God brings good out of evil
by Pastor Joshua Pfeiffer
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Therefore let the entire house of Israel know with certainty that God has made him both Lord and Messiah, this Jesus whom you crucified (Acts 2:36).
Why is there evil and suffering? This is, of course, one of the classic questions of the human heart. And these days, it is one of the chief protests against the Christian faith. Perhaps you struggle with this in your own life. Although the Bible never explains this in the way a modern person might like, the question gets addressed in various places in interesting ways (for example, Job; John 9; Luke 13:1–5; Matthew 13:24–29,36–40). More than this, one thing that is very clear in the Scriptures is that God can and does bring good out of evil. Several verses make this point explicitly, but the ultimate example is the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
The verse above includes the final words of the Apostle Peter in his sermon on the day of Pentecost. Peter does not sugar-coat his message. Twice in the sermon, he tells the crowd they are responsible for crucifying and killing Jesus. He stresses that God demonstrated who Jesus was through his ‘deeds of power, wonders and signs’ (verse 22). And yet, they still killed him. He is the one through whom all things came into being and who came out of love for the world. Yet when we human beings could get our hands on him, we killed him. The murder of the innocent Son of God is an act of pure evil on the part of humanity. But through this and from this, God brought resurrection, life, forgiveness and salvation. God brings good from evil.
The evil and suffering in the world is very real. Perhaps there are things in your life right now that make it hard to go on. God does not promise to take it all away, any more than he could promise his Son another way than the cross (Luke 22:42–44). But he does promise he is always at work to bring good from the terrible things that happen in this broken world. As a baptised child of God, your life is now incorporated into the death and resurrection of Christ Jesus. This means God is always bringing resurrection and life from the effects of sin and death.
Heavenly Father, how long will you allow the evil and suffering in this world to continue? Help us by your Spirit to look in faith to our crucified and risen Lord Jesus as we face trials in our lives. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
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