This is a conversation that has often brought into question the goodness of God. It raises uncomfortable questions. Yet it is helpful to ask these questions not just of each other, but of our faithful brothers and sisters throughout church history. One Puritan, in particular, can help us here. Puritan Thomas Watson looks to Romans 8:28 to help. He sees this verse as a window into the workings of God—that “God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose” (Rom. 8:28).
The sovereignty of God is a challenging truth to grasp. It is difficult to accept the reality that God has ordained and arranged every moment of our lives, including those filled with pain and suffering. When we think of the sovereignty of God, our tendency is to remove all responsibility and obligation from man, but the Bible doesn’t allow for such thinking (Rom. 9:19–20). How does this work? The Bible is clear: God does not passively allow things to happen, but instead actively ordains them for His own sovereign purposes.[1]
This is a conversation that has often brought into question the goodness of God. It raises uncomfortable questions. Yet it is helpful to ask these questions not just of each other, but of our faithful brothers and sisters throughout church history. One Puritan, in particular, can help us here. Puritan Thomas Watson looks to Romans 8:28 to help. He sees this verse as a window into the workings of God—that “God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose” (Rom. 8:28).
In a chapter entitled “The worst things work for good to the godly,” Watson writes:
Do not mistake me; I do not say that of their own nature the worst things are themselves good, for they are a fruit of the curse; but though they are naturally evil, yet the wise over-ruling hand of God . . . has so tempered them, that they all work in a harmonious manner for the good of the universe.
In other words, every evil in this world is still thoroughly evil. Watson is not saying evil somehow is no longer evil. Bombings are evil. Cancer is evil. Pandemics are evil. We weep over these things. But even in the darkest and most dumbfounding moments, God is sovereignly working—so that even the most evil acts must finally, in the end, serve to advance His sovereign plan in the universe.
In Genesis, Joseph experienced years and years of evil. He was sold into slavery, falsely accused, abandoned, forgotten, mistreated, and demeaned. But at the end of his life, he tells his brothers: “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result” (Gen. 50:20, italics mine). Notice the word meant. If most of us were writing this, we might say, “You meant evil against me, but God allowed it for good.” But Joseph did not say that. If God means (i.e. intends, plans, purposes) for these things to happen, and He doesn’t just regrettably allow them, what is His purpose for intending them? How can good possibly come from evil? What are God’s designs in ordaining the existence of evil? What does such evil produce in the soul of a slave of Christ?
God orders and designs our lives in such a way that makes us the most like His Son and brings His name the most glory. Thomas Watson provides just a glimpse into how this works:
Sin and evil work for good, because they are designed by God to teach us what’s in our own hearts.
Watson writes: “God makes us know affliction, that we may better know our selves.” In other words, affliction helps us to see that our biggest problem is not outside of us, but within us. It brings things out of us that ease and peace just never would.
