God Victorious?

It is amazing to me how much our assumptions color the way we interpret the events in our lives. This is a pretty obvious point. But it has taken on fresh significance for me since Dave died. This post is about the sovereignty of God, and how our belief or unbelief on this point is so crucial in times of suffering.

The logic is not complex: God, if He exists, is all-powerful. God, if He exists, is all-knowing. Therefore, everything that happens in the universe happens because He either directly causes it Himself, or He allows secondary agents to bring it about.

This applies to the good and happy things as well as the sad and awful things. You see, if God knows everything in advance, then He knows that bad things are coming in advance. And if He has all power, then He could stop them if He wanted to... but He often does not stop them. He could have stopped my brother from soaking himself in gasoline and lighting himself on fire. The God I pray to and worship every day decided that He would allow that to happen. Or perhaps God actually made David do it. If God is real these are our only options. Now I have opened the biggest of all worm-cans.

The struggle for most people is that the Bible claims over and over again that God is a good and loving God. At this point in the thought process, people respond in one of the following ways:

1. God must not really exist, since so many bad things happen in the world. It is not possible that a supreme being who is all-powerful, all-knowing and loving can exist, or else he would stop all the evil in the world. This is a classic atheist argument.

2. God's sovereignty is limited by human free will. He cannot stop bad things from happening because if He did, it would violate human will. This is probably the most prevalent line of reasoning in the American church today.

3. God has a purpose for allowing bad things to happen. Since He is the one who defines, by His essential nature, what love is, it is possible for Him to be loving, all-powerful, and all-knowing, and to allow the existence of evil and pain. This is the view that I take because I believe it is what the Bible teaches.

Why bother with all this "logic" and "theological stuff"? Because I believe that the most important thing about us is what we think about God (Tozer), and the quickest way to find out if someone believes in the Almighty God who actually exists, or in some smaller version that they have invented in their own mind, is to find out what they believe about this topic.

The greatest possible good is for God to be glorified. God is glorified when His character is displayed through His actions, and is acknowledged, first among the members of the Trinity, and then by His creatures.

God is glorified in the display of His love and mercy when He saves sinners from the punishment that they deserve, and He is glorified in the display of His holiness and justice when He gives sinners the punishment they deserve. In either case, He is glorified because in both cases His character is accurately displayed. All humanity sinned in Adam and therefore justly deserves to burn in hell for eternity. Therefore, if we get anything less than absolute hell, that is a gift of His grace. We should not be amazed that God allows suffering in the world. We should be amazed that He allows so many people who hate Him to go on living relatively comfortable lives.

Many people, including Christians, recoil at this talk. They say things like, "I don't think I want to worship a God like that!" Well, fortunately it's not all wrath and judgment. But without a proper understanding of our true plight, we cannot truly appreciate the grace that He gives. If we think we deserve to be saved from hell, we will not really be thankful, nor do we truly understand what our salvation actually is. Our salvation is more than just a "get outa hell free" card. It is the state of being that delights in God above all else. Believing in Jesus is equal to finding all satisfaction in Him.

John 6:35 Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst." (ESV)

He compares Himself to bread and water because He wants us to recognize Him as the only source of true spiritual satisfaction. Those who come to Him and believe in Him never hunger or thirst - spiritually. This is where we discover the beautiful confluence of God's glory and our happiness. You see, by seeking His own glory, through our salvation and the destruction of the unrepentant, He is working for our happiness at the same time, because we were created to be in relationship with Him. Therefore, it is in the experience of worship - recognizing who God is through what God has done - that we are ultimately fulfilled. It is only through this that we can be fulfilled.

If we seek happiness in anything other than relationship with God, we commit idolatry, and are doomed to disappointment.

Jeremiah 2:11 -13 Has a nation changed its gods, even though they are no gods? But my people have changed their glory for that which does not profit. Be appalled, O heavens, at this; be shocked, be utterly desolate, declares the LORD, for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water. (ESV)

Or on the positive side:

Psalm 73:25-28 Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. For behold, those who are far from you shall perish; you put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you. But for me it is good to be near God; I have made the Lord GOD my refuge, that I may tell of all your works. (ESV)

So God is not a cruel tyrant for seeking His own glory in all that He does, for in so doing, He gives us the only possible way to happiness. Unless of course we do not believe in Him. Then His glory does not bring us happiness. So the bottom line is this - God is going to be glorified through every one of us. Either He will be glorified through destroying us or through saving us. Our responsibility is to acknowledge that His judgment is just, and that we deserve to be punished, then to ask Him for mercy. And He promises that everyone who asks Him for mercy will receive mercy.

Isaiah 55:1-2 "Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food."

Isaiah 55:6-7 "Seek the LORD while he may be found; call upon him while he is near; let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the LORD, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon."(ESV)

I am heavily indebted to John Piper for the insight about delighting in God and how that dovetails with Gods glory. See, Desiring God, or anything else he has written for the full explanation.

All of this builds up to the answer to our original question - If God is loving and He knows everything and He could stop bad things from happening, why doesn't He stop them?

Answer # 1 - He is judging the sins of those who do not believe. (See Luke 13, "unless you repent, you will all likewise perish")

Answer #2 - He is testing and strengthening the faith of those who do believe. (See Romans 5:1-11, Romans 8:18-39, the whole book of 1 Peter, James 1:2-4).

Believers "pass the test" when we demonstrate that we still find satisfaction and happiness in our relationship with God even though He may take everything else we have.

"Though He slay me, I will hope in Him." Job 13:15 (NASB)

"For Your sake we are being put to death all day long, we were considered as sheep to be slaughtered. But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us." Romans 8:36-37 (NASB)

That brings Him glory. That makes us happy.