This past Sunday I went to Sarrah's church, Coram Deo, in Bremerton. The message was about suffering. The pastor, Jon, used two examples in the Bible about how suffering is part of God's plan; he cited the story of Joseph (who he described as "like a 1970's pimp with his fuzzy coat") as well as the story of Jesus. In Jesus' case, he said that even though the men who killed Jesus committed a grevious sin, it was still all part of God's plan. They were acting against God, but He knew they would and planned accordingly.
Sarrah's friend Katie, who is not Christian, was taking notes. I curiously took a look at them later on and saw a comment: "Sin is salvation?" It was something along those lines. When I read that, I kind of wondered how it could be explained. Pastor Jon had said that we don't always know how it works. There is no good answer sometimes.
The next day I was at work, which is my thinking time. Since I sit at a computer all day, there's not much for my mind to do except focus purely on work, and who wants to do that? My mind fell on this message again and I thought about it. If sin is bad, how does it all work into God's plan? Then an analogy came to mind that made sense to me. It is probably the only way I can think of to explain it.
It's like a fight. When you are in physical combat with someone, there are three things you want to do.
When God sent down His Son to save the world, He knew that Satan would plot to kill Him. God knew that Satan would plant the seeds of hatred in the hearts of the religious leaders of the time. But God planned for it to happen. When Jesus died, Satan thought for a few days that he had won. He thought he had finally got one on God. However, what he didn't realize was that this was all part of the plan. Jesus rose on the third day, triumphant. In other words, God used Satan's strength over the hearts of wicked men against him. He knew of the weakness of men and let it happen because His triumphant plan would work. Ultimately, He won the fight.
If you have anything to add, help me out here.
So that's probably the simplest way I can think of to explain how I believe it works. I don't know if it's the best answer in the world, but it's what I can think of, anyways. But then, it isn't always for us to know the way God works.
Sarrah's friend Katie, who is not Christian, was taking notes. I curiously took a look at them later on and saw a comment: "Sin is salvation?" It was something along those lines. When I read that, I kind of wondered how it could be explained. Pastor Jon had said that we don't always know how it works. There is no good answer sometimes.
The next day I was at work, which is my thinking time. Since I sit at a computer all day, there's not much for my mind to do except focus purely on work, and who wants to do that? My mind fell on this message again and I thought about it. If sin is bad, how does it all work into God's plan? Then an analogy came to mind that made sense to me. It is probably the only way I can think of to explain it.
It's like a fight. When you are in physical combat with someone, there are three things you want to do.
- You want to exploit the opponent's weaknesses
- You want to try to turn his strengths against him
- You want to anticipate your opponent's moves so you can plan and react accordingly.
When God sent down His Son to save the world, He knew that Satan would plot to kill Him. God knew that Satan would plant the seeds of hatred in the hearts of the religious leaders of the time. But God planned for it to happen. When Jesus died, Satan thought for a few days that he had won. He thought he had finally got one on God. However, what he didn't realize was that this was all part of the plan. Jesus rose on the third day, triumphant. In other words, God used Satan's strength over the hearts of wicked men against him. He knew of the weakness of men and let it happen because His triumphant plan would work. Ultimately, He won the fight.
If you have anything to add, help me out here.
So that's probably the simplest way I can think of to explain how I believe it works. I don't know if it's the best answer in the world, but it's what I can think of, anyways. But then, it isn't always for us to know the way God works.
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