God Authors Action But Not the Evil Within It

Psalm 5:4 declares, "Thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness." Spurgeon illustrates God's distinction between creating action and creating sin through vivid earthly examples. A man cutting with a dull knife causes the cutting motion, yet the knife itself—not the man—causes the poor, jagged hacking. Similarly, when a musician strikes an out-of-tune instrument, he produces sound but the instrument's broken strings produce the jarring discord. A rider on a lame horse causes the motion forward, but the horse's lameness causes the halting gait.

Thus God authors every human action, yet bears no responsibility for the evil within that action—that flows from human choice alone. The blacksmith forges iron tools but does not create the rust that corrupts them; that corruption comes from another source entirely. So too, the heavenly Workman, God Almighty, fashioned His creatures good and does not introduce sin and iniquity into His creation. He cannot justly be blamed when His creatures soil and besmear themselves with sin's foulness, for He made them good.

This distinguishes casual sinners from "workers of iniquity"—those who industriously craft sin as their trade and calling, sinning artificially with skill and care to earn a reputation. They do not stumble into transgression; they build careers upon it.