Suffering and the Sovereignty of God by John Piper & Justin Taylor

Author:John Piper & Justin Taylor
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, azw3
Tags: Spirituality, Non-Fiction, Religion
ISBN: 9781433519024
Publisher: Crossway
Published: 2006-09-13T00:00:00+00:00

SufferingSoverGod.48096.i04.qxd 9/21/07 9:22 AM Page 122

SufferingSoverGod.48096.i04.qxd 9/21/07 9:22 AM Page 123

c h a p t e r 6

The Sovereignty of God

and Ethnic-Based Suffering

C a r l F. E l l i s , J r .

Weserve the sovereign God who will accomplish his will no matter what. We find this truth all the way back to creation. When we

were created, we were in covenant relationship with God. This was the covenant of creation (others call it the covenant of works). According to the terms of the covenant, obedience would result in blessing. We would experience pleasure as the sovereign will of God was accomplished through us. However, if we broke the covenant, we would be under its curse, and we would experience pain as the sovereign will of God was accomplished through us.

We know from the biblical text that we broke the covenant. The fall was the result, and the path of pain was the outcome. By eating from the forbidden tree, humans were, in essence, attempting to replace God as ultimate judge of good and evil. God said, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil” (Gen. 2:16-17, NIV). It wasn’t that they didn’t understand the nature of good and evil. The real temptation was: what would be the basis for judging good and evil? Would it be the Word of God or human opinion?

What happens just before we fall to temptation? We decide that the thing we desire is good for us. In essence, we reenact the fall every time we give in to temptation. When Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, they were rejecting the Word of God as the basis of life. This was an SufferingSoverGod.48096.i04.qxd 9/21/07 9:22 AM Page 124

124

The Purposes of God in Suffering

example of creature-ism—the creature attempts to judge the Creator by creaturely standards.

Instead of immediately sending us to the lake of fire, God showed us grace. He gave us another covenant, the covenant of salvation (the covenant of grace as some call it). The covenant of salvation was designed to deliver us from the curse of the broken covenant of creation.

Until salvation was fully applied we would still experience many of the effects of the fall. Among these effects would be human power differentials. These power differentials would lead to human power struggles.

This is the basis of the ethnic-based strife and suffering.

Let us make some observations about power. The Bible tells us that God is all-powerful, and yet there are no power struggles between the persons of the godhead. Why? Because the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are one. Before the fall Adam and Eve had significant power of dominion, yet there were no power struggles between them. Why?

Because they were one. Their oneness was like God’s oneness only on a human level. This is a perspective on what it means to be in the image of God. Adam was the head, but he was the first among equals.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.