Wednesday, August 19, 2009

I'm In Pain - Where's God?


I recently heard a lesson in which it was said, "There are a lot of people who seem to think that God has some kind of master plan and that afflicting you or me is a part of that plan." and "Well, God has a master plan, but sending bad things into your life is not part of it." Later, speaking about bad things happening, "because we are flesh He uses those things for good purposes, but that's different from saying that God has a master plan and the plan includes sending those things into your life. As if somehow God wants you to suffer in order for His master plan to be realized. The Bible no where teaches that."

There are more problems with the statement above than I can easily tend to in this short blog, but one glaring problem is that it leaves God out of our sufferings. It implies that God only uses these things after the fact. Such as, Joseph ends up in Egypt and God thinks to Himself, "Hmmm. Maybe I can use this to get the rest of his family here." (I borrowed this bit from Jim McGuiggan)

It also says that God did not plan for man's sin, that He had no plan for dealing with it and that He just reacted after the fact. This denies plain Bible teaching that says, "...Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. He was chosen before the creation of the world..." 1 Peter 1:19-20. Note also Colossians 1:22, "But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation." God fully intended to bring Jesus to grief, Acts 2:22-23. The grief Jesus suffered was and is redemptive. Without the death of Jesus there could be no redemption. It was essential to the saving of our souls. But the suffering of Jesus isn't finished yet. All the sufferings of Christ are not over. Take time to read Romans 8:17 and Colossians 1:24. Christ is continuing to suffer through His church. On the Damascus road Christ confronted Paul with, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?" It is clear that Jesus was speaking of the persecution that the church was undergoing. The church was filling up the sufferings of Christ. The sufferings that were PLANNED before the foundation of the world.

The truth is, God does deliberately bring struggles, sufferings, pain and even death into our lives. He does it because He loves us. Recall the letter to the Laodiceans found in Revelation 3. In it Jesus says, "Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent." His loves compels Him to discipline us and doing so works in us a greater reward than earth could offer.

God's anger, His wrath, is an expression of His love for us. He is not angry because we disobeyed Him and He is God after all. No. He is angry because of what our disobedience is doing to us. Do parents say to their child who, after being told that it is a rule that you don't push anything into an electric outlet except a plug that is meant to go into it, pushes a piece of plastic into the socket, "You broke my rule. I loved that rule. My rule was good and you broke it"? No. Parents explain that it is dangerous and the child could get hurt or even killed. If the child continues to disobey the parents may choose to spank the child to emphasize the importance of obedience in this matter.

Look at Amos 4:6 and following. Did God PLAN to send a famine? Did God PLAN to send an enemy? And what was the purpose of the PLAN? Redemption? Of course it was. God planned to use the sufferings of life to bring redemption. He planned for man to suffer. He sends the rain on the just and the unjust. I find no hint that there was any suffering before Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, but immediately after the eating they were chased from the garden FOR THE EXPRESS PURPOSE OF TAKING AWAY THE POSSIBILITY OF THEIR EATING FROM THE TREE OF LIFE AND LIVING FOREVER IN THEIR SINS. Genesis 3:22-24. And the taking away of the tree of Life meant they were going to die. It was God who expressly did this. Did He think of this at the last moment or was it always a part of His plan?

So my point is this, suffering is both universal and redemptive. Because God loves us (John 3:16 the world) He rebukes and chastens us. Pain, sickness, accidents and the like are all a part of God's planned redemption. Without these there could be no redemption. So when you/I/we suffer we know that God is in the suffering and that it is for our good and the good of others and if Chicken Little is right and the sky is falling, God's behind it and it will turn out all right. Take a moment and read Romans 8:17-18 and see if this is not so.

Do yourself a favor. Buy a copy of Celebrating the Wrath of God by Jim McGuiggan and help your faith to grow.

Thursday, August 06, 2009

My God, My God 1

How are we to understand the atonement? We usually understand that Jesus was punished by God to pay for our sins and that Jesus cried out to Him, "My God, my God. Why have you forsaken me?" showing that God turned His back on Jesus. I'm convinced that is not so. I cannot understand how the Father could do some evil to bring about good. In the law God explicitly says, "The soul who sins is the one who will die. The son will not share the guilt of the father, nor will the father share the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous man will be credited to him, and the wickedness of the wicked will be charged against him." (NIV) And, "But he did not put to death the children of the murderers, according to what is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, where the LORD commanded, 'Fathers shall not be put to death because of their children, nor shall children be put to death because of their fathers. But each one shall die for his own sin.'" If God said these things, how could He punish Jesus for our sins?

I'm writing this just to get you thinking about what you have believed and to examine it. We may believe something, and it may be true, but we always need to examine and reexamine so that we know where we stand and why.

More on this later...