Jaw-dropping Jewels about Jesus
Rarely does Jesus, God the Son, do exactly what we expect of Him. It seems odd that He so frequently surprises us, given that He never changes. Hebrews 13:8 makes this absolute statement: “Jesus the same yesterday, and today, and forever.” Still, though He is blessedly consistent in His goodness, Jesus does unforeseen things. Even when He does what is expected, He does not always do it in the way that we anticipate. Let us join with Jesus on a jaw-dropping journey. (I will be using this opening paragraph for each of the brief messages in this series. The following material will change daily.)
Why does evil continue to exist (and flourish)? Jesus answers this legitimate question in I John 5:19: “And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness [the wicked one – Satan].” The natural tendency of man is to blame someone else (Genesis 3:1-13). However, since God is holy and good, we cannot logically and reasonably find fault in Him for creating us in His image (Genesis 1:27); His intrinsically relational nature means that we must respond to His goodness by having a relationship with Him through faith in God the Son, Jesus Christ. We cannot really blame Satan, either, for we are told, “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (James 4:7). Satan is absolutely evil, of course, and ever opposes God. However, he cannot force us to choose evil. No, we are responsible when we make evil decisions. James 4:1 emphatically states, “From whence come wars and fightings among you? Come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?” Evil, then, exists and continues to exist because mankind rejects a relationship with Jesus and chooses to rebel against God’s goodness. The fault is ours, but God’s gracious remedy is His everlasting forgiveness through Jesus. His eternal goodness is unchanged and is the ultimate answer to the problem of evil.