Why do bad things happen in a world ruled by a good God? We’ve already considered that question in this series of sermons and concluded, on the basis of Scripture, that we’ll never fully know why things happen the way they do.And we have already explored what it means to live by faith, not sight. But that doesn’t stop us from trying to come up with answers, even if they’re wrong answers, to explain why bad things happen in our world. Last time we were together, we considered one such wrong answer: namely, suffering as a punishment for specific sins you’ve committed. We saw last time that the Bible teaches that that’s not true. And we talked about the wonder of grace! Today I want to look at another wrong answer. And as with the last wrong answer, we only give time and attention to these “wrong answers” because they are so compelling, so tempting. They’re so easy to fall for. The wrong answer today is, “Suffering happens because God can’t help it. He’s simply not strong enough to stop it.” In the early 80’s Rabbi Harold Kushner wrote a moving book entitled, WHEN BAD THINGS HAPPEN TO GOOD PEOPLE. Rabbi Kushner wrote the book out of his own personal suffering. He lost a son at the age of 14 to a disease called “progeria,” rapid aging. The book is a moving account of the feelings and questions we often have when we suffer. Among other things, Kushner proposes a new understanding of God and his relationship to suffering. Kushner proposes that God cannot be both all—powerful and good. Either God is all powerful, but not good (for why would an all—powerful God who was good let bad things happen to people), or God is good, but is not all—powerful. God just can’t help all the bad things that happen. Kushner’s solution was to say that God is not all—powerful. God just can’t help a lot of the bad things that happen to people. This book was a best seller. All of this raises the question, “How strong is God?” Philosophers have long toyed with this question. Is there anything God cannot do? Can God make a stone that’s heavier than he can lift? Out of these kinds of conundrums, we conclude that God is self—limiting. He cannot contradict himself. And he is constant and so is self—limited by the commitments he makes to doing certain things in certain ways. But never in Christian thinking has there been a serious question raised about the almightiness of God, that is, the power of God over all his creation. That is not to say that God does not allow certain things to take their course even though God doesn’t like the course they take. I don’t think it’s God’s will (his positive desire) that anyone has cancer. But that is a different question than the question, What does the Bible teach about the power of God? What can God do? How strong is God? I would like to argue today, from the Scriptures, that God not only is good (which, curiously, is not challenged in this therapeutic age of ours) but is all—powerful. At least three things in the Scripture establish the all—powerfulness of God. 1. First, he is the creator. Genesis 1. He calls the world into being. The Christian understanding of creation, as old as the Bible, is that God, as the creator, is over, above the creature, the creation. That’s what we mean by God. He is “greater than.” Everything is “under” him. Let’s just take a quick look at two psalms in this regard. First, Psalm 104, a psalm of praise to God the creator. In the first 26 verses, the psalmist looks at God’s handiwork——the heavens, the earth, the sea, the many forms of life.
Then he says in v. 27, These all look to you to give them their food at the proper time. When you give it to them, they gather it up; when you open your hand, they are satisfied with good things When you hide your face, they are terrified; when you take away their breath, they die and return to the dust. When you send your Spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the earth.God is the creator and absolute sustainer of the universe. Then, Psalm 46. In Psalm 46, we see God’s relationship to the world as it “becomes uncreated” because of evil. Vs. 1—2
God is our refuge and strength, an ever present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.The basic divisions of creation ——water and earth——fall apart. But even when the creation is “falling apart at the seams,” we do not fear. Why? Because there are still a few things God can do? NO! Because God is over all:
Verse 6 “Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall; he lifts his voice the earth melts.”
Verse 10, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”He concludes both stanzas (vs. 7 and 11),
“The Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.”God is the creator. He is always over the creation. He rules it. He is God. 2. Second, in the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, God put all things under the power of Christ. In Ephesians 1:18—21. Paul is praying for the Ephesians. He says,
I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.Now, that’s a pretty exhaustive listing of the things that contend for power in the universe. And Paul says that Jesus Christ is stronger than all of them. When we believe in the resurrection, we believe in the absolute victory and power of Jesus Christ over all the powers of darkness; we believe that victory is an accomplished fact. 3. Third, we see that power of the kingdom already in Jesus earthly ministry. Jesus Christ came bringing the kingdom of God. And one of the clearest manifestations of that kingdom was his healing people with life—long diseases, his casting out demons, his raising people from the dead. Already in his earthly ministry, time and time again, even before his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ established the unbounded power of the kingdom of God over against the kingdom of darkness. Now, again, let me be as clear as I can. The only question I am raising and seeking to answer today is: how strong is God? The only thing I am arguing from the Scriptures is this: God is all—powerful. In saying that God is all—powerful, I am not saying that therefore that God wills our suffering. There are many things God allows to take place in spite of the fact that he has the raw power to stop them. But that is different than saying he can’t help it. Neither am I presuming to answer the question that then still remains, Why does an all—powerful and good God allow such bad things to happen. We’ve already looked at that “Why” question earlier in this series. My only point today is: God is almighty. God is all—powerful. God is God. In one sense, it may seem sort of silly to many of you to “waste” a whole message making such a basic point about God, a point which I dare say all of us, when it comes down to it, believe. But I think it is not “wasted” for two reasons. First, it’s important for us to see just how tempting it is, especially in the clutches of suffering, to come up with some explanation, any explanation of suffering, even one which revises the Scripture’s most basic picture of God; And in our modern age, it’s important to see how tempting it is to shrink God to our size, to think of God as just a big human being, and then to reason from that to “Well, he has to be either this or that. . . ” It is so easy in a world that has banished God, to forget the geometry of the universe——he is great, we are small; to really think that God is on trial, subject to our questions; rather than we are on trial, subject to God’s questions. It’s good for us to realize how easy it is for us to play God. The second reason it’s worth our while to get this straight today is for the sake of the sufferer herself. We recently had a seminary student’s wife lose a baby she was carrying late in the pregnancy. What a strange comfort it would be to say to this heartbroken almost mother, “Well, God just can’t stop this kind of thing. But he is nice. And he’ll do what he can.” What good is a good, nice God who is impotent? To “explain away” suffering by saying that God can’t help it is to rob Christian sufferers of one of their deepest convictions throughout the ages that they hang onto through the darkest night—— that God rules, and that, while we may not understand why things happen to us, we believe that God rules this world and that he is with us always and that nothing has the power to separate us from the love of God. Years ago, I visited an elderly saint of the church I was serving then named Irene. Irene was sick and near death. I prayed with her in her bedroom and then went out to the living room and sat with one of Irene’s daughters, Rosemary. Rosemary and I had a wonderful talk, and in the course of our conversation, Rosemary told me the story of their son’s death, 5 years before, to cancer. She talked about how painful it was, but also, how real to her and her family was the grace of God. I left there moved again at the power of healing grace, moved that, indeed, the worst of sufferers can and do believe that God is both almighty and good; and moved, most of all, that, yes, there is joy in the morning. Joy does come again. A little later, just the day before Irene died, I visited Irene again. And Linda, another daughter, was at Irene’s with Rosemary. Linda and Rosemary and I talked about Irene and about funeral plans. When I left, Linda and I went down to the office to copy some things for the funeral service. And then Linda walked me to the lobby and the front door. As I was leaving I said, “You know, you have a beautiful family. Your mother has such a beautiful faith. And Rosemary——she told me her story about her son dying 5 years ago.” I told her the things that so moved me about her testimony. And then, Linda said, “Yes, we’ve been through a lot as a family. My husband and I lost a son ten years ago, you know.” And she proceeded to tell me the story of her ten year old son, falling to his death from condominium balcony. I stood there in stunned silence as she told the story of her journey of suffering. But what moved me most was the healing grace of God, as now, ten years later, pure joy and deep love for God radiated from this captain of suffering. Think about it: Aside from the question of whether it’s true, what comfort would it have been to say to Rosemary 5 years before or to Linda 10 years before, when they cried out in horror, “How could God let this happen?” “Well, God just can’t help it.” No, among this family’s favorite verses are verses like
Isaiah 41:10 Fear not, for I am with you. Be not dismayed for I am your God. I will help you, I will strengthen you, I will uphold you with my victorious right hand. And Isaiah 43:1—3 But now, this is what the Lord says— he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, (I’ll do what I can? NO) I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; For I am the Lord, your God, the Holy one of Israel, your Savior.As a pastor I know that we ask why. You do. I do. I know that we crave for understanding in our suffering. But as a Christian pastor who is also charged by the church to keep before you the Word of God, I declare today:
Jesus Christ has risen from the dead far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and every title that can be given in this age and the age to come. He rules.All of our questions have their ebb and flow under that reality. Nothing changes that reality. Our God reigns. Our God reigns. We will believe that, through our tears, through our questions, and even with broken hearts, Our God Reigns.
Duane Kelderman
Rev. Duane Kelderman is the Vice President for Administration and an Associate Professor of Preaching at Calvin Seminary in Grand Rapids. Before his current position he served as pastor in Christian Reformed congregations in Toledo, Ohio; Denver, Colorado; and Grand Rapids, Michigan. Rev. Kelderman is married to Jeannette and has three children and two grandchildren. He was born and raised in Oskaloosa, Iowa and attended Calvin College and Calvin Seminary. He enjoys reading and carpentry.
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