Not by Chance: Why Christians See Purpose in Everything

In a world where many people think life lacks rhyme or reason, Christians are called to be different and to think differently. With our Bibles open, we affirm that God is both creator and sustainer of the universe He has made. In short, we believe in the doctrine of providence. In his sermon “The God in Charge of History,” Alistair Begg helps us to understand the biblical origin and definition of this important doctrine:

The doctrine of providence … takes its name from the encounter described in Genesis chapter 22 , where Abraham is told to offer up his son Isaac. And in that context, Isaac, the son, says to Abraham, “Well, we’ve got the wood, and we’ve got the fire going, and we’re in pretty good shape, but we’re just missing a sacrifice.” And Abraham says, “The Lord will provide.” And the story of the Bible is the story of the provision of God for those made in his image, who are alienated from him and in need of the provision of the one who will take the place that we deserve and who will grant to us a privileged forgiveness that we don’t deserve. And that doctrine of providence underpins everything.

Louis Berkhof’s summary of it is as good as any. He says providence is the “continued exercise of the divine energy whereby the Creator preserves all His creatures, is operative in all that comes to pass in the world, and directs all things to their appointed end.”[1] Now, if that seems a bit of a mouthful, let’s just go to the most quoted verse of anybody who knows their Bible in relationship to these things, which is, of course, Romans 8:28, where it is routine for people to say to one another in the circumstances of life, “Well, we can be sure of this: ‘We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose’ (Rom. 8:28 NIV).” And the comprehensive nature of that is inescapable: “And we know that in all things”—not in some things, not in most things, not in understandable things, not in manageable things, but in all things!

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[1] Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1939, 1941), 166.