Bad Things Happen to Good People Too

Why do bad things happen to good people? If God loves us, why does He allow bad things to happen?

I believe God is sovereign – independent, self-governing, autonomous. He can do, and does, whatever He wants, whenever He wants, in whatever fashion He wants. Isaiah even tells us “’my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways’, declares the Lord” (v. 8). My understanding (or lack thereof) does not precede His sovereign decision.

In Genesis 3, we read about the “fall of man” - sin entered the world through Adam and Eve, and one of the consequences of this – among other types of suffering listed in this passage - was death (v. 19). In Romans 3:23, we’re told that “all have sinned and fall short of the Glory of God”, and that the wages of this sin is death (Romans 6:23). So just like the first humans, the consequence of my sin is death – the consequence of your sin is death. We all die – even the “best” among us.

So even if I’m following Leviticus 11:44 and I Peter 3:16, to be holy just as God is Himself holy, I also know that it doesn’t matter when it comes to daily living. Even Jesus says, “He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous” (Matthew 5:45).

If I put all of this together, I’m hearing that I’m a sinner that has earned death as a result (Romans 3:23, 6:23). And even if I do good works and really strive for holiness to be like God Himself (Leviticus 11:44), it still rains on me (Matthew 5:45), and I’m guaranteed trials in this life (James 1:2).

In that case, I answer my own questions: because we’re all sinners who have earned death.

BUT… I Peter 1:6-7 further clarifies the benefit of the call to holiness: “In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trails. These have come so that your faith – of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire – may be provided genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.”

I may not know when I’ll die, but I know I will. This is the fate of us all. And based on Genesis 3, I’m not guaranteed an easy life because of sin. But what I do now in response to the trials and the knowledge that I will die one day after those trials are all over, that is the call to holiness.

I don’t have to understand why God does what He does. My faith and holiness are my response to the consequences of sin which prove I trust Him no matter what. The bad things aren’t because of Him. The bad things are because of you, and me. We’ll all face bad things, ending in the ultimate bad thing: death. Even the most righteous and well-meaning of us die – it doesn’t matter.

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (I Peter 1:3).