A Picture is Worth a Thosand Words

Do we ever see in scripture Jesus giving sickness to anyone to teach them a lesson? NO !!   Do we ever see Jesus in scripture killing someone off to teach their family or friends something? NO !!   Did He ever make or encourage someone to sin? NO !!   These ideas are ridiculous and aren't even near scriptural, yet so many Christians talk as if these are true.  They say God will sometimes do these things to mankind, even to His own blood-bought children, to help bring about some redemptive purpose in the earth.  You know, that is at best inconsistent thinking and at worst sick theology.

God isn't the one controlling everything, bringing or allowing sin and sickness on people.  Somehow religion has made the word Sovereign come to mean that God controls everything.  It doesn't.  It means the highest in rank or authority.  That is all.  You want to know why we have sickness and destruction all around us in this life.  The answer isn't so profound.  The fall of Adam brought on all of the destruction of sin and sickness that we see in the world today and it was his free will to do so.

Jesus told His closest friends that, "as you have seen me you have also seen the Father.  The writer of Hebrews, in the very opening of His letter, says that Jesus was the express representation of the Father.  We should know the answers to all these ludicrous questions and they are all a resounding NO.  We never see in scripture Jesus doing these horrible things, yet today like Job's friends we have been sitting around, pontificating on why they have happened. 

God doesn't make people sick or die prematurely no more than He makes someone sin and give their life to gluttony, drug abuse, or adultery.  There is no redemptive purpose for mankind in those things.  Theories of us being used for redemptive purposes like these are misguided and self-centered at best.  There was one man who was sent for this and He accomplished it perfectly and completely.  His redemptive purpose did not fail.  His redemption was enough.  He is Jesus, our Sovereign Lord.