It is not wrong to ask the question, “Why does God let bad things happen?” It is an honest question often asked as part of the maturation of a believer or the musings of a skeptic. It is also a question for which we do not have all the answers. Many times, as a pastor, my response is simply, “I don’t know. But I know that He still loves and cares for you even if it is difficult for you to see or feel it.”
We live in a fallen world. The world today is not the orderly creation God created in the beginning. This is not to say that we cannot see God’s order in creation. Certainly the Bible is true when it tells us:
“The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky proclaims the work of His hands. Day after day they pour our speech; night after night they communicate knowledge.” Psalm 19:1
The order of creation, from the atom to the cosmos, challenges even the most hardened skeptic to consider the thought of a Creator. But it is true that all is not as orderly as it could be. Cancers exist in the body. Food shortages on the earth lead to famines. Earthquakes shake violently and rip open the very earth upon which we stand. Wars abound. Nations fight nations and families are ripped apart. Babies die. Terrorists kill thousands—delusional in their belief that they are doing the work of God. It is not as it was in Eden; creation is not in a state of perfection. Sin destroyed that order and peace.
All of creation is under the curse of the fall. All of creation experiences the pains of our sin which has been passed on to each of us by Adam and Eve. There is no human without sin and there is no sin without consequence. Those consequences multiply and magnify each other so that we no longer experience creation as God designed it in the beginning.
To complicate our understanding, we know that God is sovereign over His creation. We know Him to be omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent. There is nothing to know that He does not already know. The future is to Him just as the past is. He transcends time and space and could, if He desired, change everything so that all would be bliss. But that bliss would come at a cost. The cost would be our free agency to choose and the capacity to love. A robotic life would not be blissful and would be inferior to what He has designed for us.
From time to time, I meet someone who asks the question with an angry tone in the inquiry. Whether the person has experience a painful loss, deep hurt, betrayal or any other of the challenges common to man, the implication is, “God could have done something about this, but He didn’t. Therefore, I will not follow Him or believe in Him.” Such anger is common, but is truly misplaced. This mentality assumes mankind to be the victim of God.
We are not God’s victims. He is not a malevolent being that desires to see our hurt and pain. Quite the opposite is true. He desires to bless us; He desires a loving relationship with us. In fact, the question also demonstrates blindness to a certain reality and truth. The real question should be, “Why does God put up with us?”
We are unfaithful to Him. We betray him on a regular basis with the choices we make in our lives. We deny Him with our silence about Him. We ignore Him except when we realize we need Him (usually as a result of our own sinfulness). We fail to worship Him, commune with Him and give to Him. We are all recipients of his common grace. Through faith in Christ, believers receive a special grace, the forgiveness of our sins; release from the eternal consequence of our sinfulness.
We must never forget that we are not worthy recipients of grace. We must never delude ourselves in thinking that we are inherently good and worthy of some merit. We are not. What difficulties come our way, whatever they may be, are never what we deserve…for we deserve destruction. Instead we get a measure of grace—lots of amazing grace.
One day, those who have placed their faith and trust in Christ, will find everlasting peace in a place filled with perfection as stand in the very presence of God in all of His glory. As Paul writes:
“For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is going to be revealed to us. For the creation eagerly waits with anticipation for God’s son’s to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to futility—no willingly, but because of Him who subjected it—in the hope that the creation itself will also be set free from the bondage of corruption into the glorious freedom of God’s children. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together with labor pains until now. And not only that, but we ourselves who have the Spirit as the firstfruits—we also groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. Now in this hope we were saved, yet hope that is seen is not hope, because who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with patience.” Romans 8:18-25 HCSBWe struggle today in a groaning creation. We see our own sinfulness and the sin of the world and ask, “Why does God allow anything good to come my way?” But for the common grace of God, none of us could stand. But with the special grace given through faith in Christ, we who believe will one day be set free from this world and its groanings, transformed gloriously into the likeness that God intended for us in Eden. But until then we wait. Patiently. We are not His victims. We are the benefactors of His Son. We wait for our inheritance.
0 comments:
Post a Comment