Whenever evil rears its ugly head with such devastating effect as it did in New York and Washington on 11th September 2001, people almost inevitably ask, ‘Why doesn’t God do something about it?’

We recognize the evil, and the question implies that God ought to deal with evil, but do we recognize that we are part of the evil? Evil is always a matter of degree. An IRA bomb planted in a British city and killing a few innocent people is only a few steps away from flying an airliner into the World Trade Center and killing thousands. It’s the same evil in the human heart that leads to both actions.

Evil really is terrorism against God. Jesus said that our problem is that we love evil, and this produces a heart that rebels against God and rejects his authority. This makes us all capable of any atrocity—terrorism, murder, adultery, pride, envy, gossip; all these stem from a rejection of God’s way.

The Bible calls this sin, and God has done something about it.

Whether we call ourselves Christians, Muslims, or atheists—all of us are sinners by nature and action. It is this sin that God sent Jesus into the world to deal with. But do we really want God to deal with our sin and evil?

Because of the sin in our hearts, we deliberately go against what God says we should do; we want our way rather than his. Indeed, our whole lives are lived in rebellion against God. Sin is part of our very nature. Many people today are foolish enough to think that sin does not matter. We should just ‘live and let live’, they say. So sin becomes the focus of entertainment: it is played with, celebrated and generally regarded as harmless. Then it explodes in our faces, as it did on 9/11, and we are shocked. But the shock only shows that we have never understood the full implications of sin.

Sin is like a cancer. Terrorism is only one of its more extreme symptoms. Sin is seen first in its disregard for God, and then spreads to a lack of concern for others. It shows in the selfishness and greed of ordinary people, and in the breakdown of family life. By our sin we all contribute to the mess the world is in, and we all suffer because of it. But there is even worse news.

God holds us accountable for the way we live our lives. He does not turn a blind eye to our sin. Your sin and rebellion against God have created an unbridgeable gap between God and you. The Bible says that spiritually you are ‘dead’ because of your sin. You can’t do anything to bridge the gap, but you’d be a fool to ignore the problem. You need to see that the only answer is in the Lord Jesus Christ.

God did something amazing to deal with sin, and the good news of the gospel is that when Jesus died on the cross, he did so as the sinner’s substitute. He stood in our place and took the punishment we deserved. He died in our place, instead of us, and, because of this, made it possible for God to forgive us all our guilt and sin.

The cross was God’s supreme act of love and grace.

At the cross we see God in all his divine holiness dealing with human sin—the terrorist’s sin as well as our sin.
At the cross God removed the sin that separates us from him by making his Son, the Lord Jesus, responsible for our violations of his law.
At the cross God puts our sin and guilt on Jesus, while giving Jesus’ righteousness to us.
At the cross God’s wrath fell on Jesus instead of us.

Why doesn’t God do something about the evil in the world?

Can’t you see that he has done the greatest thing possible? Jesus has died for our evil and offers us salvation from it. Jesus satisfied all of God’s requirements. Sin was punished as God determined it should be. There is now nothing further that divine justice can demand, because Jesus has paid the debt in full.

Jesus is the only way of salvation because he is the only way that God has provided for us. The Bible says of Jesus that ‘salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.’ Jesus now says to you, ‘Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.’ He will deal with your sin and make you acceptable to God.

You come to Jesus by realizing that you are guilty and do not deserve pardon, even though pardon is what you need. It means believing in Jesus as God’s only answer to deal with your sin. It means trusting what he did on your behalf on the cross, and looking to him alone for forgiveness and salvation.

Peter Jeffery
© Day One Publications, www.dayone.co.uk