Walking Through Westminster, WCF 3.1

Westminster Confession of Faith 3.1

"God from all eternity, did, by the most wise and holy counsel of His own will, freely, and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass; yet so, as thereby neither is God the author of sin, nor is violence offered to the will of the creatures; nor is the liberty or contingency of second causes taken away, but rather established."

Summary

     God, from before the foundations of the earth, even from eternity past, foreordained whatsoever comes to pass. All things that have happened and will happen occur because of His free and unchangeable ordination. He is in control of all things, and nothing happens apart from His foreknowledge and will. For God to freely ordain all things means that He was not bound by anything other than His own will and good pleasure. He did not ordain all things because of anything else. He has also unchangeably ordained all things, meaning that nothing can ever change His plan, since nothing can ever change His will. Whatever happens does so by divine decree and foreordination. Yet, God’s control over all things and ordaining of all that comes to pass does not make Him the author of sin, nor does it do away with the will of His creatures, nor does it remove the existence and reality of secondary causes, but rather establishes them. Sin was not created by God, because He Himself is pure and sinless. He cannot, by definition, be the author of evil. But, as Dr. Douglas Kelly said (quoting another source), “God uses sin sinlessly”. While God ordained the entrance of sin into the world, He did not author sin itself. God uses the sinful actions of His creatures, even Satan, in such a way that He is not tainted by sin, but establishes His plans through His creatures’ sins. The most evil, wicked thing that was ever done was the crucifixion of Christ, the only guiltless man to ever live. Yet, Peter says in Acts 2:23, “Him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death;”. Jesus was crucified according to the will and foreknowledge of God; and He was crucified because of the sinful actions of men. God uses the sinful actions of men to purchase redemption from sin for men. This also means that God does not violate the will of His creatures. The Jews did not betray Jesus because God forced them to do so against their will. Rather, He used their willful sinning to procure pardon for sins and reconciliation. God's sinless use of sin to ultimately bring about the destruction of sin is one of the greatest examples in Scripture of God's wisdom and perfection. God uses the disobedience and rebellion of men to bring about their ultimate reconciliation with Him, through Jesus.

+ Blessings in Christ +