“Evils beyond number have surrounded me; my iniquities have overtaken me, so that I am not able to see; they are more numerous than the hairs of my head, and my heart has failed me” (Psalm 40:12).
I read that, on February 15, 1947, Glenn Chambers boarded a plane bound for Quito, Ecuador to begin his ministry in missionary broadcasting. He never arrived. In a horrible moment, his plane crashed into a mountain peak and spiraled downward. Later it was learned that, before leaving the Miami airport, Chambers wanted to write his mother a letter. All he could find for stationery was a page of advertising on which was written, in bold letters, the question, “WHY?” Around that word, he hastily scribbled what turned out to be a final note to his mother. After Chambers’ mother learned of her son’s death, his letter arrived in the mail. She opened the envelope, took out the paper, and unfolded it. Staring her in the face was the question, “WHY?” (https://www.sermonillustrations.com/a-z/e/evil.htm).
The question that seeks an answer to the existence of evil is ages old. Ultimately, we must face the reality that, from the time God created the heavens and earth until Adam and Eve sinned against God after the manipulation of Satan, there was no evil. Evil entered creation when sin entered, because our first parents chose to disobey God. Consequently, evil has continued and worsened, because the descendants of Adam and Eve, including us, inherited this sin nature. Evil occurs because God has allowed Satan a short leash on which to ply his wicked trade, because evil has so thoroughly permeated every aspect of our world, and because we and others choose to sin rather than obey God.
God told Adam in Genesis 2:16-17: “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” Evil, then, at its core, is disobeying God, and the ultimate end of evil is death, both physical and spiritual. Of this, God’s word promises. However, we must remain aware that the mystery of evil and death is such that we can never know all that God knows or enough to satisfy our craving for all the answers. Nigel Wright, in his book, The Satan Syndrome, wrote, “There is a fundamental sense in which evil is not something that can be made sense of. The essence of evil is that it is something which is absurd, bizarre and irrational. It is the nature of evil to be inexplicable, an enigma and a stupidity” (https://www.sermonillustrations.com/a-z/e/evil.htm).
However, in His great love and mercy, God made provision for both evil and death. That provision was the offering of Jesus Christ, the second person of the Godhead, in death on the cross as the just payment of my sin, your sin, and the sin of every human being. His resurrection from the dead is God’s promise that all who turn from sin and evil, believe in Jesus and His atoning death on the cross and resurrection from the dead, and receive Him as Lord of their lives cross over from eternal death to eternal life. Here is exactly what Jesus said recorded in John 5:24: “Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life.”
Moreover, after raising Lazarus from the dead, Jesus told Mary and Martha in John 11:25-26: “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die.” Friends, physical death is the real consequence of sin that we have no control over. Unless Jesus returns in our lifetime, we will all die. Yet, eternal death, which is God’s promise to every person who never repents of personal sin and receives Jesus as Lord, is the real consequence of sin that God has given humanity a certain measure of control over in that, if we choose to believe Him and trust our lives to Jesus Christ, although we suffer physical death, we will not suffer eternal death in Hell. Paul, in Ephesians 1:13-14, emphatically declares, “In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession to the praise of His glory.”
Now that eternal life is settled, what about the period between our salvation experience and when we enter eternal life in Heaven? God’s word covers this question as well. The answer in two words is simply, spiritual growth. We are told in 2 Peter 3:17-18: “Be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error of unprincipled men and fall from your own steadfastness, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” We are to grow up in our salvation which will result in our willing service to Jesus for the growth of His kingdom and God’s eternal family. According to Ephesians 4:14-16, “We are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.” The Bible refers to this period of spiritual growth and service as sanctification. This period of our lives is when the Holy Spirit is molding our character and nature to be like Jesus and setting us apart more and more for God’s exclusive will and purpose.
This brand of transformational growth makes possible the good that the Bible speaks of in Romans 12:21: “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” When all who belong to Jesus by faith grow up in their faith, and give their lives in service to the will of God, the church, God’s eternal family, under the protection and provision of God, grows up spiritually, numerically, and resourcefully continuing to do God’s will until the end. Furthermore, with every soul who comes to faith in Jesus and into God’s forever family and serves His purposes in this world, evil loses a little more, and good gains a little more with an eye toward that promised Judgment Day, when Satan, evil, and all of God’s enemies will be subdued and consigned to Hell forever, and Jesus, good, and God’s people win and enjoy the fruits of victory in Heaven for eternity.
Speaking of the physical death of God’s people, in 1 Corinthians 15:54-58, Paul reminds us, “When this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, “DEATH IS SWALLOWED UP in victory. O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR VICTORY? O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR STING? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.”
So, you see my friends, evils beyond number surround us. Our own sins overtake us and sometimes to the point that we despair even of life. Nevertheless, take heart. Trust your life to the safekeeping of Jesus, for God has the answer for the existence of evil, and we are privileged and blessed to have Him explain the answer to us in His Word.