The holiness of God is not tarnished by His withdrawing of grace from sinful creatures, leading them to further sin. God’s withholding of grace is a negative act, leaving man to his natural inclination towards sin. God is not obligated to continue his grace after it has been repeatedly refused or abused.… Read More Theodicy & God’s Restraining Grace
God ordains all events freely and unchangeably, without authoring sin or impeding free will. God’s concurring power sustains and governs all actions without tainting His holiness. Actions are distinct from their sinfulness, and God’s concurrence with the substance of an action does not corrupt His nature. Actions have separate causes from their sinfulness, and God’s intention differs from man’s intention.… Read More Theodicy & The Concurrence of Primary & Secondary Causes
God’s holiness is not tainted by his permitting of sin. Although God has foreordained whatsoever comes to pass, he does not will or cause sin. God allows sin to occur for a greater purpose, namely the manifestation of his own glory through the triumph of grace over sin in Christ. God’s permission is not the cause of sin, but rather a means to demonstrate his wisdom and goodness.… Read More Theodicy & God’s Permission of Sin
Stephen Charnock discusses God’s holiness and reprobation, arguing that God’s decision to leave some in sin is not the cause of their wickedness. He emphasizes that God’s actions are in line with justice and are not repugnant to his holiness. Charnock also highlights God’s sovereignty and goodness in bestowing grace as a free gift.… Read More Theodicy & God’s Decree of Reprobation
God’s holiness is not blemished by enjoining man a law, which He knew he would not observe. Man was created with the ability to obey God’s law. God’s prescience is His prevision of things arising from their proper causes, and it does not take away Adam’s free choice. Man is responsible for his own sin.… Read More Theodicy & God’s Foreknowledge of Sin
It rarely, if ever, happens, that the heart throws off at once all the restraints of virtue, and plunges suddenly into the depths of vice. It is not by one stride, that the moral youth passes from sober habits at home to those of an opposite nature abroad—but generally by slow and successive steps. The judgment and conscience would recoil from a temptation which proposed to him to become profligate at once; and if he ever becomes proficient in vice, he must be led on by insensible degrees, and little by little make advances in the way of wickedness, and in the counsels of the ungodly. This is what is meant by the deceitfulness of sin.… Read More The Successive Steps of Going Astray
W.G.T. Shedd Dogmatic Theology Vol. II, Christology, ch. 5, pp. 330-349. The doctrine of Christ’s person is not complete without considering the subject of his impeccability. That he was sinless is generally acknowledged. But the holiness of the God-man is more than sinlessness. The last Adam differs from the first Adam by reason of his… Read More Christ’s Impeccability
“Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” (Matthew 5:16). William Perkins, Of Good Works, An Exposition of Christ’s Sermon on the Mount, Works, vol. 1, pp. 233-242. Now, because Christ requires of every minister, besides teaching, the evidence of good… Read More What Makes Our Works Truly Good?
WCF 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 (Rom 9:15, 18; 11:33; Eph 1:11; Heb 6:17); yet so as thereby neither is God the author of sin (James 1:13, 17; 1 John 1:5), nor is violence offered to… Read More God is Not the Author of Sin
Anthony Burgess Treatise on Original Sin Part 3, Chapter 7. Of the last Subject of Inhesion, or Seat of Original Sin, the Body of a Man. “And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord… Read More Pollution of the Body by Original Sin
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