Providence and Grace

The Lord's providence is very wonderful. It incorporates all the circumstances of our lives. Our times are in His hands, and all events are at His command. Nothing comes by chance. Though many contingencies may so appear to us, yet there are no contingencies with God. Nothing comes by surprise to Him, and nothing fails. No change can take place in Him, for He is of one mind and none can turn Him.

And inasmuch as we have providence in the Scripture and in the dealings of God particularly with nations, communities, and men individually, so shall we find providence in our lives and in our experience mingling itself with the Lord's gracious and merciful dealings with our souls. But though these two things are so intermingled in our experience that they cannot very well be separated, yet they are distinct. Providence is not grace, nor grace providence. Providence has to do with this life and will end with death; but not grace, for that is abiding. Providence has a general bearing, inasmuch as all creatures are the subjects of God's providence, but not of His grace.

It is a mercy to have a religion in which we have contact with God in our souls, and not simply a religion merely of providence, as some people appear to have. They seem not able to get any further than some particular circumstance in their life where they would believe that they have seen something of the goodness of God appear to them. But providence will not carry us to heaven. We need a Savior, and sins forgiven, the atoning blood of the Lord Jesus Christ to save us, and a personal experience of that gospel He has revealed, its application to us, and the saving knowledge of divine truth.

And yet, more or less, every child of God, I believe, will have some particular experience of the Lord's providential dealings. It was so in the Scriptures with good men, and it has ever been so. In fact, often His providence is a handmaid to His grace, and these things are so woven together in our lives that they cannot be disentangled. But it is a mercy in any case for a sinner to have dealings with God, and for God to have dealings with a sinner.

— J. Delves (1949)

Taken from the Gospel Standard, 1968

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