Three things are true every time I sin…
Satan desired it to happen.
I caused it to happen.
God allowed it to happen.
Satan desired it because his goal is to draw people away from God, and sin is the one and only way a person is drawn away from God. He tempts us, having studied and learned our weaknesses: He draws us away with “our own lusts” and entices us (James 1:14). And yet, despite the tempter’s work, the blame does not, ultimately, fall on him. All he did was provide the alternative to righteousness. He sometimes lies. He sometimes taunts. He sometimes threatens. He does many horrible things, but he cannot make a soul draw away from God. Thus, Satan desired it, but I caused it. I chose to indulge. I chose to give in. I chose to turn off my conscience and ignore my better (Bible-trained) judgment.
And what of God?
Is He sovereign? Is He all powerful? Why does He allow evil? Why doesn’t God just make us obey Him?
That last question is oxymoronic: If God is making us then it isn’t obedience! Obedience is only possible if there is free will. God is sovereign, and it’s that sovereignty that compels Him to let us choose to submit or to sin. He is all powerful but just because He “can,” doesn’t mean He “will.” Can God stop us from doing something? Yes, but to do so would violate His own internal sense of righteousness and justice, and He will not do that. He “allows” sin to happen because He allows people to make their own choices, for good or for ill.
And yet, the same God who allowed my sin to happen, also offered Jesus on the altar of the Cross, to purchase my forgiveness. The same God who allowed me to do a terrible thing (against His good wisdom, counsel, and commandment, by the way) also did for me what I could not do for myself.
In that case, it is not three, but FOUR things that are true every time I sin…
Satan desired it to happen.
I caused it to happen.
God allowed it to happen.
Jesus died to make it as though it never happened.
~Matthew