Is God angry at evil?

Is God angry at ¹evil? Absolutely! If he were not angry about one person abusing another he would not be loving to the one being abused. Injustice is a real thing. Justice matters to God because we matter to God. 

God is just if only because it is wrong to hurt another. We know this is true instinctively and all too well, especially when we are harmed and abused and on the "short end" of being mistreated. The essence of the 10 commandments is treating others as they - and we - ²ought and wish to be treated. Whether that involves God in the first 4 commandments or our fellow humans in the last 6.

In addition, treating others in an unloving fashion matters to the mistreated and also to God himself. Why? Because we bear His image and He therefore greatly loves/values us. To hurt one of us is like a slap in the very face of God. It would be like someone defacing or destroying the Mona Lisa (currently valued at over $780 million). Leonardo da Vinci (or the present owner) would not be too happy if they did, would he?

The beauty and wonder of God is He knew we could never repay others for all the damage (marred pictures) we caused. His love for us is so great that he took out his anger for our abuse of others upon himself, in and through the death of Christ. He did this out of his deep love for those who are like him to spare us from having to go through this ourselves. 

The just consequences of our mistreatment of others fell on Christ. If this isn't love, nothing is. Because of Christ, we are no longer required to pay for all the pictures we have (or yet may) marred and damaged. God did this for us.  

And as important as all that is, that is only half of it. He also offers to credit us fully with Christ's life of perfect faithfulness of loving God and others in exchange for our life of unfaithfulness... if we will accept his offer.

For a related discussion on the necessity of judgment, click here. 

For a further discussion on God assigning his righteousness to us, click here. 
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¹Evil - רַע   (pronounced ra) (948c) in the Old Testament Hebrew; from the same as H7455; evil, distress, misery, injury, calamity: 

— adversity (7), calamity (4), disaster (2), evil (94), harm (2), harmful (1), hurt (1), ruin (3), surely (1), trouble (2), unpleasant (1), wickedly (1), wickedness (1).

²By the way, who is the nut job that came up with this notion that there is no right or wrong and morality is a myth? We know in our gut this isn't true. This is why movies like Star Wars are so popular around the world. Instinctively humanity believes there is good vs evil no matter what your world view or religion. This is also why treating others as we wish to be treated resonates with us and is echoed in all religions.

It's about consequences, not shame.

When you blow it, how do you feel? How about when you blow it again and again in the same area? 

Do you grit your teeth, buckle down, and say, "I am not going to do that again" and then do it, anyway? 

So what's the solution? How can you find the strength to not mess up again?

Motivation to obey Christ has ¹everything to do with consequences and nothing to do with feelings of guilt or shame. God doesn't chide, shame, or reject us when we do wrong. We should never seek to obey God out of shame or fear of rejection ... but it is certainly wise to do so out of fear of correction. This is the essence of fearing/respecting God.

A truly loving parent will always correct their child when they do things harmful to others or themselves. And it will hurt, but that is not rejection. In fact, it's just the opposite. Those who God loves, he corrects. It is precisely because God wants what's best for us that he corrects us.  

A truly loving parent never stops loving us, no matter how stupid we act. Do they like it - or do you, if you are a parent - when we (or our kids) make poor choices? No. 

Are parents greatly grieved by these harmful choices? Definitely. Angry? Possibly. But not at us but for our sake and the sake of others. If God is mad, it is only because we are doing things that are destructive to ourselves and ²others. He is not mad at us but angry over the harm it causes ourselves and others. If we are his child, God is for us, not against us.

Not just destructive to us...

Disobedience is also dishonoring to God. To treat God with disrespect or low regard says to others God must not be worth loving or is that great. He's not important enough to pay attention to. This is a very harmful message or way to approach life. This is a problem, not for God, but for those who think God is not worth pursuing due to our not pursuing God as we are designed to. 

When we don't pursue God as we should - and He deserves - others will ask: 

If God is loving, how can those who call him Father be so unloving, e.g. how can such a loving parent (God) have such a spoiled brat (us) for a kid?

If He is great, how can those who call Him Father pursue things other than God and find greater meaning, joy, and life in them instead of Him?  

If God is the greatest, wisest, most powerful, and loving being of all, why aren't his children pursuing him more? 

We must ask ourselves if we are perfectly loved by God, why are we so unloving. Why doesn't his love create in us a love and compassion for others similar to the love and compassion he shows us? 

This occurs only because we don't truly know the nature of his love and how great it is. To say it another way, we may have heard of his love and know about it, but we haven't yet fully "bought-in" to it i.e. we don't really believe He loves us that much. 

Love, as well as consequences, should move us

What about our love, gratitude, or faith? Don't they have something to do with why we do or don't obey God?  

Of course, those who complain about a believer's lack of love use this as an excuse and justification for their own indifference to God. But in reality, they refuse to see the problem is with all of us, not God; with our unbelief and refusal to enter into and participate in God's love, wisdom, and power extended to us in Christ, not because God's love isn't fully extended to us as his adopted children i.e. the problem (our being unloving) lies within us and not within God.

Faith is always a part of obedience (obedience is the fruit of faith). As we mature and experience God's love, wisdom, and power, we begin to discover from first-hand experience he is good, all the time, and worthy of our complete trust and faithfulness. In the hard times and blessed times, he is always good, loving, wise, and patient. This creates gratitude on our part and a response of love to his love, wisdom, and goodness toward us. These experiences of His love always create growing confidence (trust/faith) in the goodness of his directions and His ways of handling our lack of trust in him.

For a further discussion on the uselessness of feeling guilt and shame click here.

For a further discussion on why God hates evil click here. 

For a further discussion on the "anatomy of motivation" to obedience click here. 

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¹I don't mean "everything" in the sense it is the only thing that motivates us to pursue God. Love, trust and a desire to honor (glorify) God are key motivators as well. These fall on the positive side of what moves us to pursue God. For more on this click here.

I am referring to the negative side. When it comes to the reason we are not to sin, it should be to avoid the pain of consequences, not the shame of failure or fear of rejection.  

²We often assume he's against us when he is for others, but he's for *both us and them; just like he is for both himself and us. Our happiness is intertwined with the happiness of others. God first, then others.

We are inter-relational beings because God is an inter-relational being as Father, Son, and Spirit. For more on this point, click here. 

Pain, humility, and knowing God

Is there any connection between knowing God, humility, and pain? At first we may not think so. 

Let's take a closer look. 

Since humility is key to knowing, seeing, and experiencing God, we should embrace and receive, with thanks, anything that helps humble us, including and maybe especially pain and suffering.  

Instead of bristling at pain and pursuing ¹anything we can find to distract or relieve us from it, we should embrace struggles and be grateful for them. They are a vital means of drawing us nearer to God. 

Knowing God is far more significant and beneficial than short-term relief from our struggles (though it often doesn't feel that way at the moment). Seeing and knowing this enables us to receive suffering with gratitude.

In short, the reason we are to be thankful for our struggles (vs complaining about them) is they ²can be and usually are a primary means of strengthening our understanding and relationship with God who is the source of life, love, and all things i.e. pain ²can be a very unpleasant means to the greatest and most desirable and pleasant end - our increased union with God and the joy and happiness we find in Him. So while the loss of things we rely on for comfort or pleasure are painful, they become the very means by which we are drawn closer to God, the Source of life, love, and all things. 

Thankfulness is the best indicator of humility. Humility is the key to seeing and knowing God in all His infinite love and glory.

How do we discover God's love in our pain? click here

For a further discussion on the primary role of pain click here

For a further discussion of how God uses evil for our good click here...and here.

The greater the evil the greater the opportunity for healing/

grace click here.

For a discussion on the key lesson from the book of Job, click here.

For a discussion on the value of paradox, click here.

For a discussion on the necessity of humility click here

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Footnotes:

¹drugs, alcohol, and sex are some of the more obvious and most common diversions. But diversions can also be more socially acceptable pursuits, such as recreation, career, entertainment, material possessions, food, power, control, fame, or anything else pleasant that will help distract us or relieve us from pain. Boredom is also a form of low-grade pain. 

This is not because pleasure in itself or those things among creation that bring us pleasure are bad. God created us for pleasure but in, by, and through Him. But when comfort or pleasure in itself (the opposite of pain) becomes a higher pursuit than God, it is contrary to our design of finding our greatest happiness in God and what He provides. 

²Actually pain and struggle is a primary means to our increasing maturity and greater union with God when received with thanksgiving. I say "can" because it depends on us trusting that God is using our pain for our ultimate good (even the pain caused by the failures and offenses of others). Otherwise, suffering will only make us angry and embitter us. 

"See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no 'root of bitterness' springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled;" - Heb 12:15. No one likes being around a bitter and angry person - except maybe others who are the same way... "birds of a feather..." as the saying goes.  

It is worth noting that the author of Hebrews was writing to people going through intense persecution and suffering at the hands of others.

Hebrews 12:6-8 ESV

⁶For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.” ⁷It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? ⁸If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons... 

Hebrews 12:11 ESV

¹¹For the moment, all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. 

Other passages that directly or indirectly address this vital truth... 

James 1:2-4 ESV

²Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, ³for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. ⁴And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.  

Ephesians 5:20

"...giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,"  

1 Thessalonians 5:18

"Give thanks in every circumstance, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus." 

Colossians 3:17

"And whatever you do, in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him." 

Philippians 4:6

"Be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God." 

This last passage is particularly interesting because we often go to God in prayer for relief from difficulties, yet God says we should give thanks in those very kinds of prayers i.e. don't just seek God for relief, seek God himself and be grateful for everything that aids you in knowing Him better, especially difficulties. 

Romans 8:28-29 

"And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. [29] For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers."

The good that God is achieving in all things (vs 28) - both hard and comforting - is making us more like His Son (vs 29), not necessarily improved circumstances.

The necessity of dependence

The very acts of eating, drinking, and breathing are daily reminders that we ¹depend on things outside ourselves for life. 

They also remind us of how fragile life truly is when we can not access these basic essential resources.

When we stop to consider it, the most basic things necessary for life comes to us from ²without, not within. If we do not partake of these physical resources, we physically die. We usually don't give this much thought until the threat of their absence presents itself.

This is not only true physically but spiritually as well. Without God - and these physical resources created, sustained, and given to us by God - we cease to ³function as we were designed to. We are not just physical beings but spiritual also. Why? Because we are created in God's image and He is Spirit.

So we are sustained by God through the material things we must have for life. Without God, these things would not exist, and neither would we.

No amount of resistance to dependence or the desire to be ²independent - "free" - of our physical or spiritual needs (or limits) will change our dependence. We may ignore, resist, or deny our dependence, but to do so ultimately leads to death - physically and spiritually. 

To continue receiving and benefiting from what we must have for life requires acknowledging our ongoing need for and dependence on them and their Source. Otherwise, it will lead to continued separation from the very Source of life and ultimate separation from all created things after this present existence.

Even though we often despise ²dependence, in the above examples dependence is good, not bad, because it helps sustain our lives.

Every day and every breath are gifts. They are not guarantees or rights we can demand or become angry over losing. Without God and all He provides, only death is certain, not life because He is the Source of life. Be grateful for your life and all it offers and seek to use it to honor the Giver.

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Footnotes:

¹Even though eating, drinking, and breathing are activities of dependence, we all love a good meal when hungry, a cold refreshing drink when thirsty, and fresh air when we are suffocating or couped up in a place where the air is stale or unpleasant. We grow to love and appreciate these even more when we have gone through times when they were not readily available or temporarily unavailable. 

This is why suffering the temporary loss of these gifts gives us a whole new perspective on life and appreciation for these basic needs and the gifts offered to meet them. Who hasn't heard of someone's entire outlook and approach to life forever changed because of a near-death experience from the lack of one or more of these resources? This kind of event causes a major shift in our view of life and the world. 

This is true of hard circumstances as well. Those who have lost their freedom of some kind - e.g. politically, physically, healthwise etc. - (or some other gift of life) appreciate it all the more when they get it back. 

Eating, drinking, and breathing are so much a part of our lives we do not see or treat the use of them as "acts of dependence." But this doesn't make them any less so. It simply indicates how much we take for granted the good things we have. It is only when we do not have them that we fully appreciate their value and the reality of our absolute life-or-death dependence on them.

In fact, isn't this the value of suffering? It humbles us and makes us aware of our true status of being dependent creatures, i.e. it brings our understanding of who we are more in line with reality - a "reality check" if you will. 

Reality is good, however, not bad. Living in the "real world" maximizes our flourishing and minimizes harm to us and others. Living in a delusional world eventually leads to permanent loss of the good gifts we enjoy each day but take so much for granted.

Embrace the reality of your dependence. In the long run, your life will flourish more because of this. This in part is what the bible means when it says we find life through death. Death to a false sense of independence, leads to life. To truly live we must die first.

No one likes pain or suffering and many use its existence to justify being angry at God, when in truth these are the organic result of rejecting dependence on our Creator and His creation. Pain is designed to bring us back into alignment with our Creator and remind us of our absolute dependence on Him for our very breath. There is actually a very good reason suffering and evil remain in this life. 

It is not the gifts we despise, but our general dependence we dislike. We wish to be free of all "restraints." However, wouldn't we all be better off if we learned to embrace all the ways we are dependent in the same way we do these everyday gifts (breath, air, water etc) we usually take for granted, i.e. with gratitude?

It is worth noting that Christ characterized Himself as the bread and water of life. This implies we need far more for real life than just what this physical life offers. As believers, these are comforting promises, and we gladly embrace this truth about Christ.

²We are told in scripture that our very breath comes from God. Not only our breath but everything we are and have are gifts from our Creator, regardless of whether we acknowledge this or use them as God intends and designs.

Unfortunately, not acknowledging this leads to the permanent loss of these gifts and all blessings of life. If we reject the Giver of these things, we eventually lose both the Giver and His gifts. Why would he continue to extend them to us, if we refuse to acknowledge the cause for else's.

To continue having and using the gifts without acknowledging the Giver would be living in a delusion or lie. To remain on or abandon this path is our chosing, no one elses.

³When not aligned with our Creator, we not only cease to function well, but we ultimately go into eternity on this same course - i.e. without Him - but also without access to the creation we presently enjoy. For more on this click here.

Shifting hope

We get frustrated (or angry) with the struggles of life because intuitively we know pain and struggle is not what we were originally created for. We were ultimately created for a relationship of infinite, uninterrupted love, joy and bliss; not merely finite (limited/temporary) relationships or relationships with things finite.

We long for a relationship of *infinite love. When we can not find it we go after anything else we can "get our hands on" to give us that sense of love, glory, meaning, value etc. Yet we never truly find long term what we seek. We only experience tastes of it in fits and starts. 

Even for those blessed enough to be in a healthy relationship(s)... one(s) they are truly grateful for, it still is not enough. We long for more because we were designed for more...far more. 

Until we realize what we long for will not and can not be found in this life, we go through life constantly disappointed and always frustrated. 

Only when we come to a place that we know what we really long for is not here but yet to come, does the frustration subside. Our hope shifts and we enter into a true and lasting hope and begin to pursue all other things in light of this new hope. 

Rom 5:2  Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3 More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4  and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. 

Rom 8:20  For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22  For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. 23 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.  24  For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? 25  But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

Heb 11:1  Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. 

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*Once true (perfect, infinite, uninterrupted) love is awakened, we desire more with even greater intensity and ultimately with everything that is in us. 

Usually the closest we come to this is when we "fall in love" for the first time. But it isn't sufficient because perfect, infinite, uninterrupted love is what we are designed for. This is our ultimate and true hope and only this love will do.

What reveals our heart most

If we want to know the true condition of our heart two things reveal it better than anything; ¹great adversity and great success. 

Great adversity either humbles us or embitters us. Great success either makes us proud or grateful.

When you go through great adversity, how do you respond? Do you get angry and blame others or shake your fist at God? Or do you step back and reflect on how this too comes from God's hand for your good and seek to respond in a way that honors Him?

When you have a really good day (or season) where everything lines up circumstantially and everything you touch turns to gold, how do you respond? Do you start feeling and thinking that you are better than others or are you humbled that God has been good to you and cleared your path?

If you are inclined to feel anger during adversity or pride from success, what is the solution? It is actually the same for both; God's love. As we trust more and more in God's love and allow it to seep deep into our souls - whether in success or struggle - we are freed from trying to get love or affirmation elsewhere. We are not drawn away from God by the praise of men, because God's embrace means far more. 

We also question God's good intentions behind our hardships less. As our trust in God matures, we recognize more and more that the struggles and blessings of life are only from his wise and gracious hand. 

Great success or great suffering may darken our hearts or make us wiser and more humble, but they will never leave us where we were.

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¹what is the difference in these very different responses? Humility. Those who respond positively recognize all they are and have comes from their Creator. Those who don't, believe they are alone and must make life work on their own. No one is there to help them or cares about them more than they can or do.

The latter is a lonely path we are not designed to travel. We are created for relationship, but not just any relationship will do. Only one with the infinitely loving, wise, and all-powerful Creator,  who knows us better than we know ourselves. 

Misplaced hope… Unfounded anger

One of our greatest challenges in handling the pain and suffering of this life is we place far too much value on the comforts of this life. In fact we often place ultimate value in them. We long for something in this life that God has not promised and then are surprised when we do not find it. We look for life that is pain and trouble-free when it is not promised. At least not yet. In short we seek the full bliss of heaven on earth now when it is yet to come. 

There is nothing wrong with seeking comfort or pleasure in itself. We were designed for it. The question, however, is a matter of expectation and how or when do we legitimately obtain it. 

Psa 16:11  You make known to me the path of life; in your presence, there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. 

We find legitimate and true pleasure only in and through God. 

We are told that we, (along with this earth) are broken and in bondage. That in this life we will encounter thorns and thistles and ultimately death itself. Yet we are always shocked when our "heaven on earth" is rudely and often interrupted.

We must remember that Christ stepped out of the bliss of His eternal glory and communion with the Father into our broken world of pain. He did this to free us from our brokeness and pain so He could ultimately unit us with him in his new heaven and earth of bliss. This is our true and ultimate hope, not heaven on this present earth of brokenness and bondage. And this ultimate bliss is yet to come. But make no mistake, it is coming - and only because of Christ. 

"Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying:

“Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man, and He will dwell with them.

They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them as their God.

‘He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the former things have passed away.” - Rev 21:1-4

If we find ourselves angry at God for the pain and suffering of this life, it is due to our rebellious attempt to make life work independent of God and our refusal to recognize our dependence on Him for all things and the need to be restored and reunited to him in this life resulting in ultimate freedom from pain in the next life.

"I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. 

In the world you will have tribulation. 

But take heart; I have overcome the world." - Christ. - Joh 16:33  

"For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 

For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. 

Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience." - Rom 8:18-25

But, as it is written, "What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him" - 1Co 2:9  

“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also." - John 14:1-3

For a discussion on how we have the kingdom but not yet fully click here

The greater our sin the greater his Grace

When we are most ugly and unlovely, God is loving us most.

How so? 

It requires more love to love someone when they are most unlovely than when they are most lovely i.e. To love us at our worst involves a greater love (commitment to love) than loving us at our best (Just think of your own experience in loving someone angry, ¹hostile, fearful, untrusting, bitter, or anxious versus someone thoughtful and kind). 

"For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person - though perhaps for a good person, one would dare even to die - but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." - Paul an apostle of Jesus. Rom 5:6-8

So how can God do this... how can He love the unlovely? Because God's love has nothing to do with our performance. It is based entirely on someone else's performance. God himself through Christ!

That commitment of love was made a long time ago (Eph 1:4-6) and the decision and follow through on it is already completed i.e. "it is finished (John 19:30)." Therefore nothing we do can add to or take away from God's love, nothing!!! If we are His child, His love is secured for us and is now fixed on us no matter what! (Rom 8:31-39) 

Why? Because it is secured by someone else's efforts not our own. And not just anyone's, but the efforts of none other than the perfectly loved and lovely, perfectly faithful, and obedient eternal Son of God. The love God has for his Son is now the very same love he has for us. Let this sink in!!!

As we come to recognize this is the kind of love God has for us as his children; a love that, in the above sense, is more intense and steadfast the more unlovely we are, this love... his love, begins to transform us. The more we "get it" the more we change. 

To put this in practical terms, think of one of the areas you struggle with most. Anger, gluttony, anxiety, fear, lust etc...fill in the blank. Whatever it is, think of the last time you blew it in this area. How did you feel? Dejected, rejected? (Not by God. That, my friend, is all in your head, not in God's heart. More on this later). 

Next time you find yourself failing in the area you struggle with most, make yourself (choose to) think in the midst of that struggle, "God is loving me right now while I am in the middle of this. He is loving me in my sin and in my struggle!" Then make yourself think of why he is 100% with you and for you, loving you at the very moment of your failure, and what Christ did so the Father doesn't turn away but is always seeking, pursuing, and loving you, as much as ever (in a sense more than ever); that Christ died for that very sin you are in the middle of. Your specific sin helped put him on the cross. This thinking is what the Bible means when it says "reckon" these things to be true. 

Romans 6:8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live (present tense) with him. 9 We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. 10 For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. 11 So you also (in the exact same way) must consider (reckon in the KJV) yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

How will this "reckoning" affect what you are struggling with? My suggestion is if you really "get" his love (i.e. believe he loves you the way he says and has already proven) it will cause that sin's pull to lose its grip as it's happening. If it doesn't, it is only because you don't truly believe He really loves you as He claims (and proved) and is loving you in and at that moment of your turning away from trust in Him. That He already knew in advance how, when, and where you would fail him, and he went to the cross anyway. 

Are we getting better or worse? BOTH!

God's love for us wasn't just before we came to Christ but also now that we are in him... And in a sense, even more so. How? As we mature the awareness of our need for God's love increases (our objective need for it, however, remains constant and never changes, as well as its availability. This is a constant and settled reality because of Christ). 

But as we mature, our actual sin/unbelief/distrust truly declines over time (i.e. our faith increases resulting in greater faithfulness/obedience) while our subjective awareness of our sin/unbelief/distrust increases. Or to say it another way, we are getting better in one sense but getting worse in another, at the same time. And this trajectory continues until we go to be with him. 

Our sense of increasing dependence, need, and appreciation for the grace of God also increases (the need itself is and has always been constant, our sense of that need does not; it grows over time).

As we mature in our faith we become more keenly aware of the various areas of our rebellious distrust we still subtly cling to, as well as God's grace extended to us in that rebellion. It's not that these (our rebellion and God's grace) are new areas. They were always there, we just weren't as aware they were. They are only new to our awareness of them. 

That is not to say sin/distrust/unbelief/unfaithfulness does not matter (or to say it positively, whether faith matters), it does. Rom 6:1-2  But we are talking about God's disposition of love towards us in our sin, not our subjective experience and participation in that love i.e. our rebellious distrust of God does not change his actual love for us, it only changes our experience of it.

God's objective love and our subjective experience of that love are entirely distinct even though connected. One is always true and constant (his objective love) while the other (our experiencing of his love) comes and goes according to our faith i.e. our trust (our resting or abiding in it) that His love is there, never-ending, uninterrupted, no matter what we go through or how we feel. 

For a further discussion on our participation and experience of God's love click here. 

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¹Loving our enemies is a very radical idea and totally contrary to our broken, rebellious, and distrusting nature. But Christ calls us to love our enemies because this is exactly what he does and who He is. He is seeking to make us more like Himself i.e. to conform us to his image. 

 The deepest and greatest love is always sacrificial. GOD IS LOVE. 

No shortcuts to maturity

Pain is a ¹necessary part of ²growth. We either experience it through... 

³Self-denial and submission to God's ⁴directives - necessary because of our brokenness and inclination towards ⁵rebellions distrust of God.

or 

As a result of living in a broken world among others who are also broken from their rebellion to God. 

There is no way around pain. It comes to us through the offenses of others in this broken world. There are also no shortcuts to being weaned from our own ⁶brokenness and the pain it causes.

"I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world, you will have tribulation (The meaning of tribulation in the original Greek - persecution, affliction, distress, pressure). But take heart (i.e. do not be fearful or lose hope); ⁷I have overcome the world.” - Jesus in John 16:33

The good news is God knows and understands our pain because Christ stepped into our broken world and suffered far more than we ever will - and for our benefit. 

And not only so but he also uses our pain and struggles for our good. In knowing this, we find peace - i.e. "...in me you may have peace." 

Though pain continues in this life, it no longer disturbs us in the way it did before. We now see how God uses it for a good purpose if we love and trust Him.

In Christ, we therefore live with ⁷hope in the midst of pain, not despair, anxiety or fear.

How do we discover God's love in our pain? click here

For a further discussion on the primary role of pain click here

For a further discussion of how God uses evil for our good click here...and here.

The greater the evil the greater the opportunity for healing/

grace click here.

For a discussion on the key lesson from the book of Job, click here.

For a discussion on the value of paradox, click here.

For a discussion on the necessity of humility click here

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Footnotes:

¹Pain reminds us that we were not designed to operate without God. The more we come to see and understand this the more we look to God for true life, and not to creation with all it's "creature comforts."

Coming to see and know God as the true source of life, love, and all things is at the heart of our transformation - growth. Pain often is a - if not the - primary means  by which this occurs if we receive it by faith as such, i.e. we do not become angered or embittered by our suffering, pain, or struggles but welcome them as our friends to help us grow deeper roots into God and find Him more and more as our true life and joy.

"When all kinds of trials and temptations crowd into your lives my brothers, don’t resent them as intruders, but welcome them as friends! Realise that they come to test your faith and to produce in you the quality of endurance. But let the process go on until that endurance is fully developed, and you will find you have become men of mature character with the right sort of independence..." Jas 1:2-3 JB Phillips

²We are so blinded by our selfishness we will never see how deep it runs until we are pressed beyond our ability to handle the pain it causes.

³God actually calls us to go through pain to advance us spiritually. We don't think of self-denial as a form of pain. However, self-denial is a call to turn away from those things we use to find comfort in and ease our pain, so we might pursue God as our comfort.

To expand on this, Christ says we are to take up our cross and follow him. The cross is a symbol of pain and death. Christ is calling us to take on and embrace pain in the same way He did in order to follow him. At first, we might think this is insane. Why would God call us to willingly take on and embrace pain when we spend all our lives trying to avoid it!?

When the world asks how can God be good and just, when He does not relieve all the pain and suffering in the world (including our own), it reveals the depth of our rebellion towards God. Pain is the organic fruit of our rebellious distrust and independence from God, not as deliberate punishment by some angry supernatural being. It only remains to wean us away from inappropriate dependence on the creation and turn us to dependence on the Creator for true life where it belongs and where we will flourish and experience life most. 

If we allow pain to do this, we will be saved in, by, and through our pain and suffering, i.e. It remains for the exact opposite of what we assume. God ultimately uses it to advance us spiritually, not harm us. But only if we receive it as from His hand for our advancement, not our harm. If we believe it is only for our harm we will not gain from it the good God intends.

⁴The primary directive is that we love God with all that we have and are and our neighbor as ourselves.

⁵Pursuit of something other than God for life is at the heart of our rebellion. This says these other things are more important or valuable than God i.e. they become our God. 

⁶The heart of our brokenness - selfishness - is our rebellious commitment to being our own god. We put greater trust in ourselves into gaining what is best than trusting God to do what is best for us. This is due to not believing God is who he claims to be... the Source of life, love, and all things. The result is the pursuit of creation itself and making it our god. 

How's that working for you so far? 

"For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.

For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.

For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things." - Rom1:18-23

Of course, today we do not worship birds, animals, and creeping things as they did back when Paul penned this. But these are representatives of creation. We naturally ascribe to created things - i.e. anything from our earthly existence - the value and glory that can only be ascribed to God. That is the application and underlying truth of this passage for us today, not the primitive worship of animals.

⁷How did Christ overcome the world? He embraced the world's pain and suffering (including ours) and allowed it to kill him so that we might not have to remain in pain and die. Then He overcame that pain by resurrecting so that we might also resurrect one day if we put our trust in Him.  

Pain and death do not have the final word, life does in and through Christ demonstrated and confirmed by his resurrection. Because he resurrected, we will also in him. This is our hope in our pain.