Faith abounds in paradox: juxtaposing concepts that seem contradictory yet are affirmed as truth nonetheless. That God remains in control of the universe while still giving sway to our free will makes a good case in point. I’m not sure it’s worth trying to get our heads around that notion; better to accept it in faith.
But other paradoxes can claim our attention for the important insights they can deliver. Today I’d like to talk about the presumption in our language that good and evil are opposites. Most Asian religions/philosophies reject this perception saying that good and evil are merely two sides of the same coin. We see the logic of this when we trace outcomes. How many big lottery winners end up unhappy? How often does tragedy beget something positive over time?
While Christianity acknowledges the fickleness of fate – that both bad and good often fall on humans indiscriminately, our take on the opposition of good and evil reveals some important nuances. It is not mere perspective that causes us to define things as good or bad. We assert that much that happens in our world actually is evil – opposed to God’s good intentions for our lives. Yet, tarnished as the world is, God refuses to scrap the experiment because the Lord has the amazing capacity to use evil for good.
This idea crowns the book of Genesis with the story of Joseph and his treacherous brothers (Genesis 37-50). Here God utilizes a series of injustices to a good man (Joseph) that eventually land him in a position to save the very brothers who jealously wished him dead. Fearing his justifiable wrath, they prostrate themselves before Joseph, willing now to become his slaves in order to preserve their lives. But Joseph explains, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good” (Genesis 50:20 The Message).
The bottom line: evil is really evil regardless of how you look at it. But nothing is beyond God’s ability to redeem. On the scale of justice no amount of bad can dislodge the weight of God’s good. No matter how we flip the coin, God wins.
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