In the middle of a pandemic, and with all of the unrest we have in this country, it’s easy to understand why people would wonder whether or not we’re in the end times. But here’s another question that I’ve heard from several people: Could what we’re going through be God’s judgment?
That’s a legitimate question. I’ve heard at least one pastor state that this is the wrong question to be asking, and while I admit that it isn’t the best question we could ask right now, it certainly is a fair one.
My initial answer is, “Who knows?” I don’t have any extraordinary insight from God about whether the pandemic and the riots and the overall divisiveness we are experiencing is a special judgment from God. There are, though, some principles we can see in Scripture that will help us to understand a little more about what we’re going through.
First, we need to see that the pandemic is God’s judgment of sin, in the same way that all sickness and disease and death are a result of sin (Romans 8:19-23). When Adam sinned, death entered creation. We live in a world that is under the curse of sin. Every difficulty we face, every bit of pain we experience is because of the presence of sin. I’m writing this as a hurricane is making landfall in my home state, and smoke from forest fires thousands of miles from here are blotting out the sun above me. Every natural disaster should be a jarring reminder that sin brings consequences. These disasters should be a wake-up call for us to turn from our sins and surrender to our Lord, the only One who is in control of these events.
Second, I reject the idea that I’ve seen floating around on social media that there is no more judgment from God on the world because Jesus came and offered forgiveness. I’ve seen this especially in pithy little comments like, “God doesn’t judge because, you know, Jesus.” How ridiculous. God can judge sin any time he chooses to do so. Indeed, believers are not under condemnation for our sins (Romans 8:1), but that does not mean that God doesn’t judge his creation. Sometimes God allows those who are far from him to simply experience the natural consequences of their rebellion (Romans 1:18-32), but at times he will bring specific judgment.
Third, it’s obvious that we, as a nation, have wandered far away from God. Our culture, by and large, has declared its independence from God. It appears that Christians will one day be the exception in the U. S. population, whereas not so long ago we were the norm. Every year that passes by, what was once unacceptable becomes acceptable. What’s right is wrong and what’s wrong is right. For example, many in our culture today call Christians “immoral” if we don’t agree with a woman’s right to choose abortion; a woman’s right to “control her own body” has somehow become more important than an unborn child’s right to live.
The fact that we allowed the deaths of over 600,000 unborn children in our country in 2016 (source: CDC) says all that anyone needs to know about how far off course we’ve gone. We’re no better than the people of Canaan who sacrificed children to Molech (Leviticus 18:21). If you want to see a downward spiral into sin similar to ours, check out all of Leviticus 18.
In Romans 1, Paul says that when a culture rejects God, the people of the culture “become full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, fighting, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip” (Romans 1:29). When we, as a culture, reject God, we become slaves to sin, and we begin a downward spiral into immorality from which there is no recovery.
Before I go further, I want to remind believers that we are not to turn our noses up at those who are far from God. Don’t think that we are somehow better than them. We are no less sinners than they are. That’s what Paul meant in Romans 2:3 when he wrote, “Do you suppose, O man — you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself — that you will escape the judgment of God?” Every single one of us has sinned and is guilty before God. It’s just that some of us have accepted God’s gracious offer of forgiveness.
So if we understand that we live in a cursed world, if we know that God can bring judgment on the world, and if we know that our culture is moving away from God, how do we respond to what’s going on? What can we do in the face of viruses, riots, hurricanes, wildfires, and more?
For the unbeliever, it’s time to turn from your sin, turn to Christ, and accept his forgiveness. All you have to do is admit that you’ve sinned, believe that Jesus died to pay the penalty for that sin, and choose to accept his forgiveness and leadership over your life.
For the believer, the first thing we must do is trust in the promises of God. We understand that we have to go through difficulties just like those who don’t believe. But we do this with hope because we know that nothing we face, nothing we experience can ever separate us from God’s love.
…nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:39)
God will use everything that happens to us, good or bad, for our good. As believers, we don’t just survive difficult times; we have overwhelming victory over difficult times. How? Because our Savior, who loves us more than we can imagine, is at our side fighting our battles for us, and it’s him who gets the victory.
God doesn’t promise us that we will never go through tough times. But the One who conquered sin and shame and death will carry you through the painful times. He loves you more than you can imagine, and there is nothing in this universe that can separate you from that love, not even your sin. Ultimately, he will bring you into his presence, so even death cannot separate you from your Father.
More next time…