According to the most wise, holy, and just counsel of God's will, he has seen fit to ordain and permit his own children to get caught up in sin.
We were all once totally dead in sin and God saved us out of it. But also Christians, at times, fall back into patterns of sin or sins persist in their lives that are not easily overcome. Why does God ordain this?
Westminster say:
According to the WCF, God permits his children to get caught up in sin to discipline them and also to show them the hidden depths of their sin in order to humble them and draw them to a closer dependence upon himself.
John Owen say:
Does the Bible teach that God ordains sin for these purposes? Yep. I'll just leave the prooftexts here - 2 Chronicles 32:25-31; Deuteronomy 8:2-5; Luke 22:31-32; 2 Samuel 24:1, 2 Samuel 24:25; 2 Corinthians 12:7-9; Psalms 73; Psalms 77; Mark 14:66-72; John 21:15-19
This does not mean that we should allow sin to reign in our bodies or that we have some license to continue in sin. God commands that we repent of all sin and take sin very seriously. But those of us who have sojourned in sin and been brought out of it may look back and see how God used it to humble us and draw us to a closer dependence upon him.
We were all once totally dead in sin and God saved us out of it. But also Christians, at times, fall back into patterns of sin or sins persist in their lives that are not easily overcome. Why does God ordain this?
Westminster say:
"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. (WCF 5.5)
According to the WCF, God permits his children to get caught up in sin to discipline them and also to show them the hidden depths of their sin in order to humble them and draw them to a closer dependence upon himself.
John Owen say:
“God says, ‘Here is one, if he could be rid of this lust, I should never hear from him again. Let him wrestle with this, or he is lost.’”
Owen says the same thing. What fickle creatures we are. There are some sins, afflictions, and needs in our life that, if God were to take them away, we would never talk to God again! He wisely leaves them in place until we learn a more constant dependence upon him.
Does the Bible teach that God ordains sin for these purposes? Yep. I'll just leave the prooftexts here - 2 Chronicles 32:25-31; Deuteronomy 8:2-5; Luke 22:31-32; 2 Samuel 24:1, 2 Samuel 24:25; 2 Corinthians 12:7-9; Psalms 73; Psalms 77; Mark 14:66-72; John 21:15-19
This does not mean that we should allow sin to reign in our bodies or that we have some license to continue in sin. God commands that we repent of all sin and take sin very seriously. But those of us who have sojourned in sin and been brought out of it may look back and see how God used it to humble us and draw us to a closer dependence upon him.
