Since he did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else? Romans 8:32
An atheist, an agnostic and a journalist were talking. They shared stories of people who had lost their faith in God. Not only is God not good, they concluded—He’s not even real.
Some had asked God to save a loved one with cancer. Others pleaded with Him to salvage a failing marriage or prayed for abuse to stop. All said they were met—in their words, by only “steely silence.”
Life holds deep pain. The Bible addresses it more than 1,000 times, speaking of when—not if—we pass through waters and fire (Isaiah 43:2). We naturally want relief from pain right now. Yet Scripture says God is not indifferent to our suffering. The writer of the Bible’s Psalms says, “You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in your bottle. You have recorded each one in your book” (Psalm 56:8).
What is God really like? We don’t begin with our circumstances. We begin with what God has done. We begin with Jesus’s death on the cross. The Bible asks, “Since he did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else?” (Romans 8:32). Never judge God’s character by your circumstances. Instead, judge your circumstances by the unchanging character of God. Scripture says, “God is love” (1 John 4:8). He showed that love by giving His Son for you.
As one pastor explains it, “The ultimate expression of validation for God’s character and promises, indeed his love for you, is the cross. You do not need any other demonstration of his approval of or commitment to you. The cross is it.”[1]
Yes, you only need the cross.
[1] Erik Raymond, “God’s Character and Your Circumstances,” The Gospel Coalition, May 21, 2014, https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/erik-raymond/gods-character-and-your-circumstances/.
