Is God unfair

Over the last few weeks, we have been talking about some really deep questions.  Most of our questions have come from one central point:  what does the fact that evil, pain, and suffering exists tell us about God?  We have asked ourselves, “Since evil exists, does He even exist at all?”  The answer to that question is either, “Yes” or “No.”  We looked at evidence from both sides—really good evidence from both sides. 

The fact that we went on with the series tips my hand on what I believe.  I believe that God does in fact exist.  If you still question that, I hope that you still feel welcomed here.  I hope that you don’t feel like you are some outcast that should be banished to some far off place where stupid people live.  Those who are here who believe that God exists are not more superior than those who are here that don’t.  The simple fact that we choose to follow God, to go to church, and to serve Him doesn’t mean that we have all of the answers to life’s questions.  In fact, when bad things happen to us, we are permitted to question God just the same as those who don’t follow God. 

Last week, we looked at the question, “Is God good?”  We looked at God and we looked at evil and we wondered how in the world could both exist AND God remain a good God.

I have to admit something.  I stacked the deck last week.  I didn’t look at the other side of the argument very much.  I think that the arguments for God’s goodness are vastly superior to the arguments against it.  In fact, I think that the arguments for His existence, for the authenticity and authority of the Bible, that Jesus actually lived, died, rose again, and ascended to Heaven are vastly superior to any argument that the other side can offer.  God has equipped Christian scholars with the intellect and the archaeological discoveries to back their answers to question after question.  I have come to the conclusion that people question God either because they are looking for a way out so that they can determine their own path in life without fear of being held accountable in judgment, or they are truly searching what life teaches them just doesn’t square with their understanding about a perfectly loving God, so they reject Him.

Their biggest problem is that life seems so unfair.  Just look around.  Bad things happen to good people.  Good things happen to bad people.  The drunk driver doesn’t have to go to jail for killing a carload of teenagers because his lawyer got him off on a technicality.  But he deserves to rot in a jail cell.  The drug lord makes millions off of strung out addicts.  He also deserves to rot in a jail cell.  Carla Burdine serves the Lord joyously with all of her heart, overcoming obstacle after obstacle, but dies in a car wreck.  Her life is cut off too short.  She didn’t deserve that.  A couple tries and tries to have a baby.  They pray and pray—and nothing.  Finally, when they do have a baby, it is born with birth defects.  It won’t grow up normal.  In fact, the baby may not live past 12 years old and will place a great deal of strain upon the couple’s marriage, finances, and friendships.  What did they do to deserve that?  Yet, another couple has three healthy children, pretty well planning when they wanted to have them.  What makes that couple deserve better than the couple who poured their hearts out to God asking for just one baby, only to incur even more problems after having one?  Where is God in all of this?  A well-known author who lived through the Nazi Holocaust of WW II said after his experiences that God should resign and let someone else run the universe.  Based upon what I see, am I to conclude that God is unfair?

There are different ways that you can react to unfairness in life.  You can say emphatically that God does not exist.  Or, you can say that God does exist, but He just can’t do anything about the unfairness in the world.  Or, you can say that this unfairness will only be “for a short time while we are on this world” and look to future fairness in Heaven.  Or, you can just deny the unfairness and insist that the world runs according to rules and justice, that the good will prosper and the evil will suffer.  I think that this particular approach denies reality.  Christians are sometimes guilty of a similar approach when they make statements like

·        God is trying to teach you something.

·        Think about the blessings you do have—at least you are alive.

·        You and your faith are in training.  God’s not going to push you past your limits.

·        Someone is always worse off than you.  Be thankful for what you have.

A final way to approach unfairness is to say that life is just unfair.  We expect life to be totally fair because God is fair.  But God is not life.  If I confuse God with the physical reality of life and expect that my entire life will be immune to pain and suffering, then I am setting myself up for an overwhelming disappointment.  God’s character is not dependent upon the circumstances in our lives.  If my relationship with God is based upon how I perceive Him during the good times in my life, then how will my perception change when things aren’t good?  Nothing about God would be a constant.  But, if I separate God from the circumstances of this life and see Him as He is—loving, good, perfect, holy, all knowing, all powerful, always present, gracious—and develop a relationship with God based on His character and not my circumstances, when bad things happen, they can drive me into His arms so that I experience His loving grace.  His loving grace is what makes God simply amazing.  Because, truth be told, God has not acted fairly toward us.  Just imagine that when bad times come, we rush toward God and find that He despises us as if we were a piece of garbage because we have offended His holiness with our willful sinning.  He refuses to help us at all and sends us away with a reminder that sooner than we think we will die and be condemned to Hell.  That would be fair, right?  Justice would be served.  Yet, God did one of the most unfair things in the history of the world.  He took His perfect Son, who never ever did one thing wrong, and sent Him into a world of unfairness, and crushed Him.  Jesus did not get what He deserved.  He lived a perfect life.  He did not deserve such a horrendous death.  In the eyes of God, we are horrible sinners who deserve the horrendous death that Jesus received.  But, we didn’t.  Where is our desire for fairness now?  It disappears in light of the grace that gives us what we don’t deserve because Christ got what He didn’t deserve.

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