In recent weeks Queensland has been experiencing extreme weather conditions, resulting in many major floods. These occurred in the Mackay-Rockhampton area, Bundaberg, Maryborough, Gympie, Toowoomba, Lockyer Valley, Ipswich, and the Brisbane River and CBD. TV shows images of flooding and the pictures were horrific. At this date 15 have died and around 20 are missing.
There have been those in the Christian community who have seen these dramatic events as God's judgment on Australia. This has caused me to reflect on the nature of God, and particularly His response to the sin of humankind.
I reflected on the story in the New Testament, John's Gospel, chapter 9 which tells the story of the man who was born blind.
(John 9:1 CEV) As Jesus walked along, he saw a man who had been blind since birth.
(John 9:2-5 CEV) Jesus' disciples asked, "Teacher, why was this man born blind? Was it because he or his parents sinned?"
"No, it wasn't!" Jesus answered. "But because of his blindness, you will see God work a miracle for him.
As long as it is day, we must do what the one who sent me wants me to do. When night comes, no one can work.
While I am in the world, I am the light for the world."
The question that confronted the people of Jesus' day was whether the blind man was being punished because of his sin or the sin of his parents.
This whole story which shows how Jesus dealt with the blind man and how he healed him, goes to the very root of the character of God, and the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ upon the Cross for the sin of humankind.
(John 3:16-18 CEV) God loved the people of this world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who has faith in him will have eternal life and never really die.
God did not send his Son into the world to condemn its people. He sent him to save them!
No one who has faith in God's Son will be condemned. But everyone who doesn't have faith in him has already been condemned for not having faith in God's only Son.
In the story in John chapter 9 Jesus does not try to explain the connection of sin and suffering. Jesus tells the people that this man's affliction came to him to give an opportunity of showing what God can do.
The miracles in John's Gospel are told as a sign of the glory and the power of God. The other Gospel writers regarded the miracles as a demonstration of the compassion of Jesus.
Affliction, sorrow, pain, disappointment, loss always enables the sufferer to show what God can do. When suffering falls upon a person who lives and walks with God, they bring out the strength and the beauty, and the endurance and the nobility, which are within a person's heart when God is there.
Hebrews 12:7-11 states:
Be patient when you are being corrected! This is how God treats his children. Don't all parents correct their children?
God corrects all of his children, and if he doesn't correct you, then you don't really belong to him.
Our earthly fathers correct us, and we still respect them. Isn't it even better to be given true life by letting our spiritual Father correct us?
Our human fathers correct us for a short time, and they do it as they think best. But God corrects us for our own good, because he wants us to be holy, as he is.
It is never fun to be corrected. In fact, at the time it is always painful. But if we learn to obey by being corrected, we will do right and live at peace.
In my view the Hebrews text would indicate that when God brings testing and discipline into our lives it is for a purpose. But He never tries to break us.
The question of sin was dealt with when Jesus died on the Cross for the sin of humankind. Jesus bore our sins in his body, when he died on the cross.
God is not a vindictive God - His son paid the price for our sin and we can experience the forgiveness of God through faith in Jesus Christ.
Ephesians 2:7-9 God raised us from death to life with Christ Jesus, and he has given us a place beside Christ in heaven.
God did this so that in the future world he could show how truly good and kind he is to us because of what Christ Jesus has done.
You were saved by faith in God, who treats us much better than we deserve. This is God's gift to you, and not anything you have done on your own.
It isn't something you have earned, so there is nothing you can brag about.
Now that Queensland is in recovery mode after the floods our hearts have been warmed as we have seen many thousands of people respond to the call for help and assistance, and to volunteer to assist people to clean up their homes.
In my view this is proof that humankind is able to respond to the suffering of others and show compassion and pity to those who are worse off than themselves.
This may be one practical way that God reveals his kindness to people - through the compassion of their neighbours.
This touches on the theological concept of common grace. Common Grace is a theological concept, referring to the grace of God that is either common to all humankind, or common to everyone within a particular sphere of influence (limited only by unnecessary cultural factors). It is “common” because its benefits are experienced by, or intended for, the whole human race without distinction between one person and another. It is "grace" (kindness) because it is undeserved and sovereignly bestowed by God.
By God's common grace humankind retains a conscience indicating the differences between right and wrong. This may be based on the fact that human beings, though fallen in sin, retain a semblance of the "image of God" with which they were originally created (Gen. 9:6: 1 Cor. 11:7).
“The Lord is good to all; he has compassion on all he has made” (Psalm 145:9). Jesus said God causes “his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous” (Matthew 5:45).
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