I've been doing a lot of thinking lately about the Gospel. The question came up two weeks ago, "How would you explain the Gospel in 10 seconds?" 10 seconds is a really short time period, I discovered. All I could say is "Where do I start?!" But there's more to presenting the Gospel to someone than just giving a pat answer, although I do think its a good idea to have a 10 second sentence to help you understand the core of it. Invariably someone will ask things like, why did God make/allow evil in the world? Why do people suffer? And isn't it really His fault in the first place for allowing this to all happen?
Those are some tough questions, questions that require more than just a thoughtful answer though at least that. Any answer should be accompanied by an understanding love because they indicate a real deep hurt in someone's life, whether saved or not. And the answers are still the same for both, because of the existence of One we call Absolute Truth. Here is what I have been thinking for the past two weeks. Some of it I can't point to a single verse to justify it, but I can argue for it from what I understand of the character of God.
There are two basic concepts that I have to assume. God is sovereign, and God is a Redeemer. He has authority over everything, but He makes it His business to take that which is basically broken (I call that "evil" if you will) and turn it into something for His glory because He loves what He has made. Why did God allow evil into the world? Because He wants His image-bearers, those He loves more than life, to eagerly choose to love and serve Him of their own wills. Adam and Eve had a choice in the garden, either to love and serve God willingly or to disobey Him, to their own destruction. They had what I would call true "free will", even though He designed them to do the first so they kind of had a predisposition to one choice over the other. Sometimes people say that by putting the Trees there God was basically tempting Adam and Eve to sin and so its God's fault we're in this mess in the first place. Well, no...to tempt someone to do something they already have to have a desire towards doing it, otherwise it really had no effect on what they do. God stacked the cards in Adam's favor when He made him perfect, so to speak. That's what made the first sin all the more horrendous. Adam had to overcome an advantage to do what he did.
Once Adam sinned, the world basically started to break down. Sin became an ingrained, inherited part of the human nature and man's fellowship with God was utterly destroyed. Why is there suffering? Because mankind was not designed to deal with sin and death. We were designed for love, not hatred. For peace, and not war. We were meant to live and not die. We suffer because we are God's image-bearers who carry within us something totally against His character. Is it any wonder life hurts? A lot of people who ask this question really mean, "Why me?!" And although God's sovereignty is part of the answer, the rest of it is that this is the way our world works now. It happens to all of us, and really if we wanted to admit it, why have we been blessed with any good thing either? That's why the church is so important here on earth, because it is a visible reminder for broken humans of the love of God. He cares a lot that we hurt and are broken and He promises not to leave us there.
The next question often is why is God letting us continue to suffer? Why doesn't He just blow us away and be done with it? Well, that's kind of complicated. And I can't claim in any of this to have a complete answer. But what I can say from Scripture is that God is a just Redeemer. If God had killed Adam and Eve right at the start, He would of been justified in doing so. That was the law, if you sin you die. At the same time He made His image-bearers to be eternal beings like Himself, so while simply nullifying their existence might of removed the heinousness of their presence but it would not of satisfied His justice. "Eternal" guilt demands "eternal" punishment, which is how He deals with Satan and his minions. Did you know that Hell was not originally created to punish humans? Mankind wasn't made to ever go there, its primarily a place of punishment for Satan and his angels. (This is a Revelation idea, but I can't find an exact reference for it.) But because we are eternal beings too, following Satan's actions gets us in on his punishment too. So are you sure you really want what you're asking for?
But the more powerful answer to that question in my opinion comes back again to the fact that our God is a loving Redeemer. If any of you ever get the chance, pick up the Simarillion by J. R.R. Tolkien. In the first few chapters, he presents the rebellion of one of the "mighty beings" who decides he will sing his own melody and not the part he was made for by his Creator. The result is complete discordance in the creation of Erna, or the world of Middle Earth. The rest of the beings petition the Creator to destroy both the irreparably ruined new world and the one responsible for its destruction. But the Creator's answer was that He would so move that out of this one's rebellion he would bring greater glory to Himself. I love that answer, its so ironic. Despite Satan's attempts to steal God's glory, in the end he'll be used of God to bring about a greater good. So he can't ever win, he's still going to do what he was made to do and he knows it. I think the same is true for us. God's in the business of doing the impossible, of making His enemies His heirs. We are not going to stay broken, He is working through our world and ourselves to make for Himself a people who willingly choose above everything else to love and obey Him. Our God is greater than the suffering we have inflicted upon ourselves, and He's out to prove it.
That's why, Christian, "...we have this treasure in earthen vessels, to show that this power is from God and not from us." (2 Cor. 4:7) I don't think I mind suffering for a while if thru me the redeeming power of our awesome loving God can shine thru to this world He made. I want everyone to know! Isn't it worth it? One day I know that I will be able to stand in the presence of my King and declare that I choose Him above everything else, to willing serve and love, because He will have remade me to be able to say and mean that with everything I am. And that grace can belong to anyone because He freely offers it. Hallelujah! That's the Gospel to me.
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