Almighty Over All

I am the LORD, and there is no other.  I form the light and create darkness, I make well-being and create calamity, I am the LORD, who does all these things.  Isaiah 45:6-7

When R. C. Sproul, Jr. is asked "Why do bad things happen to good people?" his answer is, "That only happened once in human history, and He volunteered."

As R. C. explained in his Ligonier Conference session entitled "Almighty Over All," we often lose sight of the truth that "there is none righteous," with the exception of Jesus Christ.  We forget that, because we have sinned against a Holy God, we actually deserve His judgment and condemnation, which is much worse than whatever pain and tragedy we will experience in this life.

We struggle with the concept of God's sovereignty in human suffering.  We don't want to accept that the recent tsunami in Japan, the earthquake in Haiti, or the wars throughout the world all belong to God.  As it was with Job, we won't always know what God is doing behind the scenes through suffering, but as His children, we have the assurance that whatever suffering we experience, it is for God's glory and our good - our conformity to Christ.   R. C. challenged us to believe this in the core of our being, and live it out before a watching world.


R. C., Jr.'s wife is currently being treated for her third bout with cancer - a very aggressive cancer.  As he was speaking to us, his wife was undergoing another round of chemotherapy.  The reality of the situation is grim.  Yet, in the midst of this situation, he explained that we are often confused about suffering because we are living for the wrong reason - seeking temporal desires rather than a desire to be conformed to the image of Jesus.  God did not just allow the cancer, or saw it coming and decided to make the most of it.  No, because God has a single-minded passion to make R. C.'s wife like Jesus, He went "shopping," so to speak, for her sanctification...as He does for all his children.  


The questions I must ask are these:  Do I really hunger to be like Jesus?  Am I willing to pray, "Father, send me whatever it takes to be more like Him."  That is what he has promised to do. And when tragedy lands on my doorstep, will I say with Job, "The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord." 

Suggested scriptures:  Romans 5, Romans 8, II Corinthians 1, II Corinthians 12, Hebrews 12, James 1, I Peter 1