“Why? If God exists, why is there suffering? Why doesn’t He snap his fingers and fix everything in an instant? If we had the power to fix everything, we would. Is He not good? Why does it take the Creator so long if He created the whole universe in six days? Does He lack the power? Why does God condemn people to Hell? Why am I the wrong one? Why isn’t everyone saved? If God knew that all this evil would occur, why did He make everything? If He knew people would sin and be sent to Hell, why did He make them? Why didn’t He just make the saved people? I would rather not exist than be sent to Hell.”

The above is the amalgamation of a very long conversation I had with a good friend. The questions are in the order I received them as well as I can remember. Without a doubt I have forgotten some, but if nothing else the gist of the conversation should be grasped without difficulty.

Before I attempt to answer any of these questions (and I will not succeed in this work alone), I will challenge anyone who is reading this. If the presence of evil in the world has convinced that there could be no God, examine yourself. We, as human beings, have the awful inclination to believe that our way is always the best. Let us not accuse the LORD. (Job 40:2, 8-9) Verily, we are the fallible creatures. May I suggest, and support will follow as always, that we are incapable of understanding the mind of God. Already you begin to assume a backdoor ruse, ‘he’s copping out’; silence your doubts for a second and pay attention because I will not make excuses for my God. On one level, do you really think that you can comprehend the thoughts of an infinite and almighty God? You struggled through high school physics, yet you can stand on par intellectually with the One who determined the measurements of the earth? You pretentious fool, have you an answer for any question in Job 38-41? So in dealing with these issues, namely, the origination and sustentation of sin in the presence of a God thrice holy, I entreat you brothers, humble yourselves.

Now, I am guilty of charging God with far more than my friend has. But understand this if nothing else: every time, just as I stop questioning Him [Philippians 2:14] and start trusting His will above mine, I receive not merely an answer but the peace of God shatters my anxiety and guards my heart still. It surpasses all understanding. In my life, the more I have come to know the LORD and speak with Him about His will for me, the more I recognize that His purposes are perfect. All I go through leads me to Him. My Father reassures me, teaches me more about Himself, brings me closer to Jesus when I humble myself before Him. (Psalm 51:17) It starts like this: ‘God I know I have done wrong and I have been trying to live my own way. I haven’t trusted Your will for me. Please forgive me.’ That’s repentance. And then you realize something. That Jesus is God, comes into history, lives the life I cannot live, the life without sin, died the death I deserved, the death for sin, is risen on the third day to give the grace of salvation that we could not afford. The result being: Jesus takes our sin and gives us His righteousness; that we can stand before God for eternity, without shame. That’s belief. The two things that matter most to God: a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart. Repentance and belief. We all have questions, believe me. But brothers, let us not abuse our privilege of coming to the Father with grumbling hearts. Take faith. God invites us all to “taste and see that He is good” [Psalm 34:8].

The root of all questioning (note the distinction between having questions) is pride. The a priori rejecting of God’s sovereign plans for ours. (Isaiah 14:12-14) Such is the lie humanity bought since the beginning of time, that if we ran things, the world would be a better place. Realize this: we do run things. When Satan is tempting Jesus in the desert, he reveals this: (Luke 4:6) God’s judgment is seen even now by the removal of divine restraints on man’s actions. (Romans 1:22-32) The end result is frightening. (Proverbs 1:24-31) That God laughs at the destruction of the wicked. Is He starting to look a bit less like a senile Santa Claus who winks at sin? I’ll end with the most terrifying words in all of Scripture. (Hosea 4:17) Even in the New Testament, when God has ‘mellowed out a bit’ after His high school bullying days: (Matthew 15:14) There will be a time when God has completely removed His grace from the world. In the absence of that mercy, Christ cries out: “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” So no, we would not fix everything if we had the power. Look at those in our world, in our government, in our workplace, in our school, who have been given even a bit of power. And you say we would do what with God’s power? But I digress.

What of this lie? “Such is the lie humanity bought since the beginning of time, that if we ran things, the world would be a better place.” On the beginning, the same friend speaks starkly: “I kind of think that Adam and Eve were the dumbest people ever to exist. Everything was perfect and they could do anything but eat the apple. God told them they would die if they did. What a bunch of f***ing ***holes. I think anyone else would’ve never touched the apple. Why are we paying for their mistake?”

Here’s the thing: we taste of the fruit every time we sin. We say “I know what I’m doing, my way is better than Yours’, God. My knowledge of good and evil is more established than Yours.” The fruit was not an apple. In Latin the words ‘apple’ and ‘bad’ are both mal. So in poor translations the ‘bad’ fruit became ‘apple’. Then what was the fruit? (Genesis 3:4-6) It was desired by Adam and Eve because even at that time man did not trust that God was in control. The temptation was always to place oneself above the Most High. Pride. Satan’s infectious sin.

Now to the matter at hand. Consider the ancient rendition of the questioning posed above: the Epicurean Paradox (300 B.C.) as translated by David Hume in the Dialogues concerning Natural Religion:

If God is willing to prevent evil, but is not able to
Then He is not omnipotent.

If He is able, but not willing
Then He is malevolent.

If He is both able and willing
Then whence cometh evil?

If He is neither able nor willing
Then why call Him God?

What unbridled audacity is this? But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Such a facetious tone is deserving of no less than a counter by the highest degree of mordant rhetoric. Yet, I feel the questions posed by my friend are of a slightly different nature and I’ll withhold.

The crux of the issue: “If He is both able and willing, then whence cometh evil.” Or “If God exists, why is there suffering?” (Romans 6:23a) Death, suffering, evil are all results of sin (or lawlessness). James embellishes on Paul’s dissertation. (James 1:14-15) God is not suffering’s origin, however, our turning from Him is. Hold this in mind; suffering was not intended for earth’s original state. However, this begs the question: even if God did not initiate evil, why does He not engage it? (Romans 6:23b) The problem is our salary. We sin, we owe. Our wage, our income; we pay through death. God’s riposte is grace, His free gift of eternal life. Notice the disparity here: we rack up this debt of sin, the result of which is death, suffering, a fallen world, Hell. But God, not us, paid the price, taking our sin upon Himself, He died the death we deserve: the death for sin and now He offers this free gift: a relationship with Him for all eternity where there will be no more tears, no death, no evil, no suffering.

Mark Driscoll stresses the absurdity of Romans 6:23 this way:

You have been told that God is a loving, gracious, merciful, kind, compassionate, wonderful, and good sky fairy who runs a day care in the sky and has a bucket of suckers for everyone because we’re all good people. That is a lie. . . . God looks down and says “I hate you, you are my enemy, and I will crush you,” and we say that is deserved, right and just, and then God says “Because of Jesus I will love you and forgive you.” This is a miracle.

There is evil: Jesus comes. (Philippians 2:6-8) The problem with the Epicurean Paradox is that it assumes God would have to abolish evil instantaneously. “If God is able and willing, why doesn’t He stop evil?” But do you not recognize, you foolish person, He already did.

By this time in the conversation I had answered everything sufficiently enough to come to the point where we know why there is evil and we know what God did with it. The final question went unanswered, ending our conversation: “Why did God have come down as a man to destroy evil; why doesn’t He snap his fingers and fix everything in an instant?”

As a caveat, not a copout: all too often God withholds why He does things. On one level we probably wouldn’t be able to understand anyway. (Isaiah 55:8-9) On another, if we were shown everything, what would faith mean? (Romans 8:24-25)

There are three paths I know of in answering the question “Why did the destruction of evil have to be through Jesus’ death?”: God’s justice, God’s self-disclosure and God’s sovereignty.

God’s Justice: First of all, because God is just. Remember that the wages of sin is death; someone needed to die. To satisfy His justice: Hell exists; it’s hot and forever and full of people already. And then they protest: “I just don’t think that I’m that evil.” But you see, the problem isn’t that you don’t know how evil you are, it’s that you don’t know how good God is. So good that He demands retribution for even the ‘slightest’ offense. We don’t have a problem with rapists in Hell because we’re good citizens. Likewise, God doesn’t have a problem with us in Hell because He’s a good God.

Not to delve too deeply into total depravity, but everything you (when I say you, I mean collectively, the human race, apart from Jesus) have ever done has been done with hostility towards God. You are His enemy. Tremble. All your righteousness, all your good deeds, in the eyes of God are as literally: filthy rags used to wipe menstrual fluids away. That image burned into your mind yet? That is how unapproachable God is. This level that God is on is called holiness. He’s holy³, the trisagion. You will understand on the day when you see God face to face and the sheer terror of His glory, the shekinah, seems to crush your soul. He does not even say a word; believe me. I say this not out of boastful pride, but to snatch some of you out of the fire: not one is able to stand under the presence of God.  (Hebrews 12:18-21)

Death is the penalty for all sin. Someone had to pay the price. It’s either you or Jesus. Either you pay eternally in Hell or you repent; and believe that Jesus Christ died for sin and was raised on the third day. Jesus became a man, suffered under the Father’s wrath, to save some. And God’s justice was able to be satisfied. We could not pay the price, but are saved because He hung on that cross and said: “It is finished.” A Greek term referring to business transactions meaning: “Paid in full.”

God’s Self-Disclosure: Here’s another way to look at it: The purpose of creation is God’s glory. Not ours. (Romans 9:22-23) God’s glory is shown through the condemnation of the wicked and the salvation of the just. But none are just (remember in Isaiah: your ‘filthy rags’). And we hate that. So in foolish pride we compare ourselves to others worse than us and with a popish self-righteousness consecrate ourselves as just. Compare instead yourself to Jesus and you will realize . . . (Romans 3:23) “Well of course we aren’t perfect, silly, we’re human!” So was Jesus. You see here’s the thing, we were made perfect and fell short of it. We missed the mark. God set the bar and we missed. But here’s the really exciting thing: Jesus didn’t. And so . . . (Romans 3:24) Sound familiar? “We sinned; we received grace as a gift through Jesus; we are justified (made just) and have eternal life.” This is Romans 6:23 all over again. This is ‘good news’ and if you’ve taken a ‘Bible as Lit.’ class, here’s what they didn’t tell you: everything in the Bible points to Jesus. The Word of God, believe it or not, is about . . . God! And God has a name . . . Jesus! Are we all following, or did some of us go to public school? So the Word of God is about . . . Jesus! Awesome. So these verses in Romans 3 stress the gospel: that we have sinned and need Jesus to have peace with God. (Romans 3:25a) So God sent Jesus as a propitiation (big word for appeasement or satisfaction) by His death. Jesus came, and satisfied God’s justice by His death for sin. You should recognize this from the ‘God’s Justice’ section. And now we receive this free gift by . . . works! We have to work really hard for God to love us, so make sure you go to church every Sunday and learn how to speak in KJV (thou-belovedism) and start tithing out of your spice rack and only wear three-piece suits and don’t do anything fun because that’s what God wants to see. No—what does Paul say? “To be received by faith.” We receive God’s gift by faith, we believe in Jesus and if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive them and make us righteous. No one earns salvation, it’s a free gift.

Anyway, to continue: (Romans 3:25, Romans 3:26) Here is the point. God became man, suffered and died to show Himself to us. “This was to show God’s righteousness”, what was to show God’s righteousness? Jesus’ death. Jesus’ cruel and undeserving torture. To show how far God would go for us. We’re worthless compared to Him. I know we don’t like this, but think about it: He’s perfect. He created the heavens. Beings more spectacular than we could ever imagine worship Him day and night; when these ‘burning ones’ speak, the very foundation of heaven shakes and is filled with the smoke which pours from their mouths; yet these do not dare to even glance upon the Lord’s face. And that same Lord chose to become a man?—to lower Himself in to His own creation? And be tempted in every way by His own angels? To be mocked by us?—tortured by us? For us? These are things too wonderful to speak of. That we might know Him? Have peace with Him in His kingdom forever? We have always hated God and opposed Him in everything we do. And He died this death for us? Whatever you say, it cannot be: “God hasn’t done enough for me.” (I encourage you all to read Nick’s post: God is Love?)

God’s Sovereignty: This is by far the hardest point to swallow, even among people who love Jesus. The purpose of this post is not an exegetical defense of Calvinism, so do not presume such. Instead, as Spurgeon once said, I will let the lion defend Himself: (Romans 9:11-23) God has His own ways and I refuse to apologize for them. He has certainly done enough for all of us. “Why am I the wrong one? Why didn’t God choose me?” I do not know. What I do know is that Jesus’ death is enough to cover your sins if you would repent and believe in Him. And if you do, then you were chosen. The Westminister Shorter Catechism puts it this way:

Man’s chief end is to glorify God, [a] and to enjoy him forever. [b]
[a]. Ps. 86:9; Isa. 60:21; Rom. 11:36; I Cor. 6:20; I Cor. 10:31; Rev. 4:11
[b]. Ps. 16:5-11; Ps. 144:15; Isa. 12:2; Luke 2:10; Phil. 4:4; Rev. 21:3-4

Again, God will be glorified through the condemnation of the wicked and the salvation of the just. Praise God.

Those are the three ways I would engage this conversation. I’ll end with this: there was no other way. (Matthew 26:39) “If it be possible.” One might be inclined to assume that given the perfect nature of Jesus Christ, He was rightly deserving of such a request. Do you expect if God could have granted that prayer, if there were to be another way, He wouldn’t? Verily, I submit to you, there was none. And take into account that (Luke 18:27)

Whatever suffering you have experienced, whatever evil has been done against you, I assure you brother, Jesus has had more. Our God is not unfamiliar to suffering. Remember Paul’s words in Philippians on His humility. Jesus was a man of sorrows. (Isaiah 53:2-12) He underwent every temptation common to man. (Hebrews 4:15) Even before the cross he endured a breed of suffering we will never experience on this earth. (Luke 22:43-44)

Did you ever think that God, who has the appointments of the heavens laid out before Him, might have a purpose in all of this? All too often we imagine the world as a warzone, with the forces of evil doing battle to undermine the work of God. We imagine Satan foiling the plans of God, who looks down from heaven in shock at what’s happening and scrambles to reverse it. (Job 1:6-12) It blew my mind when I first heard this. God allows temptations, trials and suffering, but uses them to bring us closer to Him. The LORD is sovereign. He is in control and knows what we can handle. This is not meant to be a practical guide to suffering. Still, I want everyone to know, anyone who has been hurt, betrayed, mistreated, abused, shamed, feeling lost, confused, in constant pain; we have a God who loves. He loves so much He sent His only Son to die for us. And that it doesn’t end there, but that He ministers to the distressed. He is near to the brokenhearted. The apostle Paul was someone accustomed to suffering. Read his testimony. (2 Corinthians 11:23-28) Now look carefully at what Paul has to say about the God who allowed it all: (2 Corinthians 1:3-5) ‘Blessed be God, the Father of mercies, God of all comfort.’ Paul recognized something. That through the evil in this world God is working miracles.

I recently heard a testimony from a young woman at one of my Bible studies. She never knew her father, was abandoned by her mother as a child, shipped constantly between orphanages. Hurt and lonely, rightfully feeling discarded, neglected, lost, with no one to comfort her. You would weep to hear what she has suffered, even one so young. And then she met Jesus. You’ll never meet a more joyful girl. She forgave her mother. The one who cast her aside, as worthless. After all those years of anguish and misery, she restored their relationship. Don’t you see what Jesus is doing? Can you even comprehend that level of love? I know I said a lot of hard things in this post, but I’m begging you, seek after that man. This isn’t some theo-philosophical game. Jesus saves. Period. Love is Here. It’s an awesome song we’ve been singing at my church a lot lately.  Listen to the whole thing, but the bridge always hits me:

And to the bruised and fallen,
Captives bound and broken hearted,
He is the Lord,
He is the Lord.

By His stripes He’s paid our ransom,
From His wounds we drink salvation.
He is the Lord,
He is the Lord.