Providence (Reformed Theology Series)

“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). Thomas Boston sums up this text well in saying, “Sparrows are of a mean price and small value and yet, for as mean as they are, God preserves them, guides and disposes of all things concerning them, so that one of them cannot fall to the ground… without his sovereign ordering and disposal” (Works, 1:186).

The doctrine of divine providence is just this—God governs all things by his wisdom and power so that they all end up working together for his glory and our good (Rom. 8:28). In the Westminster confession, there are several themes of providence covered, but we will begin with the foundation of it.

Creation and Providence: A Common Root

The confession puts the chapters on creation and providence (chs. 4–5) back to back for a reason—you cannot have one without the other. The power by which God created the world is the same power by which he continues to govern all things. Psalm 104 is helpful in understanding this. It tells us that the same God who “set the earth on its foundations” also does “give drink to every beast of the field” and performs all his works in wisdom (Ps. 104:5, 11, 24).

The confession’s language also ties these concepts together: “God, the Creator of all things doth uphold, direct, dispose, and govern all creatures, actions, and things… by his most wise and holy providence.” God, who created everything, is the one who continues to uphold it all. We do not have any existence apart from God, whether in our creation or in our day to day living, for “in him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28).

The Counsel of God’s Will

Isaiah 46:9–11 says, “I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose…I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass; I have purposed, and I will do it.’” It is from this passage and others like it that we get the phrase the counsel of God. 

When we speak of the counsel of God, or the counsel of God’s will, we mean the intentions, purposes, and events he intends to bring about. The confession rightly records that it is “free and immutable;” free because God has the right to ordain whatever he wishes and immutable because with God, his word is without faltering and will not change; “My word… shall accomplish that which I purpose” (Is. 55:11). Hebrews 6:17 tells us of “the unchangeable character of [God’s] purpose,” or counsel. Whatever God wills to happen will happen.

This counsel also orders all things by what are called “second causes.” God can be called the “first cause” or “efficient cause,” a philosophical term to denote the deepest root cause of something. God is this to all things. However, he has ordained second causes, “patterns and regularities where some events or actions cause other events or actions” (van Dixhoorn, Confessing the Faith, 70). This is important because it means that we can have free wills and minds that truly think and act on their own accord, but we acknowledge God’s sustaining hand making all of it possible in the first place.

The Problem of Sin

An inevitable problem we must face when dealing with providence is sin. God is the only one who is truly good (Luke 18:19). In him are all things right and flawless. From him proceed only righteousness and purity—the Bible describes God as “of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong” (Hab. 1:13). Yet, we are desperately wicked (Jer. 17:9) and can do no good (Ps. 53:3). How can God be said to govern all our actions if they are sinful?

The confession helps us hold these truths in tension when it says this: “As the sinfulness [of man] proceedeth only from the creature, and not from God, who, being most holy and righteous, neither is nor can be the author or approver of sin.”

We are wicked and we are the cause our own wickedness. God chose to allow this in Genesis 3 in order that our love to him would be free. God is good, and he would not have been as good as he could have been if he had not let us choose to love him. We chose to reject him, so now God works amid the reality of our sin. “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good,” even our sin, “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son” (Rom. 8:28-29). We battle with sin, but because of God’s providence it will work out for our good.

Our Response

The doctrine of providence ought to provoke us deeply, and primarily it should deepen our trust in God. If God really is good and really does uphold and govern all things, then what greater cause do we have for comfort and peace? Further, the confession mentions that God’s providence is given “so after a most special manner, [to take] care of his church.” We who are God’s covenant children can believe the promise of Romans 8:28, that all things will work out for our good. 

All of this culminates, as the confession says, “to the praise of the glory of his wisdom.” Ultimately, our theology of providence ought to provoke in us a doxology—praise to God for his mighty governing work over all things. He sustains us, upholds us, causes the world to keep on spinning, and will never see his good and kind purposes thwarted.

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Recommended Reading:

• The Mystery of Providence, John Flavel

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Text of the Westminster Confession, Chapter 5:

1. God the great Creator of all things doth uphold, direct, dispose, and govern all creatures, actions, and things, from the greatest even to the least, by His most wise and holy providence, according to His infallible fore-knowledge, and the free and immutable counsel of His own will, to the praise of the glory of His wisdom, power, justice, goodness, and mercy. 

2. Although, in relation to the fore-knowledge and decree of God, the first Cause, all things come to pass immutably, and infallibly; yet, by the same providence, He ordereth them to fall out, according to the nature of second causes, either necessarily, freely, or contingently. 

3. God, in His ordinary providence, maketh use of means, yet is free to work without, above, and against them, at His pleasure. 

4. The almighty power, unsearchable wisdom, and infinite goodness of God so far manifest themselves in His providence, that it extendeth itself even to the first fall, and all other sins of angels and men; and that not by a bare permission, but such as hath joined with it a most wise and powerful bounding, and otherwise ordering, and governing of them, in a manifold dispensation, to His own holy ends; yet so, as the sinfulness thereof proceedeth only from the creature, and not from God, who, being most holy and righteous, neither is nor can be the author or approver of sin. 

5. The most wise, righteous, and gracious God doth oftentimes leave, for a season, His own children to manifold temptations, and the corruption of their own hearts, to chastise them for their former sins, or to discover unto them the hidden strength of corruption and deceitfulness of their hearts, that they may be humbled; and, to raise them to a more close and constant dependence for their support upon Himself, and to make them more watchful against all future occasions of sin, and for sundry other just and holy ends. 

6. As for those wicked and ungodly men whom God, as a righteous Judge, for former sins, doth blind and harden, from them He not only withholdeth His grace whereby they might have been enlightened in their understandings, and wrought upon in their hearts; but sometimes also withdraweth the gifts which they had, and exposeth them to such objects as their corruption makes occasions of sin; and, withal, gives them over to their own lusts, the temptations of the world, and the power of Satan, whereby it comes to pass that they harden themselves, even under those means which God useth for the softening of others. 

7. As the providence of God doth, in general, reach to all creatures; so, after a most special manner, it taketh care of His Church, and disposeth all things to the good thereof.