“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort who comforts us in all of our afflictions so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.”
(rf. II Cor. 1:3-4NASB)
Have you ever asked the question, “Why does God allow bad things happen to good people?” and never received a sufficient answer to your inquiry? Then, hopefully, this is your day and the following will be a blessing to you. It is not because I am shedding new light on this issue. Not at all. Indeed, I am only bringing to our attention certain truths that have been present in Scripture all along.
First of all, let us look at the question itself: “Why does God allow bad things happen to good people?” Most of us don’t realize it, but, in asking the question, we are immediately impugning the character of the Holy God, bringing His honor and integrity into question as if we were in the place or position to judge Him. This was the one mistake Job made in defense of himself before his friends and for which he had to make amends to God (rf. Job 16:18-22; 31:1-7;38:1ff). When we take that position and attitude with God, we overstep our place. He is God. He is holy and alone defines what is truly good. It may be an innocent question with no ill intent. Nonetheless, we are out of place as humans to think that we can call God before us to answer for His decisions and actions. This brings us to our second point.
It would be wise on our part to realize that we are not entitled to the “good” things from God at all times. The “good” things that we receive from Him are by virtue of His grace toward us and are gifts given to us in love (rf. Eph. 2:8-10; Jas. 1:17). He is our Heavenly Father and cares for us far more than we could ever know. For what “good” things we have been given, we should have thankful hearts and see these gifts as blessings. Even the “bad” things are to our benefit if viewed from the correct perspective, from His vantage point since always has our best interests at heart (rf. Rom. 8:28).
With this in mind, having experienced His grace firsthand, in some form or fashion, the Apostle Paul encourages his readers to pass on the grace that we have from God, especially if you have been afflicted in some way or another. We may not understand why God has allowed the affliction or negative event into our lives, but, as we have experienced His hand of grace in the midst of said experience, He wants us to comfort others going through similar circumstances. If, for no other reason, this alone may be long-sought answer to the question to the haunting question.
One final thought. Grace is defined as “unmerited favor” or “undeserved blessing”. None of us will ever be “good” enough in God’s sight to be worthy of His favor. If we had been “good” according to God’s standards, there would never had been cause for Jesus to come to earth in the first place, to have died on the cross and to have been resurrected from the dead on our behalf as a sacrifice for our sins. Our “goodness”, however, was never an issue in terms of our salvation, for the Scriptures clearly testify that “there is none righteous, no, not one…there is none who does good…” (rf. Rom. 3:10, 12NASB). Only through Jesus can we ever know and experience what is truly “good”. Only in Christ can we have the comfort to make it through the hard times of life…and then be able to minister to others who likewise suffer after we have endured and persevered through difficulties. This is the meaning of the text for us. This is one of the reasons why the Lord allows suffering and pain, not to hurt us or destroy us, but to make us into vessels of mercy for His use.
