FAITH & CULTURE PROJECT: Moral Failure and God’s Purposes

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Have you ever encountered an idea that so profoundly changed your understanding of life and reality that there was no turning back? Most Christians readily affirm that everything happens for a reason, but what if you also discovered that a sovereign God predetermined every event, circumstance, and situation in your life for His purposes and glory?

What if you also learned that this providential sovereignty extends even to our free will, and that the choices we freely make are not only continually influenced and directed by the predetermined conditions within us and that continually surround us, but are in fact ordered (decreed) and cannot not come to pass.

The conditions that are orchestrated for this encompass every aspect of the reality in which we find ourselves, including our genetic makeup, , , , life experiences, exposure to fallen parents, relatives, and friends, physical design and appearance, the design of the earth and cosmos, the surrounding community in which we are placed, and all that takes place within the structure of society. According to the Bible, it’s all in the hands of a purposeful God who is relentlessly directing all things to His appointed end. I like this quote from :

‘“In friendship . . . we think we have chosen our peers. In reality a few years difference in the dates of our births, a few more miles between certain houses, the choice of one university instead of another . . . the accident of a topic being raised or not raised at a first meeting — any of these chances might have kept us apart. But, for a Christian, there are, strictly speaking no chances. A secret master of ceremonies has been at work. Christ, who said to the disciples, “Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you,” can truly say to every group of Christian friends, “Ye have not chosen one another but I have chosen you for one another.” The friendship is not a reward for our discriminating and good taste in finding one another out. It is the instrument by which God reveals to each of us the beauties of others.”’

You might think this concept a bit extreme. Can God's providential rule be this all-encompassing? Does He micromanage every detail of everyone’s life? What about personal responsibility for moral decisions? Are we merely robots or puppets? Is free will just an illusion? What about those who forsake Christ and end up in Hell? An interesting quote by comes to mind: “. . . since to him belongs the disposal of life and death, he arranges all things by his sovereign counsel, in such a way that individuals are born, who are doomed from the womb to certain death, and are to glorify him by their destruction.”

For some Christians, God's providential rule over “all things” sounds ludicrous, especially concerning . Should we also conclude that life is nothing more than a cold, impersonal computer program playing itself out?

At some point, most Christians ask how moral failure and could possibly coexist. How are they compatible. This question naturally arises when contemplating the implications of God's sovereignty over all events, including our free choices. The answer to this question is at the heart of many theological debates. It has profound implications for how we understand sin, redemption, discipleship, and the nature of free will in relation to God's overarching purposes. According to tradition, this apparent paradox can be broken down as follows:

First of all, when it comes to understanding life and reality we must inevitably conclude that although our free choices are truly our own, and we are therefore responsible for the decisions we make, there is still a sense in which life can be understood as a kind of divine “program” or “matrix.” God is sovereign over all things and decrees all things. For God to actually be God, no other kind of condition is possible. All of reality and all things decreed within it must proceed from His knowledge alone, from the very essence of His being, as a single purposed act of His will. This includes our free will decisions. He does not look down the corridors of time and learn anything by observing what decisions we will be making in the future, and then orchestrate His plans accordingly. Nor does He ever ruminate, or logically deduce, what we will do next. This would be another form of learning. This is what it means for God to be (all-knowing). Although God is very much involved and does play an active relational and intervening role in the unfolding of everyday life—He cannot simply stop being God. He cannot somehow decree to suspend Himself for a while, as some theologians would have us believe. He cannot be God, and somehow not be God, at the same time. I like this quote from :

“The Reformed agree that God knows what would happen under all conditions, but they reject the notion that this knowledge is ever ultimately based on man's autonomous decisions. Human decisions, they argue, are themselves the effects of God's eternal decrees (see , Rom. 9:10-18, Eph. 1:11, Phil. 2:12-13).” —“” from

Simply put, God’s predetermined purposes cannot not come to pass. Both His redemptive and sanctifying will for our lives cannot be overthrown or changed by our free will decisions. This is important to realize when we get it wrong—sinfully or even tragically wrong—in our daily Christian walk. To borrow a line from a popular song: “It may take a little time, a lonely path, an uphill climb, success or failure will not alter it. . .” —Howard Jones, Things Can Only Get Better

Far from being a license for sinful behavior as if nothing really mattered (). God’s providential sovereignty informs us that our lives are playing out exactly how He wants them to. Think of it as a custom-tailored educational program. We learn all the things in life that God wants us to learn. This is how we become more Christ-like. This is how we are prepared for the life to come. Just as God must create the people He will redeem, He must also create the conditions, personalities, experiences, inclinations, etc., necessary for them to learn what He desires them to learn.

Understanding the daily Christian life from this perspective (), can greatly influence how we view our successes and failures in life. It leaves little room for the kind of debilitating self-condemnation that leads to envious resentment, vindictiveness, defeatism, and morbid introspection. It’s not that we should ignore our moral failures and disappointments (shame and regret can be effective motivators), but that by keeping the proper perspective we can keep our spirits lifted and be ready to pick ourselves back up when we fail. When we realize that our failures, discouragements, and unfulfilled desires are a purposed part of God’s sanctifying process, we can steadfastly and faithfully continue down the path He has prepared for each of our lives. Despite what you might hear from today’s false teachers (health, wealth, and prosperity preachers), this is the victorious Christian life. This is the abundant life Jesus came to provide for us. We are not necessarily here for personal happiness and self-fulfillment, at least not in worldly categories. We are here to grow into maturity—to become the people He desires and has purposed to create for Himself. This is the essence of the Christian life, and success or failure will not alter it.