Providence
Understand how the Standards teach that God preserves and governs every creature and every action toward his own glory, ordering even sin without being its author, and caring in a special way for his church.
A God who made all things does not then leave them. Providence is the other half of God's work in time: having brought the world into being, he upholds and governs it continually, so that nothing slips outside his wise and holy care.
Preserving and governing all things
God's works of providence are his most holy, wise, and powerful preserving and governing all his creatures and all their actions. Two acts are joined here. Preservation means that creatures do not sustain themselves for a moment but are continually upheld by God; government means that he directs them to the ends he has appointed. The Larger Catechism adds that he orders them, and all their actions, to his own glory — the same end that governed the decree and creation now governs the whole running of the world.
The Confession underlines the reach of this rule: it extends to the greatest and the least, down to the freest and most contingent of actions, all of which fall out according to the foreknowledge and decree of God, the first Cause. Yet God ordinarily works through means and the operation of second causes, so that natural agents and human choices remain truly themselves even as they serve his purpose.
Providence and sin
The hardest case for any doctrine of providence is the existence of sin, and the Standards meet it directly. God permitted some of the angels to fall, and orders the sins of men and devils alike to his own glory, yet in such a way that the sinfulness proceeds only from the creature and not from God, who remains most holy and righteous and is in no sense the author or approver of sin. His government bounds, restrains, and overrules evil; it never produces it.
Within this rule, the Confession notes how God deals with his own children, sometimes leaving them for a season to the corruptions of their hearts and the temptations of the world, for their humbling and their growth. Even the chastening of believers and the hardening of the wicked are governed acts, never accidents — sobering and comforting at once.
A special care for the church
Though providence reaches to all creatures, the Confession ends by noting that God in a most special manner takes care of his church, ordering all things to its good. The Catechisms confirm that providence is not bare control but covenant care, and that the same hand which governs the nations watches over his people. So the doctrine moves from the vastness of God's rule to a particular, fatherly tenderness toward those he has chosen, preparing the way for the covenant of life that follows.
Study the full text, Scripture proofs, and commentary on each:
- Read WCF chapter 5, sections 1 through 3, and note how the Confession holds together God's universal rule, his use of means, and his freedom to work without them.
- Compare WLC Q19 with WCF chapter 5, sections 4 and 6, asking how the Standards account for sin under providence without making God its author.
- On the question page for WCF chapter 5, section 7, follow the proofs for God's special care of the church and consider how providence becomes a ground of comfort for believers.
See how this doctrine is stated across the Reformed confessions side by side.
Providence →