the greater the evil the greater the healing

When we hear of an incredibility heinous violation of someone, such as rape, or kidnapping of a child and selling them into sex slavery, what possible good could come out of such horrendous acts? How could God possibly use something of such a destructive and heinous nature for good? 

It's actually the same question we can ask about the unjust murder of Christ himself. Can God bring good out of such evil? 

3 Things to consider. Such evil can result in...

• Observing mankind's evil demonstrates how desperately evil man's condition and heart are without God -- proving the futility of being disconnected from God and the importance and necessity of knowing Him and being restored to Him.

• How evil and destructive our rebellious distrust of God can be and is. Distrust or unbelief is the source of all wrong doing. 

• How Christ fully understands the pain evil causes by going through his own at the hands of evil acts i.e. his rejection by his own people, and His subsequent trial and crucifixion. 

Probably the greatest value we derive from suffering at the evil hand of others is a greater appreciation of the sufferings of Christ and a deeper understanding of the love Christ has that moved him to take on this suffering for us. When we see this clearly, it frees us from the bitterness of our past hurts as well as ensures the ultimate and complete removal of it from us in eternity. 

Suffering is not the last word. 

When we consider the suffering someone goes through, no matter how wicked, it does not have to be the end of the story or the ultimate destruction of one's soul -- though it certainly will be if we become embittered and more firmly committed to distrust in God and self-protection. God can (and will) truly and fully restore those who go through such overwhelming abuse and suffering (and beyond) if they allow Him to. If not in this life certainly in the next. In fact, because Christ fully took on all our pain, the ¹greater the losses we suffer in this life, the greater our ¹potential gain in the next. 

Also, some of the greatest testimonies of his love and grace are from those who have come out of the most abusive pain and are now brilliant lights for him. 

In fact, he will use evil to heal us in a way we would have not otherwise or ever known without evil. The extent of the healing is (and can only be) in proportion to the evil experienced i.e. the greater the evil the greater the potential healing and appreciation for it. Healing occurs precisely because damage is done and is needed most where the damage is greatest. Without great damage, there is no great healing.

What about the next life?

One of our biggest mistakes is to only view things from a temporary perspective. This is the opposite view taken in scripture (2 Cor 4:16-18). If this life was all there was, these horrendous deeds would only be devastating if not irreversible.

This is precisely why the resurrection is so vital and significant. It shouts that pain and death are not the final word... life is!

As Christ said, what does it profit a man to gain the whole world but to lose his own soul? Wouldn't the opposite also be true? What great gain it would be to lose the world with all it's comforts, benefits, and blessings if it became the means of gaining our eternal soul and ultimate bliss far greater then any pain that brought us to it? And if we did, how much greater and more appreciated that gain would be once we experience it. If the pain, suffering, and destruction lead to the saving of our souls, would this not indeed be a great gain beyond all comparison? 

Some may argue the wound is too great and deep. How could God heal it? However, because the wound is so deep is exactly why the healing can be and is so great once we experience it. Even greater and deeper than the wound. As Paul said, where sin abounds, grace superabounds, i.e. the abounding is far greater than the loss. Though hard to grasp during the pain, this is the promise made to us. And this is not simply a promise of words but a promise backed up by the real suffering, death, burial, and resurrection of Christ himself. He knows far greater pain than any of us and therefore understands ours better than anyone else.

All of this is possible only because Christ took the evil of our brokenness into his own body and let it wound and destroy him in the most unjust, undeserved, unfair, painful, and ²humiliating manner. An evil more vile and unjust than any of us could know; a wound and pain ³far greater and deeper than any wound any of us could experience or ever suffer. Our wounds do not carry the full weight of humanity's evil. Christ's did. 

Part of what also makes it so great and distinguishes it from all our pain is it was a wound he was no more guilty of than those who suffer the kind of abuse mentioned at the beginning of this article. He was the ultimate and greatest victim of abuse -- though he submitted himself to this willingly out of love for us. 

And because he rose to life after his terrible abuse and wounding, those who are also abused can be raised to eternal bliss and will be if they are in Christ. And the eternal benefit will far outweigh any present suffering and loss no matter how deep the wound or great the loss. 

Some have ⁴testified of the delivery of knowing Christ's love after coming from such a background. This is the work he has done on your behalf and the promise he offers if you will receive it.

For a further discussion of how we are in a constant state of pain click here.

What is the knowledge of good and evil? click here.

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

For a discussion on suffering due to our own choices click here.

For a discussion on seeing Christ love in our pain Click here.
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¹it is a potential gain and not certain, not because God is uncertain but only because our trust in God is uncertain, which determines if we do or do not gain from such events. If and when we fully trust him the gain is absolutely certain. The greater our trust, the greater our gain. 

²All artists' render Christ hanging on the cross with some kind of loin clothe. However, the common practice by the Romans at the time was to crucify their victims naked, to strip them of their dignity, maximizing their emotional pain and shame in addition to their physical pain. We sanitize it by putting a loin cloth on Christ. God did not. 

Add to this that Christ was actually crucified on a hill outside the city walls overlooking Jerusalem. It is understood that everyone within the walls of Jerusalem could see this hill and any events taking place there. Those who were not up on the hill that day could still see what transpired. Those who feel shame for their past abuse have someone in Christ who understands shame. 

Heb 12:2  looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. 

Heb 4:14  Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. 

Heb 4:15  For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted G3985 as we are, yet without sin. 

Heb 4:16  Let us then with confidence (a certainty he understands and does not look down upon us with shame) draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. 

³But this was not the final word, life was i.e. resurrection. And because it was for him, so it is for those who are in him.

⁴Joyce Meyers was raped over 200 times by her father before the age of 18. Eventually, she led her father to Christ before he passed away. We have also seen how God has used her over the years. She shared how she knows a key reason God has used her in the way He has was because of this abuse. 

G3985 tempted - πειράζω peirazō

Thayer Definition:

1) to try whether a thing can be done
1a) to attempt, endeavour
2) to try, make trial of, test: for the purpose of ascertaining his quantity, or what he thinks, or how he will behave himself
2a) in a good sense
2b) in a bad sense, to test one maliciously, craftily to put to the proof his feelings or judgments
2c) to try or test one’s faith, virtue, character, by enticement to sin
2c1) to solicit to sin, to tempt
2c1a) of the temptations of the devil
2d) after the OT usage
2d1) of God: to inflict evils upon one in order to prove his character and the steadfastness of his faith
2d2) men are said to tempt God by exhibitions of distrust, as though they wished to try whether he is not justly distrusted

2d3) by impious or wicked conduct to test God’s justice and patience, and to challenge him, as it were to give proof of his perfections.

"performance" or action by faith

What is the difference between

·        action by faith and

·        performance based action 

First, how they are alike. 

They both require

·        choice 

·        effort/action

·        giving to get

So in the above ways they are exactly the same. And this is also why they are so easily confused with each other. Why? Because understanding the difference is a matter of the heart, not simply the head i.e. knowing the movement/ motives of our heart is key but usually very hard to discern. 

However, they are totally different in other vital ways for the same reason; in ways not easily identified because they deal with the ways of the heart; hearts that are often hidden from our full awareness. 

Defining terms

Performance is acting to obtain something missing...a sense of "being right," being forgiven, accepted and valued by and through our efforts/actions. It's about proving ones goodness/worth/value by and through self/flesh driven (vs Spirit/love driven) effort/action. 

Action by faith, is acting out of fullness because of what you already have...you already know you are loved, forgiven, accepted and of great value in the eyes of God. Your dependence/trust in God and his assessment of you is what you base your value/worth on. In other words, action by faith is based on knowing that someone of infinite wisdom, judgment and value sees you as good, right and of infinite value/loved (even though practically we often are not good and certainly never good enough through our own efforts). 

When you believe and fully embrace this (i.e. by faith), you respond accordingly i.e. you love Him back in response to his perfect love for you. The more you believe his assessment to be true the greater your action...actions that are an overflow of love, not an attempt to win love i.e. not performing ("jumping through hoops") to gain love.

To operate by faith is possible only because your value to God was already totally proven by actions someone else ¹took on your behalf i.e. God doesn't just declare you valuable, he treats you as valuable i.e. he took action in and through Christ to prove how much he values you. 

Christ took these actions so you might enter into and participate in the same love of the Father the Son experiences and fully participates in (and has always had from all eternity past). 

Christ wanted you to have what he has; the unlimited, unobstructed love of his Father. So much so he willingly gave up something of that love, that you might fully have it (2 Corinthians 8:9). 

This is evidence of how great he values you and has nothing but infinite love for you. He finds great joy and satisfaction in knowing he makes this happen for you. 

What kind of actions did Christ take that proves his love?

He set aside the fullness of his glory and took on human form so he could die in order to settle the debt of your unfulfilled obligation to love and honor God as ¹he deserves and you were designed to do (as well as loving your neighbor). This was necessary because your refusal to live according to his design alienates you from the Father and his love. We turned our back on God when we did what God forbid, he never turned his back on us  As evidenced by sending Christ to us - Emmanuel - God with us.

He did this for two key reasons. 

1. Because you could not  

2. So you would no longer have to in order to be fully in union with God again.

Christ also lived to fulfill your obligations to live as you were designed i.e. he lived exclusively to show forth to others the great honor and worth of his Father that you were meant and designed to do yourself. 

Why would he do all this? He didn't act out of obligation, guilt, need or any other reason. He created you and therefore values (loves) you. You are in his image. 

What do we get, how do we get it? 

So if we, because of Christ, already have God's full, unlimited and complete love, what are we getting when we act by faith?

We are "getting" (entering into or participating in) what we already have. 

To fully experience and benefit from his love already fixed upon us and fully ours in Christ, we must participate in it. 

This is like having the most renown gourmet of all time prepare, cook and set out for you the most delicious and healthy meal possible, with all their experience, resources, skill, thought and effort required to prepare it. A meal that would cost far more then usual (at no cost to you btw) or more than you have. A meal specifically and exclusively prepared for you. A meal that not only brings health and healing but looks and smells exquisite. Clearly an act of care and love. 

Yet, one you won't fully appreciate and enjoy until you sit down and actually eat it. When you do, only then will you completely experience and enjoy the thoughtfulness and care (love) intended for and directed at you by this highly regarded gourmet chef who prepared it. 

So how do we eat/participate in the infinite love of the Father?

Christ himself tells us how he did when he said the following…

"As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. 

If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love.

These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full." Joh 15:9-11  

First, we must understand, we are talking about the perfect, infinite and infinitely loved Son of the eternal Father. Nothing Christ did ever caused His Father to love him. The Father loves the Son because of who Christ is, not because of what he did (though what Christ did certainly confirmed why the Father loves the Son with infinite affection). Christ and the Father have a love relationship that is constant and has always existed from all eternity past before we came along. There has never been a time when the Father and Son did not love each other, nor will there ever be. There was and is ²nothing Christ could do, to add to, or take away from this infinite love.

Nevertheless, Christ still went out early in the morning seeking his Father in prayer. Why? In doing so, was he trying to earn, through his efforts (performance), what was already fully his? NO!!! He did so to participate in the love that was already there, waiting for him to partake of. 

To fully abide in/experience his Fathers love he pursued the Fathers will i.e. followed his directions/commands. And because he loved and fully trusted his Father he found joy in doing so. This wasn't a performance to impress his Father to gain His love. It was a demonstration and display of love and honor for the love (Father) of his heart. And there is something about acting on our affections for another that makes them more real. 

How does anyone experience a love relationship? Do they experience it best when they are miles apart and never interact or speak to the one they love? No, the experience occurs best and most when they are fully present, engaged and participating in that relationship - e.g. when apart from the one they most cherish, they travel to be with the other so they can be together or they get on the phone to talk to each other and see how the other is doing and how they can best show their care/love for each other etc. The greater the participation in the relationship the greater the experience of the love that is already there. 

Who has not been in a relationship with someone near and dear, such as a spouse, only to experience the affection of that relationship wane when time is not spent together. Is it not that way with any love relationship? 

If so, why would it not also be the same with us in our relationship with God? Wouldn't it be exactly the same (i.e. we desire and find love through relationship [time spent together] with God just like with others)? Isn't God a relational being as well, just like any person? We are no less relational beings when it comes to God simply because that relationship is with God instead of another fellow image bearer. In fact, all "personhood" is an expression of the very image of God himself. 

It all starts with and comes from God.

When we consider personhood comes from God as well as relationship; that God is a person in relationship via the Father, Son and Spirit, this makes a relationship with God even more significant and powerful. A relationship not with just any person but the very person who is the source of love and relationship and has always and only existed in relationship. 

The key difference is God does not need us, we need him. But he enjoys relationship with us no less. In fact He delights in relationship. He created us for it and is the source of it. It is who he is and it (i.e. love) drives all he does. 

So how do we participate in this love relationship with God? How do you with any relationship. You cherish the other person in that relationship. Some of the ways you do is find out what they like and then you do all you can to do that for them or give it to them i.e. you seek to discover everything you can about them and how you can best carry out their wishes and show them how much you value and love them by doing so. In so doing you are saying (by action, not just words) they are important to you. You value them. The greater your effort (faithfulness) to do this the greater the evidence of your value/love of them and the relationship you have together. 

This is just as true (maybe more so) with God as with any relationship. 

Joh 14:15  "If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 

For a further discussion on love being something other then just feelings click here. 
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¹Because we fail to carry out this primary design of loving and honoring God according to the greatness of his worth, we also fail to carry out our secondary design to love our neighbor as we love ourselves.

²not to suggest Christ's obedience was robotic, automatic or without real challenge as demonstrated in his wilderness temptation, the garden of Gethsemane and cry to his Father on the cross of feeling abandoned.

God binds himself to time

Christ honoring his Father by becoming a man, stepping into time, and taking on the suffering of this broken world, allowed him to act on his eternal love for the Father in a way he had never done before. He not only demonstrated his love for us as needy and lost rebels but also demonstrated his love for his Father in a new and unique way. 

Not because the Father needed proof of his Son's love, or Christ needed to prove His love for the Father, but so the Son could demonstrate the greatness of his Father and his love for him ¹in a way he had not before. 

We get a hint of the uniqueness of this when we are told that Christ "learned obedience through the things he suffered." - John Piper suggests (and I agree), this was not Christ going from disobedience to obedience, but Christ going from untested obedience to tested obedience - Christ's love for the Father was put to task, if you will, for the first time in a new and unique way. His temptations and choices were very real with real significance. 

It was this same love that moved God to create us, then restore us even after we set aside and abandoned our love and trust in him. 

The love of Christ was so great (for both his Father and us), Christ gave up the preciousness of his full glory and communion with his Father and set it aside (for a ³time) so he might bring others into that same eternal union, communion, and glory he knows and has known from all eternity past. 

And in so doing he now also knows the joy of honoring and pleasing his Father in a way he had not before by seeing this love received and rejoiced in by others (others outside of the Father, Son, and Spirit); a love drawn out of others for his Father, made possible only because of the sacrifice he made. Christ gave up something of that which was most precious to him (the constant, unobstructed, uninterrupted love of his Father) so others might also have it (John 15:11;17:13; Matthew 25:23). And in giving it, he found (finds) great joy (Hebrews 12:2)

As the Father sends me so I send you

  

In the same way that Christ demonstrated his love for the Father by his actions, our showing love by our actions is the clearest way of expressing our love for him and others. Words are important, but actions give evidence of the love we speak of. This is why Christ asked Peter three times to feed his sheep if Peter truly ²loved him. Don't just say you love me, Peter, show me. This is also why we are told that if we love Christ, we will keep his commandments. True love always results in actions.

Before the actual act of the incarnation, love ⁴involving sacrifice by Christ was only a thought that had not been acted out and expressed in the way it was; a thought in the mind of God (as Father, Son, and Spirit) from all eternity past that took place at a specific time in a way it had not occurred before the actual event. There was real action in real-time. Since everything is present to God and known by him this may be hard to fully grasp but is nevertheless clearly what occurred. 

The timeless God for the first time, somehow limited himself in and by time, ⁵entering into and participating in time itself. God for the first and only time, interjected himself into his creation (and specifically toward us, his image-bearers) through Christ and inextricably bound himself to it (us) in love from that point on and for the rest of eternity. Christ has a body he did not have before the incarnation - a ⁶glorified body but a body just the same. A permanent change he willingly partakes in for the honor of His Father and us. 

John 17:5  And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence (again) with the glory that I had with you before the world existed. 

John 17:22  The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 

John 17:24  Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. 

For a fuller discussion on God taking part in creation through the incarnation click here. 
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Footnotes:

¹When love is true it moves one to act on behalf of the one(s) loved.  Acting in love is the completion of it i.e. perfect love is not just a feeling or only words, it is more. It is acting out and upon those feelings. If there is no action there is no true (perfect) love. 

²Christ kept asking Peter regarding agape, not phileo, with which Peter kept responding...

Joh 21:15  So when they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon, son of John, do you love G25 Me more than these?" He said to Him, "Yes, Lord; You know that I love G5368 You." He (Jesus) said to him (Peter), "Tend My lambs." 

Jesus asked (3x) "do you agapao me..." 

G25 - ἀγαπάω - agapaō; of unc. or.; to love: - beloved (8), felt a love for (1), love (1), love (75), loved (38), loves (20).

Peter kept answering (also 3x) "You know that I phileo you..."

G5368 - φιλέω - phileō; from G5384; to love:

Thayer Definition:
1) to love
1a) to approve of
1b) to like
1c) sanction
1d) to treat affectionately or kindly, to welcome, befriend
2) to show signs of love
2a) to kiss
3) to be fond of doing
3a) be wont, use to do

³Even though the length of time Christ suffered wasn't eternal, it was infinite i.e. the depth of his suffering made up for the length i.e. it was equivalent to the eternal suffering he spared others from; the extent of his suffering was the equivalent to all suffering throughout eternity for all those who receive him. This was because of the extent of His suffering i.e. losing the infinite wealth and glory of His being for a short time was as great as losing a smaller amount of wealth by a large number of beings for eternity. It had to be in order for His sacrifice to be accepted as a sufficient exchange of life for the death He spared us from. And Christ may experience some loss throughout eternity in being not just God but also a man i.e. he will experience some form of limitation as the God/man that he didn't experience when He was the infinite Son of 

God of all eternity past. Yet he may also experience some kind of gain by being able to continue to participate in creation as a man - albeit a glorified one. 

⁴Possibly this is what is meant by God "knowing good and evil." Because God is not restricted to or by time regarding his knowing all things, in a very significant way (if not in real actual time) he and the Son also knew of the death of the Son prior to it actually happening, while still really and truly participating in this at the time it occurred. We get a hint of this when we are told that Christ "...was slain before the foundation (i.e. creation) of the earth..."

⁵Which tells us how much God values His creation...so much so He gladly took on qualities of creation - i.e. time - to bring to us eternity. This merging of creation with eternity also occurs when God units heaven with earth for all eternity. God loves and values His creation.

Rev 21:1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. 4 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.”

⁶This is very significant on many levels. One is our new glorified body will be the same glorified body Christ now has. Christ's glorified body allows him to be fully God in a way he was in His pre-incarnated state i.e. His former glory as God the Son has not only been restored but I think we have good reason to think it's also been enhanced. The body Christ now has is the same kind of body we will have. We will never be God but we are like God - in Him image. The significance of this may be far greater than we can now comprehend. 

Only God is good

We often hear the expression "he is a good person" or "they are good people." But what exactly is a good person; what makes us truly good?

Good people are "plugged in" people; people plugged in to the Father, the source of all goodness.

We not only know this from scripture in general, but the following passage may give us the most striking example.

"And a ruler asked him, "Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" And Jesus said to him, "Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone." Luk 18:18-19 

This is a very curious statement. Christ seems to suggest that he himself has no goodness ("...why do you call me good…"); only his Father ("...God alone..." ) is good. However, we are told elsewhere that Christ was without spot or blemish i.e. he had no sin. Christ too is perfect and good, not to mention coequal with the Father. So exactly what is Christ saying here?

Some might argue that this was actually a roundabout way of making a claim to be God himself, since we know elsewhere in scripture that he, too is good. So when he said God alone is good, since he himself was (and is) God, he was referring to himself. And though he certainly was God the Son, this doesn't seem to be his point since he speaks of God in contrast to himself ("...no one...except God..." who was his Father, distinct from him as the Son). 

I think the essence of what Jesus was suggesting is all goodness, even his own was (is) by virtue of his being in ^[1]relationship with his Father, the source of all goodness i.e., Christ was not saying he was (is) not good but rather his own goodness was the fruit of his relationship with his Father. To say it another way the goodness of Christ was a genuine and real goodness but also a goodness ^[1]derived from being in union (one) with his Father, who is good. 

Keep in mind we are told Christ was the radiance and only expression of the glory of God, and the exact representation and perfect imprint of His essence... not the other way around i.e. the Son emanates (issues forth) from the Father to put the Father on display. The Father does not emanate from the Son (though he does display himself through the Son). Just as the Spirit issues forth from both the Father and the Son. So in this sense the Father is the source of everything, even the Son i.e. who is ^[2] the only begotten of (eternally comes from) the Father. 

This is not a matter of Christ being created. He is the co-eternal and co-equal God along with the Father and the Spirit. This is about the nature and dynamics of the relationship between God the Father and God the Son. 

If this is an accurate interpretation of this passage (and I think it is) and fits the rest of scripture, what is Christ telling us? What is his point?

If Christ, who is perfect, was good by virtue of his union and relationship with the Father, how can we (who are sinful and imperfect) ever hope of being good without that same union and relationship with the Father? Are we not good only by virtue of being plugged into God himself, the source of all goodness?

How do we plug in?

If so, how do we plug-in? By receiving the love of the Father through Christ.

How do we receive that love? By God revealing himself to us in Christ through his Spirit. 

Where does God reveal Christ to us? Initially, and primarily through Christ's incarnation, but now through his word and people, not just any people but people who are also plugged into the God of all goodness.

As a man on earth operating solely in the power of the Spirit, Jesus was our example. He showed us not only what to do but how to do it, i.e. By abiding in the Father's goodness and love.

"As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you -- i.e., not only do I love you with the same love the Father has for me, but I love you as I receive it from him i.e. "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you...[in the same way and by means of that same love] "). Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just (in the exact same way) as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love." - Jesus - John 15:9-10

It should be noted that the Father's love of his Son was a fixed reality. This verse, however, suggests the manifestation of that love and Christ's experiencing it was based on his abiding in it through faithfulness (i.e., obedience) to his Father. How much more so it must be for us? 

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^[1]  For a fuller discussion God as a being of relationship click here

^[2]  For a fuller discussion on "only begotten" click here