As we're making our way through When Life and Beliefs Collide, we spent the last Bible study discussing how vital our theology of God is to surviving the "war zones" of life. We will all experience them at some point, and many of us will be asking if this is really God's plan for us. How do we reconcile our belief that God is sovereign and altogether good with the suffering that comes from living in a fallen world? "Our theology, if it is true, must apply to all of us and include all points on the Richter scale of human suffering. If God's goodness cannot penetrate the darkness of a woman's world or breaks up under the weight of such wretchedness, if there are pockets of our lives beyond God's reach, then none of us can really count on him." (p. 83)
Even though we may understand God's sovereignty and goodness, there are chaotic or painful moments when we lose sight of that truth. Whether the perceived threats to God's plan for us come from Satan, others, or even our own sinfulness, our theology must confront the threats they pose to our confidence if God and his perfect will. It's imperative, though, that we understand the distinction between God's revealed moral will and the hidden will of God (his providential government of all things). His revealed will is contained in the Ten Commandments and teachings of New Testament. They tell us how to live in obedience to God. But God's hidden will refers to God governing all events to fulfill his purposes for us and bring glory to himself. We can only know God's hidden will in retrospect. "The book of Job drives home the point that God is the central figure behind even the tragic events in our lives. He is the one who is in charge and who holds us in his hands. Not even the devil can touch us without God's permission, and even then God overrules and works through Satan's schemes to accomplish good for us." (p. 87) One important point is that, through his suffering, Job came to a deeper understanding of God than he would have through his life of prosperity. Some of the best theologians are those who have experienced the most suffering.
As the author states, "What we are really discussing when we say God advances his plan for us even through darkness and sin is the ancient doctrine of concurrence. This doctrine helps us understand that God is intimately involved in our lives and mysteriously exercises his will through our wills. Concurrence is when two actions occur simultaneously, or concurrently. It means that God is good and absolutely sovereign over all things, yet at the same time, we are not puppets or robots but have real choices and willingly exercise our wills. Furthermore, we are responsible for our actions and suffer real consequences for them." (p. 94) The Bible repeatedly demonstrates that God has a comprehensive plan that he mysteriously executes through human volition. "Our comfort is not in the mystery itself but in the revealed character of God - a God who moves relentlessly through all that opposes him to secure our good and his glory." (p. 94)
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