Good Questions: Do We Have a Choice?Sýnishorn

Can You Find God At Fault?

Who are we to argue with God or find fault in God’s activity? It’s a common question many people ask, but the answer is clear: when it’s clear to God and a mystery to us, we trust God.

C.S. Lewis once said, “The ancient man approached God ... as the accused person approaches his judge. For the modern man, the roles are quite reversed. He is the judge: God is in the dock.” Instead of fearing judgment, we question God and ask why the world has so much pain, famine, and suffering. We put God in the dock and become the judge and jury, forgetting that it is God who gave us the very ability to argue. As C.S. Lewis said, “When you argue against Him you are arguing against the very power that makes you able to argue at all: it is like cutting off the branch you are sitting on.”

Paul compares God to a potter, who has the right to mold and shape the clay as he sees fit, making one piece of pottery for honor and another for dishonor. In this passage of Romans 9, Paul gives six questions about God’s sovereign activity, power, and purposes and how they’re at work here on Earth. We must remember that we’re not the customer; we’re the clay, and God can form and mold what He wants to do in our lives. Our life belongs to Him, and we should trust Him with it. We may not understand everything that God does, but we can trust Him through it all.

There is a mystery to the gospel and to following God, and we must be good with mystery. Sometimes things happen in our lives that we don’t understand, like the sudden death of a loved one. We may never know why certain things happen, but we can trust God. The Bible tells us everything works for our good and God’s purpose. It may be hard to see that at first during hard trials, but Christianity’s beauty is that we will see God’s goodness and mercy every time we look back.

So, let’s not argue with God or find fault in His activity but trust Him through it all. His love is His normative work, and His wrath is His strange work. He desires all people to repent and come to know Jesus. Embrace the mystery, seek to understand God’s word, and trust in Him with all that we have. Do you trust God enough to embrace the mystery? Do you trust that the best things for your life are according to His plans?