All things means all things...

This week a twelve-year-old child told me that when a Christian sins, it draws them closer to God. In the context of that conversation, how amazing that a child figures out what many adults do not get.  Charnock’s book says the wonder of God’s wisdom is that He can take a sin that we consider fits us for hell and use it as an occasion to fit us for heaven. He can use it to produce in us a more humble faith and a more thorough sanctification. Such growth in grace prepares us for a state of glory. He is an awesome God.

Charnock illustrates saying how the stirring of corruption makes all the mud at the bottom appear, mud that I did not suspect was there. It comes out with the stirring and this discovers and separates it so I can confess it. Sin makes my conscience more tender. I am more watchful and realize that my enemy has more strength than I suspected. I become more diligent, more aware of the deceitfulness of my heart and better able to watch for and resist sin, “more careful of anything that may contribute to the resurrection of an expired disease.”

Another illustration is how a scorpion or a bee loses its sting when it bites, it becomes incapable of a second attack. Like Peter after his gross denial, he never denied his Master afterwards. That sin lost its power. In the same way, any sin that is undiscovered and then, by a fall, becomes visible, becomes more horrible to me and others, and causes those who sin to take a tighter hold on Christ and a greater determination to defeat sin. His forgiveness and cleansing results in more zeal and more strength because of have less confidence in myself, and more in God.

Charnock notes that David prayed, “For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.” (Psalm 51:3) He was not praying for his single sin with Bathsheba, but realized more of his general sinfulness.

Also, a great fall sometimes becomes the occasion of a person’s conversion, just as God uses the sins of His people to bring a more extensive sanctification. The only wise God makes poisons in nature to become medicines in His grace and wisdom. Through the mighty working of the Spirit, He makes us more humble and humility fits us to receive even greater blessings: “He gives more grace…. God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” (James 4:6)

In describing true repentance, the Bible says:

For see what earnestness this godly grief has produced in you, but also what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what punishment! At every point you have proved yourselves innocent in the matter. (2 Corinthians 7:11)

I’ve realized that If evil were not in the world, we would not know what good is, nor would we understand the power of God’s wisdom, just as without night we could not understand the beauty of the day. Even though God is not the author of sin because of his holiness, He uses sin by His wisdom, and accomplishes His purposes by the iniquities of his enemies, and the lapses and infirmities of his friends.

PRAY: Jesus, just as You make this clear and as Ephesians 1 points out, You work all things according to the counsel of Your will, even our sin, so we might be praise of Your glory. May my faith in You run so deep then whenever sin strikes, I respond by confessing it and listening for what You are saying. Enable me to obey You accordingly, rather than making excuses or doing anything else that sinfully neglects to honor You.