Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People?

Tough Questions. Real Answers.
Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People?

I. Introduction

A. Romans 8:18-20, 22, 28 (NAS) ¹⁸For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. ¹⁹For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. ²⁰For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it. ²²For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. ²⁸And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.

B. We do not know suffering happens in any particular instance. The Bible doesn’t tell us why!

1. The for an answer from God versus the for an answer from God.

C. I Corinthians 13:12 (NLT) Now we see things imperfectly as in a cloudy mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.

D. Deuteronomy 29:29 (NAS) “The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our sons forever, that we may observe all the words of this law.”

II. Three Things We Know That Help Us in Times of Suffering

A. We know that is not the author of evil.

1. We get and mixed up!

2. Love requires that there’s the freedom to !

3. To be truly “free” means that you’re free to do as well as free to do .

4. “Evil runs through the very center of every human heart.” (Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn)

5. Jeremiah 17:9 (NAS) “The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick.”

B. We know that God always saves the for .

1. Romans 8:22-23 (NLT) ²²For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. ²³And we believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering. We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as his adopted children, including the new bodies he has promised us.

2. Romans 8:18 (NLT) Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later.

3. Revelation 21:3-4 (NLT) ³I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, “Look, God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them. ⁴He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.”

C. We know that God is with us, even when we can’t His Presence.

1. Romans 8:26-27 (NLT) ²⁶And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words. ²⁷And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God’s own will.

2. Our obscures God’s Presence.

3. The “” barrier

4. Job 23:3-5, 8-9 (NLT) ³If only I knew where to find God, I would go to his court. ⁴I would lay out my case and present my arguments. ⁵Then I would listen to his reply and understand what he says to me. ⁸I go east, but he is not there. I go west, but I cannot find him. ⁹I do not see him in the north, for he is hidden. I look to the south, but he is concealed.

5. Romans 8:26 (NLT) And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words.

6. Romans 8:27 (NLT) And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God’s own will.

III. Conclusion