Explanations for PainSample

Better than you deserve

Years ago, a Christian named Dave was diagnosed with a brain tumor that would kill him seven months later. His wife, Sharon, would sit by his bed during his final days, caress his hair, and whisper in his ear, talking about their life and their Savior. One day, however, a relative who did not believe in God came to visit, and he was angry. He thought about Sharon being left alone, about Dave’s kids not having a dad around, about how such bad things happen to such good people. “Why aren’t you angry?” he demanded of Sharon.

This was her response—“My husband deserved hell . . . yet God, in his mercy, forgave him because of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Dave is going to heaven. How could I be angry at God for taking [my husband] to heaven?”

That’s the right question. We will get spiritually stuck if we insist that God answer all our why? questions. Why did this happen to me? Why did you allow this in my life? Why God? But if we lay those same questions at the foot of the cross, our anger subsides. We deserve worse than a hard life because of our sins. We deserve hell. If God gives us heaven, even if our lives here on earth are miserable, how could we be angry at him?

“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).

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