Or, Can Any Good Come from Evil?
Scripture: Romans 3:5-8
Date: February 13, 2022
Speaker: Sean Higgins
The first time I read the following argument was in the fall of 1993 by a man named Erasmus. He wrote that some parts of the Bible are too difficult to understand, are likely to cause confusion, maybe even will lead to heretical teaching, and should therefore be untouched, certainly by untrained men and probably even by the academic theologians. Then I read Martin Luther’s response, which could be summed up as: Who do you think you are to know better what God Himself should or should not say? How arrogant does a man have to be to edit God and claim it’s for God’s own good? Of course, God can, and does take care of Himself, no thanks to us.
Whether we know it or not, whether we like it or not, whether the Prince of Darkness and the earthly powers rage against it, “God’s truth abideth still,” so we sing with Luther in “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God.” And it is truth, as revealed in God’s Word, that is above all those earthly powers. We should respect it, and receive it, not redact any of it. We use neither scissors of black Sharpies on our Bibles. We open the Book, read the Word, and pray that God would open our eyes to behold wondrous things in it.
That doesn’t mean that we immediately, easily, or necessarily ever fully understand it, not while in these mortal bodies. History, even church history, is littered with false teachers, with those who deliberately misunderstand and misrepresent God’s revelation. The apostle Peter, writing by the Holy Spirit’s guidance, wrote that some of Paul’s writings were “hard to understand,” and that “the ignorant and unstable twist (them) to their own destruction” (2 Peter 3:16). These are “lawless people” (verse 17) in their behavior even if they claim to be teachers of the law (see 1 Timothy 1:7). There are some hot takes so bad only a religious person could make them.
I say all that to introduce the next paragraph in Romans 3 where Paul acknowledges some willful accusations against his teaching about the relationship between God’s sovereignty and God’s righteousness. In these verses we have less explanation, but a great example and great encouragement for those with an ear to hear. Any problems we find do not lie with God’s Word.
We’ve been confronted with the need for the gospel since Romans 1:18. God’s wrath is revealed on those who despise His revelation. His glory is seen and magnified as He judges those who exchange the truth for a lie, who know God’s decree and who do the debased things anyway. We also saw that those who have enough moral conscience to condemn others are storing up wrath for themselves as they do the same things. And then we’ve seen Paul keep poking at Jewish pride since 2:17, those who boasted in the externals of religion rather than believing in their hearts.
The case of the Jews is especially important for Paul, not only because he was one, but also because they are a people with unique privilege, a people who had been chosen by God according to God’s sovereign grace, a people who had a covenant with God, many of whom rejected the Messiah, rejected God’s righteousness by faith, and were in danger of God’s wrath. How could this nation who had the law and the oracles and the circumcision be so unfaithful? Even more, is God sovereign over that unfaithfulness? And if He is, is it righteous for Him to hold men responsible for it?
Those are questions that have been making men squirmy and squirrelly long before our current effeminate Evangelicalism. Erasmus tried to get God off the hook for what he took as a bad look in the 16th century, Pelagius tried in the 5th century, and at least some were doing it in the 1st century. These sorts were always the first in line to talk to Paul after his sessions at the regional conference. He provides the Roman readers with the problem and the right perspective.
There are five questions in four verses. Four of the questions seem to be criticisms and one of the questions is actually an answer. That answer comes at the end of the first issue.
But if our unrighteousness serves to show the righteousness of God, what shall we say? That God is unrighteous to inflict wrath on us? (I speak in a human way.) By no means! For then how could God judge the world? (Romans 3:5–6)
This is really important. There is no reason to ask the second question if the content of the first question isn’t true. We could state it as a declarative rather than an interrogative: “our unrighteousness serves to show the righteousness of God.” I emphasized in chapter 1 that God has set up the world in such a way as to show His glory, including when He glorifies His righteous judgment. Unthankful rebels provide Him the platform to display His excellent wrath. The only reason to bother asking if this is fair is if it’s true.
What is wrong is any implied application that God is wrong, not man.
One option is that we could say: “God is unrighteous to inflict wrath on us” since He gets what He wants. There are two problems with that answer.
First, this is only the human perspective: “(I speak in a human way.)” This line of questions comes from man’s defensiveness, from man’s bias toward self-justification, and also from his limitations. Paul almost doesn’t even want to say it on behalf of the objector; it’s an example of conceited complaining about what one doesn’t comprehend (Calvin).
Second, it is impossible. “May it never be!” for the second time in chapter 3. God cannot be anything other than faithful (verse 3), and He cannot be anything other than righteous. It is a fallacy by divine rule. Paul’s follow up is, “For then how could God judge the world?” There is no argument to prove that there is a God or that He is a judge or that He will judge the world. The assumed foundation is in the question. He’s going to do it so of course He must do it rightly.
Rise up, O judge of the earth;
repay to the proud what they deserve!
(Psalm 94:2)
God’s righteousness is. He is “holy, holy, holy.” Righteousness, an attribute of always acting according to the standard, is an unmistakeable and inseparable attribute of His. He can’t not be righteous. He determined His plan in righteousness, He is working out His plan in righteousness, and the goal will be righteous all the way to the final judgment. All things are from Him and through Him and to Him; at no point is there a missing gap of righteousness.
The Jews’ rejection of Jesus, and the judgment on them for doing so, is part of God’s plan AND part of His righteousness, and there is a lot more about this in chapters 9-11 which concludes with a doxology to God’s wisdom (11:33-36).
The next two questions are steps across the same bridge, just a little more brazen. Paul’s response is also more blunt.
But if through my lie God’s truth abounds to his glory, why am I still being condemned as a sinner? And why not do evil that good may come?—as some people slanderously charge us with saying. Their condemnation is just. (Romans 3:7–8)
Obviously something is wrong here since Paul calls it slander. But what is the problem?
As in verses 5-6, two things are happening, and the objectors distort the truth by only allowing for one. God’s truth aboundeth still, even when a sinner lies AND the liar is condemned as a liar. God is sovereign all the way through, not just after the fact in His response, and a man is responsible. No man is outside of God’s omniscient exercise of His omnipotence, and no man can claim he’s innocent.
It’s the same with the good and evil question. Good has come from evil, more on that in a moment. The problem is that the objector, the slanderer, wants to use that as a cover to indulge himself. He wants to blame his sinful desires on God’s system.
It may seem bold to say that good has come from evil, but it would be biblically blind to say otherwise.
The nation of Israel was spared because Joseph’s brothers hated him and sold him. Joseph summarized it, “you meant it for evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring about that many people should be kept alive” (Genesis 50:20). If no evil, then no nation. No nation would have kept some of them from becoming religious hypocrites, but God preserved them even through sinful agents.
The promise in Romans 8:28 either includes evil or it is a false promise. “All things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose.” Why is this valuable? Because we currently suffer the effects of evil, on creation and in our interactions with evil accusers and persecutors. Who questions if all good things work together for good?
This includes the fact that we Gentiles are here because the Jews rejected Jesus, “through their trespass salvation has come to the Gentiles, so as to make Israel jealous” (Romans 11:11).
Most of all, we have no salvation apart from the gospel that came out of the evil.
this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. (Acts 2:23)
truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place. (Acts 4:27–28)
The most evil act ever was predestined by God, presided over in every detail by God (Luke 24:44-46), and yet performed by wicked men whose judgment will be worse than that of Sodom and Gomorrah.
The just condemnation deserved by those Paul references here was due to their sinful slander of God, as if God delights in evil, and their sin. They were “right” in terms of God’s sovereignty but wrong in terms of how His sovereignty works.
You may find a couple categories to be useful when trying to hold these truths together in your mind: God’s revealed will and God’s ordained will. The two are not in contradiction, but they are not visible at the same time in the same way. His revealed will is in His Word, the law, commandments and prohibitions. Anyone who transgresses or who fails to live up to them is guilty of sin (Romans 3:23).
Also, God is God and ordains all things, including the hearts of kings (Proverbs 21:1) and Pharaohs (Exodus 4:21) and Pharisees, sinners and satan himself. In the story, everything is under the Author’s dominion, and He does whatever He pleases (Psalm 115:3). This is why we don’t have to fear what man can do to us, although man has no excuse. God’s ordained-from-before-the-foundation-of-the-world-will will and is happening, and He is always righteous.
While we receive these truths we also remember God’s character. It’s His kindness that is meant to lead to repentance. Remember His generosity, giving good to the ungrateful in creation and in His special communication. Remember that He is steadfast love. He is wiser and truer than we have capacity to grasp. He is more righteous and more loving than we will ever fully know. While we work at increasing our understanding of Him, our limited perspective is no hindrance to trusting Him. Trust Him. Look to the cross. There is no greater picture of righteousness on display, putting the judgment we deserved onto His perfect Son through the evil of men’s hating hearts and murderous hands. Righteousness shined out of that dark scene, and God’s truth aboundeth still.
Truth is not only sometimes stranger than fiction, the truth is, truth is more glorious than fiction.
So you ought to speak the truth. You ought to evangelize, not because you feel guilty about not doing it, but because you feel the weight of how great the truth is.
Our God overcomes evil with good. Our God’s truth aboundeth still. Just don’t lie and you’ll really have something to say.
Grace, mercy, and peace will be with us, from God the Father and from Jesus Christ the Father’s Son, in truth and love. (2 John 1:3, ESV)