God, who turned the crucifixion of the Son of God – the biggest evil ever committed – into something glorious. If His sovereignty has been expressed in history, there is nothing to prevent us from believing that it will be expressed in eternity. One day it will be revealed that the very existence of evil has been turned into something good.
The Cross and the Problem of Pain by Ajith Fernando taken from The Supremacy of Christ by Ajith Fernando, copyright 1995, Crossway Books, a division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton Illinois 60187, www.crosswaybooks.org, p. 216.
Man…does not do evil against his will, under pressure, as though he were taken by the scruff of the neck and dragged into it, like a thief…being dragged off against his will to punishment; but he does it spontaneously and voluntarily. And this willingness or volition is something which he cannot in his own strength eliminate, restrain or alter.
The Bondage of the Will, Revell, 1957, p. 102.
We may often be baffled by the reality of the power of evil as it is manifest in our circumstances. Sometimes that power seems so overwhelming that we are unable to praise within the circumstances of our life. It is then that we do well to recall the words of the Apostle Paul. When writing amidst difficult circumstances to the Church at Ephesus he could say, ‘Giving thanks always for all things unto God.’ He had come to know that no matter what the source of the evil, if we are in Christ, and surrounded by Him as by an atmosphere, all evil has to pass through Him before it comes to us (Robert Norris).
Evil is no giant staggering through the world at his own whim; somehow, it accomplishes God’s will for purifying and disciplining His chosen ones (Carroll Stuhlmueller).
Deutero-Isaiah, Jerome Biblical Commentary, Prentice Hall, 1968, 1:373.
Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.
The evil Satan causes is only by the permission of God…It would be unbiblical and irrelevant to attribute to Satan (or sinful man) the power to frustrate the designs of God.
Desiring God, Bethlehem Baptist Church, used by permission, p. 36, www.DesiringGod.org. Get this book!
At the all-important pivot of human history, the worst sin ever committed served to show the greatest glory of Christ and obtain the sin-conquering gift of God’s grace. God did not just overcome evil at the cross. He made evil commit suicide in doing its worst evil.
Spectacular Sins by John Piper, Crossway, 2008, p. 12. Crossway Books, a division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton Illinois 60187, www.crosswaybooks.org.
Christian hope rests upon the fact not that evil can be ignored, or that it will simply fade away, but that it has been judged at the cross.
Forward in Hell on Trial: The Case for Eternal Punishment by Robert Peterson, P&R Publishers, 1995, p. x, Used by Permission. Get this book!
