Rom. 3:1-8, 21-26, 5:1-5, 8:28-39
John M. Frame
For
many today and throughout history, the problem of evil
has represented the most serious
objection to the Christian
faith. Some very brilliant
philosophers have thought that this
problem conclusively refutes belief
in the Christian God. But not
only professors of philosophy;
ordinary people, too, often feel
this problem deeply. You don't have
to be a sophisticated
philosopher to doubt the reality of
God when a loved one is going
through terrible suffering. At such
times the "problem of evil"
is not so much a learned argument as
it is a simple cry of the
heart, "How could a loving God
allow this??"
And
that's it, in a nutshell. The sophisticated
philosophical version of the problem
states the issue, usually,
with a calmer spirit and a more
precise vocabulary. But the
philosopher doesn't state the
question any better; and insofar as
the philosopher dilutes the passion
of that heart-cry, he misses
something important. So we'll leave
it at the simple level this
morning: To understand, to feel the
problem of evil, think of
some terrible tragedy-- some tragedy
that seems to have no
positive value whatsoever: the
genocide of Hitler, Stalin, Pol
Pot; a child suffering terrible pain
as he slowly dies of cancer;
an African baby dying of starvation.
Think in such cases of how
you too might cry out, almost
involuntarily, "How could a loving
God allow this?" You see, it's not only unbelievers who cry out
that way; believers do too. There is
something universally human
about that cry; it's almost a reflex.
It's something that goes
very deep.
Is
there an answer to the problem of evil? Well, that
depends on what you mean by
"answer." What kind of "answer" are
you willing to accept? If what you
want is a total explanation of
where evil came from, how it arose,
how it achieves God's good
purposes, well, I cannot supply that.
I don't believe that this
kind of answer is available to human
beings, and I don't believe
that God is under any obligation to
give us such an answer.
But
if what you want is encouragement-- a motivation to go
on trusting God despite unexplained evil-- then I think I
can help. If you are looking for some
assurance that God is
all-powerful, just, good and wise,
despite many temptations to
disbelieve in him, I believe such
assurance is available, and I
would like to share that assurance
with you.
That
assurance comes from the Bible, God's Word. You might
be a bit surprised to hear that the
Bible speaks about the
problem of evil. Sometimes, I think,
we act and speak as if the
problem of evil were a discovery of modern man. To be sure,
the Holocaust was forty years ago;
indeed there are many
recent evils that trouble our faith in God. Yet none of us,
probably, has suffered as much as
Job, or the apostle Paul, or the
heroes of Heb. 11. Certainly none of
us can possibly imagine the
enormity of the sufferings of Jesus
Christ. And none of us,
probably, has reflected on suffering as deeply as did Job, Paul, or the
Lord Jesus. Yes, the Bible says a
great deal about the problem of
evil. Large sections of the Bible are
devoted to it. In fact, one
might say that the whole Bible is
about the problem of evil: it
is the story of how evil entered a
good world and how God gained
the victory over evil in Jesus
Christ.
Paul's
letter to the Romans is a summary of that biblical
story. It tells us about the sin of
the human race against God,
how none of us has kept God's law.
Thus we all deserve to die:
"The wages of sin is
death," Rom. 6:23. None of us can earn his
way to heaven by good works. But
though we were without hope, God
sent his own son, Jesus Christ, to
live a perfect life and then
to lay down that life as our
sacrifice. "God commended his love
toward us, in that while we were yet
sinners, Christ died for
us," Rom. 5:8. Christ's work
sets us free from the dominion of
sin (chap. 6), enables us to walk in
the Spirit (chap. 8), and
motivates us to live a godly life
(chaps. 12-16).
Romans
tells us about how we can become right with God. But
it also tells us how God demonstrates
his own righteousness.
Rom. 3:25 and 26 tells us that God
gave us his son, not only to
justify us, but to justify himself,
to demonstrate his own
righteousness. In other words, Romans
addresses the problem of
evil. Over and over again, through
the book, Paul answers people
who claim that God's way of salvation
is unjust. Paul's answers
can become our answers to the problem
of evil, if we will take
them to heart.
I. God is the Lord
Look
first at Romans 3:3-8. Here Paul answers two
objections. The first, in verse 3,
deals with the unbelief of Israel, Paul's own nation and the people of God in the Old
Testament. The problem is that God
promised to save
Israel
,
to
deliver them from their enemies and
to fill them with wonderful
blessings. But
Israel
refused
to believe the promise and
disobeyed God's law. Therefore God
rejected them; he said that Israel would no longer be his people. The objection is this,
verse 3: that
Israel
's
unbelief nullifies God's promise. God
judged
Israel
instead of blessing them; he
was unfaithful.
The
objection has some plausibility to it. After all, God
did promise
Israel
some
wonderful things, but it seems like all
these promises went by the board. Now
there is what we might call
a "direct" answer to this
question, and we'll read about it
later, in verses 21-26. But the
interesting thing is that in
this passage Paul does not give that direct answer. Rather,
what he does is to
rebuke
the question in very sharp language:
"God unfaithful?
Not at all! Let God be true, and
every man a liar. As it is
written, 'So that you may be proved right in your words and
prevail in your judging'" (verse
4). Paul is saying: Look; God
simply cannot be unfaithful. If you say God is unfaithful,
you lie; you are the unfaithful one. God always proves true;
he always prevails when he judges
someone. He is Lord. Who do you
think you are, anyway?
The
next verses (5-8) raise another objection and handle it
the same way: if
Israel
's sin
brings out God's righteousness more
clearly, then God ought to be pleased with sin. He shouldn't
judge sin, because sin brings him
glory. Again, Paul might have
responded more directly, but again,
Paul does not give the direct
answer. Again, instead, he rebukes
the questioner: "Certainly
not! If that were so, how could God
judge the world?" Then in
verse 8 he says of the objectors that
"Their condemnation is
deserved." Again, these are
tough words against people who
question God's righteousness. Paul is
saying that we have no
right to raise doubts about God's
goodness and righteousness.
Why? Because God is the judge, not
we; he is the authority, not
we. He is the standard of righteousness. Most of us use
dictionaries as standards for the
spelling of words. We would not
criticize the spelling in our
dictionaries; how much less do we
dare to criticize the righteousness
of our holy God?
This
is not pleasant, but such tough talk is pretty common
in Scripture. Very often, when people
in Scripture raise doubts
about God's goodness, rather than
explain himself, God rebukes
the questioner. Think of Adam and Eve
after the fall, blaming
their sin on the serpent and on one
another, ultimately on God.
Why did God let the serpent into the
garden anyway? God doesn't
reply; rather he judges them for
their unbelief and disobedience.
Think of Abraham, after the angel
rescued him from having to
sacrifice his son Isaac on the altar.
Does God explain this
apparently unjust order? No; he
merely commends Abraham's
obedience.
Think
of poor Job, bereft of his family and wealth,
his body full of sores. Job wanted an
interview with God. He
wanted God to explain why all these things had taken place. Well,
Job got his interview, but it didn't
turn out the way he
expected. God appeared to him, Job
38, accused Job of ignorant
words. Then God announced that Job
would not question God; God
would question Job. God asked Job
questions about creation, the
sea, the morning, light, snow, hail,
stars, clouds, mountain
goats, wild donkeys, ostriches,
crocodiles. Job didn't know the
answers; he confessed his ignorance;
he laid his hand upon his
mouth in shame and subjection. Who do
you think you are, Job? God
is the Lord of justice; how dare you
ask an accounting from him?
This
is hard to take. Like Job, we usually expect something
else when we ask for an explanation
of the problem of evil. This
doesn't even seem like an
explanation. It is more like that old
gag line, "Shut up, he
explained." But in this case, this is
bitter medicine that we need to take.
When we are faced with the
problem of evil, we need to remind
ourselves who we are and who
God is. We are in no position to
judge him, we have no right to
demand an explanation from him. He is
Lord. That is our
first answer to the problem of evil.
II. God is the Savior
But
there is more. God's first intention in the Bible is to
silence our doubting questions as we
stand before his holiness
and majesty. But thank God, Scripture
does more than shut our
mouths. If God only rebuked us, then
we would be most miserable
indeed, doomed to eternal death.
That's what Paul says about the
law of God in verse 19: the law
silences every mouth, making us
conscious of our sin. But the law
does not give us hope; it does
not save us. Rebukes don't save. We
need them sometimes, but they
give us no hope.
But
Paul has more to say. God answers the problem of evil by
saving us. Verses 21-26:
But now a righteousness from God, apart from
aw, has
been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets
testify.
This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus
Christ to
all who believe. There is no difference, for all have
sinned and
fall short of the glory of God, and are justified
freely by
his grace through the redemption that came by Christ
Jesus. God
presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through
faith in his
blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice,
because in
his forebearance he had left the sins committed
beforehand
unpunished-- he did it to demonstrate his justice at
the present
time, so as to be just and the one who justifies the
man who has
faith in Jesus.
This
is the good news, the wonderful story of Jesus. We
could not be saved through keeping
the law, so God sent his son
as a sacrifice for our sin-- a free
gift. We receive the benefits
of this salvation through faith-- by
trusting Jesus as our
personal savior and Lord. But what
God is saying here is that
this gospel, this good news,
demonstrates his justice.
You
see, if we may put this reverently, God in the Old
Testament was faced with a problem.
As we have seen, he promised
Israel
wonderful blessings. But
Israel
rebelled, disobeyed. What
was God to do? If he punished
Israel
, he
would have broken his
promise: no more promised land, no
more milk and honey. If he had
fulfilled his promise, if he had
simply overlooked their sin, he
would have been unjust. It seems as
though God could have been
merciful, or God could have been
just, but not both. Mercy would
work against justice, and justice
would work against mercy. Here
the problem of evil comes up in a
particularly difficult form.
For even if you prove that God is
just, you thereby prove that he
is not merciful, and vice versa. So the problem can never be
resolved.
So
it seems in the wisdom of men. Men could never have
dreamed of a way for God to solve
this problem. But God found a
way. The answer is in the cross of
Jesus. At the cross, there is
punishment for sin-- a punishment God
takes on himself. And
therefore, at the cross there is also
a river, an ocean of mercy
that flows over God's people. The
cross shows that God is
just, and that he is merciful.
That
is Paul's-- and God's-- second answer to the problem of
evil. We know that God is just,
because he has demonstrated his
justice in history, far beyond any
possible human expectations,
in the cross of Christ. Now that
doesn't answer all our
questions. Every day things happen
that we still have questions
about. What about the Holocaust? What
about children starving?
How can these come from a just God?
But when such questions
arise, think back to the cross of
Christ. For in the cross, God
displayed his mercy in a way so
wonderful that none of us could
have anticipated. When you think
about that, you can understand
how it will be a small matter for God
to demonstrate his justice
in all these areas that bother us.
God doesn't answer us by
satisfying our curiosity; he answers
us by giving us a powerful
motivation to believe, even when our
curiosity is not satisfied.
Thus we walk by faith, not by sight.
III. God is the Spirit
But
now you may say, well, that may be all well and good,
but I just can't bring myself to
believe it. That all sounds
reasonable, and I can accept it with
my reason, but not with my
heart. Scripture understand that need
as well. God wants to
respond, not only to your reason, but
also to your heart.
How
does he do this? By giving us a new heart. Look at
chapter five, the opening verses:
Therefore, since we have been justified through
faith, we
have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
through whom
we have gained access by faith into the grace in
which we now
stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of
God. Not
only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because
we know that
suffering produces perseverence; perseverence,
character;
and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us,
because God
has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy
Spirit, whom
he has given us.
When we come to know Jesus as our
savior and Lord, we become new
persons. Instead of hating God, we
come to love him. Instead of
hating other people, we come to love
them. And God also puts into
our hearts a new attitude toward
suffering: We are able to
rejoice in sufferings, knowing that suffering produces
patience, character, hope. Suffering
doesn't destroy the
Christian; it rather helps him to
mature, to grow more godly. And
I think the word "hope" is
also important here. The Christian
looks forward to God's promises of
something better. We trust
God, that the sufferings of this
present world are not worthy to
be compared with the glory that will
be revealed in us.
How
do we get these new attitudes? By the Holy Spirit, Paul
says, which God has poured into our
heart. How do we grow in
these attitudes, in patience,
character, hope through suffering?
By asking God for a richer portion of
the Spirit, and then by
trusting him. Reckon yourself dead,
Paul says in Rom. 6, to sin--
that includes unbelief, doubt,
distrust, hopelessness.
Without
this new mind, no basis for believing in good or evil. Unbelievers have problem
of goodness.
The
Spirit does wonderful things for our spirits. Listen to
Paul in Rom. 8:28-39-- his complete
confidence in God's goodness,
justice and love. This is the fullest
answer to the problem of
evil: a Spirit-filled confidence that
God's way is right and best.
And we know that in all things God works for the
good of
those who love him, who have been called according to his
purpose. For
those God foreknew he also predestined to be
conformed to
the likeness of his Son, that he might be the
firstborn
among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also
called;
those he called, he also justified; those he justified,
he also
glorified.
What, then, shall we say in response
to this? If God is for
us, who can
be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but
gave him up
for us all-- how will he not also, along with him,
graciously
give us all things? Who will bring any charge against
those whom
God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he
that
condemns? Christ Jesus, who dies-- more than that, who was
raised to
life-- is at the right hand of God and is also
interceding
for us. Who shall separate us from the love of
Christ?
Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or
nakedness or
peril or sword? As it is written: For your sake we
face death
all day long; we are considered as sheep to be
slaughtered.
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors
through him
who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death
nor life,
nor angels nor demons, neither the present nor the
future, nor
any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything
else in all
creation, will be able to separate us from the love
of God
that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
When will we be convinced? According
to Rev. 15:3, 4, there will come a time when we will all stand around the
throne of God, singing,
Great and
amazing are your deeds, O Lord God the Almighty! Just and true are your ways, O
King of the nations! 4 Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your
name? For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship you, for your
righteous acts have been revealed.
At that time, nobody will complain
about anything God has done. None of us will find anything in his conduct that
is not “just and true.” His “righteous acts have been revealed,” to such an
extent that nobody even thinks about the problem of evil. Perhaps at that time
we will have more information. Maybe we will know why God permitted some of the
awful tragedies of our lives and of history. But perhaps not. More likely, I
think, we will be so overwhelmed by the sheer goodness and righteousness of God
in Jesus Christ that we will not even imagine that he could do anything evil.
We will assume that whatever has happened, God has a good reason for it, even
if he has not chosen to tell us what that reason is. In other words, by the
time we sing this song around God’s throne, the Spirit will have changed our
hearts so much that our whole value system will be different. We will see in
God only holiness, goodness, righteousness, kindness. That is to say, we will
see him as he really is.
Brothers
and sisters, those of you who know Jesus, this is our message for hurting
people. We live in a time when many are distressed. Many are morally sensitive,
looking for answers to human distress and pain. But only in God can there be
any basis for loving right and hating wrong. And only in Christ can we see evil
overcome, and our hearts freed to rejoice in that. To those of you who do not
now know Jesus in this way, I urge you to turn to him for salvation from sin,
and for comfort and for understanding in these tough times.
