Bad Things Happen in a Broken World

My heart has been burdened of late due to some heinous things happening around our world. November 13, 2015 witnessed a series of coordinated terrorist attacks on the city of Paris, France that resulted in the death of 130 people and wounding of 368 others.  Yesterday, December 2, 2015, America experienced the horrible deaths of 14 people and the wounding of 18 others (not including the deaths of the 2 terrorist perpetrators at the hands of police personnel) at the Inland Regional Center – an organization that serves developmentally disabled individuals in the San Bernardino and Riverside areas of California. These two incidents serve as examples of an escalation of crime, murder, and terrorist activity in our country and around the world in the last decade and a half. Yet, it is not the criminal violence and grotesque acts of a few that has my heart burdened.

Today, as I turned on the news channels and opened my browser to catch up on what’s happening in the world, I was hit by articles bashing conservative presidential candidates for calling our nation to intercede in prayer to God over the California attack. The outright mockery of American leaders who sought to turn to God for guidance, comfort, and peace in the face of a despicable act by mainstream media and liberal politicians flabbergasted me. No, it is not even the thick-headed desire of some in our nation to divorce God and Jesus Christ from life’s equation that has my heart burdened.

What is it, then, that has my heart so broken this morning? It is the detrimental effect that the problem of evil and Christians’ mishandling of life’s sufferings, such as the above, will have on our ability to evangelize our spheres of influence (aka Oikos) that has my heart hurting today. Please don’t misunderstand my statement. You see, God has supernaturally and strategically placed into the lives of every believer an average of 8-15 people with whom we “do life”. At our church, we call those our Oikos – our extended households. It is our individual responsibilities, as believers, to fulfill the Great Commission by reaching into those Oikos networks / spheres of influence with the truth about sin, brokenness, Jesus Christ, repentance, and faith – i.e. the gospel – so that the lives of those in our respective Oikos networks might be eternally changed by God. Terrible acts like the Paris and San Bernardino attacks will undoubtedly cause people that we, as Jesus-followers, “do life” with to ask the hardest questions of all: “Why did God do this?”  “If God loves people so much, why is there such horrible evil in the world?” “If God is so perfect and loving, why did He create such a horrible world?” and the list could go on.

The answer to these questions and others like them is simple and straight forward. As believers who desire to see those in our lives eternally changed by the gospel, we must be ready to answer these questions as 1 Peter 3:15-16 tells us. How then, do you answer such questions?

 

God Made Everything Perfect

On the sixth day of the creation week in Genesis 1:31, God looked over everything He’d created, over the entire universe from the smallest speck of microbe to mankind whom He’d created in His image and declared it all “very good”. God’s proclamation about creation was that all that He’d made was as good as it gets. God’s original design for the universe and mankind was that we be able to have a relationship with Him in perfect harmony, perfect peace, and perfect holiness. This was how God originally created mankind and the universe in which we live.

Sin Broke God’s Design

Genesis 3 records how mankind and the universe got into the mess in which we now live. Satan, the serpent, tempted Adam and Eve; calling into question God’s command not to eat the forbidden fruit. Adam and Eve, mankind’s progenitors, disobeyed God and ate the fruit in obedience to Satan. Genesis 3:8-24 records the results of mankind’s sin. Mankind died spiritually. Because of this, our perfect relationship with God was broken. You see this in Adam and Eve’s hiding from God and in their expulsion from the Garden of Eden. Because of man’s sin, the earth (created universe) and woman’s child-bearing were affected. What does this mean? Now, as a result of man’s sin in disobedience to God, life is difficult. Death and suffering, otherwise unknown in God’s original design, are now the ever-present constant in the universe. Romans 5 tell us that the entrance of death and all its attendant circumstances (disease, suffering, evil) is the result of Adam’s original sin; sin which all mankind perpetrates by nature and by choice. Let’s blame Adam! We can’t. Romans 5:12 reminds us that, yes, death came as a result of Adam’s sin, but it also comes to us all because we all sin. Every human being is responsible before God for his own sin.

Sin broke God’s original design and brought the suffering and death we experience in our world today. God can’t be blamed for it. The Bible is clear that the mess in which we now live is completely our fault.

Jesus is the Solution

How do we deal with the problem of sin and the brokenness of our world? God, in His rich mercy, grace, and love sent His Son, Jesus, to become a man so that He could die to pay for humanity’s sin and reverse the curse of our rebellion against God. In short, Jesus came so that He might restore God’s original design and fix the brokenness that sin brings. Romans 5:15 through the end of the chapter tells us that just as sin, death, the curse, and condemnation came by the sin of one man, Adam, so also justification (being declared righteous), life, reconciliation and a relationship with God all come through one man, Jesus Christ. Jesus came to pay the penalty our sin required so that all who believe might be redeemed from sin and its curse.

If God is to be blamed for anything, then blame Him for loving us enough to send His son to die for us. Yet, if Jesus is the solution to sin’s curse, and He’s already died to make things right, then why is the world still a mess? Simple. God is preserving the world from being as bad as it could be. Jesus Christ is holding the universe together (Colossians 1:17) and the Holy Spirit is restraining the full effects of sin and the curse for now (2 Thessalonians 2:7). God’s patience and kindness in not obliterating this sinful universe right now are intended to lead rebellious mankind to repentance and faith in Jesus (Romans 2:4).

Furthermore, God gave to mankind one of the greatest gifts and most awesome responsibilities ever: the freedom to choose. While the payment for sin is universal – Christ died for all men (2 Peter 3:9; 1 Timothy 2:3-4) – the responsibility to repent and believe the gospel is individual. Each and every sinner must personally repent and turn to Christ in belief of the gospel. God is not forcing salvation upon mankind. He calls men to repentance and faith, but sadly, not everyone responds to the gospel’s call in repentance and faith. Thus, the curse of sin remains in force until the day when human history will end and God will make all things right according to His will (Romans 8:22; 2 Peter 3:10-13).

I am not calloused toward the suffering of those in Paris or San Bernardino or next door to me. My heart aches for those who have lost loved ones in these horrible crimes, but it aches even more knowing that some, maybe even many, of those who died will undoubtedly now spend eternity in Hell because they didn’t know Christ. I wonder then, what if something like this happened to someone I know personally? What if someone in my Oikos, one of the people God has divinely ordained for me to “do life” with, were to die suddenly? Would they know Jesus? Would they go from this world to heaven? Or, will I keep silent and refuse to answer the tough questions of life and see them slip away into an eternity in Hell?

My heart aches for Christians who refuse to live life on mission. It throbs and screams for us to remember that as much as we all want to defend our American freedoms, we are citizens of Christ’s kingdom first and foremost. I fear that we, the Church, have forgotten that we are salt and light. I wonder if the blatant mockery of those who are calling our nation to pray in light of the San Bernardino tragedy isn’t evidence of the Church’s failure to be salt and light. While only God can remedy the evil and brokenness of this world, He has chosen and commanded us to be His emissaries; His message-bearers to our relational worlds - to our respective Oikos networks.

So, yes, my heart aches right now for what is happening in America. It hurts for those in California who are injured, for those who must now bury their dead, and for the family of those who perpetrated this crime. It aches for believers who are more intent on ranting against political liberalism and less intentional about living on mission. Standing for what’s right begins with living on mission. On a global scale, when I realize that the world’s most urgent need is Jesus, then I’m beginning to get it. On a national scale, when I realize that Washington D.C.’s greatest need isn’t a new president, congress, or Supreme Court, it’s the gospel, then I’m beginning to get it. When I realize that my neighbor’s, my co-worker’s, my family’s, my friend’s only solution to their brokenness in life is Jesus Christ and the eternal life that only comes through Him, and that it’s my responsibility to reach them with the gospel’s truth, then I’ve got it and I’m on mission.

There are answers to the tough questions about evil in the world. As the Church, may God help us not to get discouraged by tragic events and distracted to live off-mission. Rather, let the brokenness of life that results from sin move you to intentionally live on mission and open doors for you to reach your world with the gospel of Jesus Christ by being able to provide the answers to life's questions that only God can answer.