How Can We Trust God’s Goodness and Justice Amid the Reality of Suffering and Evil?
Orientation
The accusation that God's foreknowledge of evil makes Him unjust is a modern form of replying against God, demanding He justify Himself to human reasoning.
- This question is a fist around the heart of every beaten sheep who has known pain.
- It springs from the same root as the Judaizer spirit: a heart that demands God meet our standard of righteousness.
- It places God in a human court of justice, a court He never submitted to.
Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? (Romans 9:20)
— Romans 9:20
Clarification
God's sovereignty over all things does not make Him the author or originator of evil.
- God is light, and in him is no darkness at all (1 John 1:5).
- You cannot say when you are tempted, 'I am tempted of God' (James 1:13).
- The evil is ours. The responsibility is ours. The golden calf came from Israel's lust, not God's imagination.
Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: (James 1:13)
— James 1:13
Structure
The definitive answer to every question about God's justice is found in the historical event of the cross, not in philosophical reasoning.
- The cross is where God's justice and mercy collided in one breathtaking act.
- Here, God is both 'just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.'
- This is the governing principle for all our thinking about hard questions.
To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. (Romans 3:26)
— Romans 3:26
Weight-Bearing Prose
The core assertion is that God has already held court, and the gavel fell at Calvary. Any theology that drifts from the cross as the center will eventually distort God’s character. Some take Paul’s argument in Romans 9 and twist it into a grotesque picture, making God the author of sin by claiming He pre-determines specific people as ‘vessels of wrath’ for evil. This is another gospel and presents another Jesus. It is the god of raw determinism, not the God of the Bible. Sovereignty is not authorship. We believe both truths as Scripture presents them: God is sovereign over all reality, and He is not the author of evil. Consider Pharaoh: Scripture says he hardened his own heart, and Scripture says God hardened his heart. Both are true. The Calvinist and the Arminian each pick a side and lose light. Paul’s point in Romans 9 is about God’s sovereign right to use existing instruments—vessels that have already fitted themselves for destruction—to display His power and make known the riches of His glory on vessels of mercy.
Integration
Our confidence is not in having all the answers, but in knowing the One who does. The question of evil finds its resolution in Jesus, who entered our broken world, experienced suffering, and triumphed over it through resurrection. Your growing confidence in God’s goodness isn’t simplistic—it’s spiritually mature. Our assurance rests in the demonstrated character of our good Father who gave His Son for us. We walk by faith grounded in that historical, finished work. The day is coming when every question will be answered, and we will see fully. Until then, we trust the One who is both just and the justifier.