A man was living a great life. He had a large healthy family, and his health was doing well too. His assists were diversified and made him rich. And he was known by everyone as a good man. Then one day everything crumbled. He lost his family in a freak natural disaster. His assists were destroyed over night. Eventually his health was ravaged. When his friends showed up, they should have comforted him, but instead, they began to tell him it was all his fault. He had done something wrong in his life and now the bad was coming for him. He didn’t understand it, and he never did. His story ends without a real resolve as to why. Sure his health, and wealth came back. He even had more children, but he never had the answer as to why it happened in the first place.
This is the summary of the book of Job. Job never found out the the purpose to the evil that befell him. But as the reader, we do. We know that God was making a point to Satan, and future generations. First, bad things happen even to those who follow God. This was a foreign concept in the Ancient Near East, as it is today, where we ask the question, why do bad things happen to good people? But there are things that God knows that we don’t as to why certain evils fall into our lives. Second, God is in control. Though we might think that evil has reign in this world, God is still working out his plans to bring about his end goals. In both, we should awe in God for he does everything for his good purposes, and that is a comforting thing.
The understanding that God does have purpose in evil, is what brings us back to our final week in our Answering the Problem of Evil series, where we’re going to look at God’s purpose in allowing evil, and his answer to it. But before we dive into his purpose and answer, we need to recap what we’ve talked about so far leading up to this week.
In our first week, we looked at the origin of evil. Since the Scriptures tells us that God is wholly good, and that he creates all things good, evil cannot begin with him. Instead, what we see is that evil comes out of the will of God’s creatures in rebellion against him. It is the choices of God’s creatures to seek their own desires outside of God, that produces evil.
In our second week, we looked at the affects of evil in the natural world. Here we discussed a link between the image bearers of God who are given dominion over the physical creation and the rebellion of those image bearers against God. Through a spiritual connection that we have with the physical creation, by way of our dominion position, we are the primary source to the chaos that is occurring in the world today. There is also a secondary source of evil in the creation, which are those spiritual beings who are also in rebellion against God. Finally, in the same week we talked about how God uses natural calamities to bring just judgment down upon evil.
Then last week, we asked the question about the amount of evil in the world. Why is there so much? The answer being that God is actually restraining the amount of evil there is. There could be more, and yet, God is working to mitigate evil for a time. However, there will be a day when he allows evil to run rampant for a time, and then, we will see what real untethered evil looks like. But we’re not there yet.
With these three aspects of the problem of evil addressed, we can now ask our first question of the day, what is God’s purpose in allowing evil? This is a general understanding of why, and doesn’t address every specific reason, because those specific reasons are for God’s counsel alone, and may or may not ever be revealed to us.
At the beginning of series we wrested just a bit with the concept of what it meant to be an image bearer of God. One of the things we must understand that when God creates anything it is automatically less than himself. It is deficient, or lacking, in some way compared to himself. Not deficient in the sense that it is created somehow imperfect, but rather it cannot carry all of the divine aspects of God. God does not create mini-gods. There are not other all-knowing, all-powerful, all-present beings. There are not eternal and self-sufficient gods out there. When God creates, he creates with eternity in mind for his creatures, but they are not eternal as God is. They have a beginning, he does not. They have reason and are able to know things, but they are not all-knowing. They can do amazing feats, but they are not all-powerful. So they are deficient in the totality of divinity. Yet they can participate, in limited ways, in God’s divine nature.
We see these to concepts in places like Isaiah 43:10, “Before me no god was formed, nor shall there be any after me.”
And in what Peter writes in Second Peter 1:3-4, “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.”
One aspect of this participation is knowledge. God’s divine attribute of knowledge is that he is omniscient, or all-knowing. God does not need to open a book to know something. He does not need to be taught, or instructed in any way. God has the divine knowledge of all things. However, his creatures do not. They are limited to only know what they themselves are instructed in.
One of the aspects of the choice in the Garden of Eden, is the choice to pursue knowledge from God, or to pursue knowledge outside of God. God’s knowledge expounds his goodness, whereas seeking knowledge outside of his good already begins in evil. The clue as to the central issue that God is trying to teach us is found in the very name of the tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The concept of good and evil doesn’t make sense to a creature who is made in total goodness, as Adam and Eve were. But to God, who knows all things, he fully knows the concept of good and evil. He knows what the effects of evil are without ever needing to act in evil, or to experience and understand it.
However, for the creature of God, they can only learn by two options: either they learn through obedience, which is trust in what another says, or they learn through experience with the effects happening to them and those around them.
We can see this in things such as addictions. I have never been addicted to alcohol or drugs, because I obeyed those who told me about the effects of the addiction. Yet there are countless people that learned the hard way, through experiencing their effects. In the garden’s choice we see these two ways of learning presented to the creatures. They could learn through obedience, or they could learn through experience. They chose experience, and do to that choice, we all are learning what evil is by way of experience.
But the next question must be, what then is the point? Why does God want us to understand good and evil? Last week we briefly talked about a greater world to come. As Revelation 21:3-4 told us, a world where, “… the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
In this greater world, evil has no place, because there will be no rebellion against God. This is because the will of God’s creatures will be willing laid before him. He will have a people that, in a small way, know what he knows: that his goodness is what we should seek through trustful obedience, and that evil should be turned away from.
In the opening to the book of Isaiah, the first time God speaks through the prophet is to address the wickedness of the southern kingdom of Judah. The Lord says this beginning in Isaiah 1:16, “Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow's cause. Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool. If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land; but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be eaten by the sword; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken. (Is. 1:16-20)”
The Lord is seeking those who will turn from evil and to his goodness. Those who are in eternity have sought the goodness of God in obedience to him. So the overarching purpose of God in evil, is to allow his creatures to understand the horridness of it, and to seek only his goodness.
But what is his answer to dealing with evil? There are three parts to this. The first is this, God’s fix for evil has always been through the cross. First Peter 1:17-21 states, “And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.”
The cross is God’s answer to the plight that we are in. Through the cross the punishment for evil is placed on the shoulders of God himself. Though the trespass was our fault, God placed the punishment upon himself as a display of his goodness. At the cross of Christ, the justice and love of God collide. Justice in dealing with evil, and love that would not hold us to an eternal accountability, but make the way for salvation.
The second answer to the problem of evil is the Church. Paul writes in Ephesians 3:4-12, "When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel. Of this gospel I was made a minister according to the gift of God's grace, which was given me by the working of his power. To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God, who created all things, so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. This was according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him.”
The Church is to proclaim God’s fix which is in Christ Jesus. God answers evil by saying, I’ve dealt with it on the cross. The Church’s role is then to proclaim it to all people of all nations. This is why the proclamation of the Gospel is important for every Christian believers to participate in. By word and deed we are the trumpeters of God’s answer to evil. That though we were the cause of all the evil around us, God himself heaped the punishment onto himself, that we may turn from evil and to his goodness.
And because our Lord suffered for others, those who put there trust in him may suffer to prove that God’s word is true. That though we suffer here, we trust there is a greater world ahead.
God’s final answer to the problem of evil is this from Revelation 20:7-15, “And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison and will come out to deceive the nations that are at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them for battle; their number is like the sand of the sea. And they marched up over the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, but fire came down from heaven and consumed them, and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever. Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.”
There will be a day when God will bring about his final judgment on all evil. Neither image bearers nor spiritual beings will be safe from the final judgment of God. And the judgment isn’t whether we accepted Jesus or not, Jesus’ sacrifice is what broke evil, and through him we can receive eternal life. But make no mistake, it is our own desire to turn away from God and to evil that brings judgment upon us. God has given us a away out of the judgment, but if we are unrepentant of evil, then all that’s left in us is a heart which only desires it. But that evil must be dealt with, and at the end he will. God’s final answer to evil, is the lake of fire.
This is why Pauls states this in Second Corinthians 6:1-13, "Working together with him, then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain. For he says, ‘In a favorable time I listened to you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you.’ Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation. We put no obstacle in anyone's way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry, but as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: by great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger; by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love; by truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left; through honor and dishonor, through slander and praise. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold, we live; as punished, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing everything. We have spoken freely to you, Corinthians; our heart is wide open. You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted in your own affections. In return (I speak as to children) widen your hearts also.”
The call of the Church to the world is to repent and turn to Jesus before we move into eternity, because on that day there will be no more repenting, and our eternity will be sealed.
In the coming weeks we’re going to zero in on these last three aspects as we talk about Christ our Savior, Sanctifier, Healer, and Coming King, but for now, we need to end on this: Church, our Savior broke the power of evil on the cross, we are now to live in his victory. We are to proclaim it with our words and deeds, until the day he returns or takes us to himself, because there is an eternity where there will be no more turning either to God’s goodness or away from it. For the decision we make in this life reverberates with eternal consequences.
So my challenge for you is this, is to seek the Lord for one person in your life that needs to hear the Goodness of the Gospel which broke evil’s hold on humanity. I want to challenge you to steep yourself in prayer for them and seek the Lord to give you the words and the moment to share with them the Gospel. That they may hear it and that seeds may be planted. Then give them over to the Lord who will bring the flowering of faith.
Let us be a people, not scared of the question of evil, because we have and know the answer, it is the Lord Jesus himself. Amen.
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