Of Providence, V:5

The most wise, righteous, and gracious God does 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.

God so uses the circumstances of the lives of his people to provide them what they need to work out his purposes in them. God wills our sanctification, conforming us to the image of his Son. He uses all the various factors of our lives in order to bring this about. As we have seen, even seemingly bad or evil things (from our perspective) may be used for a higher purpose. Temptation is part of God's plan, then, even though God does not tempt anyone (James 1:13). Temptation results from the interaction of circumstances (secondary causes) with our residual sin nature.

The Confession asserts that this is actually beneficial to Christians and lists several goods that come out of this:

1. It reveals the corruption of our hearts. We naturally think of ourselves in a far more favorable light than is actually the case. Scripture has a very realistic view of the fallen human heart and how short it falls of God's call to perfect righteousness. We constantly make excuses for ourselves and point to mitigating circumstances. When all else fails, we compare ourselves to more notorious sinners (Adolph Hitler seems to be a favorite). The Spirit is not willing to let us off the hook so easily.

2. We receive chastisement for earlier sins. No one likes to admit his wrongdoing. Furthermore, no one likes to receive the consequences of his bad action. Yet Scripture reminds us that a loving Father disciplines his children, seeking their greater good. What hurts for a moment may pay many dividends.

3. We discover the hidden strength of corruption. Our fallen natures are remarkably strong. Corruption is tenacious. It takes long and hard work to root it out. Yet this is what God calls us to do. Happily, he does not leave us helpless in this endeavor.

4. We discover the deceitfulness of our own hearts. Analogous to Luke Skywalker, we must confront the dark side of our natures. We must appreciate the enormity of that from which God has saved us. And we learn to distrust ourselves--a very difficult thing to do, as we naturally put the best gloss on ourselves (see #1 above).

5. It promotes humility in us. As we gain in appreciation for our true nature and develop a more realistic appraisal of ourselves we realize what poor creatures we actually are. This is a needle that punctures many hot-air balloons.

6. It promotes appropriate dependence upon God. The sheer hugeness of the task of mucking out the human heart would defeat even Hercules. Only God is capable of cleaning us thoroughly. Likely we will not really know the extent of the toxic waste management undertaken by God until we ourselves are glorified.

7. It promotes watchfulness against all future occasions of sin. It puts us on our guard. Not that we necessarily become instantly more adept at defeating sin, but that we learn not to underestimate it or our hearts and we may more readily take refuge in the defenses provided.

The outcome of all this is our sanctification, our being made more and more like Christ. It is a long but eminently worthwhile struggle.

Tomorrow: God's providence and the reprobate.