God Brings Good out of Evil

Evil in our world is a reality every thinking person must face, but it need not be fatal to the Christian.

The fact never changes: God is good. God is omnipotent, God is omniscient and He is omnipresent. We interpret the events of the day by the known truths, not the unknown. In fact, we interpret the unknown in the light of the known.

Augustine said, “God judged it better to bring good out of evil, than to suffer no evil to exist.”

You must acknowledge that good exists for evil to exist. There can be no evil without there being good. God’s providence extends over both good and evil. Moreover, His will is absolutely good and perfect because His is a righteous God.

God has good reason for evil to exist, even though He did not create it. Evil cannot exist unless God willed it, therefore He can use it for His glory and for our good.

A false premise commonly heard in our day is because evil exists in the world there is no God. The reasoning is if God is all-powerful, sovereign, and totally good, He will not allow evil to take place.

Evil is only a problem if good exists. Only because both good and evil exists can you have a problem. If there is no God, you cannot account for both good and evil. The only basis for assuming both is because there is a moral law, a standard by which to determine both good and evil. There can be no moral law without a moral Absolute. As Ravi Zacharias observes: “If there is no moral Lawgiver there is no moral law; if there is no moral law, there is no good; if there is no good there is no evil.”

Therefore, the idea of evil should cause us to seek God in His goodness rather than to flee from His presence and deny His existence.

Why does God get all the blame for the bad things that happen? Why doesn’t He get the credit for all the good we enjoy even though He owes us nothing?

1. Campbell Morgan keenly observed: “Men of faith are always the men that have to confront problems. Block God out and your problems are all ended. If there is no God in heaven then we have no problem without sin and suffering. But the moment you admit the existence of an all-powerful, governing God, you are face to face with your problems. If you have none, I question the strength of your faith.”

Moreover, only the fool would say in his heart, “There is no God” (Ps. 14:1).

Evil, therefore, should cause us to fall on our knees and bow in humility in the presence of the Lord God. The one purpose of evil in the providence of God is to cause us to seek Him. C. S. Lewis said, “God whispers to us in our pleasure, speaks to us in our conscience, but shouts to us in our pains; it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”

The God of the cross understands evil and suffering. The cross of Jesus Christ tells us that God is good and that He loves us. The cross of Jesus reminds us that God takes evil and uses it for our good. God is always in complete control.

At the cross, God was still asking the question He asked Job, “Who is then able to stand against Me? Who has preceded Me, that I should pay Him? Everything under the sun is mine” (Job 41:10b-11). God’s sovereign control is never interrupted.

The greatest example from history of God taking the greatest evil and bringing out of it the greatest good was at the cross of Jesus Christ. No one will ever experience any greater depth of evil than that exhibited at the crucifixion of Jesus. It was Satan’s best strike against God. Because of the cross, Satan was defeated. Christ rose from the grave and defeated Satan and evil. Now we can declare that God causes all things to work together for His glory (Rom. 8:28).

When God is silent, remember that He is still in complete control. We may not know the reason “why,” but the Lord knows why, and that is enough.

“For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8:38-39).

Selah!

Message by Wil Pounds (c) 2006