Bad Things Happen To Good People?

    We should not be surprised at all the atrocities and evil in the world. We should be surprised that most of us escape such curses that we deserve since the Fall. It is only by God’s grace that we are not all destroyed since Adam fell. “For I am the LORD, I do not change; Therefore you are not consumed, O sons of Jacob” (Mal 3:6). “Nothing can happen to you unless I let it happen,” saith the Lord. “And if I do, it is for your good, even unto death.” The “you” here are those who love God and are the called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28).

     Someone might object that it is not fair for God to spare some and let the rest be destroyed. Remember the parable where the owner paid the same wage to those who worked one hour as he paid to those who had worked all day? Those who worked all day said, “It’s not fair!” What was the owner’s answer?  “Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own things? Or is your eye evil because I am good?” (Mt 20:15).

    Why do most people object that it is not fair for bad things to happen to some people? Is it not because they assume (presuppose) that nothing bad should happen to anyone, or at least not to innocent people? Is it a valid assumption? Not according to Scripture. No one is innocent. All are stained by Adam’s Fall and death came upon all.

    It is an insult to God’s holiness to insist that He has an obligation to save everyone. For man to insist that is to make himself God’s judge. Such arrogance deserves the wages of sin (death). On judgment day every mouth will be stopped and all the world will be declared, “Guilty.”  The gift of God is eternal life to those whose names are found written in the Book Of Life.