Fearlessly Courageous
Desk of Dennis Piller
6 14 2024
I am excited to be inviting some new listeners this morning from The Following Jesus Class that started last night at Grace Family Church online. Every Thursday night at 7pm I will be hosting a class to help believers deepen their faith and perhaps grow some new relationships.
Please pray for them in the weeks to follow.
Why do bad things happen to good people?
How does Father God see us? Is it an issue of Naughty or Nice? Good ones and Bad ones? What does the bible say about that? Abraham asked God to spare them all if he could find just 10 righteous. (He couldn’t) How many were good enough to save in Noah’s time? 8…Only 8 good people. What does the New Testament say about the number of Good People?
Romans 3:10-12, Psalm 14:1-3, Psalm 53:1-3 NIV – As it is
There is no one who seeks God. … ALL have turned away, they have together become worthless;
there is NO ONE who does good, not even one.”. So what is the meaning of Romans 3 10?
Every person, Jew or Gentile, will be judged by God on the basis of their own right and wrong choices. By that standard, every person, Jew or Gentile,
will be found to be “under sin” or guilty and deserving of God’s anger.
In Rom 3:20 Paul puts it bluntly: No human being will be justified in God’s sight by works of the law. Why is this? Because no human being is able to keep the works of the law perfectly. We are sinners by nature. Every single person, without exception, chooses to do what they know is wrong, at least sometimes. Which automatically denies them entrance into the presence of a pure and holy God.
So what is one to do? What chance does the world have? How do we know if God loves us or hates us? Pastor Wolfmueller asked a solid question and answered it;
How does God coexist in a world of corruption and deceit?
It’s the ancient question of theodicy; Either God is not all-powerful or He is not all-good.
That is not true because the bible is clear.
He does whatever He pleases.” Psalm 115:3
Scripture also teaches that God is also all-good:
“No one is good but One, that is, God.” Matthew 19:17
“Oh give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good.” Psalm 136:1
We know bad things happen, but do they happen to ‘good people’? Are there really good people?
Are we all so good and innocent that we deserve a life with no suffering?
Isn’t that the offense of the Gospel to the world? 1 CORINTHIANS 1:18
Many unbelievers don’t see themselves as wretched sinners. (Nor do many Christians)
They don’t see themselves in need of a Savior. Tragically, they see the gospel message as an absurdity and not the good news that it really is.
We ultimately profess that our neighbors, coworkers, family members are no good. We even choke on that statement because we feel we do a lot of good things.
It would be more accurate to say: bad things happen to bad people. ‘Bad people’, that’s how the Bible describes all of us. “There is none righteous, no, not one… There is none who does good, no, not one.” [Romans 3:10 ,12 ] We are truly poor miserable sinners, and so we are always praying for mercy: that God would give us what we don’t deserve. We deserve His wrath and punishment because of our sins,
but we pray that He would not look upon our sins,
but upon Christ and His cross, and spare us from what we deserve.
But there was one good person: Jesus. He was perfect and sinless. And something bad did happen to Him: He went to Jerusalem, was rejected, suffered and died. In the history of the earth, this is the only bad thing to happen to a good person. And so instead of asking, “Why do bad things happen to good people?” we should ask, “Why did a bad thing happen to the good person?” This is the right question, and we know the answer. “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” [Romans 5:8 ]
Why did a bad thing happen to this Good Person? For us and for our salvation. He died for us, in our place, for the remission of our sins. And this forgiveness He gives freely, as a gift. We do not deserve His grace and love and forgiveness and life and salvation and the sure hope of heaven, but He gives them to us anyhow. Here our human desire for justice is turned on its head.
The Gospel is not fair; Jesus gets our sins and death…
we get His righteousness and life.
No, the Gospel is not fair, but it is good, and so we rejoice.
Waymaker
