Is God Capricious?

 To know the true and living God is the greatest of all blessings. Proverbs 9:10 says, “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.” To know God truly is to understand His nature; what brings Him joy, and what angers Him. For any relationship to be deep and intimate, one must learn about the one they claim to love. As believers we know the Lord. It must be an ongoing love affair with our Savior. The more we know Him, the more we understand His ways – how perfect they are- how imperfect and sinful we are. The closer we get to the Lord, the more our wretchedness is revealed to us. 

This should provide us with great comfort. Why? Because, despite our weaknesses, God still loves us, and delights in being our Father. He forgave our sins when we first trusted in Christ for our salvation, and He continually forgives our sins when we disobey now.  

What extraordinary grace! 

Sadly, most of the world is blinded to the goodness of God. As a result of this blindness, they have concluded the God of the Bible is a monster. Why? Well, look at all of the evil in our world today. The crime, murder of innocent children. Infants dying of diseases. The Coronavirus pandemic. Extreme poverty and homelessness and starvation. How can anyone say God is good when all this evil is prevailing in the world. Why doesn’t God stop all this madness?  

Because of all of the above, many have concluded that God is not loving, or all powerful. They say God does not care, and/or He does not have the power to do anything about it. But if He is powerful enough to get rid of all this evil and suffering and it continues, then He is capricious1. What is even worse there are those that say God is responsible for the world’s mess because He created it this way. In other words, God in his anger created a world of evil so that we would live in misery and pain. 

You see, those who do not know God have come up and will continue to say things that are antithetical to God’s nature – lies! You see why it is so important to study the Bible and know what God has revealed about Himself?  

In 2 Corinthians 3-4 we read this, “and if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God.” 

My Lord is not capricious. Genesis 1:31 said God looked at everything He made it was very good. So now we must discover what went so wrong. Why is the world the way it is? 

The Bible provides the answer. Our world is in ruin morally because of the disobedience of our first parents Adam and Eve. When they ate the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, their eyes were opened (Genesis 3:7). They experienced guilt and shame for the first time ever. They brought sin into the world. 

Their sin nature was imputed2 to all their descendants (Romans 5:12). That means you and me. Why? Because we are all in the loins of Adam when He committed the initial sin of treachery against the Lord.  

Because of this act of rebellion against God, we are currently in the mess we are in. And mankind from that infamous day up until the present day has continued to rebel against God which incurs God’s wrath. It is amazing to me that sinful man pridefully blames God for the evil in the world when he is the one that commits the evil. Why is man demanding God get rid of evil when man loves his sin? Here is what I have discovered, sinful man is the ultimate hypocrite. He loves his sin because he believes it does no harm. But he hates the sin of others – that is repulsive to him; even God’s “sins” in his corrupt mind. 

I have said it before, if you want God to get rid of evil now, God will have to get rid of all of us right now! God has not destroyed evil yet because evil is in man and God is long suffering toward rebellious man. Not willing that anyone should perish, but that all come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9). 

God permitting evil and suffering is an ongoing act of mercy 

Even for the Christian the above declaration sounds ridiculous. How is all this pain and suffering and act of mercy by God? Because of the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, God has provided the perfect and only solution for mankind’s sin – one MUST place their faith in the completed atoning work of Jesus for the forgiveness of sins (Hebrews 9:22). When one does this, they are free from the law of sin and death (Romans 8:2). Let me explain, free from sin because Jesus washed away your sins with His own blood. We are free from the law of death because we have now inherited eternal life. 

At this point someone may disagree and say “wait a minute! What you Christians are saying is not true. Everyone still dies when they believe so how can the Bible say you are free from the law of sin and death?” Because our sins have been removed forever in a forensic or judicial sense by Christ, we can never be judged guilty for them. Jesus took the guilty plea and was punished by the Father on our behalf (Isaiah 53:5). So, when a believer dies, it is a graduation into glory not a punishment. Paul said it this way, “for me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21). So why is death gain? 

Because when a believer dies, they are in presence of God. They literally see God the Father, Jesus Christ, the holy angels, and all the saints of God face to face in heaven. 

Death for the Christian is the manifestation of our hope being realized. The promises of God have been fulfilled. We have arrived at our final and eternal destination – glorification. When we know what God has and is doing for us, we do not get discouraged to the point of no hope. Why? Because God promised us that all of the pain and suffering the world is experiencing now will one day disappear. God will fix all that is broken. What man has ruined due his willful rebellion God will burn and make brand new (Revelation 21:1-5). 

Man’s rebellion is an affront to God. As a result, God reacts against that rebellion through causing and allowing pain, suffering, and death. God is arresting our attention to the fact that He is displeased. You see God could forgo His mercy and simply exercise His justice. If He did that, every human being would be sent straight to hell the moment they committed one sin. Thank God He allows the wickedness of man (for now) so that He can share His love for him in Jesus Christ so that we all can repent of their sins, believe the gospel, and receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior before one die in their sins and is lost forever.