Recently I heard for the first time a song that brought me to my knees and to an amount of tears that I would also care to not speak of. As I played the song over and over again, singing “you are alltogether good…I love you, Lord…I love you, Lord”, I couldn’t help but find myself thinking back to all the ways that the Lord has been there — even when I was sure as Henry Fonda’s opposing juror in 12 Angry Men that he wasn’t.
When was the last time that you heard this:
“If God was good — then why did this happen? How does this bring glory to Him?”
If I could be so blunt, reader, have you asked that even yourself? I have, I’ll admit it.
If I’m being honest with you, the fact that I have said that really burns my coffee. The problem is that in the moments where we are dealt blow after blow, it’s hard to see that God truly is still sitting on the throne of the world.
The problem is where we start asking questions that really aren’t questions, they are accusations said in a rhetorical manner. We put God on the stand and try to incriminate him in the absence of our faith. I guess what I’m hoping for as I spend this time writing is to give you my own defense, not that He even needs it, for why that is the single-handed most ridiculous statement someone could make.
Sovereignty
In some circles I feel like that has become the new “s word”. Certain people (I promise I’m not just picking on the Arminian background) hate to say that God ordained or could allow [insert various sufferings here]. To say that God is in control and purposed something negative to take place for a greater outcome that brings glory to Himself could be viewed as heretical to someone who esteems that theology. But that’s not the only crowd who might be offended by the “s word”. To the people who might not be bros with Jacobus but are still not chilling with my main man John, there’s the thought that God has come to give us our best life now. That, as so often misrepresented from 1 Peter, we are a “royal priesthood”. Thus, how could we possibly still be sinners or have bad things happen to us?
The full verse says this:
9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
Believers in the prosperity camp use this verse to illustrate “the blessed life” that we are not just mere humans living for God but a ROYAL priesthood. With power given to us through such royalty.
Side note fact: the only thing that’s royal about me (besides being a pain in the you know to my wife) is Christ’s righteousness that was GIVEN to me, as a free gift, as He bore the weight of my sin at Calvary. That’s what the verse is really hinting at — the gospel.
I digress and get back on topic here. The problem that I want to illustrate by bringing up arminianism and the prosperity gospel camp is that they believe that they can add to their walk with God. And if they can add to it, that means that suffering can be of their own doing and while yes, we (I hope all whom vibe to Calvinism) affirm meaningful choice, we must even further esteem the fact that God is truly sovereign and in control.
The cold hard fact that some do not want to admit is that sovereignty is the theology that the bible itself actually esteem, repeatedly. As amicus meus, Alex Kearney beautifully articulated in a previous post, Satan is God’s Satan. There is no power nor ability that he holds in the life of people that God himself does not hold the strings to.
Let’s look briefly to the story of Joseph as it is one of the most popular examples on both sides of the aisle.
18 His brothers also came and fell down before him and said, “Behold, we are your servants.” 19 But Joseph said to them, “Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? 20 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. Genesis 50:18-20 ESV
See how the scripture says that God meant it for good? Now let’s look at the lyrics you sing every time that you sing “See A Victory” by Elevation Worship.
“You take what the enemy meant for evil
And You turn it for good”
The more progressive side of Christianity does not esteem the Lord as supreme ruler and sovereign king. Why? In my opinion it’s because it affects us in a way where we start thinking we are more important than we really are.
Yes, we as humans were the pinnacle of God’s creation, but at the end of the day, we are nothing without Him who first made us. When we ascribe to the mentality that God just turns around what the devil meant for evil we are in turn indicting God with the charge that He wasn’t in control in the first place.
It is saying that God did not mean for you to have a bad year, to have a break up, to be in debt, to get sick, for your loved one to die, or for your own family members to hate you.
But in actual fact, He did.
As I briefly alluded to above, we forget who we are and who God is in my opinion. We think that we are entitled or deserve things to go our way — we don’t and we can thank our first father Adam for that one. Now I really don’t mean to have so much fire and brimstone here but what I am aiming to do in this little bit of internet space is to drive home the point that God is in fact in control of all things, and more so, to show that when we read scripture for what it says and we don’t try to contort it to fit what we want it to say — we can find true comfort and therefore worship truly with our whole heart.
For me personally, my suffering looks different than others — as goes for all of us. We have all suffered in various capacities to different extents. While I can’t always say to people that “I understand”, we all have pains and tribulations that rise up. For me though, I’ve never had cancer, my wife is still alive and well, my children still adore me (for at least a little while longer), my job is tolerable, my car runs, Biden only has a couple more years, and no one in my immediate family has passed to the other side of eternity yet. When you take that all into consideration, I’d say that life is pretty grand.
The problem is that it’s not — we all know that life is harder than a tortoise shell, or a bone from a t-rex that some nerd claims to be millions and millions of years old.
As I reflect on the year 2021 in my own life I see many glorious moments such as the birth of our fourth child for example, but more so I see many different ways where the Lord is completely stretching me beyond measure in many areas of my life; much of which dealing with my own family and surrendering to the Lord. The topsy-turvy rollercoaster of life has led me to be asking too much:
“God where are you?”
All the meanwhile, He sits in heaven enjoying all the gloriousness of what He has created and responds back to me:
“Right here, where are you is the question that needs to be asked?”
Surrender & Suffering
The lesson that I have learned the hard way is that so often than not I want to blame God immediately when something doesn’t go the way I want it to rather than ask myself:
“Lord is there something you are trying to teach me here?”
I kick and scream and try to claw my way through my emotions and all the meanwhile God has me in spiritual headlock saying “surrender!”
Why? Because He is loving, even in His discipline.
The issue is truly that we wan’t God to do a fixer upper job in our life as my Scottish Grandfather, Sinclair Ferguson says. We want Christ but without the sanctification end of things. We forget that this world, where we covet comfort and joy more than anything else, truly is not our home. It feels like it is, we have lots of nice things here, but it’s not actually our home.
Our home, as John Bunyan describes, is that Celestial City. It is a place so marvelous the any word other than perfect fails to properly describe what it is. The problem is that we are linear beings who see time as from point A to point B. It is almost like we are living in a two-dimensional reality where God is omni-dimensional. He isn’t just outside of time or the path we are on per say, he is all around it, over it, in the middle of it, and directing it from heaven all at the same time.
Some people say that that doesn’t bring them comfort and it actually makes them feel like a robot. To that I say you are missing the joy in knowing that God is there all the time with us, it just doesn’t feel like it at times. God intends for our suffering, and the reason is that because it actually does something in us. It produces something. It makes us stronger, it produces faith, it produces righteousness, it conforms us more into the image of his son — which if you go back and read Genesis 1, that was the image we were already made in.
12 Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. 13 But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. 1 Peter 4:12,13 ESV
Suffering is not just for us, but it’s for God. It’s how holiness takes root and shapes our life. We so often say that if life was just a little easier, if this would just go my way, it would be better. The truth is it wouldn’t be better because there would be no need for Christ. And all I have learned over the years and this year more than ever, is that I have nothing in my life that shows I do not need Christ. I need Him more every day, every hour, every minute.
Jesus himself even asked for another way. But his answer is always different than ours:
And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” Matthew 26:39 ESV
Christ sets the example for us in the fact that we should constantly be saying, although being imperfectly able to live it out, not my will Lord, but yours be done.
In submitting to the will of God, Christ did what we never could have done nor would not have done, we receive his perfect righteousness and understanding of a God who is ALWAYS in control. We see the power in who He is and who we aren’t.
As the Puritan Robert Traill says in the following:
“I have no name to come to God in but Christ. My own name is abominable to myself, and deservedly hateful in heaven. No other name is given under heaven, but that of Jesus Christ, in which a sinner may safely approach unto God. Since the Father is well pleased with this name, and the Son commands me to ask in it, and the Holy Ghost hath brought this name to me, and made it as ointment poured forth, Song of Solomon 1:3, and since its savor hath reached my soul, I will try to lift it up as incense to perfume the altar and throne above; since all that ever come in this name are made welcome, I will come also, having no plea but Christ’s name, no covering but his borrowed and gifted robe of righteousness.”
Our name is nothing compared to the name of Jesus a Christ. Benjamin Michael Tubert is my name, but Jesus Christ, He’s that much more magnificent and perfect. No matter what we endure, He is beyond worthy of our praise for what He has done and accomplished, now and forever.
The Fire & The Flood 