In this video, Grace@Work leader Cortney Alexander discusses a common question: “Why bad things happen to good people?”
But in Genesis 3, we read of Adam and Eve’s disobedience to God. As God had warned them, this disobedience introduced death and suffering into the world. But we can’t pin our current situation solely on Adam and Eve, for as Adam sinned, so every man and woman after him has also sinned (Rom. 3:23).
Indeed, the Bible recognizes that every person’s heart is inclined by nature against God (e.g., Eph. 2:3). That doesn’t mean we never do anything nice for old ladies or little babies, but it does mean that we, by nature, resist submitting ourselves to King Jesus.
For that reason, some have recognized that maybe the real question is why so many good things happen to bad people? Given that human nature is set in rebellion to God, why doesn’t he simply destroy us and start over? In fact, some skeptics ask that very question: If God is real, why doesn’t he step in and put a stop to all the carnage and destruction in the world?
The apostle Peter addressed that very question in 2 Peter 3. He says that while the day will indeed come when God steps in to bring judgment on the ungodly, there is a reason why that hasn’t yet happened. He writes, “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance” (2 Pet. 3:9).
If God immediately stepped in to judge all evil, I would not be talking to you right now. He would have destroyed me long ago. So I, for one, am grateful for his patience—even though I likewise long for the coming day when God will eradicate everything that is opposed to him from the world.
So, in summary, the question, “Why do bad things happen to good people?” is misleading. Because, left to their own devices, there is no one good.
But that doesn’t leave us without hope in this world. As the apostle Paul wrote, “God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all” (Rom. 11:32). The apostle John tells us how that mercy comes, saying that God sent his Son “in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God” (Jn. 3:17-18).
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