The coronavirus epidemic has shaken our lives, shut down the economy, and killed thousands of people. If God is sovereign and good, some ask, “Why don’t you stop the epidemic?”
In the center of questions like this, there are misconceptions about God and the world.
- The predominant vision of God today is that of “therapeutic moralistic deism”.
- God is kind and good.
- Which means He wants to make us happy.
- He can help us with our problems and he wants us to be kind and good too.
- God is not specifically critical and demanding.
- It just leaves us alone.
This view is widespread among teenagers, as research has shown, but it can also be found among contemporary theologians who insist that God is so good that he would never condemn anyone to hell or punish his Son for the sins of others. God apparently presents it in a very positive way, he is wrong in the arguments of the deists, who claim that such a being is incompatible with the real world, with its sufferings, its evils and its viral epidemics. , the divinity of therapeutic moralistic deism does not exist.
According to the scriptures, the God who exists is very different, he is a saint. In other words, is it infinite, transcendent, and glorious? Far beyond our comprehension. And we must fear it; it is certainly good, but his righteousness manifests itself in a terrible wrath against sin; Also, behind his judgment, as Martin Luther said, is his love; both virtues are also unsonable.
God is really powerful. He has created all the things that exist and continues to sustain them. Its sovereignty extends to the smallest detail of its creation. God saw the lilies of the fields. Feed the birds and beware of every sparrow that falls to the ground (Mt 6:26-28; 10. 29), feeds the little lion when it jumps on the prey (Ps 104,21), hence the coronavirus exists and is maintained. according to God’s sovereign plan for creation.
If God is more complex than popular opinion, it can also be said of the world. In its current state, the world should not be a safe, trouble-free and always happy place. It’s a world fallen by the hair. It is an environment of death, fleetingness and futility, it is a place where the devil wanders and we suffer, especially from diseases such as coronavirus.
Is it God’s will? Yes, moreover, sin is, by definition, a violation of God’s revealed will. Therefore, even if the sinful world defies God’s revealed will, supporting this world is God’s sovereign will. It is good for us that God supports the world; otherwise, we would perish with all the bad.
The second Person of the Trinity became flesh, in this sin-infested world, and, in his sovereign power, carried upon him the wrath due to the sin and suffering of this plagued world.
Why didn’t God make everything good and perfect?In paradise do we reject? And he will, in the eternal paradise he has prepared for his people. In the meantime, we must live in this imperfect world, which in itself is a manifestation of God’s wrath against sin. it is also the place where God redeems us from this sin.
God Himself entered this fallen world, into the incarnation of Jesus Christ, who submitted to the sinner and death of this world to save us, and it is in this environment that the saved are called to fight sin, to resist temptation, to oppose evil, to do good works, and to live tribulations and trials that will strengthen their faith and prepare them for eternal life.
The fallen world is a difficult place for us to live, but God’s sovereignty in this world. Although the evil things that happen are in accordance with God’s sovereign will, he continues to love his creation. The beauties, satisfactions, and pleasures of life are the deepest signs of God’s sovereignty.
In the Bible, plagues and plagues come from God’s hand as signs of his wrath on sin; In other words, it is not only a punishment for collective or individual transgressions, but they represent God’s judgment and also his plan of salvation.
The plagues of Egypt afflicted pharaoh and his entire nation, except those housed in houses marked with the blood of the lamb (Ex 7-12). Later, God punished His rebellious people for sending a plague, by which the priest Aaron took incense at the altar of sacrifices and made atonement for the people. It was between the living and the dead; and has the plague ceased?(Nm 16. 47-48). When King David sinned, the Lord allowed him to choose his punishment: hunger, war, or pestilence. David chose the latter by saying, “We fall into the hands of the Lord, for his mercies are many; But don’t I fall into the hands of men?(2 Sm 24. 14). The angel of plague killed 70,000 people, prompting David’s prayer of repentance and confession: “Can your hand be against me and my father’s house?”(v. 17). God stopped the plague on the ground of Araúna, the Jebuseo (v. 18), which would become the site of the temple (2Cr 3. 1). All these events are prophecies of the person and work of Jesus Christ.
Jesus is the pest healer (Lr 7:21). Matthew comments on one of Jesus’ healings: “That what the prophet Isaiah said may be fulfilled: Did he himself have taken our diseases and brought our diseases?(Mt 8:17). Matthew refers to Isaiah 53,4: “Surely he took our weaknesses and carried our sufferings?(Is 53. 4). These Hebrew words that refer to suffering have the meaning of sickness; therefore, the second person of the Trinity became flesh, in this sin-infested world, and, in his sovereign power, carried upon him the wrath due to the sin and suffering of this plague-infested world.
In light of God’s sovereignty, should disasters like the coronavirus remind us to accumulate treasures in heaven, where moths or rust corrode and where thieves do not dig or steal?(Mt 6:19-20). Should we endure them with repentance (Lg 13. 5), hold fast to Christ by faith (Ps 63:8), pray for deliverance (Mt 6:13), and experience our faith, especially in our vocations to work, family, church, and citizenship?in love and service to one’s neighbour (Mt 22:36-40). And thanks to God’s sovereignty, we can keep his promise: “Do we know that everything contributes to the good of those who love God, of those called according to his plan?(Rom 8. 28).