I was talking to a friend tonight about one of the internal conflict I have. I really, really believe in a God that is all powerful. I don’t, however, believe that it is God’s will for people to live in pain day after day. I also don’t believe that many bad events that happen (especially these that requires people to do something sinful) is really God’s will. To say that it is God’s will that somebody sin is a contradiction to the perfect nature of God. I don’t believe it is God’s will that murder, rape, thief, and so forth takes place. I also don’t believe that when people do bad things to me that it is God’s will that those people commit those evil acts.
Yet I believe that in one way or another, it IS God’s will that we have to live through the events that happen to us. Christ’s life and the day that Jesus died is the most poignant illustration of this idea. In order for the crucifixion to take place, many, many people had to sin. Judas had to betray Jesus. Pilate tried to wash his hand clean and ignored the pleading of his wife. I believe that through it all, God was giving every character an opportunity to do the right thing. An innocent man should not be put to death. Yet, through it all, it was precisely their disobedience that allowed the greatest act of love to be accomplished. It was precisely through their sin, a sin that God knew very well about, that we find forgiveness for all our sin. God used sin, yes, the crucifixion — shedding of the most innocent blood ever to walk the face of Earth to break the power of sin over mankind once and for all. And that is the most amazing thing — Christ could not have accomplished God’s destiny for Him without the sin of others around Him.
What’s more is I don’t think that this applies only to Christ. In Romans 8:28, it says pretty clearly that God causes all things to work together for the good of these who love Him, these who are called according to His purposes. So take a minute and think about it — God is not surprised when someone else sins and therefore hurt us. Quite the contrary, God already knew about it. In every instance, I’d challenge you that God has a lesson for us in each and every event that happens in our life. Even the sins of others are obedient to this principle. A lesson, that if we take it to heart, if allow the situation to drive us deeper into the Lord, will accomplish great work not only in our life, but allow us to fulfill His perfect will for us. If Christ could count on this to fulfill many, many prophecies in the OT, then we most certainly can trust God to do the same for us.
-Tim
October 1, 2011 at 4:22 am |
Well said. It’s a hard issue to grapple with. The circumstances leading to Jesus’ dying on the cross is a profound example of God using the sinful actions of humans. I haven’t ever thought of it that way.