July 19th

If there is no such thing as karma, luck, or chance because God is sovereign, then why do bad things happen to good people?  This is a generational question that was, continues to be, and will be asked, and it is a question that the Bible does answer.  Of the scores of passages in the Bible that answer this question, Psalm 14 addresses the heart of the question: The fool has said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have committed detestable acts; There is no one who does good. The Lord has looked down from heaven upon the sons of mankind to see if there are any who understand, who seek God. They have all turned aside, together they are corrupt; There is no one who does good, not even one.  The heart of the matter is that there is no one who does good according to the Bible, except for one person. 

Bad things happen to people, and they even happened to a good person, but it happened only once in the history of mankind.  Bad things happened to Jesus, but before the really bad things happened to him, he addressed why horrible things happen to people like the tower that fell and crushed 18 people.  What Jesus said about this is shocking: Those eighteen on whom the tower of Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse sinners than all the others who lived in Jerusalem (Luke 13:4).  The testimony of the Word of God is that we are all born sinners and that there is no one who is good (see Ps. 51:5; 53:2-3).  There is a greater tower we all deserve, and that tower is the wrath of God upon sinners like you and me (Rom. 1:18). 

Gods remedy for our problem was always Jesus; this was the promise from long ago: Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, When I will raise up for David a righteous Branch; and He will reign as king and act wisely and do justice and righteousness in the land. In His days Judah will be saved, and Israel will live securely; and this is His name by which He will be called, The Lord Our Righteousness (Jer. 23:56).  In Hebrew, Lord Our Righteousness is another name used for God, which is: Yahweh-Tsidkenu.  

What is significant about what is promised in Jeremiah 23 is that the righteous Branch would be a descendant of King David in that He would be fully human, but as a fully human descendant of King David, He would also bear the name of Yahweh as One who would also be fully God!  This is the reason Jesus was born, lived, died, and rose on the third day.  Jesus died for our sin so that he could become our righteousness.  The tower of Gods wrath fell on Jesus as the only good person instead of falling upon those who truly deserved it because while Jesus is truly good, the rest of us are not.  This is why Romans 8:31-34 is profoundly good news that bad things happened to a perfectly good person: 

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? Who will bring charges against Gods elect? God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, but rather, was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. 

It is because Jesus is Yahweh-Tsidkenu that we have hope!  I look forward to celebrating that good news with you this Sunday in our 9:00 and 10:30 worship services.

Grace, 
Pastor Keith