Evil is the most serious problem in the world. If you think about it, more people have abandoned their faith in God for evil reasons than for any other reason. Evil is certainly the greatest test of our faith, the greatest temptation to our unbelief. And this is not a mere theological construct, because we all feel evil and we all live as evil people. If God is so good, why is His world so bad? If God is all-good, all-wise, all-powerful, all-loving, and all-just, why does every person struggle with the problem and power of evil? Why can we never shake the evil monster that sits on our back? Where is the sovereign God in the face of evil?
Unbelievers do not just believe that God does not exist, but more to the point, unbelievers are angry that God does exist, and they are angry that God created the world. Unbelievers, you see, are largely unfaithful lovers, rather than skeptics of theologies and theorems about God. Most unbelievers once knew God but have hardened their hearts against God. Most unbelievers have had too many experiences of evil and suffering to stick around for God anymore.
But we have to understand from experience a few things about evil. First of all evil is not a thing. God created everything, so if evil is a thing then God created it. From my experience, evil is a wrong choice we freely make. Evil is very real, but we cannot blame evil as though it were some thing outside of us. I chose to be evil, so I cannot blame evil.
Second of all, evil is not some thing God created but a sin I chose to commit, my decision to be selfish. If I never sinned and never acted selfishly then I would be in heaven! I can endure suffering and death, but both are totally different from choosing to sin. Spiritual evil and physical evil cause suffering, and suffering is caused by sin. Now it is true that God is the source of all life and joy, so when I sin, I lose my life and I lose my joy. Both my body and my soul share in the consequences of sin, which is why sin causes me to suffer physically and spiritually.
Thirdly is the question regarding the solution to my habitual, repetitive sin.
Why I constantly “do” sin is solved in Jesus Christ alone. The love of God our Father in heaven sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to die for us so that His death could defeat the power of evil in my human nature. The only way to stop sinning is through Jesus Christ. I cannot break the practice of sinning until I realize that God is not the problem with my sinning, but the solution to my sinning. The cross I wear around my neck reminds me of God’s part in solving sin. My part is to repent, to believe, to work with God and to pray to God.
Finally, let me ask you this: Is it really a problem that the all-powerful and all-loving God tolerates so much evil when He alone could eradicate it?
“Why do bad things happen to good people?” is a stupid question to ask or worry about because there are no good people. Sinners think they are good people, but good people know they are sinners. The only good person to have ever walked on earth said: “No one is good but God alone”
Mark 10:18. The Cross, then, is God’s solution to the problem of evil. And God has given us our part — to repent, to believe, and to work every day of our life fighting evil through our love.
And is all suffering always bad? It seems to me that suffering is the great teacher, for what can we possibly know unless and until we have suffered? All things are not good, but it is true that “all things work together for good to those who love God” Romans 8:28. So as far as God is concerned regarding the problem of evil, who says we should know why God’s ways are not our ways, and God’s thinking is not our thinking! We will never know the mind of God. The fact is that we just don’t know what God is up to. We don’t know why God does what He does. And that will never change!
Now God has let us know a lot. He gave us the Cross, the greatest evil that ever happened, the greatest spiritual and physical evil — ever. And this God revealed through His Son, Jesus Christ, the salvation of the world — salvation from sin and suffering. God’s plan of salvation through his Son Jesus Christ is what the Apostle Pauls calls “the righteousness (justice) of God” Romans 1:16-17.
The worst aspect of evil is hell, which is the consequence of our free will to sin rather than to love. We freely choose hell because we freely choose sin. We freely choose ourselves over God. Hell is eternity without God — something we freely chose, not something God imposed on us. And as much as none of us wants hell to exist, it exists because of our free choice to sin. And if all of this seems just too impossible to reconcile, too much to make sense of, then so does Auschwitz — and so does Calvery.
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me a sinner.
From the Bible:
“Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter”
Isaiah 5:20!
“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me”
Psalm 23:4.
“For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” Ephesians 6:12.
“Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good” Romans 12:9.
“And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil” Matthew 6:13.
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