2 of 3

Since God is good (holy is the biblical word most frequently used to describe this quality), he must be a God of absolute justice. Wrongdoing of every sort is repulsive to him. By his very nature, therefore, he must reject evil and separate it from himself and his goodly kingdom. That is the reason why some kind of hell is a moral necessity in a just universe. The only alternative is for God to make us machines, preset by the engineer who designed it to perform good tasks. But then we would not have a moral universe, but an amoral one. If man is truly free, then there is the possibility that he will misuse that freedom and choose to become evil. And since God is the just and sovereign judge of the universe, he must punish that evil. He cannot allow it into the open and free fellowship of his good kingdom, or it would cease to be good, and God would not be either a good God or a just judge.

In a universe of free persons, some will freely choose to be saints and some freely choose to be evil. We do not know why an omnipotent God ever allows some to turn away from him. It remains one of the ultimate mysteries of existence. Yet the apostle Paul reminds us of the limited vision we have here on earth and calls us to a fatherly trust in the goodness and wisdom of God who knows infinitely what he is doing and why. Scripture also assures us that God has good reasons, however dimly we may be able to understand them, in permitting evil in this world. Our only reasonable response is to acknowledge that the infinite God knows more than we do.

Christianity, however, is the religion that tells us of a God who longs for us even though we are incapable of longing for him. He takes the initiative to stoop down to us in our sin and spiritual blindness. Out of his love and grace, which we neither deserve nor appreciate, he woos us back to himself. In the startling phrase of the apostle Paul, God "justified the ungodly," so that the goodness that admits us to heaven is not anything in us, but the moral perfection of Christ. He, not we, gets the credit—all of it.

The Christian life then becomes a slow, painstaking, often very painful, and always infinitely complex process by which God structures within us the perfect goodness of Christ. By this regenerating and sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit, we are bit by bit restored so as to become prepared for eternal life in God's good kingdom. At death, or at the Second Coming, we shall meet God face to face and, for the first time, see him as he really is, and then, for the first time also, see sin as it really is.

Then, and only then, will the infinite joy and attractiveness of God and his good absorb our soul. In sharpest contrast, a sense of the infinite ugliness and utter repulsiveness of sin and evil will also penetrate our hearts and minds. And so we shall become like God and truly long to be with him in his good kingdom of love and peace and joy.

This article originally appeared in the May 27, 1991, issue of Christianity Today. At the time, Kenneth S. Kantzer was dean of the Christianity Today Institute and an executive editor of the magazine. Before that, Kantzer was editor of CT from 1978 to 1982, taught theology at Wheaton College from 1946 to 1963, and was dean of Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He died on June 20, 2002.

next page... |  2 of 3

share this page

June (Web-only) 2003, Vol. 47