God Controls It All

God is good all the time. We’ve all heard that said in church at some point. Most of us have said it ourselves, but do we really mean it? Do we actually understand the implications of what we’re saying? A lot of times, we as Christians confuse our understanding or expectations of what is good with what God believes is good and ultimately chooses to do. This is backwards. After all, as Christians our definition of “good” should simply be anything that is of God. So, anything that is within God’s will should be seen as good.

The problem is that we humans are limited in what we can perceive. Most of us believe God has a plan. Unfortunately, none of us understand the totality of that plan, so in our ignorance, questions arise that may shake our faith, or in the case of nonbelievers, keep us from coming to the faith altogether. Why did He create a world with natural disasters? Why does disease exist? Why do children have to suffer? We’ve all heard or posed those questions or questions like them at some point. Some preachers might offer a limited answer of “sin” as the answer to those questions.  It is true that much of the misery that we face in the world is due to our own sinful nature. It’s certainly the reason our earthly lives have a finality to them. The most well known part of Romans 6:23 tells us:

For the wages of sin is death...

However, the truth is that not all the bad things that happen in the are due solely to us being sinful. The fact is that some of the challenges we face are of God’s creation and are part of his design. The Bible is clear about that.

I form the light and create darkness, I bring prosperity and create disaster; I, the Lord, do all these things. - 45:7

Prior to this verse, God, through his prophet, was telling the Hebrews what he would do for them, but in this verse, he makes it clear he does all things. For us, pairs like light and darkness, prosperity and disaster, and good and evil are like heads and tails, opposite sides of some cosmic coin. God is telling us that he doesn’t just control one side of the coin, the one that we find most favorable. He controls the whole coin. That might seem hard to believe. If God is good, how can he control evil. Satan is the one that brings evil, not God. Right? God doesn’t bring evil, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t control it. Even if you believe that Satan is the avatar of evil, then you have to recognize that even Satan falls under God’s control. It was God that allowed Satan into the Garden of Eden to tempt man. It was God that allowed Satan to terrorize Job. The Bible tells us that Satan is even responsible for Jesus being captured and killed.

and the chief priests and the teachers of the law were looking for some way to get rid of Jesus, for they were afraid of the people. Then Satan entered Judas, called Iscariot, one of the Twelve. And Judas went to the chief priests and the officers of the temple guard) and discussed with them how he might betray Jesus. - Luke 22:2-4

Jesus dying for our sins is the greatest thing that has ever been done for us, and Satan had a part in making it happen. The fact that evil was part of the path to our salvation shouldn’t surprise anyone. Jesus was an innocent man and was beaten and killed because people were jealous of him and feared what he represented. They claimed he committed blasphemy against God even though he was God in the flesh.

Then the high priest tore his clothes, saying, “He has spoken blasphemy! What further need do we have of witnesses? Look, now you have heard His blasphemy! - Matthew 26:65

We always knew that the earthly side of Jesus’ death was evil at its very core. We simply don’t always think of that in terms of being God’s plan, but that doesn’t change the fact that God controlled it all.

Many people in the Old Testament knew of and spoke of Jesus’ coming and what he would eventually do. Again from Isaiah:

"On this mountain he will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples,
the sheet that covers all nations; he will swallow up death forever.  The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces; he will remove his people’s disgrace from all the earth. The Lord has spoken" - Isaiah 25:7-8

Isaiah could see the great things that Jesus would do, but even he didn’t see everything that laid on the path to Jesus doing those things. Therein lies the problem. We as believers know God is good, but sometimes we can only see a small part of His plan at any time. When that small part includes things that we deem to be bad, it sometimes makes us question how the plan could be good. That’s where faith comes in for believers. If we truly believe that God is good, then we have to trust his plan whether we can see it all or not. If we are facing hardships and evil directed our way, we have to believe that God is in control of it all, and that in the end, he will use it to bring glory to Himself and bless his people. Yes, we remember the first part of Romans 6:23, but lets us not forget the second part:

...but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

If we believe in Jesus, we will be rewarded. We will see the good of God’s plan, if not in this life, then certainly in the next. That’s also how we must reach nonbelievers. Yes, misery, darkness, and evil exist in this world. We may not always understand why, but we know that somehow and in some way, God is using it to the benefit of his people. Jesus’ story is the perfect example. The entire Old Testament is full of terrible things, but it was all leading up to Jesus’ birth, death, and resurrection. God used all of that for our benefit, and while the death and misery that we read about in the Old Testament sounds massively bad, it is nothing compared to the goodness of salvation and that’s what we are promised through our belief in Jesus Christ.

Yes, God is good. He is also supreme. That means everything bows before him and bends to his will. If we truly believe that God is good then we have to believe that everything he has created, whether we believe it to be good or bad, will be used in a glorious way. We can’t always understand everything God does, but maybe we should learn to not dwell on whether things are good or bad and instead look at how they can be used to do God’s will. Maybe then, we’ll truly be able to do our part in God’s plan and make it clear that we believe what we say.

Chris Lawyer

Image Courtesy of Principles for Live Ministries