If the just is supposed to be exempt from evil then why? Why are evil people allowed to hurt the Christians?
When we see a brother in Christ going through a troubling time… when we experience one ourselves… when we turn on the news and see the horrific things that happen to people it is hard sometimes not to read verse 21 and say, is this really true, because it doesn’t seem to be?
We need to remember that the issue is never whether or not the Word of God is true… because it is.
The issue is never about fitting verse into the situation we are going through… because it won’t. The Word of God is bigger than our situation.
The issue is never about using a situation to justify the Word of God as true… because God does not need to be justified by man.
The issue is always about our perception of God, His Word, and what is being said.
Too often we impose the character of man on the Word of God to define it rather than letting the character of God define the words we read in scripture.
To understand the above verse we must look at the unchanging character of God and the Gospel of Jesus Christ in order to see the truth it is speaking of.
“There” is a word of position.
It can be read as “In that place.”
“That place” is a distant place. It is not the place you are in now. Then it would say “Here.” But it doesn’t… it says “There.”
Evil is not the opposite of good. Both good and evil are expressions of alignment. They are expressions of precision. They are expression of position.
Good is that which is perfectly aligned with the Will of God
Evil is that which is not perfectly aligned with the Will of God. It does not have to be blatantly opposed to or completely opposite of what God wants to be evil, it just has to be not perfectly aligned.
“Just” which is expressed here using the Hebrew tsaddiyq, which also means righteous, takes on the greater meaning of proximity, of position, when we consider the Gospel… that through the Blood of Jesus we are counted as righteous. Old Testament righteousness was about our work – right standing with God. New Testament righteousness is about His work and our position in Christ – standing right with God.
The first part of the verse is saying, “In that place, the place we are going to, nothing that is not perfectly aligned with the will of God shall happen to those who have taken their position in Christ.” Because even if the enemy (or people) devise something against us for evil… however it is intended… God uses it for good. (Gen 50:20) He uses it to accomplish that which is perfectly aligned with His will.
Now… here… it may seem that something evil is happening… but we don’t live in the here…
We Hope.
We live further out.
We live in the There.
In that place.
God’s promise of scripture is not that we will not experience things that hurt us… just that He will use the things we experience to accomplish His perfect will in our lives.
He will look and say, “Good and faithful servant.”
And when we make it to that place, the place of rest in Him, the eternal place that does not pass away… to the there…
We shall abide satisfied.
Because of the work of the Cross we have the promise that God’s will WILL be accomplished in our lives. And no one or nothing… no setback… no hardship… no attack is bigger than His promise.
SDG
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