My friend John Stumbo has written a wonderful book entitled An Honest Look at a Mysterious Journey. You can purchase it here. It is a must read for anyone experiencing pain and confusion over the ways of God.
Here is a great quote (pp.120-121) from John on why he continued to attend church even when, because of pain and confusion in his life, he did not feel the desire to do so.
“Looking back over the last few months, I realize that by attending church …
…I think thoughts I would not otherwise think
… I hear truths I would not otherwise hear
… I sing songs I would not otherwise sing
… I meet people I would not otherwise meet
… I give offerings I may not otherwise give
… I rejoice in missions’ efforts and in new followers of Jesus that I would not otherwise know about
… I receive encouragement and challenge I would not otherwise receive
… I she tears I would not have otherwise shed
… I receive a blessing I would not otherwise have received
… I pray prayers I would not otherwise have thought to pray
… I meet God in a way that I would not have met Him had I stayed home in my chair
… And, perhaps, my attendance is an encouragement or testimony to someone else.”
We all wrestle with trying to reconcile what we see in this world with what we know of God from His Word.
Not long ago a well-known and much-respected journalist began his interview of a Christian leader by raising the issue of Japan’s recent tragedy with the earthquake, tsunami, and now the nuclear power plant. His opening salvo was this: “Help us with this tragedy in Japan. Which of these is true: Either God is all-powerful but He doesn’t care about the people of Japan and therefore they are suffering or He does care about the people of Japan, but He’s not all-powerful. Which one of these is it?”
The one being interviewed struggled, as we might guess, to provide an answer that satisfied his interviewer. So the one conducting the interview put it to him once again: “So which of these is true? He is all-powerful and He doesn’t care? Or He cares and isn’t all powerful?”
One thing that is certain: we’re glad we weren’t the one being interviewed! But now, with the leisure of time and reflection, how should we respond to such reasoning?
The interviewer has stated the problem precisely as it is so often held before us. Is God all-powerful and can do something to stop or relieve this suffering, but has not (and thus must not be all-good)? Or is God all-good and thus wishes to do something to stop or relieve this suffering, but is impotent to enact His wishes?
This pits God’s goodness and God’s power over against one another: Which one has the greater claim upon God — His moral goodness or His mighty power?
But this, it seems to me, is misguided reasoning precisely because it is built on the premise that these two qualities (goodness and power) must be the two highest claims upon God and are therefore the determining factor in the matter of judging His response or seeming non-response to this (or any) tragedy.
It is correct to say that God’s love is an all-powerful love and His power is a all-loving power. Neither violates the other.
But, how can this be maintained when we look upon suffering?
The mists begin to clear when we realize that Christian theology makes neither God’s goodness nor His power the highest claimants upon His actions. Rather–if it is possible at all to speak of God having a most fundamental, core or supreme attribute–Christian theology holds that it is God’s holiness which defines all else we know about God.
Yes, God’s love is an all-powerful love. But this is not the most fundamental thing we can say about God’s love. No, the most fundamental thing we can say about God’s love is that it is a holy love. And, yes, God’s power is an all-loving power. But this again is not the most fundamental thing we can say about God’s power. No, it is even more fundamental to say that God’s power is a holy power.
What, then, if we look upon this suffering (or any other example we may come upon) and instead of pitting God’ s love against God’s power and vice versa, we asked ourselves: Just what is a holy-love? And what is holy-power?
Holiness at its root means to be separate, to be set apart. God in every facet of His being is Holy. Utterly, awfully, terribly holy. He is “other” than, different from anyone or anything we can know. We cannot come at a right understanding of God in His holiness by means of comparison. He is simply other than, different from and beyond in nature and scope everything else we know. We do not learn what His love is like by looking at a human expression of love. This is to place the tape measure at the wrong end and measure in the wrong direction! This is to measure the Creator by the (now fallen) creation. No, we discern what is truly love here on earth by looking first upon His love. And that love is Holy . . . beyond, over, other than any other love we might see or know here. Thus there are dimensions and facets of love which we can never understand on this sin-cursed earth, through sin-clouded minds. As also there are dimensions of power for which we have no categories of understanding.
Where then might we look to see God’s Holy love and Holy power at work that we might set the end of our measure there and draw it out toward the tragic events of our earth? Just here: the cross. Here is HOLY LOVE! For God, looking upon a race which rebelled against and rejected His rule over them, now moved to redeem them by the sacrifice of His Son! There are simply no human categories by which to understand such a holy love (Rom. 5:6-8)! This is a love that did not take a vacation when God in His holy power judged sin. Rather it is a love that placed Him Son in the cross hairs of His holy, all-powerful judgment of that sin rather than pour it out upon us! What did God do in the face of a necessary tragedy, caused by our sin and rebellion? He entered that suffering, focusing it upon Himself and away from us. This is powerful Holiness–judging sin, the cause of all suffering. This holy love–embracing the judgment of His holiness and exhausting its penalty in Himself.
An answer to the age-old conundrum as articulated by this interviewer? The question is simply wrongly conceived from the beginning. For it is not love and power which most fundamentally define God. It is His holiness. What does holy love and holy power look like? Look at Jesus upon the cross.
There you find a God who does not run from tragedy, wishing He could do more. There you find not a God who does what He wishes, though with less than stellar motives. No, there you meet the God who in holy love removed the cause of the suffering by directing His own all-powerful, holy judgment against that sin now laid upon His own Son in our place.
Christ lived to provide the righteousness required of me by God.
“I always do the things that are pleasing to him.” (John 8:29)
“I have obeyed my Father’s commands.” (John 15:10)
“God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Cor. 5:21)
“… a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified.” (Gal. 2:16)
“It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us … our righteousness.” (1 Cor. 1:30)
Christ died to pay the penalty for my unrighteousness before God.
“For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. ” (1 Pet. 3:18)
“You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Rom. 5:6-8)
“He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.” (1 Pet. 2:24)
Christ lives again to produce in and through me the righteous life God requires of me.
“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Gal. 2:20)
“Christ … is your life.” (Col. 3:4)
“… through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.” (Rom. 8:2-4)
I guess it only underscores the point of it all: “the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” (1 Cor. 1:18)
