Why Do Bad Things Happen To Good People?

This may be the question that I hear most often asked as an objection to the Christian faith, so let's take a look at this and see what we can learn about why bad things happen to good people.

There are actually several ways that we can approach this, but I would like to look at it from two perspectives:

1. How do we determine what is good or bad?
2. Do bad things really happen to good people?

When we look at this issue we must first determine if what we think is a bad actually is bad. Don't misunderstand, something can be tragic and cause us pain, but does that alone make it a bad thing? In Romans chapter 8 we read:

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

Romans 8:28-29

According to these verses, everything that occurs in the life of God's people is there for one reason and one reason only - to conform us to the image of Christ. If God has determined that everything we experience in this life will work for our good do we really have the right to say whether it is good or bad?

In the Old Testament when we read the story of Joseph we see this principle in action. In Joseph's teenage years he was sold into slavery by his own brothers, and then later he was falsely accused of trying to rape his master's wife and was thrown into prison. While he was in prison for a crime that he didn't commit he helped someone who promised in return to help him but didn't, and Joseph remained in prison.

Later on in Joseph's life we see that everything that happened to him was actually orchestrated by God to bring about the deliverance of His people. So I ask you the question, was what happened to Joseph good or bad? Before you answer that question look at these verses from Genesis chapter 50:

But Joseph said to them, “Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. So do not fear; I will provide for you and your little ones.” Thus he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.

Genesis 50:19-21

As you can see here, all of the evil that was done against Joseph was all part of God's plan and what seemed like bad things was actually good because God was in it. So to the person who asks why bad things happen to good people I will ask in return, who says they were bad things?

Secondly, in order to answer the question of why do bad things happen to good people we must first answer the question, do bad things really happen to good people?

Romans tells us that no one is good - not even one. Look at these verses from Romans chapter 3:

as it is written:

“None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.
“Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.
“The venom of asps is under their lips.
“Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.
“Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known.
“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

Romans 3:10-18

This is not the picture of a "good" person, and yet this is how the Bible describes all of us. And then we arrogantly question the goodness of God when things happen that we perceive as being bad, and then we ask why do bad things happen to good people. As we saw above in the first point, God is sovereign over all of the events of our lives and He promises that every one of them is being used by Him to mold us into the image of Christ. And in the letter of James we read:

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

James 1:17

Did you catch that, Every good gift is from God. And since we do not have the ability to discern what is good or what is bad we must put our trust in our good God and the promises that He has given us.

So the next time someone asks you why bad things happen to good people, point them to the Scriptures and ask them in return, Why do good things happen to anybody?

There can only be one answer: we have a great and awesome God who is working everything out for our ultimate good - our conformity to the image of Christ - and for His glory.

God Is Light

This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.

1 John 1:5-8

In my last post I pointed out that John is writing here to show us how we can have fellowship with God. As we move now into verse 5 he shows us the very first thing that we must know - God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. John goes on to say that if we say we have fellowship with Him, and we are still walking in darkness, then we are a liar and we are not practicing the truth. So the questions we have to ask here are these, what does in mean that God is light? What does it mean to walk in darkness? And how can we walk in the light? We'll look at the first question today, and take up the second and third questions in my next post.

God is light

So what does it mean that God is light? John is using light here as a metaphor, which we can see by his contrasting statement "in Him there is no darkness at all." As we look at this it must first be pointed out that what John is telling us is not what God is like, but rather what He is; John writes that God is light. Light is not all that God is, but this is where we must start in our understanding of who He is.

William MacDonald writes:

By this He meant that God is absolutely holy, absolutely righteous, and absolutely pure. God cannot look with favor on any form of sin. Nothing is hidden with Him, but “all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account” (Heb. 4:13).

The Bible also tells us that:

• God is merciful - Deuteronomy 4:31
• God is faithful - Deuteronomy 7:9
• God is God of god's and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God - Deuteronomy 10:17
• God is our refuge - Psalm 46:1
• God is holy - Psalm 77:13
• God is righteous - Daniel 9:14
• God is love - 1 John 4:16

But if we are to have fellowship with Him we must first recognize that God is light.

In his commentary on 1 John, Dr J Vernon McGee writes, "when John says that God is light, he is revealing many facets about the person of God. Although it doesn’t cover the whole spectrum of the attributes of God, it says a great deal about Him." He then goes on to show us the characteristics of light and how they relate to what we are talking about here; he writes that one of the characteristics of light:

is that it is self-revealing. Light can be seen, but it diffuses itself. It illuminates the darkness. It is revealing. It lets me see my hands—I’ve been handling books, and I see that one of my hands has dirt on it, and I’m going to have to take it out and wash it. If it hadn’t been for the light, I would not have seen the soil. Light reveals flaws and impurity.

As we draw closer and closer to God we too see the dirt that is on us; the light of His holiness reveals the dirt of sin in our lives. But unlike us, in God there is no darkness at all. That means that because God is light, whatever He does is light. When he judges there is no dark side to his judgments; He judges in holiness. When He gets angry there is no darkness to His anger; His anger is righteous and pure. Everything about Him is summed up in this phrase - God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.

So what does this mean for us?

As I mentioned above, the first thing it means is that the closer we get to God the more we will see our own sinfulness. As painful as this might be it is actually a good thing, because without the knowledge of our own sinfulness we will not see our need for the Savior.

Secondly it means that we can trust God totally and without question. Since there is no darkness in Him at all we know that whatever he says is right and true, and that He is completely trustworthy.

And finally, we know from observing light in nature that without it you cannot have life, so what this means for us is that as we draw closer to God, who is light, we are moving closer to the very source of our life.

Next time we will look at what it means to walk in darkness and see how we can walk in the light as He is in the light, but until then take some time to praise God for showing you that He is light and what that means. Remember, we can put our trust and faith in Him today without worry because He is light and in Him there is no darkness at all.