Many people may be looking for answers
after the events of this Friday’s shooting at
Newtown. Some may be asking where is God
in all of this, how can a loving God allow such a thing to happen, couldn’t God
have prevented this? All of these are good
questions, but not all the answers to come are going to be. I have already heard some of the answers
given they are neither biblical nor correct.
I want to go to the bible and look for the answer. I hope that by the time we are done here we
are going to have better picture of the loving God. Let us start with Job chapter 1:13-2:10, we see in this small frame of time much evil happening
to Job both natural and human. Raiders came
and stole his animals, his children were
killed in a wind storm, then we see that Job is covered in many painful
boils. The bible does not hide the fact
that evil exist, Job is a great example of that, along with many other pieces of
scripture paints us a picture of an evil world.
Even in the Christmas story we are shown how evil man can be. We see in Matthew 2:16, “Then Herod, when he saw that he was
deceived by the wise men, was exceedingly angry; and he sent forth and put to
death all the male children who were in Bethlehem and in all its districts,
from two years old and under, according to the time which he had determined
from the wise men.”
Does
all of this mean that there is no God at all, or that God does not care about
us at all. I believe that this evil in
the world actually proves that God does exist.
Let’s look at what Paul told the Romans “12 God will punish
the Gentiles when they sin, even though they never had God’s written law. And
he will punish the Jews when they sin, for they do have the law. 13 For
it is not merely knowing the law that brings God’s approval. Those who obey the
law will be declared right in God’s sight. 14 Even when Gentiles,
who do not have God’s written law, instinctively follow what the law says, they
show that in their hearts they know right from wrong. 15 They
demonstrate that God’s law is written within them, for their own consciences
either accuse them or tell them they are doing what is right. 16 The
day will surely come when God, by Jesus Christ, will judge everyone’s secret
life. This is my message.”(Romans 2:12-16)
Paul states that Gods law is written on all men’s heart, we all know
right from wrong, we may not know God but we know right from wrong. Evil exists because of the broken image of
God, we were originally created in His perfect image. When the fall of man happen the image was corrupted
by sin but not taken away.
So if God is Good and He is, then why does all
this evil seem to prevail around us? I
believe David Platts answers this question better than I could. “At the same time, we
sometimes see Scripture pointing to how God permits sin. The way this is often phrased
in Scripture is in the language of God giving His people over to their sin. In Psalm 81:11-12, God says, “But my people would not listen to me; Israel would not submit to me. So I gave them over
to their stubborn hearts to follow their own devices.”Then in Romans 1:24, Paul
writes, “Therefore God gave
them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the
degrading of their bodies with one another….Because of this, God gave them over
to shameful lusts….Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to
retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what
ought not to be done.” So God permits sin in the sense
that He gives us over to our sin.
At the same time, God also limits sin. Even here in Job
1-2, God puts a limit on what the devil and his demons can do to Job. And then God uses sin, meaning that God, in a very
real sense, uses even evil to bring about good. This is evident in Genesis 50:19-20 when
after Joseph’s brothers had sold him to slavery, Joseph says to his brothers: “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish
what is now being done, the saving of many lives.” God accomplishes ultimate good even through evil.
Now we must be very careful here, in all of this,
to realize that God never sins. God never directly causes
sin, and He is never blamed for sin in Scripture. This is clear all over the
Bible, and it’s summarized in James
1:13-15: “When tempted, no one
should say, ‘God is tempting me.’ For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does
he tempt anyone;but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is
dragged away and enticed.Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to
sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.”(The Gospel and Newton)
What does all this mean for you and
me? One it shows us our need for God,
for if we want to be able to truly live a life of rightness we realize we
cannot do it on our own. The Bible makes
that clear along with the history of mankind. But we know that God is good,
Psalm 107:1 “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good! His faithful love
endures forever.” Ezekiel 33:11 “As
surely as I live, says the Sovereign Lord,
I take no pleasure in the death of wicked people. I only want them to turn from
their wicked ways so they can live. Turn! Turn from your wickedness, O people
of Israel! Why should you die?” There
are so many other scriptures that tell about the Goodness of God. As we look at the Bible for answers we see
that all the evil in the world turns us back to the salvation we find in
Christ. It is clear that we ourselves
cannot turn from evil or save our souls but God created a way for us. It is through the cross where Christ hung and
died for all of our sins. We see His
love and salvation, once again I turn to the words of David Platts. “This is shocking. Where else—in what other religious system—do you see
the incomprehensibly great, indescribably good Creator taking upon Himself the
payment due evil creatures? What love…what mercy…what greatness…what goodness.
God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility, God’s relationship to good and
God’s relationship to evil—they all come together when we understand that God
ordained the murder of His Son to be the means of our salvation. Listen to
Peter’s words in Acts 2:22-23: “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to
you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in
your midst, as you yourselves know—this Jesus, delivered up according to the
definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands
of lawless men.”
Did
you see the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man in the murder of
Christ? Is God sovereign over Christ’s murder? Yes. But who is responsible?
“You crucified him…you killed him,” Peter says. Both are true: God is sovereign
and man is responsible. Sinful men chose to crucify Christ under the sovereign
wisdom of God. What a mystery…yet God ordains this for the salvation of sinful
men. Oh, consider this: the very people who are crucifying Christ, in their
sin, are providing for their own salvation. The very sins of the murderers are
ultimately the means of their deliverance. This is shockingly glorious—that God
is present amidst evil, and that Christ has taken the ultimate payment due sin
and evil upon Himself. What goodness and love—that He is present amidst evil.
That men, women, children, and families in Newtown, Connecticut, today, and all
over a sin-sick world are not alone. God is not distant from us, but present
with us. “For
we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our
weaknesses….Let us then draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive
mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:15-16).”
Link to David Platts "The Gospel and Newton:
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