A question that is often asked of pastors is, “why does evil exist?  It certainly is a good question, most of all because it is a stumper.  We wonder why a loving God would allow evil people to do evil things, while often times innocent people are left to suffer the consequences of that evil.  I can imagine that this question has played in the minds of many folks since August 9th, after the murder of three women and the wounding of nine others by George Sodini at the L.A. Fitness Club in Collier Township.  As many of us have read, Sodini was torn between his hatred of women and his desire to be in a relationship.  According to his diary, he decided to commit this horrific act because no woman would respond to his advances.  He even rationalized that his actions would be forgiven by God an that he would be with Jesus and God despite the murder/suicide he intended.

However, we can too often persuade ourselves that the things we want are the same things that God wants.  We can convince ourselves that the distortion of our passions is truly what God intends for us.  However, we must first discount the truth and testimony of Scripture or in some cases, actually just ignore it or decide that what we think is of more relevance.  It is hard for us to comprehend, but Hitler THOUGHT he was doing a good thing for the world by killing the Jews.  His ignorance of God’s Word in Christ and his desire to enact his vision and plan superseded any desire he might have had to follow God as Lord.  The same is true concerning Sodini.  It is not surprising that they both ended up taking their lives by their own hand as a last act of seeking to usurp God’s sovereignty.

However, evil happens, whether it is local as in the case of Sodini, or global, as in the case of Hitler because of what is known as “cheap grace.”  This phrase, coined by Dietrich Bonheoffer, a pastor in Hitler’s Germany, speaks to the watered down understanding of God’s grace in our lives.  When as a church or a nation begins to believe that God’s grace is not fully revealed in the suffering, death, and redeeming nature of Jesus Christ and believes instead that that they can do whatever they want, say “My bad” and God will automatically forgive, then that allows us to fulfill our most base instincts of our nature with no consequences.  Instead, we must work out our own salvation with fear and trembling in the recognition that God in Christ suffered and died for those HE has chosen for salvation.  Now, don’t get me wrong, God can forgive any sin, BUT, when we look to God as someone or something that just gives us pass after pass for whatever we do, then we no longer regard God as Lord of our lives, but instead as some kind of "Get our of Hell free" card.

George Sodini stated in his diary that God would forgive him for both killing the women at the L.A. Fitness Club, as well as killing himself.  Sadly, his desire to usurp God’s sovereignty by dealing out death and life speaks to his heart and to whom it belonged, and not to God’s forgiveness and love.  Evil happens because people distort God’s truth by cheap grace and society and even some in the church affirm and condone this cheap grace mindset.  Instead, we must recognize that despite our sin, God has chosen us for salvation through the suffering, death, and resurrection of His Son, and that as adopted sons and daughters, that despite evil and despite our own sin, God’s changes our hearts to His own, and enables us to not only love others as He loves us, but forgive those who hurt, abuse, and even commit evil upon us.  The hope that we have is even in the face of horrible evil, God’s will prevails, and God’s love endures for us and in us.  Therefore, let us pray for the victims and their families, but at the same time, be at peace in the knowledge that as we give ourselves to God in Christ, even through we might encounter evil in our lives, it NEVER has the last word, because the first and last Word is always Jesus Christ. 

In the love of Christ, Pastor Bob