The Goodness of God

I ended my last post stating that all that we see, even the most beautiful things we see, are broken because of our sin.  And the story of God's redemption, both of of fallen humanity and the broken world we find ourselves in, is the story of the gospel.  But before I talk more about that, the issue of God's goodness needs to be addressed.  For all to often, when people consider the brokenness of the world, the fact that evil exists and the sheer magnitude of that evil, people have a tendency to blame God and/or question His goodness.

Evil is a perplexing issue with good reason.  Anyone who honestly looks at the world has to come to the conclusion that something is wrong.  Suffering and pain are real, and they hurt.  And the level of evil in the world at times reaches very dark low points.  When we look at scripture, we are told when evil entered creation (when Lucifer rebelled against God) but we are not told where it came from (i.e. how evil entered Lucifer's heart and where it was before that).  It is one of those things that God has chosen not to reveal to man.  But what becomes crystal clear is that God is sovereign, that He is in control of everything, and that He is good.

Now, that last sentence really bothers people.  The line of thought goes like this: if He is all powerful (sovereign) and if He is in control of everything, then He cannot be good because He allows pain, suffering, and evil to happen.  As someone who has been through quite a bit of pain and suffering (although admittedly not as much as many) let me tell you why that sentence doesn't bother me.  It doesn't bother me because the more I walk with God, the more I see the darkness and sin in my heart and the holiness and goodness of God.  My heart is a dark, dark place and I am capable of heinous things.  This drives me to the cross of Christ over and over and over again.  And the reality is, contrary to popular opinion, my heart is not abnormal.  The heart of every man, woman and child is heinously evil and capable of sin of monstrous proportions.  For me, the real question isn't, "Why is their evil?" the real question is, "Why is there any good in the world?"  We (humanity) are the problem with evil.  Our lack of understanding about (or unwillingness to acknowledge) our sin nature combined with our societies insatiable appetite for comfort clouds the issue of evil in the minds of most.

Combined with that is our lack of understanding about God.  I think Randy Alcorn puts it best when he says, "Behind almost every human expression of the problem of evil stands the assumption that somehow we know what God should do.  But unlike him, we are not all-knowing, all-wise, all-loving, all-powerful, and perfectly good - so how could we know?  As finite and fallen individuals, how can we presume to judge God?  Compared to him, we know very little, and even that is often distorted.  We simply lack the necessary qualifications to assess what God should or shouldn't do" (The Goodness of God, p 54).  This doesn't minimize the pain and suffering that are in this world.    But it should cause us to stop and think about the fact that we are the problem, not the solution.  Christ is the solution.  And it has been my experience that the presence of pain and suffering in my life magnifies the goodness of God rather than diminishes it.