“INNOCENT SUFFERING”
We all wish for the guilty to suffer, and the innocent to be vindicated. And of course all of us are innocent, aren’t we?
But the truth is this: Often the guilty go unpunished.
Or do they?
The guilty have to live with at least one evil person twenty-four hours a day, three-hundred-sixty-five days a year. That person is their own selves. (On leap year, they get an extra day to their sentence.) And while we all sometimes choose to be the guilty person, who really wants to live with one?!
And it also might be asked about how innocent any of us really is?
I realize that this is a terribly unpopular idea, but I still hold to the classic Christian teaching that says that we are all sinners, and that sin is a deadly business for us all.
That does not imply (as it is often thought to imply) that the victim becomes the perpetrator. No! There are the victims, and there are the victimizers. I have been both at different times, and in different situations.
However, I suspect that we all over-rate and over-sell our own innocence.
Still, there are many parts of the Bible that recognize that the innocent suffer through no fault of their own. Psalm 79:3-4, 73:13, and 1 Peter 4:12-19 are just a few of the many verses that acknowledge this uncomfortable truth. In fact, an entire book is devoted to the problem of innocent suffering—the Book of Job.
The teaching of the New Testament is that the truly Innocent One, Jesus, suffered for all the guilty. This is a radical and unpalatable idea. It may or may not be true, but that is what the Bible teaches.
But Jesus also died for the innocent. Apparently, God’s grace and love is so vast that God’s grace and love embrace—that God Himself embraces—all people of all times.
So, if God has embraced the innocent and the guilty, where does that leave us? Should we conclude from this that it doesn’t matter whether we are innocent or guilty in a given situation?
No! Those of us who have been embraced by such a warmly accepting God cannot stay as we were or as we are. Those of us who have come to know that we have been embraced by such love, must acknowledge the fact that we have abused those over whom we held power. We must pray that we will do so no more. We must strive for a godly self-control that will keep us from further devastation.
The Jesus who died for the guilty and the innocent did not die so that the guilty could go on with business as usual. Business as usual is not one of the fruits of such undeserved grace and forgiveness. Gratitude, humility, and transformation of life are the business model of those who have been to the cross of Jesus.
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