light and momentary

 

I have been blessed with a really, really good life on during my time on earth. I have two awesome parents and three really cool siblings. The Lord has given me great friends during all my stages of life. I grew up in a Christian home and had a really supportive community around me growing up. Then, I got to spend four years growing and being sharpened at the best university in Texas (hook 'em!), and now I have been given a gift of a year to study Scripture and learn to back up what I believe.

In short, I am privileged and blessed. 

That being said, I've had really hard seasons of life. We all lived through COVID. Before I was born, my grandfather passed away, so there's one grandparent that I simply never met. Since then, I've lost two other grandparents. I experienced the trivial trials of both high school and college that were acute at the time. And, I am epileptic so there are certain activities and normal parts of life that cause me more trepidation or anxiety than the normal person. 

Those things were hard, but I have had a relatively easy life compared to many across the globe. Every day, I am amazed at the resilience of friends and family around me. 

So... why does Scripture call our afflictions light and momentary?

Why does Scripture call God good? 

How can a good, sovereign God exist in the presence of evil?

It's a fair question that is so difficult to reconcile. In the midst of trials, suffering, pain, and death, the earth can feel very lonely and demoralizing, and so the idea that a loving God is sovereign over all the earth may feel contradictory and even outlandish.

Let's break it down:

Evil is the deprivation of some particular good that should be there. In the same way that darkness only is created by the absence of light, evil is created when good ceases to be present. Therefore, evil is not necessarily a created thing, but rather the perversion of a created order: that which is good. 

God created a world that is good and holy and perfect. To be a good God, He must enable His creation to pick Him– to pick that which is good. There must then be a capacity for evil to exist and be committed by the good creation of the Holy God. God ordains evil, and established it as a choice, but is not the source from which evil flows.

The Lord endowed us with free will, thus He knew that sin would be a possibility. Because He "discerns our thoughts from afar" (Psalm 139:2), He knows the choices that we will make and knows that we do not pick Him every time.

But "He is not slow about promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to eternal life" (2 Peter 3:9), so not only does He permit evil, but He ordains for us to stay within a world that is broken and suffering for the time being. Again, this may seem to contradict itself.

It may just hurt, because we also know that God is all-powerful and can destroy evil: so, why hasn't He?

On the cross, Christ defeated the power of evil. Because of His sacrifice, we no longer are subject to the penalty of sin. Because of His Spirit, we are no longer subject to the power of sin. But... what about the presence of sin and evil?

As said in II Peter, the Lord is patient with us, and wants everyone to come to repentance. He longs to restore His people to Himself, therefore, He lets us experience life on earth so that we may choose Him. Sin and evil have been dealt with during the crucifixion, Jesus' first coming– they no longer have the final word!

When Jesus returns, sin and evil will be completely done away with. The Lord is not slow about His promise– the fulfillment is coming, but He just wants all of His people to return to Him first.

Meanwhile, our suffering is not without reason. We experience the consequences of evil and suffering because it conforms us more and more to the image of Christ. When He walked on earth, He was tempted in every way we were, yet without sin (Hebrews 4:15). When we walk through hardship, we learn discipline and are reminded of our innate need for God.

Our All-knowing God knows the end of the story. Our all-loving God wants to bring the end to our suffering. Our all-powerful can and will bring a good end to the story. All “gods” exist within the context of evil, but only our sovereign and merciful God guarantees a good end.

We live on a fallen earth, and are subject to the pain, evil, and sin of this world. "For light, momentary affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal" (II Corinthians 4:17-18).

Our earthly affliction, though it seems dire, is light and momentary in light of the life we are promised in Christ. God exists with evil for the time being, but one day "'He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be no mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.' And he who was seated on the throne said, 'Behold, I am making all things new'" (Revelation 21:4-5).

He is good and He is kind, and one day we will get to live face-to-face with Him and worship and glorify Him forever!