‘Ignorance of providence is the ultimate of all miseries; the highest blessedness lies in the knowledge of it.’¹John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, 1.17.11; ed. John T. McNeil, trans. Ford Lewis Battles, 2 vols (Westminster Press, 1960), 225.

‘God’s activity in the world has a centre and a circumference. The centre is the coming of God’s kingdom in Jesus Christ, the circumference around this centre is God’s gracious providential rule of all things.’²Melvin Tinker, Salt, Light, and Cities on Hills: Evangelism, Social Action and the Church (Evangelical Press, 2014), 72; referring to Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics III.4 (T & T Clark, 1961), 565-94.

Revealed and Grounded in God’s Saving Purpose

It is significant that God — YHWH in the Hebrew Old Testament — is first known as ‘Providence’ (YHWH-JIREH), within the explicit context of redemption history, as he supplies a lamb for Abraham to sacrifice instead of Isaac (Gen 22:14, 8). From the outset, therefore, the doctrine of providence rests on the doctrines of both creation and redemption, grounded in God’s foreordained purposes for mankind in Jesus Christ. The providence of God, his governance of creation and history, stretches outward from his saving purposes, which came to their fulness in Jesus Christ and embraces every dimension of life. Accordingly, God’s goodness is neither occasional nor unreliable, but constant and dependable. From beginning to end, the Lord plans and acts for our ultimate good.

The Scope of God’s Providential Care

At the most basic level, God sustains all life — we are all kept in existence, which is good. ‘In his hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind’ (Job 12:10). In Christ ‘all things hold together’ (Col 1:16). This sustaining goodness is extended universally: God provides the conditions necessary for the lives of human beings and other creatures, even in a world marked by sin and wrath and death. Because God is good, he is merciful, and these two qualities are linked (Pss 100:5; 107:1; 109:21; 118:1; 136:1). ‘The LORD is good to all, and his mercy is over all he has made’ (Psa 145:9). Trauma, tragedy, threat, and turmoil are terrible, real evils, yet they are restrained, confined, kept within limits.

God’s providence is also seen in his abundant provision to all creation: ‘The eyes of all look to you,’ says the Psalmist, ‘and you give them their food in due season’ (Psa 145:15-16). ‘In past generations,’ Paul declared, ‘he allowed all the nations to walk in their own ways. Yet he did not leave himself without witness, for he did good by giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons’ (Acts 14:16-17). As Luther expressed it: ‘God gives us sun and moon and stars, fire and water, air and earth, all creatures, body and soul, all manner of maintenance … whatever is good for the preservation and comfort of this present life; moreover he gives unto us his all-saving Word, yea, himself.’³The passage continues: ‘Yet what gets he thereby? Truly, nothing, but that he is wickedly blasphemed, and that his only Son is condemned and crucified, his servants plagued, banished, persecuted, and slain’ (The Table Talk of Martin Luther, section 65; ed. Thomas S. Kepler (Baker Book House, 1979), 47).

The Meaning of the Good and its Fulfilment in Christ

Even outside explicit faith, the sensitive non-Christian observer can claim that ‘We see the world through a hierarchy of value. … We begin our continual journey forward by positing a good … Our aim delineates around us a moral landscape, with the destination we are striving toward serving as the highest imaginable good.’ The now-Christian mind can move from ‘imaginable good’ to confident knowledge of real good: ‘We want to understand, as profoundly as we are able, the nature of the Good that stands behind all proximal goods … We want to understand Good so that we can be good and understand Evil so that we can avoid being evil.’⁴Jordan B. Peterson, We Who Wrestle with God: Perceptions of the Divine (Portfolio-Penguin, 2024), xxvii, xxx; cf. xxix.

Scripture presents all human history and every individual life as marked by goodness given by God — goodness that is personal, real, and unstoppable. For those in Christ, it is endless. This is seen vividly as Joseph ‘comforted … and spoke kindly’ to the brothers whose treachery he had suffered: ‘you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today’ (Gen 50:20-21).

The Nature, Goal, and Right Understanding of Providence

Creation is God’s good work in bringing the world into existence. Providence concerns his ‘continuing relationship’ to it, his ‘ongoing involvement and care.’⁵Millard J. Erickson, Christian Theology, 2nd ed. (Baker, 1998), 413. The term ‘providence’ entered Christian teaching through the Latin translation of Genesis 22:8, ‘God will provide’ (Deus providebit). Providence regards ‘the loving care that God makes available to all who orient their lives to him.’⁶Cornelius Van Der Kooi, ‘Creation and Providence,’ in Michael Allen and Scott Swain eds., The Oxford Handbook of Reformed Theology (Oxford University Press, 2020), 429. It reveals him as a faithful Creator, ‘making things available’ and ‘making provisions in the darkness of life.’⁷Van Der Kooi, ‘Creation and Providence,’ 429. It regards ‘the care God takes over existing things,’⁸John of Damascus, Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, 2.29; NPNF 2.9:41b. [Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, ed. Philip Schaff (Christian Classics Ethereal Library. Orig. 1886).] so that they reach their promised end. In creation, ‘God forms creatures with their powers and ends already inscribed into their being such that they can pursue those ends for themselves, sustained and guided by God’s primary causal power.’⁹Simon Oliver, ‘Creation and Providence,’ in Michael Allen ed., The New Cambridge Companion to Christian Doctrine (Cambridge University Press, 2023), 32. The goal of such goodness is eternal life in the new creation.

Most importantly, the providence of God is neither a mechanistic nor a dry doctrine. Rather, ‘it has its setting of trust in the God we have learned to know in Jesus Christ … Providence is therefore not a theoretical explanation of human history, but a confession of trust in God, who has shown in Jesus Christ that he remains faithful to his work.’¹⁰Van Der Kooi, ‘Creation and Providence,’ 429-30. Sadly, at times when God’s saving purposes in Christ have been side-lined from our understanding of providence, we have embraced evil. Some have looked for the providential finger of God in political events. In Nazi Germany, Adolf Hitler constantly appealed to providence to justify his vision for the Third Reich; in 1934 six hundred ministers and fourteen theologians signed a declaration: ‘We are full of thanks to God that he, as Lord of history, has given us Adolf Hitler, our leader and savior from our difficult lot.’¹¹Cited from G. C. Berkouwer, The Providence of God (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1952), 162-63. In 1945, at the end of World War II in Europe alone more than 20 million were dead, most of them civilians, 6 million of whom were Jews systematically murdered in German gas chambers. By contrast, the Bible presents providence as the stage upon which God’s redemptive purposes unfold. It is ordered toward the fulfilment of his promise to save a lost and rebellious world. God’s providence is therefore Christ-centred, directed toward the good of his people, and aimed at their final glory. Through it, God is gathering a people from all nations who trust in his promises, bringing them to eternal life in the new creation.

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• 1
  John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, 1.17.11; ed. John T. McNeil, trans. Ford Lewis Battles, 2 vols (Westminster Press, 1960), 225.
• 2
  Melvin Tinker, Salt, Light, and Cities on Hills: Evangelism, Social Action and the Church (Evangelical Press, 2014), 72; referring to Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics III.4 (T & T Clark, 1961), 565-94.
• 3
  The passage continues: ‘Yet what gets he thereby? Truly, nothing, but that he is wickedly blasphemed, and that his only Son is condemned and crucified, his servants plagued, banished, persecuted, and slain’ (The Table Talk of Martin Luther, section 65; ed. Thomas S. Kepler (Baker Book House, 1979), 47).
• 4
  Jordan B. Peterson, We Who Wrestle with God: Perceptions of the Divine (Portfolio-Penguin, 2024), xxvii, xxx; cf. xxix.
• 5
  Millard J. Erickson, Christian Theology, 2nd ed. (Baker, 1998), 413.
• 6
  Cornelius Van Der Kooi, ‘Creation and Providence,’ in Michael Allen and Scott Swain eds., The Oxford Handbook of Reformed Theology (Oxford University Press, 2020), 429.
• 7
  Van Der Kooi, ‘Creation and Providence,’ 429.
• 8
  John of Damascus, Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, 2.29; NPNF 2.9:41b. [Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, ed. Philip Schaff (Christian Classics Ethereal Library. Orig. 1886).]
• 9
  Simon Oliver, ‘Creation and Providence,’ in Michael Allen ed., The New Cambridge Companion to Christian Doctrine (Cambridge University Press, 2023), 32.
• 10
  Van Der Kooi, ‘Creation and Providence,’ 429-30.
• 11
  Cited from G. C. Berkouwer, The Providence of God (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1952), 162-63.