When God’s Sovereignty Is Not Enough
Over the last days and weeks, I’ve seen post after post from Christian friends and pastors on social media about God being in control of the current pandemic. But I’ve also seen varied responses to these posts. One response that particularly stuck out to me was, “How can you say God is controlling this? This is evil!” A statement about God’s sovereignty that was meant to provide comfort had the opposite effect for this commenter. They were distraught over the idea that this tragedy in the world right now is controlled by God.
Of course, the Bible does teach that God is in control of every detail of history. Both seasons of rejoicing and times of suffering are in His hand. Times of peace and war, economic prosperity and market crashes, medical breakthroughs and plagues—none of these escape His rule. But this doctrine of God’s sovereignty, if it stands alone, is not necessarily a source of comfort. One can appreciate how an unbeliever might even prefer the idea that this pandemic is the result of “random chance” to the idea that an all-powerful God is controlling it. “What kind of a God,” he or she might indignantly wonder, “would that be?”
Who Sits on the Throne
Whether God’s sovereignty over suffering is comforting or not depends entirely on the character of that God. After all, Christianity is not the only religion to assert belief in a sovereign God. Islam makes the same claim. The doctrine of God’s sovereignty might be cold comfort to those who are fearful and suffering right now if there is no assurance of God’s compassion and goodness alongside it.
The doctrine of God’s sovereignty might be cold comfort to those who are fearful and suffering right now if there is no assurance of God’s compassion and goodness alongside it.
Job was just such a sufferer. When reading his complaints and responses to his friends, it is clear that Job does not doubt God’s sovereignty in the slightest. He has lost all he has and now suffers a horrible disease—and it was no accident. Job knows: God is in control. But at the same time, Job questions God’s goodness and fairness in the whole thing. For Job, as for some today, God’s sovereignty over his suffering is a reason for indignation, not a source of comfort.
What Job failed to see was the compassion and goodness of God in the midst of his suffering. As we seek to minister to people in this crisis, we must not forget to present God’s sovereignty together with His compassion if it is to comfort them. The God who controls the disasters of the world is the same God who entered into our suffering. He is not aloof, sending plagues and suffering while remaining impervious to them. In the words of Dorothy Sayers, “[God] had the honesty and courage to take his own medicine.”
As we seek to minister to people in this crisis, we must not forget to present God’s sovereignty together with His compassion if it is to comfort them.
Jesus Christ came and willingly made Himself susceptible to worse suffering than any of us will ever know. He went through the pain of prayer unanswered. The Father declined to rescue Him from torture and death. He felt the full weight of rejection and wrath in paying for our sins. This is why Scripture says that He is a compassionate High Priest: He felt the same pain we feel—and more. And the God who has gone through intense suffering himself will not be indifferent to the suffering of others.
Moreover, His suffering was not for nothing. Christ ultimately conquered death and rose from the grave. This is the dynamic of the gospel: God can bring from suffering a greater good than could be imagined. From death comes life and glory. The world does not need a false message about a God who is above suffering or whose only purpose is to help us avoid it. Rather, the message that the suffering God who brings glory out of death is the same God who is in control of all the hardships we are enduring today—that is a message of comfort and hope.
Preaching to a Bruised World
This has important pastoral implications. It seems unlikely that any pastor with even a smattering of experience would attempt to comfort a suffering individual merely with the affirmation of God’s sovereignty. “Well, God is in control,” is not the stark opening statement you tell parents who have just lost their child to the ravages of disease or a person who has suffered abuse or trauma. We (hopefully) know better. Yes, we get there eventually, and there is great comfort in God’s sovereignty when we have a well-rounded understanding of who God is, but that understanding must not be assumed and taken for granted.
In sermons, we usually take more care to present God’s sovereignty in a fuller context of His character and love. But here’s what we need to realize: social media is a pulpit. More often than not, the words we post as pastors will inevitably be taken as “pastoral statements” simply by virtue of our position. Especially for those in public ministry, we need to weigh our posts as we would a sermon—or at least an announcement—in front of the church and the world. Because that’s who we’re tweeting and posting to: everyone.
The world does need the voice of the church now. The world is suffering collectively in multiple ways. It needs to hear soul-nourishing, gospel-saturated truth. But let’s make sure we present a full picture that includes both the sovereignty and the compassion of God—both His throne and His cross. The last thing the world needs right now is a bunch of @bildads (one of Job’s friends) tweeting partial truths that only serve to crush the many bruised reeds who are reading.
About the Author
Benjamin Morrison is the planter and lead pastor of Calvary Chapel Svitlovodsk, Ukraine. He also serves as the coordinator of City to City Ukraine and training coordinator for City to City Europe. He is married to Lena, and they have two children, Abigail and Isaac. You can follow Benjamin on Facebook or Twitter.