The World is Messed Up

Romans 8:1

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As we look around us, as we watch the news, as we go online, watch TV and so forth, we see that our world is pretty messed up, isn’t it?

There’s so much sorrow, suffering, pain, and death. Part of it is the fault of human beings. We think of selfish human beings who act in harm towards their neighbor, sometimes trying to cheat them out of what rightfully is theirs. Sometimes it’s by harming their bodies, sometimes it’s even by killing them as well. We know that suffering and sorrow and pain doesn’t just come from other people, but it’s just part of our world as well as we think about our own bodies can be afflicted with disease like heart disease or cancer or other things that can cause us suffering and pain and even death too. And then we think about all of the terrible natural disasters, things like wildfires and hurricanes and tornadoes and how much destruction that causes to people’s property and people’s lives and livelihood. And we look at our world and we say, it’s so messed up. What in the world is going on?

It’s made many people to wonder if there in fact really is a God. Because they say if there is a God, he must be all powerful. And if he is also a God of love, well, where is he? Why is he allowing all of the sorrow, suffering and pain and death to go on in the world as we see it today? And some then conclude, well, God can’t possibly exist because there is so much suffering, sorrow, pain and death. It’s good for us to note, though, that the world that we see before our eyes today isn’t the world the way in which God originally made it. God didn’t create a world that was filled with sorrow, suffering, pain, or death, or any of those things. God, in fact, created a perfect world in which he placed the first human beings, Adam and Eve. And he gave Adam and Eve free will, free will to either choose to obey God or free will to disobey God.

We know what the Bible says about them, what they use their free will for. Ultimately, as Eve was tempted by the serpent, tempted by Satan, she took from the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. She took it and she ate it. She gave it to her husband as well, Adam, and he ate it. And both of them sinned. And as a result, there came sorrow, suffering, pain, and death, not just to their own bodies, but upon the entire world. And so the world we see today isn’t the world the way in which God intended it or created it. But it’s a world that is broken by sin.

We might ask then, well, why doesn’t God fix it? Why doesn’t God just get rid of all of that sin? If he was to do that, what would be left? No, who would be left? Would you be left if God got rid of all of the sin in the world? Oh, we know our own sin, and we know our own corruption, and how that often causes sorrow, suffering, pain, and death in our own lives, too. And so we see the problem lies within. The reason that God has allowed this broken world to continue is because he wants sinners to come and to know their Savior, Jesus Christ, that they might be rescued from the condemnation that their sins deserved. And so he has allowed this broken world to go on for a time, that the good news of salvation: that Jesus Christ has come as your Savior from sin, might be spread to more and more, that they might be spared the judgment and have eternal life.

But God has told us in His Word that he is coming to rid the world of sin one day. That day is sometimes referred to as Judgment day. As he will judge all sin. It’s certainly a scary day for each and every one of us who knows our sin, but he wants us to especially know we have nothing to fear on that day. As he tells us in Romans chapter eight, verse one,

So then, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. (Romans 8:1)

We are safe in Christ our Savior. We can be assured that he is coming soon to make all things new, and to bring us to a place that is free from sorrow, suffering, pain, and death forever because of Christ and what he has done for us. Amen.