously in that wholly sovereign work of the Lord. Besides, how can there be a difference between the child and the adult? They are both elect, are they not? Moreover, the work of Divine grace and regeneration was begun in that adult, was it not, during his infancy? The Lord simply saves His people as moral-rational creatures. He does not merely save His people by injecting life into their veins, but enables them to eat and drink of the bread and the water of life freely, which He has prepared for them in Christ Jesus. This moral-rational nature of man is also the basis for the moral-rational character of the gospel as far as the wicked are concerned. However, the Lord willing, we will continue with this in our following article.
Part 2
Continuing our discussion of God's Providence and sin, we concluded our previous article with the observation that the moral-rational nature of man is also the basis for the moral-rational character of the gospel also as far as the wicked are concerned. The sovereignty of the Lord never annuls the responsibility of man. We do not merely confess that a calling goes forth from all the works of God's hands to all men, but also that the preaching of the gospel confronts its hearers with a Divine calling and demand. The truth itself does this. The Word of God itself places man before the inexorable calling to serve Him and Him alone. Whenever the Word of God is truly proclaimed the wicked are surely called and commanded to forsake their way of sin and darkness, to flee unto the Lord, and to love the living God with all that is in them. It is exactly because I am a moral-rational, and therefore, responsible being that repentance and faith and hope and love are conscious acts on my part. The ungodly has surely no right to love sin and hate God. He is certainly called to flee sin, to cleave unto the living God, confess his guilt and condemnation. It remains his calling in the way of repentance to seek his salvation in the way of the cross of Jesus Christ, God's only begotten Son.
It is exactly for this reason that the Word of God is exclusively particular. To be sure, the word of God in Isaiah 3:10-11 must be proclaimed, and we quote: Say ye to the righteous, that it shall be well with him: for they shall eat the fruit of their doings. Woe unto the wicked! it shall be ill with him: for the reward of his hands shall be given him." This eleventh verse, however, must be rightly understood. How often does it not occur nowadays that woe is proclaimed to the wicked and the impression is left that the Word of God really intends their good and salvation! Woe, then, is proclaimed unto them in such a way that it may move and induce them to repent and be saved. This, we understand, is not the meaning of Isaiah 3:11. In these words the prophet emphasizes the truth that all that one can ever say to the wicked who continues in his wicked way is woe.
Primarily, however, the gospel is meant only for the people of God, even as the corn or grain is the chief concern of the farmer. The Bible is a letter written by the Lord to His elect. It is true that the language of that letter is spiritual and is also read to and by others besides the elect. It is true that it is the will of God that the Bible be read to and by the reprobates. That the Bible is a letter written by the Lord to His elect is evident from the fact that it is the Lord and the Lord alone, Who realizes the work of salvation from the beginning even unto the end in the hearts of those, whom He has loved from before the foundation of the world. If to believe or to will to believe were left to man, then we would be able to speak of a gospel in a general sense of the word. Then all those expressions such as e.g., "if you believe", etc., would refer to an activity which originates in man, and then it would be necessary to interpret them in a general sense of the word. But how different the matter becomes if we proceed from the Scriptural truth that faith is purely a gift of the Lord! For then we realize that the Lord is addressing in the Bible His own and He would acquaint them with the salvation, which He has eternally laid away for them and realized for them in Christ Jesus their Lord. Finally, it is also for this reason that we speak of a particular promise and not of a conditional promise. What a difference between these two expressions! What a difference if I say, "If you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, you will be saved", or, "If you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ you are saved and therefore will be saved". What a difference if I say, "If you believe the promise will be yours", or, "If you believe the promise is yours and will be realized in you in the day of Jesus Christ, our Lord". The former is the proclamation of a conditional promise; the latter is the presentation of a particular promise. The former we reject and must reject; the latter we maintain and must be maintained.
The comfort of this truth
This truth, which maintains the sovereignty of God also in connection with the reality of sin, is comforting for the people and church of God first of all from the viewpoint of the church of God in the midst of the world. For the position of the church and covenant of the Lord in the midst of the world is indeed fearful and dangerous - how the church and the world compare as they appear in the midst of the world! Viewed in comparison with the covenant people of the Lord the power of the world appears tremendously great. The host of darkness is surely greater in number. The people of the living God are surely hopelessly outnumbered. Moreover, this host of darkness is able to reckon among its forces the riches, the honor, and the glory of this earthly life. Worldly power, influence, riches, men of name and fame and honour are to be found among the forces of those who refuse to acknowledge the living God and His commandments. Over against this promise and fearful array appears the church of God, and that church is terribly small and weak. The party of the living God does not reckon among its numbers many great and many noble, for the Lord has chosen the poor of this world according to His sovereign good pleasure. It is well to bear in mind this comparison between the church of God and the world to understand the comfort of God's providence and sin.
Nevertheless, this small church of the Lord, (despised in the midst of the world) may comfort itself with the blessed assurance that it has God on its side, or, as we read in Romans 8: God is for us. Everything is controlled by the Lord. Who and what shall then be against us? If God be for us, who can be against us? If we are kept and preserved in the power of God, then there is really no hostile power. If God is all-powerful, then there cannot be anything against us. We must not view this Divine power as standing over against the wicked world, so that the power of the Lord and the host of darkness are like two mighty armies arrayed over against each other. It is simply a fact that the power of the Lord also includes the forces of evil and of darkness. God's is all the power, hence also the power of the host of darkness. The Lord is not simply preserving and saving His Church over against the forces of evil, but He is realizing His kingdom and gathering His church through these powers of darkness. This enables us to understand why no forces of darkness or of the prince of the powers of the air can cause the Cause of God any harm, inasmuch as everything is being controlled by our heavenly Father. It is true that man is a moral-rational, responsible creature. But it is equally true that the strength of men or demons is exclusively of the Lord and He operates with all the host of heaven and also of hell according to His eternal and sovereign good pleasure. Then we never need be afraid. Then no evil can possibly befall us. Then the future is sure, for nothing happens by chance but only according to and through the will of our heavenly Father, and all things work together for our good.
However, this is not all. In fact, however comforting this truth of God's sovereign and almighty control over all things may be, this is not the only phase, yea, this is not even the most important phase to which we would call attention. It is indeed of the utmost importance that the Lord our God governs and controls all things. But the question must arise in our minds and hearts: Why did the Lord will sin and darkness, and how does this truth serve me and the church of God? God's providence and sin are inseparably and sovereignly connected, but why? We have already called attention to the fact that the reality of sin and death is a tremendous phenomenon in the midst of the world. Surely we are comforted with the thought that all the forces of sin and darkness cannot prevent all things from working together for our good, that our salvation and that of the church of God is absolutely sure. But, would it not have been better had this night of sin and death never been introduced? Would it not have been far better if the Lord would realize His eternal kingdom and gather His chosen church without this phenomenon of darkness and evil?
The comfort of the church of God is not merely a comfort over against the darkness and evil of this world, but it also embraces it. On the one hand we have the comfort that the honour of God, Who alone is God, is maintained. This conception of the sovereign providence of the Lord as it also embraces sin allows the Lord to remain God. To the child of God there should be nothing of greater importance than this truth. We are dealing now with the tremendous phenomenon of sin and darkness. Any conception which presents sin as having its origin in the prince of the powers of the air cannot possibly satisfy us. Principally this view of things deprives us of the living God, and this is eternal life for us and the church of God: to know God, to know Him as the only true God, Who is God alone. Any view which divorces the reality of sin from the wholly sovereign control of the living God must be rejected by us if for no other reason than that it attacks Him, Whom to know as the only living God, is life everlasting. It must surely be the urge and longing of my heart and soul that that God remains God. We must never permit another power to appear beside Him. The salvation and comfort of my soul demands that He, Whom I have learned to love through the power of Divine grace, is constantly at the controls, and that the government of all things is continually in His hand. This includes the dawn of history when the night of sin and darkness was introduced through the sin of our first parents in Paradise. This, I say, we must maintain purely for God's sake and His glory.
However, this is not all. We cannot pause here. To say that the Lord willed sin and darkness sovereignly is surely not enough. The Lord is not a tyrant. Life and death, light and darkness, the truth and the lie, righteousness and unrighteousness, heaven and hell must not be viewed as parallel and of equal significance. Never must the issue be presented as if Jehovah delights in the one as well as in the other. It is true that our Protestant Reformed Churches have been accused of this gross misrepresentation of the doctrine of God's sovereignty. Nothing, however, is farther from the truth. For although it is true that the Lord is absolutely and wholly sovereign with respect to all that occurs throughout the history of this world, it is equally true that the Lord must remain God, and this means that He must remain God also as the holy and just and righteous and omniscient Jehovah. What does this imply? That, although I know that man loves iniquity and walks in darkness because he loves the darkness rather than the light, I also know that Jehovah is too pure of eyes to behold sin and evil. Consequently we declare without the slightest reservation that man is the author of his own evil, but this can never be said of the Lord. An author is one who commits sin because he delights in it, and this also establishes his responsibility. But the Lord is never the author of iniquity. He did not will the evil because He delights in it. Eternally He willed sin and darkness as the choice of man whom He sovereignly willed from before the foundation of the world. We understand that the sinner is the product of God's eternal and sovereign will, and the Lord willed evil as the object of His eternal hatred and displeasure and the choice of man.
This truth is of the greatest comfort for the Church of God in the midst of the world. We declare and may declare, without any reservation: We rejoice that it is exactly that God Who willed sin and evil. How hopeless and full of despair would our position be, if the devil were at the controls! Then we could not possibly have rest or peace for a single moment. How tragic is that presentation of the truth which advocates that an accident occurred in Paradise, that the entrance of sin into the world was something unforeseen or not Divinely determined! Or, how despairing is the thought that the fall of Adam was an event which could have been Divinely averted! For, if this be true, then the entire history of sin and grace is an unhappy and unnecessary interim and the work of Divine redemption in Christ Jesus is merely repair work. How pitiful it would be if the Church attained unto everlasting and heavenly glory through the deep way of sin and grace, if it could have attained unto the same glory without this night of sin and shame! Such, however, is surely not the case. Are not all the works of God known to God from before the foundation of the world? It is not equally true that the Lord, as the heavenly Potter, has the sovereign right to make of the clay whatever He pleases, vessels unto honour and vessels of dishonour? In fact, is it not true that the sovereign Potter of the universe also actually makes these vessels unto dishonour and unto honour? But, these works of the Lord are known to the Lord eternally, are they not? This means that they are known by the Lord as only the Lord knows things, creatively and sovereignly. Hence, we know that the entrance of sin into the world was not an accident. We must not hesitate to say this. For, if the Lord willed sin and also realized His counsel with respect to sin and darkness, then I know that all must be well. Then the Lord God is sovereignly over all. Then we know that all things must serve unto the greatest glory of His everlasting Name. Then we know that sin entered into this world because the Lord would realize the highest and greatest glorification of His Name through the deep way of sin and darkness. Then we know that the Lord willed evil not because He delights in iniquity, not for the sake of iniquity itself, but only because that evil must serve the greatest glory of His adorable Name. Sin and darkness do not exist for themselves, but as the Divinely willed background for the manifestation of His light and truth and grace. The Lord does all things only for His own Name's sake.
This truth is of the greatest significance for the child and church of God. O, this does not imply that we shall ever delight in sin. It is impossible to delight in sin, once we have been called out of darkness into the Lord's marvelous light. The Lord does not delight in evil and neither does the child of God, who has been delivered out of that darkness through the grace of God. But it is true that the darkness advances the glory and honour of God (not, of course, from the subjective viewpoint of the sinner), that this entire night of sin and death will have but one result, namely, that God shall be praised as God even into all eternity. Everything shall speak of the virtues and glories of the Lord. Heaven and hell must contribute toward the Lord's eternal Self-manifestation. The unrighteousness of men must serve the righteousness of God and His adorable goodness.
Finally, the question may still arise whether all this would not also be true without the supralapsarian conception of the entrance of sin into the world. The infralapsarian confesses as well as the supralapsarian that heaven and hell shall both reveal the glory of the Lord and that the unrighteousness and eternal punishment of the sinner will proclaim the holiness and justice of our God. This is true. However, the maintaining of the absolute sovereignty of the Lord also with respect to our present night of sin and darkness gives the church of God the unspeakable comfort that the Lord is absolutely at the helm, that our God was "not taken by surprise" when Adam fell from his lofty position. The absolute honor of our God is surely an issue of tremendous significance for the child of the Lord, who has learned to adore the God of his salvation. Besides, we must not forget that the proclamation of the truth of the Lord's absolute sovereignty also gives the church the assurance that all is always well in the midst of the world. It assures us that, whatever may betide, occurs only through Him of Whom and through Whom and unto Whom are all things. Then indeed we may have the unwavering assurance that all things work together for our good, and that, if God be for us, nothing can be against us. What, then, shall we say in conclusion? The church of God may indeed exclaim in all amazement: if the darkness, this darkness, this vale of the shadow of death, this night of sin and death must serve the light, has been Divinely willed for the sake of the greatest glory of His Name, how great shall the manifestation of God's glory be in the new heavens and upon the new earth? Unfathomably deep are the riches of God! No one was God's counselor and none could have been His counselor. Everything shall serve to reveal the greatness of the Lord, and the church of God looks forward with unwavering certainty to the day when all things shall be made new in the new heavens and upon the new earth.
H. Veldman
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Hope Protestant Reformed Church
1307 E. Brockton Ave.
Redlands, CA 92374-3802
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