Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Where is God amid so much suffering?

"So where is God amid so much suffering? Hanging on the cross, bearing in his own body the curse of his own law, drinking the cup of wrath and the venom of our sin and death. Even though we cannot see God's sovereignty and goodness reconciled in holocausts, tsunamis, hurricanes, and fires, here the harmony is empirically verifiable! God is neither aloof to our suffering nor powerless to intervene.

No one has ever suffered more unjustly at our hands than this sinless God-Man, and yet he was 'delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God' (Acts 2:23). We can be assured that in the crises we face, large and small, God works all things together for good (see Romans 8:28) because God's strength has once and for all been made perfect in weakness. The unity of God's sovereignty and goodness that will be fully disclosed on that last day has already dawned decisively in the work of Christ. God has triumphed over the serpent, sin, death, evil, and tragedy. 'It is finished!' Jesus cried. Our victory is assured, thought we walk through the valley of death's shadow (Psalm 23:4). In fact, in this famous psalm of comfort in distress, we can say 'i will fear no evil, for you are with me your rod and your staff, they comfort me.'"

-A quote from A Place for Weakness by Michael Horton

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