"After the Counsel of His Own Will"

"In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:" (Eph.1:11)


When the matter of God's sovereignty arises in a discussion it is usually not long before the question of God's role in regards to evil comes up.
Is God truly in control of all things? Is He also sovereign over evil? If so, what is the purpose of evil being allowed and used by God in His creation?
I believe it is evident in scripture that God is God all the time. He is sovereign over evil as well as good. He has no co-regent in heaven or earth and there is nothing that happens or unfolds apart from His purpose and will.
So if one asserts that God is truly in control at all times, then concerning the matter of evil, what could possibly be the redeeming value and purpose of this ordained evil? Certainly, in and of itself, as an end in itself, evil might be looked upon as having no legitimate place in God's creation. But what if it is not seen or purposed as an end in itself?

While recently reading "Desiring God" by John Piper I was helped to see this very thing. One of the appendixes of this book concerns the topic of God's ordaining of evil and its good purpose.
Piper quotes Jonathan Edwards in this portion and I believe Edward's insight on the "problem of evil" gives much light on this subject. Light that will enable the believer to come to the place of a confident rest in God no matter the outward or inward circumstances.
Piper refers to it as being brought to the place of a "God-entranced world-view."

Edwards comments, "It is a proper and excellant thing for infinite glory to shine forth; and for the same reason, it is proper that the shining forth of God's glory should be complete; that is, that all parts of his glory should shine forth, that every beauty should be proportionably effulgent, that the beholder may have a proper notion of God. It is not proper that one glory should be exceedingly manifested, and another not at all.....
Thus it is necessary, that God's awful majesty, his authority and dreadful greatness, justice, and holiness, should be manifested. But this could not be, unless sin and punishment had been decreed; so that the shining forth of God's glory would be very imperfect, both because these parts of divine glory would not shine forth as the others do, and also the glory of his goodness, love, and holiness would be faint without them; nay, they could scarcely shine forth at all.
If it were not right that God should decree and permit and punish sin, there could be no manifestation of God's holiness in hatred of sin, or in showing any preference, in his providence, of godliness before it. There would be no manifestation of God's grace or true goodness, if there was no sin to be pardoned, no misery to be saved from. How much happiness soever he bestowed, his goodness would not be so much prized and admired....
So evil is necessary, in order to the highest happiness of the creature, and the completeness of that communication of God, for which he made the world; because the creature's happiness consists in the knowledge of God, and the sense of his love. And if the knowledge of him be imperfect, the happiness of the creature must be proportionably imperfect."