God's Sovereignty and Pain

Romans 8:28-39

28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. 

29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.  

30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? 

33 Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies.  

34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died--more than that, who was raised--who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.  

35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?  

36 As it is written, "For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered."  

37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.  

38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers,  

39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Nicholas L. Laning

 LAST night at church, Matt Chandler gave one of the best sermons on predestination I have ever heard.  I am not going to get into the ins and outs of that sermon on the whole.  If you want to hear the sermon, then you can go to this link http://www.thevillagechurch.net/resources/sermons/, and listen to it when it is put up later today or tomorrow.  I highly recommend it.  

What I am here to talk about is how, as I was listening to the sermon, I just kept asking myself, "How did I ever question this?  How could I have ever thought that God's goodness and pain were incompatible?  It is right here.  How could I have let my anger toward Him go so far?  It was right there the whole time for me to see."  


There are many verses on predestination, but this one is the most definitive, the most frequented, or, the most hated, depending on where you are at in your heart.  Regardless, here we see God flat out saying that our salvation, justification, and glorification are all because of Him.  Then we have verse 35, "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?"  

In one paragraph we have God telling us through Paul's letter that we are saved by His calling and sovereignty, not by anything we did.  We then have Him tell us it is because of His deep love.  He loved us before we even were.  We have Him saying that if we are His, then nothing can be against us.  Then comes the kicker, he lists all the above trials: tribulation. distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, or sword!  He flat out tells us that those things exist, and will be present in some form in our lives.  


I say that I wonder how we would doubt God because of His allowance of tribulation, but I know the answer, as it lies within my own heart.  I struggle to not think that it is all about me.  I say with my lips that I am not God, just as Matt said we do, but I live like I am.  The greatest turn around in my depression came when it was revealed to me just how much it isn't about me.  I was swallowed up in pain, and so much of it lifted instantly, as I recognized that I was not good, that it isn't about me, and that I had no place to shake my fist at God, and neither do you, no matter what you think.


Just read the book, it is all there.  God is sovereign, and He loves you, and He has allowed pain to exist.  If you doubt that could be possible, I challenge you to answer this question... why?  I think you will find the answer is, at its core, simply, "because I don't like it.  It offends me.  It isn't what I would do."  While this appeals to your emotions, there is certainly nothing logical about it by any stretch.  It is as logical as thinking that because you don't like gravity, because you have this intense longing to fly, that gravity cannot exist.  Certainly not.  Like it or not, the truth is not always in line with what you want at any given moment.  I would dare say that it most often is not, at least for now.  For those who are called according to His purpose, all things are used for their good, even depression!