This is the second of a series on God’s sovereignty by Jonathan Wilcox.
It was the middle of the morning on April 20, 1999 when shots rang out at Columbine High School in Littleton, CO. I was in my sophomore year on the west coast when I heard the news of the tragedy. Since I was also attending a large high school, the news was quite shocking. Since that time, there seem to be regular instances of public violence, not to mention all manner of natural evils such as major disasters and sicknesses. There’s also been the disability that has significantly impacted my own life for the past 12 years.
In response to the outworkings of human sinfulness and the pain of the curse, there is only one rational question: WHY!!?
How can a good, sovereign God (as demonstrated in Everyday Sovereignty) allow these atrocities?
As a fellow sufferer, with a long term, progressive disability, I am constantly having to wrestle with this challenge to my faith. In order for us to find peace and rest in God in spite of this dilemma, we need to look at what our king has to say
There are two responses in Scripture to the question, “How can a just God allow injustice?”
Job ch. 38-41
The passion of Jesus Christ (recounted in all four gospels)
Job 38-41
The entire book of Job seems to set the stage for this question. “Job… was blameless, upright, fearing God and turning away from evil” (Job 1:1). Yet, in the space of a few weeks his world fell apart. He goes from abundant riches to abject poverty, good health to agonizing afflictions. On top of this, his friends and even his wife turn on him. Furthermore, after declaring himself righteous (Job 31) he gets told off by a young hothead named Elihu who audaciously claims to speak for God (Job 32-37). In a very lofty and arrogant tone, Elihu essentially tells Job that because God is absolutely powerful and just, Job must be getting his just deserts for some wrongdoing. In short, he provides a classic example of the pompous religious response to suffering which has done much harm to people over the centuries.
All throughout Job’s story, we see that our human responses to explain away evil fall short and don’t get at the heart of the issue. When God finally answers Job, it comes in the form of rhetorical questions meant to shift Job’s entire perspective on the mystery of God’s sovereignty. It ultimately leads him to worship, saying, “I know that You can do all things, And that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted. … Therefore I have declared that which I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. … I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear; but now my eye sees You; therefore I retract, and I repent in dust and ashes.” Job 42:2–6 (NASB95)
Along with Job, we ought to humble ourselves and repent when we get to know God’s sovereignty first hand. God revealed Himself to Job in a mighty storm, and although this was impressive, as an Old Testament saint Job did not get to see God’s full redemptive revelation of himself. However, we do have God’s full revelation of Himself to us in His Son.
The passion of Christ
Just like Job and his friends, we seek answers and resolution to the difficulty. But, as in the case of Job’s story, all human arguments fall short in explaining how a good, sovereign God can allow evil, suffering, and death. Instead, we only get a full picture when God himself shows up. In the death and resurrection of Christ we get God with us in a special way. In fact, the cross of Jesus is God’s perfect response to all the injustice and pain in the world. In His wisdom, God overcame our sin-induced suffering by coming down from His throne and enduring the ultimate curse for us. God used the ultimate act of injustice- the murder of the only truly righteous man- to defeat death itself and injustice with it.
Because God has ultimately revealed Himself in Jesus, we can have peace and rest under the rule of a sovereign king who is intimately acquainted with our suffering as one who descended into hell for us, walked out of the grave, and ascended into heaven where He now intercedes for us. If you want a fuller analysis of this topic, check out Evil and the Cross.
How do we, as sinful broken people who have an innate urge for self-preservation and pain avoidance, cling to a God who tells us He is a good king in the midst this painful world of death and decay? We surely can’t just try harder to have more faith. The failure rate using that methodology is 100%! We must turn again to the trinitarian God who empowers us by his Spirit so that while we groan with the rest of creation under the curse, we also are able in our hearts to cry “Abba, father!” (Rom. 8:15).
Each of us has a legitimate choice every minute of every day: do we trust God’s ultimate control, authority, and presence or do we reject it in favor of our own wisdom and might to determine what is right? I live constantly in this tension due to my ever present disability, and I am by no means perfect or even consistent in my outlook. Yet through the finished work of Christ and the powerful gift of the indwelling of the Spirit, we can declare with the psalmist,