My Sin For My Good?

I was writing to a friend last night and said something to this effect...I am so thankful that when our sin interferes with God's plan for our lives that He is able to adapt to our failure, bring us into a new plan and purpose and renew our hope. Basically saying, that no matter what we do, God can and will still use us for the advancement of His Kingdom.

But upon further reflection, I think that was really bad theology on my part, although the last part is certainly true in and of itself. God isn't taken by surprise by our sin and than has to scramble to adjust His plans for us. I think that we can certainly get in the way of God's blessings for us by living outside His will but he has already predetermined that. This is where it gets tough. We have free will but God has already ordained everything that is going to happen. There are a few verses in the Bible that speak to this mystery which rocks our finite brains but the one that comes to mind first is Proverbs 16:9 - "In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps."

To take it a step further...God not only knows our sin ahead of time but uses it to accomplish His purposes. In his book "Spectacular Sins", Piper recalls the story of Samson and his desire for a Philistine woman (Judges 14:13). She clearly has no faith in God and so taking her as wife was a sin. The next verse immediately shows that God is using Samson's lust and illicit desire to seek an opportunity against the Philistines.

Of course, the most dramatic example of God using our sin for His good (which means ultimately for OUR good) is the culmination of the sins of Pilate and the Romans and the mob and the soldiers surrounding the crucifixion of our Savior. God had predetermined their sins and used their corrupt hearts to bring about the most tragic chapter in human history...the death of God. However, it was also the greatest love story in human history. God chose to save us from sin by using our sin.

Let none of this serve to cause us to take our sin more lightly or think that it has some inherent redeeming value. Rather, let it cause us to marvel at the sovereignty of our God.