Have you ever asked the question, “Why do bad things happen to good people?” I have been asked that questions hundreds of times. Until recently, I have always answered it gently and politely with little quips that are actually fallacies based on the Biblical text. You want to comfort people and present God and life in the best philosophical setting so that their times of trial are softened somewhat by your answer. Nevertheless, in reality the honest brutal truth is more devastating that we actually care to hear.
Biblically speaking, there are none that are good, not even one. In Psalm 51 we are given great insight into the reality of our beginnings of life and where our nature is rooted. In Isaiah 53 we are told none of us are right before a holy God. We are all infected with a sin nature that alienates us from God from before birth. When we are conceived, we are already missing the mark before we are even born. When we are conceived, we are conceived with rebellion against God already programmed into our DNA at conception. The very second the ovum is fertilized, we are programmed to rebel against an almighty God. There are none of us who fail to qualify for that category.
Now when I am asked the question, “Why do bad things happen to good people?” I simply respond, “They do not.” I intentionally leave it there. I do not go any further than that in my answer. But, always without fail, I get drug into a deep minded philosophical and theological conversation. Many want to debate the theological implications of my answer and almost everyone wants to argue that God cannot be that calloused to the plight of mankind.
That is where I have them. They have fallen for the trap, they jumped right up on the trap and took the cheese. The lever has been sprung and now the full weight of their sin is about to collapse around them. They do not know that they have been sent for an appointment with their maker, not me, I am just the messenger. They have fallen into a philosophical and theological trap out of which there is not escape, their sin in the hands of an angry God.
The answer they do not expect is this: Who is good in the sight of a holy God? Who deserves to go to heaven without their sins being forgiven? Who places themselves higher than the Son of God, Jesus of Nazareth? Either they are better than Jesus, and Jesus died in vain or there are none that are good?
Be prepared in season and out to share that our God is a holy and just God demanding perfection to stand in His presence. When you are asked the question, do not be afraid to let God be God, maybe He plans to use you as part of His plan to bring a friend or stranger into the kingdom.
