Our neighborhood has been confronted by horrific events on Chew Avenue. How do we make sense of this terrible news?
The gospel of Jesus Christ is good news that speaks into bad news: Jesus, the Son of God, has taken our griefs and sorrows upon Himself, by taking our sin and its curse upon Himself. God is not distant and uncaring. He has stepped into our horror.
What follows expands on a pamphlet that Olney Baptist Church distributed in our neighborhood.
God stepped in at the very beginning.
When God first made the world, it was “very good” (Genesis 1:31). He made our first parents morally righteous, and He gave them everything they needed. However, they rebelled against the good God who made them, they believed the devil instead of God, and they disobeyed God’s one restriction. Then they hid from God and tried pathetically to cover their shame with fig leaves.
God responded with both justice and mercy. In justice, God pronounced a curse upon our first parents and the world itself. Life would be difficult, and eventually, we would all die:
…till you return to the ground,
for out of it you were taken;
for you are dust,
and to dust you shall return.
Genesis 3:19
But God also acted in mercy, both then and there, and with a promise for later. To replace their pathetic fig leaves, God provided better clothing.
The Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.
Genesis 3:21
By clothing them this way, God showed them that (1) their own efforts to cover their sin were pathetic and useless; (2) their sin led to death; and (3) God Himself was willing to provide a covering.
God also made a promise. While God was cursing the devil, He also said,
I will put enmity between you [the devil] and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring;
he shall bruise your head,
and you shall bruise his heel.
Genesis 3:15
What could this mean? “Offspring”? God did not immediately explain what He meant by “offspring.” That would become clearer later. But this much was clear: somehow, some descendant born to the woman would destroy the devil but would be hurt Himself in the process.
The rest of the Bible explains that that “someone” was the Son of God Himself, come in the flesh.
[Jesus] partook of [flesh and blood], that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.
Hebrews 2:14–15
This means that from the very beginning, God was assuring us that the brunt of our horror would fall upon Himself.
God steps in with both justice and mercy.
The story of how our first parents rebelled and how God responded is just one episode that underlines a universal truth: we deserve God’s judgment, but God also shows undeserved mercy.
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 6:23
Justice means that our sin and rebellion deserve God’s judgment. Mercy is unexpected, when God freely gives us better than what we deserve.
In our hearts, we know we need firm and final justice. The horrific events in Olney provoke us to cry out for justice for the victims and their families. Even an atheist may say, “There ought to be a hell.”
Throughout the Bible, God does step in with justice. For example, He destroyed nearly the whole world with a flood, because they had become so very wicked (Genesis 6–8). He is especially concerned for the weak and vulnerable.
He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing.
Deuteronomy 10:18
The psalmists often cried out to God for justice against their enemies who had wronged them.
How long O Lord, will you look on?
Rescue me from their destruction my precious life from the lions…
You have seen, O Lord; be not silent!
O Lord, be not far from me!
Awaken and rouse yourself for my vindication,
for my cause, my God and my Lord!
Psalm 35:17, 22–23
God does step in to provide justice, sometimes in this life, but also in a firmer and lasting way. There is a hell.
But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.
Revelation 21:8
God also steps in with mercy, but mercy is more complicated.
Why should mercy be complicated? Consider this question that the Bible raises: how can God show mercy without compromising His justice? If God showed perfect justice to everyone, then none of us would survive.
If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities,
O Lord, who could stand?
Psalm 130:3
How can God show mercy without being unjust? This is where God’s wisdom and power become absolutely amazing: God took the curse of justice, with all its horror, upon Himself.
God stepped in to take the impact of our horror upon Himself.
As the Bible tells us, an evil heart leads to evil actions and to misery and death (James 1:14–15). Jesus said,
For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.
Matthew 15:19
This means that to deal with the horrors in this world, God had to deal with the evil that is rooted in every human heart. God showed Himself ready, willing, and able to deal with not just the symptoms, but with the disease. It is by God’s amazing grace that He did this by taking the brunt of our horror upon Himself, in the person of His Son, Jesus Christ, the final “offspring” of the woman promised in the very beginning.
This is why the Bible speaks of Jesus as bearing both our sins and our sorrows:
Surely he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his wounds we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
Isaiah 53:4–6
The apostle Peter says that Jesus accomplished this when He died on the cross for sinners:
He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.
1 Peter 2:24–25
Look at the words: stricken, afflicted, crushed. This describes Jesus, the Son of God. But why? Again, look at the words: for our transgressions; to bring us peace. This is marvelous and terrifying at the same time. Jesus has done this for sinners who deserve judgment. What kind of God is this?
What does it mean that Jesus died “for” sinners? It means that He suffered God’s judgment in their place, and that because of this, God will deal mercifully with sinners, because their sin has already been punished in the person of Jesus Christ.
Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree.”
Galatians 3:13For our sake [God] made [Jesus] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
2 Corinthians 5:21For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God.
1 Peter 3:18
This is a lot to understand. But if you take away nothing else right now, take away these two things.
First, evil is always punished, either against the sinner, in hell, or against Jesus, in the place of sinners.
Second, God loves sinners so much, and He cares about justice so much, that He paid the price of justice Himself, with great suffering and cost.
God has won the victory over sin, horror, and death for us.
Jesus did not stay dead. He is alive. The Bible says that God would not let His holy, sinless Son rot in the grave (Acts 2:27). After Jesus died for sinners and was buried, He rose to life again three days later. He won victory over both sin and death.
We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God.
Romans 6:9–10
He won that victory not just for Himself, but for all who would turn from their sins and trust that His death and resurrection have paid the price of justice for them.
For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.
1 Corinthians 15:21–22
In this world, we still see evil, death, and horror. But they are not the last word. There is good news that speaks into horror. Jesus comforts those who face death and horror with these words:
I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?
John 11:25–26
God freely shares this hope with those who humbly trust Him.
The Bible describes the horrors in this world: we are so evil that the Son of God had to die for us. But it also comforts us: we are so loved that the Son of God would gladly die for us.[1]
The horror in this world is a God-sized problem. But God has provided a God-sized answer.
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
John 3:16–18
Turning from sin and trusting Christ does not mean that you will never suffer in this world. God has not finished with justice and mercy yet. But it does transform suffering with hope: if God rescued you through the death of His Son, and raised His Son to life again, you can rest your faith and hope in this God and His purposes (1 Peter 1:17–21).
What next?
A God who has done this for sinners is a God you should seek. Seek Him by reading the Bible. Seek Him by finding a local congregation of Christians who humbly seek Him. Ask questions. Voice your concerns. The psalmists were not shy to bring their deepest laments to God (Psalm 35:17; 89:46).
The Bible says that Jesus is a faithful priest who knows our struggles because He Himself faced the same struggles and won. And He wants us to come to Him for grace and help and everything.
Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Hebrews 4:14–16
[1] This is a paraphrase of the late Pastor Timothy Keller.