#828 Why Does a Just God permit Me to Experience Good?
March 26, 2023Good day, Dr. Craig.
In my never-ending quest for the truth about God (if he exists), and in the numerous discussions I have had concerning his nature, the most puzzling and yet most oft-repeated concern people seem to have with the existence of such a divine creator is almost always something along the lines of, "Why, if a good God exists, would he allow me to experience such horrendous evil and suffering?" People who experience trauma, suffering, evil, neglect, racism and so on, seem to hold a fervent level of distrust in such a creator, and that seems to me (in my limited experience) to be the primary driving force behind the unwillingness of most non-believing individuals to place their faith in such a being and devote their whole lives to him. (I find this interesting because it assumes much about the way God OUGHT be with little consideration for whether he might have cause to permit such things.)
As I said, this puzzles me, and I find myself in what appears to be a unique situation, in that I am the only person I know that thinks these individuals are looking at that question backwards.
When I, in my frequent introspection, evaluate the state of my being, it causes me much pain to admit that despite my years of effort to improve myself, the inner desires of my heart are still disgusting, stained with a wretchedness and malevolence that cannot be overcome. Alcohol abuse, sexual misconduct, avarice, dishonesty and many more vices, pervade my spirit through-and-through, binding me in a web of self-contempt.
In light of this self-knowledge, I think the question then should not be why a good God would allow me to experience evil and suffering, but rather: Why would a JUST God allow me to experience anything good at all? Knowing what I have done, it seems perfectly rational to accept that all the hardship, tragedy, suffering and affliction that befalls me should be exactly the kind of thing I should expect to receive from a good God, and yet here I am, living, breathing, experiencing the goodness that is life, wholly undeservedly. Why would God allow me to experience any good in this life, or the next, (should a next life follow this one) in light of this?
Joseph
United States
Dr. craig’s response
A
I really resonate with your question, Joseph! As a non-Christian, when I looked into my own heart, I, too, saw the evil and darkness harboring there, even though externally I was living a quite moral life. Thus, when I heard the Gospel message, although I was troubled at the prospect of my high school friends’ going to hell, the thought that I was going to hell occasioned no difficulty at all, because I felt I deserved it. What right had I, who had so offended God’s holiness and violated His moral law, to God’s forgiveness?
Later, after having become a Christian, a question similar to yours occurred to me. Even though people often ask, “How can an all-loving God send people to hell?”, the question “How can an all-just God send people to heaven?” seems intellectually just as difficult to answer. Yet how many people ask the latter question? How many people reject Christianity because they just can’t understand how an all-holy and just God could send people to heaven? No one, right? This shows, I think, that the question is really an emotional one and not an intellectual one. People just don’t like the idea of a God who would send them to hell, and so they choose not to believe in Him. This is like standing in front of a speeding car and closing one's eyes real tight, and saying, “Anyone who would run over me can’t be a very nice person! I just won’t believe in him! If I choose not to believe in him, then it doesn’t affect me!” And then it’s too late.
As you point out, God owes us nothing. We have no claim to a life that is a bowl of cherries and free of suffering. If anything, we deserve the opposite. That our lives are frequently filled with goods that we do not deserve is an expression of what theologians call God’s common grace, freely given to all mankind. Jesus said, “He makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matthew 5.45). God’s special grace is to be found in Jesus, whom God sent as an atonement for our sins. It is a marvel of God’s condescension and grace that He loves us so much that He would send his Son to bear the suffering that we deserved as the punishment for our sins, so that we might be redeemed, restored, and forgiven. May you find new life in Him!
- William Lane Craig