Does God Cause Us to Sin?

     Does God cause us to sin? This question is sometimes driven by a passage like we find in 1 Kings 22. In this passage the prophet Macaiah receives a word of the LORD where God shows him a scene in heaven. In this scene the LORD is looking for someone to “…entice Ahab [king of Israel] to go up and fall [in battle] in Ramoth-Gilead” (vs. 20). A spirit volunteers with a plan for enticing Ahab. The spirit will put a deceiving spirit in the false prophets around Ahab and convince him he will have good success in battle (vs. 22). Ahab is mostly convinced by the false prophets and goes into battle. During the battle, “…a certain man drew his bow at random and struck the king of Israel in a joint of the armor” (vs. 34). Ahab succumbs to his wound as prophesied by Macaiah. This passage gives the impression that God caused the false prophets to lie by giving permission to the spirit to put a deceiving spirit in them. Did God cause the false prophets to sin?

     In order to answer this question, we must develop a theological framework around the question. First of all, in James 1: 13-14, it states, “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am being tempted by God’; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and he Himself does not tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust.” We learn from this passage that temptation does not come from God, but originates in the heart of sinful man. This idea is reinforced by the teachings of Jesus when He states in Matthew 15: 18-20, “But the things what proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders. These are the things which defile the man…”

     What we learn from these two passages above is that the source of sin does not come from God, but from the heart of man. In other words, we cannot use the excuse that we have sinned because God made me sin. From the very beginning, with the first male and female, the source of their sin was from themselves. The serpent deceived them, but their choice to sin came from themselves. This pattern of sin has continued to this day because it is a part of who we are.

     The second theological point we see around this question is that God will use the sin in the heart of man to accomplish His purposes. This is pointed out by the Apostle Paul in Romans 9.  Paul illustrates it with the story of Pharoah resisting Moses’s demand to release the children of Israel. Paul talks about the LORD hardening the heart of Pharoah with a greater purpose in mind. In verse 17, Paul quotes from Exodus 9, “FOR THIS VERY PURPOSE, I RAISED YOU [Pharoah] UP, TO DEMONSTRATE MY POWER IN YOU, AND THAT MY NAME MIGHT BE PROCLAIMED THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE EARTH” (vs. 17). God wanted to show His glory and He used Pharoah as His instrument to accomplish this. The means for doing this was hardening Pharaoh’s heart (see vs. 18). God did not cause or tempt Pharoah to sin, but used his sin of resisting God’s will, “…to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand” (vs. 23). In this case, the “vessels of mercy” were the children of Israel who were released from bondage.

     With this understanding in mind about how God works, it provides clarity of what happened in 1 Kings 22. Contextually, we know that Ahab had already believed the prophets around him. In 1 Kings 22: 6, it talks about the consensus of four hundred prophets that affirmed that the LORD was on Ahab’s side to take Ramoth-Gilead.  The king of Judah, Jehoshaphat, who wasn’t as convinced, asked if there were any dissenters. Ahab brings a dissenting prophet named Micaiah to Jehoshaphat who shares the vision described in vs. 19-23. We know the false prophets were already prophesying lies and their sin was reinforced by the deceiving spirit that came upon them. God was using these false prophets to accomplish His will concerning Ahab. With Micaiah as the dissenting voice, Ahab was not totally convinced by the false prophets and decided to disguise himself when they went into battle. In spite of his efforts, a random arrow wounded him which led to his death. God’s will was accomplished in spite of Ahab’s effort to thwart His purposes.

     Paul states in Romans 9: 18, “So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires.” God is not the author of sin, but uses sinners [hardens] to accomplish His will. God does not cause people to sin, but each man chooses to sin and each man is accountable for his sins. In contrast to this, God is the author of salvation through the finished work of Christ upon the cross and God will draw sinners [mercy] to Himself to find salvation in Christ.