Providence is not a passive awareness of events after the fact, nor a vague divine impulse that leaves the world to run on its own—it is God actively governing all things, directing every moment, judgment, blessing, storm, success, and sorrow according to his wise and deliberate counsel. In these sections of Calvin’s Institutes, we are pressed to abandon the comfortable fiction of chance and to confess instead a God who truly reigns: not merely sustaining nature in general, but ordering particular events, human lives, and even what appears accidental to our eyes. From weather and harvest to poverty and promotion, from wind and sea to birth and bread, Calvin shows that Scripture leaves no room for a divided rule or a shared sovereignty. The comfort of faith, he argues, lies precisely here—that nothing happens apart from the Father’s hand, and that his providence is always purposeful, personal, and active (Genesis 22:8; Matthew 10:29; Proverbs 16:33; Psalm 75:6–7; Psalm 107:25, 29).

Readings:

John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book 1, Chapter 16 (Sections 4–7)

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