God's will allows for human will

By Tony W. Cartledge

BR Editor

The upcoming Holy Week, bolstered by the runaway popularity of The Passion of the Christ, reminds us of one time in history when the purposes of God clearly lay behind a human death - in this case the death of Jesus, whom we believe to be both fully human and fully divine.

Other deaths aren't as easy to explain. Often they appear entirely senseless, as seen in the recent killings of four Baptist missionaries whose only desire was to love and to aid the people of Iraq.

Was God behind their deaths?

Jan and I have struggled with the same question in the 10 years since our daughter Bethany fell victim to a drunk driver. We've been writing a book about it over the past few months, stirring up old questions as well as old memories and wounds.

One of the things we have learned is that people seek to explain death in differing ways. In the weeks following Bethany's death, we received cards, letters, phone calls and visits from hundreds of well-wishers. Some of them truly ministered to us with love and grace. Others - who were just as well meaning - brought condolences we would rather not have heard.

There is something about a human that wants to explain things. We want to believe there is purpose in our living, and I believe there is. Many people, however, stretch that belief to assume there must be a reason for everything that happens. An overzealous view of providence leads many to the conviction that God directly causes all things - including every death - for His own purposes.

Thus, we received multiple cards expressing the sentiment that God needed another angel in the heavenly choir, or that we should rejoice because God picks only the loveliest flowers for His heavenly garden. Those sentiments, including the unfortunate allusion to our child as an ornamental garden plant, were not helpful.

Some expressed a belief that the Lord had simply given us Bethany on loan for a while, before "calling her home" when He needed her more than we did. They assured us that we would understand one day, because "God has a purpose for everything."

None of those well-meaning folks realized that such sentiments made us want to scream. Who wants to serve a God who toys with parents' hearts, simply parking a child with them until He needs the little one to fill a gap in his children's choir or his flower bed?

"God-causes-everything" theology has deeper roots in imagination and folk-religion than in scripture. Believing that God is all-knowing and all-powerful does not make God all-responsible. The Bible teaches clearly that God created humankind "in his own image" (Gen. 1:27), and one aspect of that image is the freedom of choice. We learn from some of the earliest stories in our biblical heritage that the people God created have made bad choices - choices clearly opposed to God's will - from the beginning.

We know that one person's bad choices can cause other persons to suffer. It is not fair that the innocent should suffer for the sins of others, but that is the price we pay for humanity. If we had no human freedom to choose good or evil, we would all be like robots, unable to choose, unable to love, unable to laugh - or cry. But God is no divine puppet-master. He endowed us with both freedom and responsibility.

When facing hard times, we often quote Rom. 8:28: "And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose" (NASB). Many people assume this means that God is behind everything that happens, planning every event (even the horrible ones) for some good end. Assigning a divine purpose to every tragedy may bring comfort, but it also absolves humans of responsibility.

The truth of Rom. 8:28 is not that all things are good, because they are not. Nor does it teach that all things happen according to God's purpose, because they do not. The great truth of the verse is that God is with us even in the vagaries, the uncertainties and the tragedies of this world.

And, because He is with us, God's amazing grace and unending love can bring goodness even from the worst of those things that happen.

I believe that God shares our pain when the innocent die, that God is present with us, that God can and will work through us to bring healing and hope to our lives. To the extent that we encourage others through what we have learned, He can bless others, as well.

Our choices are often bad, but our God is always good.