The Problem of Evil- Part Three

Romans 8:12Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation—but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it. 13For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, 14because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, "Abba, Father." 16The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. 17Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

So we have explored reason number one why God allows the existence of evil (there is another reason we will explore later) and why the existence of evil is not a logical objection to the existence of God. The question that follows is this: if God allows for evil to exist, then does that mean that it is okay to do evil? Does God turn a blind eye to evil? Will bad people get away with it in the end?

These questions can only be answered if we examine the nature of God as revealed in the Bible. We all know from the Bible that God is loving- indeed we know from John 4:16 that God is love. But sometimes we forget some of His other attributes. We will examine four other attributes.

Perfect
We know from Matthew 5:48 that God is perfect. This is an important attribute. It is the attribute by which we can define all of His other attributes for if God is perfect, then His attributes are perfect as well. As we examine His other attributes we will see just how important this is.

Holy
In both Isaiah 6 and Revelation 4 we are told three times that God is holy. If it was not enough to know that God was perfect in His Holiness by inferring it from above, the point is hammered home to us in these scriptures. God is unlike any other (see Hosea 11:9), and His holiness is the essence of that “otherness.” His very being is completely absent of even a trace of sin (James 1:13; Hebrews 6:18). He is high above any other, and no one can compare to Him (Psalm 40:5). God’s holiness pervades His entire being and shapes all His attributes. His love is a holy love, His mercy is holy mercy, and even His anger and wrath are holy anger and holy wrath. These concepts are difficult for humans to grasp, just as God is difficult for us to understand in His entirety.

Faithful and Just
In 1 John 1:9 we learn that God is faithful and just. These two attributes go together for by God being perfect in his faithfulness; we know that we can trust Him- always and in everything. The Greek word used here is pistos and means trustworthy. This is important because we often tend to think that God might not care about some small sin we have committed. But we know that God is also perfectly just. So if God says that He will punish even the smallest sin, then we know not only that we can believe Him, but also that He is just in punishing the smallest sin.

So what does all of this mean? It means that God will not judge us based on human standards but on His holy standards. We will not be compared to Hitler or Mother Theresa when we face God at the judgment. We will be compared to His perfection and we will be found lacking. According to His word, a price must be paid for our sins. No, evil has not and will not go unpunished.

There is a small part of me that wants justice. But then I think about what that would mean for me and I realize that I only want justice for others- and even this is my idea of justice, not God’s. For me, I want mercy. Are you honest enough with yourself to admit that you too would like to have mercy for yourself and maybe, just maybe, for others?

Stay with me. We will look at what God has done to punish evil and what He will do next. Then perhaps we will finally get to the text of the scripture.