Fair and Just in God's Perfect Will

I was thinking about God’s perfect will again.

Trying to reconcile how we at one time or another were grieved (suffered sorrow, heaviness and pain) and it was God’s will.

Romans 12:2 Do not be conformed of this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God. 

1Corinthians 7:9-10 I now rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because your grief led to repentance.  For you were grieved as God willed, so that you didn’t experience any loss from us. ¹⁰For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, but worldly grief produces death.

Remember, perfect is the word teleion in the Greek which means complete or finished.  The objective reaches the goal purpose, or end that was intended.  God’s perfect will.

Because I repented after I was grieved this was God’s perfect will.

I have mentioned in other posts that I had a bad childhood and this was the grief, though no fault of my own, is why I repented and began to follow Jesus.  If the bad childhood I suffered led me to repentance, then the experience was worth it.

It took me a long time to embrace that idea.

Romans 8:18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is going to be revealed to us.

What if God asked me right now, “OK Surry, I will remove your bad childhood, all of it.  All the pain and anguish you went through.  I will erase it all right now.  But that means you won’t have grief (sorrow) that leads to repentance.  I wouldn’t be able to call you into my kingdom.  No other grief would have caused you to seek me.  Would you forfeit your salvation for a better childhood?

Or what about, “OK, Surry.  What if I take the bad childhood away and you have to suffer through so much more. Let’s say, multiple traumas, alcoholism, addiction or something more horrible than what you went through before you actually surrender your life.  Would it be worth it?

Have you ever watched those videos Soft Underbelly on youtube?  I highly recommend watching one.  These videos are interviews in where individuals share the most horrific stories of abuse and torture they had to endure.  I lived in a Disney winter wonderland full of lollipops and a chocolate river compared to the atrocities that some have survived to tell their story. 

It isn’t fair that we suffer through bad things in life.  But it could have been so much worse. Side note- if you watch one of these videos, please pray salvation for these brave souls whom share their stories.

Back to the question, would it be worth it?  NOPE. No thank you.  I will take the grief (sorrow) of a not-so-great childhood and some senseless abuse and surrender my life at 17 years old just as it happened. How it was supposed to happen.  God’s perfect will.

Am I saying that God’s perfect will was for me to be abused?  Absolutely NOT!  I’m saying we live in a sinful world, full of sinful people. Therefore life on this earth, in its sinful state, is NOT FAIR and almost always will never  be fair.

Fair focuses on balanced impartial treatment and equity based.  Fairness considers the back story and factors in everything surrounding the circumstances.

Just or Justice refers to strictly adhering to an objective moral, ethical and legal code- basically God’s law.

Romans 7:12 So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good.

We have a just God with just laws that we can never live up to.  We can never keep the law in our sinful state.

Romans 7:15 For I do not understand what I am doing, because I do not practice what I want to do, but I do what I hate. ¹⁶ Now if I do what I do not want to do, I agree with the law that it is good. ¹⁷ So now I am no longer the one doing it, but it is sin living in me. ¹⁸ For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh. For the desire to do what is good is with me, but there is no ability to do it. ¹⁹ For I do not do the good that I want to do, but I practice the evil that I do not want to do. ²⁰ Now if I do what I do not want, I am no longer the one that does it, but it is the sin that lives in me. ²¹ So I discover this law: When I want to do what is good, evil is present with me.

So Jesus, who was without flaw, lived a sinless life, died on the cross for us and rose from the dead on the third day.  He paid the penalty for us so that we can be justified.  Jesus has justified us through his sacrifice.

Romans 4:25  He was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification

Romans 5:19  For just as through one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so also through the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.

As you recall in my post Good Grief, in my opinion grief can be caused by others or it can be self-inflicted. My grief was caused by others, but what about an example of self-inflicted grief?

In Numbers 20 the Israelite community had entered the wilderness of Zin and there was no water for them.  Of course, just like always the assembly began to whine.  “How come you brought us out here to die?  At least back in Egypt there was water!”

So Moses and Aaron went and appealed to God.  God heard their cries and instructed them. “Take the staff and assemble the community.  You and your brother Aaron are to speak to the rock while they watch, and it will yield its water.  You will bring out water for them from the rock and provide drink for the community and their livestock” Number 20:8.

So Moses took the staff from the Lord’s presence and just as he commanded him.  Moses and Aaron summoned the assembly in front of the rock, and Moses said to them, “Listen you rebels!  Must we bring water out of this rock for you?  Then Moses raised his staff and struck the rock twice with it, so that abundant water gushed out, and the community and their livestock drank.” Numbers 20:10

What did God tell Moses to do?  He told him to speak to the rock, not strike it.  Moses was in direct disobedience to God. 

Because of this disobedience, God told Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not trust me to demonstrate my holiness in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this assembly into the land I have given them” Numbers 20:12.

Moses’ disobedience made the entire assembly ineligible for entrance to the Promised land.  Not only that, but Moses was also not permitted to enter the Promised Land. Wow! Think of all the good things Moses had done and he did this one thing, strike the rock, instead of speaking to the rock.

It was not God’s perfect will that Moses disobeyed and struck the rock instead of speaking it.  But God knew what Moses was going to do before even Moses knew what he was going to do. You can’t pull a fast one on God.  He knows before we even know.  It didn’t seem fair that God didn’t let him step into the Promised land after all the things Moses did to obey God.  It was the one time.  It didn’t seem fair, but…it was just.

Fast forward 1400-1500 years later, God displays his amazing mercy and kindness.

Psalm 103:8 The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in faithful love.

Psalm 63:3 Because Your lovingkindness is better than life, My lips shall praise you. (AMP)

Matthew describes the moment of the transfiguration. On a high mountain Moses stood with Jesus and Elijah.  Do you know where that mountain was?  Scholars think that the mountain they were standing on was either Mount Tabor or Mount Hermon.  Do you know where both those mountains are?  In the land that God had promised Moses so many years before.  He, next to the son of God, finally stood in the promised land.  What a kind and merciful God to allow Moses to finally, in a moment of glory, forever recorded in history, to stand on the mountain that looked over the land he spent 40 years searching for.

At that moment. 

The moment of transfiguration, he finally reached the goal, purpose or end that God intended.  This was the perfect will of God.  Moses grieved (had sorrow) as God willed, that lead him to this moment on the top of a mountain next to the King of Kings, Jesus.  Salvation without regret.

Matthew 17:1-3 After six days Jesus took Peter, James, and his brother John and led them up on a high mountain by themselves. ² He was transfigured in front of them, and his face shone like the sun; his clothes became as white as the light. ³ Suddenly, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with him.