Thoughts from John Piper’s "Is God less glorified because he ordained that evil be?"

            What if we all walked around with a loud humming in our ears? No matter what circumstance, by our mere existing, a constant noise overwhelmed our sense of hearing. The sound of a brick falling and hitting the ground would not reach us, nor would that of a car’s horn trying to get our attention. The horn couldn’t get our attention and would thus be meaningless, all due to the constant humming that would overwhelm our attention. Or, when you have headphones on and someone is trying to speak to you, the music in your ears does not allow for you to hear what they are saying, even though they are, in fact, speaking. It is not until you turn down the volume, or remove the headphones, that a quiet sweeps through to your ears, and then in disruption of that quiet comes the sound of the speaking person; distinct, noticeable, appreciable. It is like this for God’s glory to be known to us. His love, mercy, goodness shines through the darkness or quietness of the things that are not Him. He is further glorified by all that encompasses the thing that is Creation, including even sin and evil.

            Carefully noting Piper, who quotes Jonathan Edwards:

The impulse to create the world was not from weakness, as though God was lacking in some perfection that creation could supply. ‘It is no argument of the emptiness or deficiency of a fountain, that it is inclined to overflow.’

God knows his own glory and does not need sin and death to delight in Himself. But for us to grasp His glory, we need these things in order to fully and completely delight in Him, which brings him even further glory and delight.

His Holiness, his “Set Apart”-ness is made in the existence of things that are not Him, and the magnitude of this Holiness is his Greatness compared with that of anything else. His beauty, his melody, his song is made distinguishable for us amidst things that are not Him. His power and glory are made evident in their practice, in their use. Without one’s ability to make a distinction, no distinction can be made. What value or meaning has “restoration” to a person if there is nothing to be restored? How can one recognize and give glory over something that is not manifested?

Edwards writes: 

“If it were not right that God should decree and permit and punish sin, there could be no manifestation of God’s holiness in hatred of sin, or in showing any preference, in his providence, of godliness before it. There would be no manifestation of God’s grace or true goodness, if there was no sin to be pardoned, no misery to be saved from. How much happiness soever he bestowed, his goodness would not be so much prized and admired…. 

So evil is necessary, in order to the highest happiness of the creature, and the completeness of that communication of God, for which he made the world; because the creature’s happiness consists in the knowledge of God, and the sense of his love. And if the knowledge of him be imperfect, the happiness of the creature must be proportionably imperfect.”

This is why God ordains evil to be. Not because he enjoys it, but because He is glorified in conquering it, in forgiving it. His Character shines forth through and against it, and we give Him the praise He is due.