Why Does God Allow Evil?

This is a challenging message to share – it may be challenging to read. It’s timely, because, honestly, we’re in pain. We are questioning and wondering how is it possible that a “good” God could just let so much evil continue. Innocent children brutalized, crime rampant, racism, and disease…why doesn’t God step in? I spent a great deal of time thinking and praying and providing here what I believe is a compassionate response to that answer. But more importantly, a response that I believe is supported by the Word of God. You can listen to the message here on my YouTube channel or listen along on the Dwelling Richly podcast.

If God is all-powerful, all-knowing, and all good, why does he let so many bad things happen? It would be one thing if the only people who suffered were clearly evil people, right? …mass murderers, violent dictators, slave traders, but innocent babies suffer, and children starve to death and why? Why does God allow evil? If he was all good, he would stop it. If he was all-powerful, he could stop it. So why doesn’t he? It’s not a new question, but it’s a difficult one.

Because the challenge is that like all objections to faith in God, and in Christianity in particular, this isn’t just an intellectual dilemma, is it? We can’t just offer some logical philosophical answer, while we sit together on a bench and just discuss it over a latte. Because the issue of evil doesn’t just hit our minds. It’s in our hearts. And it doesn’t sit lightly there. It stabs us. It shakes us. It pains us when we see, and we feel the weight of the evil that’s around us. And some people will never come to terms with this. And it ends right there in their pain, and they leave God. And many won’t even ask the hard question, because honestly, they’re afraid of the final answer. Or they don’t want to sound unfaithful. Because what if you get to the end of the answer, and you find out God just doesn’t care? Or what if you ask why? And you get an answer, like, “You just have to have faith.”

Moving in on this topic may bring pain in our hearts and hearts will ache because there isn’t anyone hearing my voice today who’s hasn’t been touched by evil. But we’re going to ask, and I hope that you’ll find at the end of this five hours preaching (laughter) – don’t worry, we’ll wrap up in time to get another doughnut and watch the game…

I hope at the end, that we really would present a problem of evil to solve. So I’m not going to give you five top ways to understand pain and suffering. I’m not going to give you a list of verses to take home and administer to yourself like a sleeping pill to resolve the ache that you have in your deep, dark questioning moments. I’m not here to give you a bumper sticker answer or a bookmark with scriptures you can pass along to a friend whose child has just died at the hands of a drunk driver or a family who watched their home burn to the ground or a survivor of rape who wants to end her life for someone who’s struggling deeply with challenging emotional and mental health issues.

Will God’s word bring you comfort? Yes. Can you find more peace in your prayers and crying out to God? Yes. But I also want you to know that in your “why me?” moment, or “why them?”… in your doubts in your hurt, even in your anger, and your questioning of the motives of God, your questions can be met in his heart, and answers can be found in His Word. And that as a community here at LMCC, we will come together, and we will find that hope and that truth because it’s there to be found. And it’s there for you to share with others. So let’s pray. Because I’m going to need it and you will too as we look at this dilemma: Why Does God Allow Evil? Let’s pray.

God, so many of us are here today struggling because of the pain in our lives, we’re hurting or questioning. We have loved ones who are in deep pain right now. And we want to give them hope. Help us now to hear your hope when everything else feels so hopeless, and help me also today to speak clearly, and truthfully from your word. And thank you for your love for us, Father. In Jesus’ name, amen.

All right, so this is my family…

Awwww! Cute, right? And just a few days after that photo was taken, we were headed from Chicago, where my dad just graduated Moody Bible Institute. And we were flying out to California to live there. And one of our first stops is going to be Universal Studios. Yay! I actually looked this up online to see when did Universal Studios open and it was like a few years before we went. So, my sister Becky they’re in my dad’s arms, Susie in diapers… but I was a big kid now. Oh yeah, sporting my nice turquoise vest…I had just turned four…big kid, right?

And you wouldn’t think a family vacation at Universal Studios would offer a sermon illustration on God and the problem of evil, but wait for it. A little family headed to the ticket booth…I was holding on to my mom’s hand. I was practically jumping out of my skin. As you can imagine a little kid and so excited. We kept on inching up in the line and we were finally just one family away from getting our tickets to Universal Studios. My mom and dad looked up at the marquee for ticket prices. And then my mom was still holding on to my hand she leaned down and as we took another step closer to our tickets, she changed my worldview forever. When she whispered these words in my little ear, “Just for today. Can you be three again?”

What? No, I don’t want to be three again. I’ve worked hard to be four. I’ve been waiting to be four. I’m excited to be four and now I’m four!

Four-year-old Jennifer looked up in total shock and complete disbelief to my mom with tears coming into my big wide eyes. I proclaimed very loudly and very indignantly,
“I don’t want to be three again! That’s not fair!“
Followed by, “I’m four now. I don’t want to be three anymore!”
And it echoed and echoed all the way up to the ticket lady. And my sister shot her head around from her stroller and looked at me and my mom – still holding my hand – she eased back up and she smiled a little nervously, and she looked back down at me. Then she looked up to my dad in front of her at the ticket counter. My dad stiffened and smiled a bit as he greeted the dubious ticket lady and shuffled his cash into her handed over exact change for two adults and one child. So, don’t ask me why Hollywood Studios charged a whopping $2.50 (I looked it up, by the way) for children when they turn four Come on! – but they did, and I proudly gave that ticket to that man at the gate as my mom and dad – probably a little bit red-faced – handed over their tickets, and then they rolled my sisters in because they were too young for tickets.

You know, I was four right I’ve reminded you of that?… So, “That’s not fair.”… No one taught me that concept. I didn’t have a “Let’s sit down and have a “That’s not fair” lesson time with my mom.” I just knew it. Right? I just felt it. I didn’t think about the slight of trying to get your kid into an amusement park for free. I was so small I barely looked three at the time, and I can sympathize with my young parents who were trying to save some money. He was a pastor. She was a stay-at-home mom with three children under the age of four. While they had saved their money to enjoy this little adventure, my dad was only making about $60 a week at the time but fair is fair, and wrong is wrong, and leave it to a little child to make sure everyone knows it right?

Why? Why, why so early and so loudly do we have a sense of fairness or rightness? Why do we have a desire for justice? Why does the desire for justice never quite feel like it’s being met? Why do we even care about evil? We do though, and it eats at us when we feel overwhelmed by it. And whether it’s a simple little moment of injustice, like not wanting to be three anymore, or it’s a huge terror. We just know it’s not right. Listen to how David cried out in Psalm 22.

“My God. I cry out by day, but you do not answer. By night, but I find no rest.” Psalm 22:2

And David’s son Solomon looked around at the world. said in Ecclesiastes three,

“In the place of judgment, wickedness was there, and the place of justice, wickedness was there.” Ecclesiastes 3:16

And it’s important to consider this. Why do we have a natural sense that things aren’t right? CS Lewis answered the question like this:

“Creatures are not born with desires unless the satisfaction for those desires exists. A baby feels hunger. Well, there’s such a thing as food. A duckling wants to swim well, there’s such a thing as water. If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy. The most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. If we cannot find what we’re looking for here, then we’re made for something more.” (C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity)

And we were. For starters, we were created in the image of God. The all-knowing, all-loving, all-powerful creator could have made mankind in the image of anything, and yet he made us in His image. The all-knowing, loving, and powerful creator could have then made mankind compelled to be satisfied in this world…created us just to do and live and be the way he wanted. But he made us with free will. We chose as descendants of Adam and Eve – our representatives – we chose to defy his satisfying world and his satisfying will. And that brings us to today, sitting here in a broken world infected by sin and all the results of sin. And we see the sin in two ways at least, natural evil – hurricanes, tornadoes, tsunamis, earthquakes, disease, splinters, mosquitoes.

Moral evil: bothersome times, like rude drivers, loud chewers, and horrible, incomprehensible evil – huge actions too big to wrap our head around and we cringe to think about the Holocaust, genocide, 9-11, mass shootings, the terrible evil of murder, rape, or incest. Sometimes that evil is big and far and distant from us, and we hear about it. And other times it’s big, and it’s very close.

So, 30 years ago, I lost my college roommate to a drunk driver. This is Lisa…She and four other students were driving to Ensenada for spring break. We did it together for several years, but not for the reason that many kids go to Ensenada. Our trips weren’t going there to party. We were there to bring medical and dental care, construction teams, food, teachers, and God’s love to the poorest of the poor in the villages that were outside of the big city. And that year – 1989 – Glen and I were newlyweds and just out of college. So, Lisa was going with the rest of the college students like we had done together so many times before. And she and the others were driving south into the city. Their car was struck by a drunk driver going on the northbound lanes.

He broke through the median, flew across the freeway, and landed on top of their car as they were traveling south. They never saw the car coming. Two passengers suffered massive injuries eventually recovered. But the other two and my friend Lisa died instantly.

Why? She was literally doing good for God. Why take her? Evil. Close to home or so far away? Why?
We strain under the weight of the pain and we groan through the darkness…Why? Like the four-year-old me we know it’s not right. And don’t we cry out like David did in Psalm 13,

“How long Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long was my must I wrestle with my thoughts?” Psalm 13:1

Do you ever do that? It’s like, you know how it must be, God. Then you spin in your head and you just circle and cycle over and over and you try to figure out…you wrestle with your thoughts. And day after day, you move on, and you go to work, and you have your families and you live your life. You have sorrow in your heart. And little reminders will poke at that. And that thin little veil you have on it..it just wants to gush out. You’re not alone. And not only do we cry out, creation does as well. We know it says that “the whole creation has been groaning, as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.” (Romans 8:22)

That’s a whole heck of a lot of bad news and I realize that. What now? For starters, you’re in the right place. You’re hurting? You’re here. The author of Hebrews said it like this. “And without faith, it is impossible to please God. Because anyone who comes to him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who diligently seek Him.” (Hebrews 11:6)
Maybe you’re thinking, “Hey, I believe God exists. Where’s my reward? I’m seeking Him. I prayed to God, and my relationship is still broken. My child still died. I still have cancer. This doesn’t feel very rewarding. Where is the good in any of this?”

This, the glimpse we’re given into the workings of God will never completely satisfy our sense of fairness when we focus on the pain. And while we can’t see the bigger picture as to why God allows evil while we’re in the middle of it, it doesn’t mean that there isn’t a meaning.

And just because it doesn’t feel right, right now, doesn’t mean it will never be resolved. We still look at the evil, and we want answers. And we want to understand why God gave us that mind to understand why. We still have questions after a natural disaster where 20, or 100, or 10s of thousands of people are washed away. Why?
Did you know that Jesus addressed this very question? He did. Go ahead and open your Bibles to Luke 13. Luke 13. Jesus has been teaching – listen to what he says to the group, Luke 13 verse one… “Now there was some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans, whose blood pilot had mixed with their sacrifices…” – wait?! What?! What happened?!

Jesus was teaching….some people give them this awful news. “Hey, did you hear Galileans are worshipping…” It was around Passover, and while they were in Jerusalem at the temple doing exactly the right thing, they were slaughtered by Pilot’s soldiers. Not only that but their blood was then mixed in with the blood of the sacrifices. Does this sound familiar at all? It could have been from a 2019 headline. People worshipping when the unthinkable happens. Like the recent shooting in the synagogue here in Southern California, or the shooting in the Baptist Church in 2017. These people were worshipping and right then and there, evil.

So, the people tell Jesus about this, but then listen to what happens next. Can you just feel the question hanging in the air? “Why? Why did this happen? Okay, this Jesus guy, he’ll tell us, let’s ask him.”

But it’s not the people who asked the question. It’s Jesus who asks, and he doesn’t ask the question you’d think. Listen to what he says.
“Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans? Because they suffered this way.”

They must have been assuming the answer was going to be yes and affirm their belief because Jews had this teaching that if something bad happens to you, you must have deserved it. To them, clearly, these guys have done something bad, really bad, worse than anyone, and Jesus answered their unasked question. “You think they deserve this?”
And what does he say next? It must have been shocking because honestly, it was shocking for me to read. He says, “I tell you no…”

And he could have just left it there. Maybe could have dazzled them with his supernatural knowledge of how it all happened and why it happened. But instead, he gives them this “Turn-or-Burn” message…

“…unless you repent, you too will also perish!”

He gets their eyes off the tragedy to a greater potential tragedy. “Worse could happen to you!”

How’s that for a motivational message? But wait, there’s more!

Does Jesus add some comfort next to soothe their sensibilities? To soften the blow? Not quite. Not only does Jesus answer a question that wasn’t even asked, he goes ahead and adds another tragedy for them to consider.
The first one is this moral evil of Pilot and the second one is just this terrible disaster – what we’d call “natural evil.” A tower in Siloam fell – Siloam was a city and there might have been some aqueducts built there. So, it was part of all that. We don’t really know exactly why, but their mouths surely would have been still open from his first response, and now he says,

“…or those 18 who died when the Tower of Siloam fell on them. Do you think they were more guilty of the others living in Jerusalem?”

And again, does he explain it at all? Tell them why it happened? Nope. Again, he gets their eyes off of the momentary and light affliction and points beyond to the greatest tragedy: dying without being right with God,

“I tell you, no”, he says, “but unless you repent, you will all perish.”

Wouldn’t it be great and just so simple, if Jesus had explained it all to them that day, “Well, you see, let me tell you, God allowed Pilot to brutally slaughter all those reverent worshipers because…” and then he goes into this cosmic explanation about why all of that happened in order to accomplish some great big plan of God’s, right?
Or why did the tower fall? “Why did that happen?” Jesus explains, “Well, that’s easy, see, if those 18 people had lived, then this and that event couldn’t have happened and that had to happen…” and wrap it up in a bow and, “Tadah!” stick it on a bumper sticker – Good to go. We figured it all out. Thanks, God. (Well, I guess it wouldn’t have been a bumper sticker for our car, maybe a cart anyway.)

Everything happens for a reason. Isn’t that what we want? a neat little explanation? Yes. And actually, no, we can’t help but cry out for answers. But Jesus gives them the only answer that actually ends up mattering. What did he say? Were they terrible sinners who deserved it? Did God smite them because they were doing something awful? No.

He doesn’t give them an answer to the why. Instead, Jesus corrects their theology and points them to the more important issue: These events happen for whatever reason they did, but if you focus on trying to reason why you’ll miss your destiny. Repent. Get it right with God, or their tragedy will pale in comparison to what will happen to you for eternity. So why does God allow evil? Simple and may be difficult to hear is that he allows evil so we’ll repent. He allows it to get our attention,  turns out. The reality is, Hebrews nine says,

“People are destined to die once and after that to face judgment.”

But God isn’t interested in people dying without hope. “The Lord is not slow and keeping his promises as some understand slowness, instead he is patient with you” says, Second Peter three nine, “…not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” God is advancing his timeline so that we can hear and we can turn to him.

Why does God allow evil? One reason is that we will repent. Some will see the evil and suffering in this world and they’ll cry out and then reject God. But that doesn’t solve their problem. Because without God, the very reason we cry out, “That’s not fair! I want justice! This isn’t right!”… that very reason?… that’ll never be satisfied.

So, the atheist or anyone believing that there’s no ultimate good and final moral standard will never get the justice that they cry out for. If God doesn’t exist, evil is pointless…forever!. And guess what? Any good we do is pointless forever too.

Others see evil as David did, and they cry out and they run to God. Yes…let the evil and tragedy of this world turn you to God, not away from him. It’s okay. Continue to wrestle…wrestle with the why, try to make sense, try to figure it out. Look at the evil of Pilot murdering in the temple or the people being crushed under something like that. But trying to find a rationale for that is not ultimately going to truly be satisfying because, in the end, it’s our feeble speculation at best. Jesus doesn’t give them a reason. Jesus doesn’t tell them why. He just gives them thinking right-thinking sound theology.

Their reasoning is what I like to call “Sound of Music Theology.” Remember that scene in The Sound of Music where Maria is so stunned that a man like the captain would possibly be falling in love with a girl like her? And what does she sing? that little romantic song?

“Perhaps I had a wicked childhood. Perhaps I had a miserable youth somewhere and my wicked miserable past, there must have been a moment of truth. Somewhere in my youth or childhood, I must have done something good.”

Maria has a sort of a flip of thinking that the people Jesus is speaking to had, she sees something good in her life and figures that must be the result of something very deep in her miserable past that she actually did a lot as good. Sappy musicals aren’t the only place that we can find bad theology. It’s in the Bible too. Remember Job? God allowed him to be severely troubled. His family dies, all his children whose property is destroyed. He’s afflicted with this terrible illness. He gets all these boils and warts all over him. And along comes some “friends” who try to offer him their thoughts and rationalize why this is happening. And like any of us, they try. They try to think why could this be happening? Job’s friends had bad theology. Job’s friend Eliphaz reasons like Maria, but only in reverse. “Somewhere in your youth or childhood, Job, you must have done something bad.”

“Who being innocent, he says has ever perished. Where were the upright ever destroyed? As I have observed, those who plow evil and those who sow trouble reap it.” (Job 4:7)

And God later makes it very clear to Job and to Eliphaz and his other miserable comforters that they have completely missed the mark and failed to see God’s true purpose.

“I’m angry with you,” God says, “you and your friends because you have not spoken the truth about me as my servant Job has”

But did God then go on to give him an explanation for all the trouble he had allowed on Job? Did God give him that explanation? No, he only reminds Job that he is God and Job is not. In fact, it’s in the scathing and sarcastic admonition in Job 38,

“Who is this that obscures my plans with words without knowledge? Brace yourself like a man and I will question you and you shall answer me. Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me if you understand. Who marked off his dimensions, surely, you know,” he says to Job. (Job 38:2)

And this is God as He continues to speak…

“will the one who contends with the Almighty correct him? Let him who accuses God answer him…”

Listen now, to these pointed words about the justice of God, and questioning God’s fairness and God’s rightness,

“…Would you discredit my justice? Would you condemn me to justify yourself?”

What point is God making? – that justifying your own position is discrediting God and condemning His justice. Again, no explanation. Just getting your thinking straight. about the nature of God and your place in at all. But in the face of evil, we don’t just want an explanation. We want justice. And we’re impatient for it. “Make it right! And make it right, right now, God!”

Okay, what if he did? What if that’s the way this all worked? Do you think you’d be here? Would I? Would any of us if, after any evil that we committed, God just took care of it on the spot. Thank God, truly, thank God that His mercies are new every morning and his faithfulness is great.

And where do we go with that? Then we get it right about God. And we repent like Jesus said. Is there anything else? God hasn’t just left us with well, “God and justice.” What Christians have is what they look back to, what we look forward to, and what we stand on right now.

We look back and we see a great cloud of witnesses. Witnesses who have lived faithful and fearless, not without pain and suffering, but in spite of it, and through it. Hebrews 11 the “Hall of Faith” chapter in the Bible lists the big famous names, and the sort of famous, and then the completely unknown people who walked by faith. These people conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight…women received back their dead by resurrection. Wow! That’s the kind of life I can get excited about. I want that!

Yeah, but wait, there’s more…Some were tortured, refusing to accept release so that they might rise again to a better life. Others suffered mocking and flogging and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword they went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated…Why did God allow their suffering? These were the good guys!

Later in Hebrews, the author answers that question…

“…that we may share in His Holiness.” (Hebrews 12:10)

You see, while we cringe and we ache and we moan under the weight of the suffering here, God promises something greater. This isn’t it. Our suffering may not get an explanation. Jesus certainly did not offer any. But it isn’t meaningless to have to suffer. It isn’t pointless. It points us ahead to a greater time. And don’t take my word for it. I haven’t suffered enough. Listen to someone who has: Paul. He wrote a letter to new Christians about these types of troubles:

He said, “For momentary light, affliction is producing in us an eternal weight of glory.” (2 Corinthians 4:17)

…far beyond all comparison. Light affliction? Momentary? What we are troubled by, as Paul put it are “light and momentary.”

What were light troubles to him? What was momentary? He wrote to new Christians who were literally being exposed to torture – being put to death for just believing in Jesus. And Paul, of course, wasn’t any stranger to trouble himself. He wrote just a few of his light and momentary afflictions, and he really doesn’t hold back, take a look but he says,

I have been flogged more severely been exposed to death, again and again, five times received from the Jews the 40 lashes minus one three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was pelted with stones three times I was shipwrecked. I spent a night in a day in the open sea. I have been constantly on the move I have been in danger from rivers in danger from bandits and danger from my fellow Jews. I did not edit this this is literally what it says I’m sorry you can’t see it, too well, can you maybe better than I can. in danger from Gentiles and danger in the city and danger in the country and danger at sea and danger from false believers. I have labored and toiled and often gone without sleep (not like mothers of toddlers) …I have known hunger and thirst and I’ve often gone without food. I have been cold, and besides everything else, I face daily pressure of my concern for all the churches.”

What he said to them shouts to us today! This is momentary and it’s light compared to the weight of glory to come. Paul wasn’t concerned about the evil that he was experiencing. He had his eyes past it to glory. He didn’t deny the pain. He considered it a privilege to suffer and like James a joy to go through the trial and tribulation because it does have a purpose – our repentance, and a point and the ultimate end-point: righteousness with God.

This isn’t what most religious people sign up for though, is it? That’s okay. Jesus isn’t looking for “most religious people.” Had he promised leisure and pleasure and treasure and all the other “-urs” that could be ours if we follow him that maybe he’d have a megachurch-like following and the popularity of the wealthy and the influential?

Jesus isn’t interested in speaking to the lowest and the simplest and the greediest part of our broken hearts. God knows we want instant satisfaction – now, but he has something better – glory later. True followers of Christ are guaranteed trouble. If you know him – you truly know him – then the evil you that you are dealing with is an opportunity first to repent and then to be made righteous…to grow…to be made holy…to share in God’s holiness one day, in the new heaven and earth.

Christians aren’t getting their best life now, because as painful as it is, it will be made right. And as beautiful as it can be, like peeling that thin plastic film off of a brand new TV (don’t you love that feeling?) As beautiful as a sunset is, as a newborn baby, as the glory of Yellowstone, as the pleasures of sex and the joys of friendship and family. This is all trash compared to what is to come. You want your best life? Wait for it. It begins when you die, and you have Jesus. That’s why Jesus said, back in Luke, “Repent!” This isn’t your best life and how tragic it is. Why does God allow evil? Because the possibility of evil was the price for true love.

Okay, that sounds a little romantic and simplistic. But listen, this takes us back to Genesis. That God created us is one thing, but that He created us in His image and with the capacity to choose is another. With that, God gave us the chance to have an actual real relationship with him, not robotic, because we can know Jesus, we can choose God. God didn’t just choose us before the foundations of the earth, he gave us the option of choosing or rejecting Him. And when we do choose him, we have this radical assurance. Listen to what Paul said,

“because I know whom I have believed and am convinced that he is able to guard that which I’ve entrusted him until that day.”

Paul was so confident because he knew God. He was convinced of his faithfulness. His understanding of his personal situation and life, in general, are no longer then filtered through a casual acquaintance. Paul knew exactly in whom he had believed in. And this is exactly why I’m confident. I know God. I believe. I’m convinced, giving us a choice gave us freedom to know – to know! – really get it and have that relationship with the one that we believe in. And God didn’t stay out of reach. He became knowable.

You see, what we have as Christians, as a response to the evil and suffering is hope, because Jesus defeated the greatest evil – death. And he didn’t stay up an away defeating death from afar like some distant deity. He came and he made it personal. If all you want is an explanation for the why – why God is allowing evil…you’re missing out. Could God have sent us explanations? Sure. But listen, instead of an explanation for our suffering, he sent us an incarnation, Jesus – to experience it all right there with us.

This world is a mess. I didn’t have to tell you that. Turn on the news. Open up social media. Look in the mirror! This world is not in subjection to us. But we see him. Amen? We see Jesus. Yet at present, we do not see everything subject to mankind. But we do see Jesus. We see Jesus! Do you get that? It’s the incarnation. That’s what made the difference. Explanations? Fine. We could have argued our way out of that. But, you can’t argue your way out of the incarnation.

Most of you know, my mom recently passed away last month after a very short and brutal battle with cancer. Two and a half years ago, my dad died ravaged by his 20 year battle with multiple sclerosis. Earlier this week, I found out that my friend’s mother, both of whom my friend and his mom, I’ve known since we were in high school. She was diagnosed with uterine cancer. She’s in chemo. Add to that my friend Steve himself…he’s been battling rapidly progressing Lou Gehrig’s disease for the past year. So no, I don’t need to be reminded about how evil this world is. And I don’t even need to turn on the news. I can just open up the mail, as I said, or look in the mirror. I don’t need my laptop to be stolen to be reminded that we live in a painful and broken world. Why did God let my laptop get stolen? I don’t know, a sermon illustration? That seems kind of petty. Why do I need to know though? I don’t.

I do need to know this though: God loves me. But he loves the other guy who took my computer too. And it’s not just my little four-year-old self that thinks, “That’s not fair!”  when I think about that, right? That reality, that God loves that creep also? He loves him or her and he watches over both of us. I was literally doing the Lord’s work. He was literally defying God.

And at the core of that thinking, that’s another way we get this wrong. We try to understand why God allows bad things to happen to good people… consider this. No one ever asks, “Why do bad things happen to bad people?”

Bad people deserve it. We are satisfied when the bad guy finally gets it at the end of the movie, right? Yeah, he got his, right? We cheer his death and we’re glad when victims get justice and criminals pay for their crimes. Why do bad things happen to bad people? Who cares?!  Why don’t we ask that? Because we judge our own nature and our own life in comparison to the worst. “I might not be perfect.” we say, “but I’m no Hitler,” We say, “I’m no angel, but at least I’m not out stealing laptops like some other people ruining people’s days”, right?

But is that how God sees us? Does God line up all of humanity in some massive line with the best at the front and the vilest in the back and then dole out the circumstances that they deserve? They have to face those in keeping with their relative evil or their relative good. What about the guy in the smack dab middle of some kind of line like that? Does he just sit around and eat vanilla ice cream on a 72-degree day, listening to Dave Matthews Band all this life because it’s not too bad, and he’s not too good? And the guy at the front of the line is never stuck in traffic, never gets a splinter, never gets his order wrong at Starbucks, and always gets the girl. Then the poor guy at the back of the line? Tragedy after tragedy after tragedy, he must have done something really, really bad.

If that was so, then Job would have been really angry because he was the good guy in the story by all accounts. But you see, that’s not how this works. That’s not how any of this works. The reality is that evil happens to good and bad people. And by “good” I don’t mean the world’s standards of good because God has made it very clear that we are not good. Every one of us from the very best person you can imagine in all of history, Mother Teresa, we always like to throw her out there is the very, very best right? The pinnacle…from her to your sweet little grandmother, to the worst person Nipsey Hussle’s murderer, Hitler himself….all of us are broken because of sin and all of us are deserving of the wrath of God. Wow. Right?

What if we’ve been asking the wrong question? We shouldn’t be asking why God allows evil, we should be asking why he allows good. When we ask, why God allows evil, we’re asking the wrong question, because that kind of question comes from an indignant broken heart, and it keeps our eyes off of the real problem. It’s not Why doesn’t God get rid of the evil people? It’s why would God save even one of us? God’s not grading on a curve. There’s a fixed mark and whether we hit it or we don’t that’s the standard.

The ultimate “unfair”, the ultimate wrongdoing, the greatest injustice won’t be any evil found in history like Auschwitz or 9-11. Any crime, any natural disaster won’t be any terrible tragedy that you’re dealing with or any mental illness. The ultimate injustice happened 2000 years ago, when the only sinless man hung for crimes against humanity and against God Himself, and they weren’t. his. Crimes – they were ours. They were mine. That wasn’t fair. That wasn’t just – that was love and grace. And that was sacrifice and death. That death was the ultimate evil. And God not only allowed it, but he also planned for it.

Because in that evil, we were provided the only ultimate good – our salvation. So, it’s not the evil and the unfair treatment God allows in our life that should bring us to our knees in grief, it is the unfairness of the cross. Because “it was my sin that held him there until it was accomplished. His dying breath brought me life, I know that it is finished. And I will not boast in anything, no gifts, no power, no wisdom but I will boast in Jesus Christ, his death and resurrection.“

Do you want to know why God allowed evil? Look to the cross…

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whosoever believes in Him will not perish.” (John 3:16)

Death holds no power. Instead, we who believe will have eternal life, not our best life now, no way! But a great, abundant, above all we can ask or ever even imagine, forever with him, life. He will wipe away every tear from our eyes, where there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, where we will know fully even as we are fully known. The cross is where the love of God and his hatred of sin met in some incomprehensible way. As he looked away from his son, dying for us. And he let the ugliness of sin separate Christ from God’s total holiness for that moment. And when we cry out in our pain, and we cry to God, “Where are you, God?!” We should hear the voice of Jesus who cried out also, “Where are you, God? Why have you forsaken me?”

And never forget in your pain that Christ went through to Christ experienced it for you. But that will mean very little when it comes time if you’ve never repented. What explanation again, Did Jesus give to those who asked about the people dying in the temple? What did he say was the reason the tower crushed and killed those people? Were they any worse sinners? No. The only truth he gave to them was that unless you repent, the same will happen to you – you will perish. That’s the Truth About evil and suffering that you need to resolve today, Have you repented? Have you completely surrendered to God?

You can look around, and you can see the evil and you can feel the despair and you will…and you can look for hope inside and you can hope and you can try to find hope there and strength there. But it’s not going to be there either. Instead, you give your heart to God. You really lay it all out there. You recognize that all your dreams, all your pride, every expectation that you have, or how your life should have been in this world would be nothing unless you have what Jesus can give you – lasting joy and sharing in his pain. Because Jesus could have been to you like a good friend, he could have come alongside you and he could have hugged you and he could have seen your trial and he could have told you how sorry he was, but he did but even the best friend has never done for you. He died for your pain. He suffered for your trial. He came to live inside of you, not just beside you.

And in just a moment, we’re going to get real right in here together and take some time to think about that truth. Why does God allow evil? Because it’s the necessary and temporary cost for having a truly loving relationship with us. Because he wants you to come to him to repent freely. Because this isn’t your best life now. What he has for those to come is gonna blow all this away. And he didn’t abandon us to figure it out and suffer alone through this broken world. So when you feel broken, remember that his body was broken to when you cry out in pain, remember that he cried out for you as well as his blood was shed. And as unfair as you feel the pain and the suffering may be, he suffered the only truly unjust pain – on the cross. And he did it thinking of you.

And we have tables here set up in the back for you to take communion in a minute. Or you can have an usher bring it to you, or if you would raise your hand we’ll have an usher come forward for you. And either way, we’re just going to sit still and be still and consider the cross and the pain of Jesus so that we can be encouraged. The worship team is going to come up. And we’re going to sing, and we’re going to pray with you and sing with you together right now. You can stay in your seat or you can come on up forward here with me, and we’ll pray together, our other pastors are going to be up here as well.

And maybe you’re sitting there, and you realize that it’s time to really surrender your life to Jesus, this is the time to do it. This is the day to come forward. And maybe you get it now and you’re ready to repent. And maybe you realize that this church is where you want to truly Connect. We’d love for you to just walk forward. And let us know that you’d like to become a member here of this church, come down at any time, and just let us know. And after the service, just take your communication card and you’re offering cards and things to the kiosks in the back. If you’re visiting with us today. Bring them out to the welcome table. We’d like to say hi and give you a gift. So I’ll be in the gazebo after the service if you have any questions but let’s go ahead and stand right now, and let’s pray.”

Thank you for reading, watching, or listening to this blog today. I hope it was helpful to you. Most importantly, I hope that you have more clarity in your understanding of God and the love that He has for you. Please share your thoughts or questions in the comment section below. I appreciate the thoughtful engagements. If you would like to talk to me more about this difficult issue, please feel free to email me. When you comment, “like”, or share this blog it helps others to see the content, and my ministry is supported. Thank you so much.

Other helpful posts: “Is Faith in God Just Wishful Thinking?“
or “The Cure for Anxiety“