Westminster Confession (3.1) states, “God from all eternity, did, by the most wise and holy counsel of His own will, freely, and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass; yet so, as thereby neither is God the author of sin, nor is violence offered to the will of the creatures; nor is the liberty or contingency of second causes taken away, but rather established.”

This does not mean that he is the immediate or efficient cause of all things but that all things exist or occur by his eternal sovereign decree.

Thus, sin is in God’s overall plan. He does not condone his creatures’ disobedience, nor is he the immediate or efficient cause of sin (James 1:13). He does not delight in the existence of sin in itself, but he ordains it by his decree in order to accomplish the most wise and holy end of bringing ultimate glory to himself

One should bear in mind two cautions about God’s decretive will. First, whenever God’s decretive will includes sin, that sin is certain to occur, but it will be initiated by the volition of the sinner. And second, God’s meticulous providence includes him upholding the various natural processes and even crafting (without compromising his holiness) the circumstances of an individual’s decision to sin

It is often called God’s “revealed” or “signified” will. At times the decretive will and the preceptive will coincide, but often as part of his decretive will, God ordains that the creature disobey his preceptive will.

God’s decretive will and preceptive will must be held in tension. To deny his preceptive will is to commit injustice against God’s holiness and to ignore the gravity of sin, but to deny God’s decretive will is to deny his omniscience, wisdom, omnipotence, and sovereignty

1. God is not willing (in the sovereign, decretive sense) that any should perish. This means every person will be redeemed. No person will ever perish.

This interpretation proves more than the Arminian or semi-Pelagian wants. It establishes universalism, which puts this text on a collision course with everything the Bible teaches about particularism.

2. God is not willing (in the preceptive sense) that any should perish. This means God forbids, in a moral sense, anyone to perish. To perish is an act of disobedience or a sin.

Now surely anyone who in fact does perish does so as a law-breaker and is guilty of manifold acts of disobedience. It is possible to interpret the text in this manner, but it is a highly unlikely choice. It jars the mind to say that the text means merely that God does not “allow” people to perish.

3. God is not willing (in the dispositional sense) that any should perish. This means virtually the same thing as other texts, for example, those that say God does not delight in the death of the wicked. This speaks of God’s common grace and general love or benevolence for mankind. A human judge who sentences a guilty person to prison does not enjoy this task. He takes no gleeful delight in meting out punishment, yet he performs the task in order to uphold justice. We know that God is not full of glee when a wicked person dies, yet he still wills that death in some sense. Nor does this mean that God does something he really does not want to do. God wanted his Son to die on the cross. He ordained, willed, and commanded it. In one sense it pleased God to bruise his Son. His divine pleasure came, not from inflicting his wrath on his beloved Son, but from bringing about redemption. Of these three options, this one fits the whole context of Scripture the best.