If God Is Good, Why Is There Evil and Suffering in the World?

The presence of suffering in the world seems to force people to think one of two things: God is good but not powerful enough to stop it, or God is all-powerful but not good enough to stop it.

This seems to be at odds with the way the Bible describes God, as being all-powerful (omnipotent) and all-good (omnibenevolent).

So, how do Bible-believing Christians, who believe in the sovereignty and goodness of God, make sense of all the evil and suffering in the world?

Reframing the Question

First, let’s ask another question: what would God have to do to erase all of the evil and suffering in the world right now?

The answer is rather shocking: immediately kill everyone on earth and send them to hell.

We must realize that evil and suffering are caused by sin and sinful people, and all have sinned (Rom. 3:23).

So, if people are the reason for suffering and evil, then if God were to deal with all people accordingly, then suffering and evil would disappear.

Therefore, we must be thankful that God does not deal immediately with evil and suffering, because then we would be condemned.

But, since there are sinful people on earth, their sin is going to manifest itself in true acts of evil which will cause true suffering.

Suffering from Sickness and Natural Disasters

But what of the suffering of sickness and natural disasters?

While those things are not caused directly by human sin, they are side effects from the Fall in Genesis 3.

In fact, they are caused by Adam’s sin.

When God cursed Adam, Eve, and their offspring to die, it meant that our bodies then became mortal and subject to injury, sickness, and death.

And, in the Fall, God cursed the ground (Gen. 3:17-19) and has subjected creation to futility, and creation has been groaning ever since (Rom. 8:19-20).

After the Fall, we are left with a sinful humanity in rebellion against God whose punishment for sin is death, who is living in a cursed creation, which is being subjected to futility by God.

Again, God could have immediately wiped everything out (which he did, except for the eight people he saved on Noah’s Ark), but he chose not to, and is choosing not to in this very moment that I am writing these words.

So, let us rephrase the question: why does God allow evil and suffering in the world?

Three Reasons God Allows Evil and Suffering

1. God Uses the Acts of Evil People to Accomplish His Good Purposes

First, God uses the acts of evil people to accomplish his good purposes.

The story of Joseph in Genesis bears this out.

Joseph is sold into slavery by his evil brothers, brought to Egypt, and eventually thrown into prison through false accusations.

Yet in prison, the Lord allows Joseph to interpret Pharaoh’s dreams which tell of a dreadful famine coming to the region.

So, Pharaoh elevates Joseph to a level equal to a Prime Minister and commissions him to ensure that Egypt has enough food to survive the famine.

The famine’s effects reach Joseph’s brothers in Canaan, and they come down to Egypt in search of food—which they request from their brother who they thought was long gone!

Joseph eventually reveals his identity to his brothers, and tries to quell their hearts from fearing that he will get revenge on them.

Joseph said this to them, “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.”

He is saying that God allowed the brothers’ evil to happen to accomplish the good of so many people surviving the famine.

This is the very same point Paul makes to the Roman Christians when he says “We know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”

2. God Is Patient in Dealing with Evil So That People May Come to Repentance

Second, God is patient in dealing with evil so that people may come to repentance and faith and receive eternal life.

Both Paul and Peter make this point.

Romans 9:22-23, “What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory?”

Second Peter 3:9 says similarly, “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.”

Ironically, people pit these verses against each other in regards to predestination, but they both say the same thing: God patiently endures the wicked acts of sinful men so that people can repent and receive God’s mercy in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

That means he allows the evil and suffering to occur so that his people can be saved on the Last Day, when Christ will do away with sin, evil, suffering, and death for all eternity.

3. It Is Through Christ’s Suffering That We Are Saved

The third and final reason I offer is a combination of the two previous reasons: it is through Christ’s suffering that we are saved.

Peter says to the Pentecost crowd in Acts 2:23 that “Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.”

In the same way that what Joseph’s wicked brothers meant for evil, God meant for good, so what the Romans and the Jews meant for evil, God meant for good.

It was his foreordained plan for Jesus to be crucified by these wicked men.

And, it was through the cross of Christ that we are freed from sin when we repent and believe in him.

God the Son himself suffered.

John Stott, in his book, The Cross of Christ, says this: “I could never myself believe in God, if it were not for the cross. […] In the real world of pain, how could one worship a God who was immune to it? […] I have turned instead to that lonely, twisted, tortured figure on the cross, nails through hands and feet, back lacerated, limbs wrenched, brow bleeding from thorn-pricks, mouth dry and intolerably thirsty, plunged in God-forsaken darkness. This is the God for me! He laid aside His immunity to pain. He entered our world of flesh and blood, tears and death. He suffered for us. Our sufferings become more manageable in the light of His. There is still a question mark against human suffering, but over it we boldly stamp another mark, the cross which symbolizes divine suffering.”

Conclusion: Trusting God’s Promise

Stott is correct in saying that humanity may never fully understand why brutal evil and unjust suffering persist on this earth, but when we look at the cross of Christ, we see the epitome of brutal evil and unjust suffering as the sinless Christ suffered unjustly and died a death that he did not deserve.

Yet he entered our world of suffering and died our death so that he can bring us into eternal life, where “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away” (Rev. 21:4).

While we may not be able to wrap our heads around why God allows evil and suffering, we can fully trust that God intends to bring it to an end.