Whoever sows injustice will reap...
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"Whoever sows injustice will reap calamity," says the book of Proverbs. Yet we can all
think of examples of people for whom this does not seem to be so. One of the most
difficult challenges to faith is not the question, "Why do bad things happen to good
people?" -- although that one is difficult enough -- but, "Why do good things happen to
bad people?"
There are some things we simply have to place in God's hands, to trust to God's eternity. Many of us have heard the story of John Newton, author of the hymn, "Amazing Grace." Newton was the captain of a slave ship -- one of those unjust people whom the proverb promises will "reap calamity" -- but he was converted to the way of Jesus Christ: whereupon he immediately changed his life, no longer trading in slaves.
Someone once asked Newton, years later, how he explained the persistence of evil in the world. Here is what he said: "Many have puzzled themselves about the origin of evil. I am content to observe that there is evil, and that there is a way to escape from it, and with this I begin and end."
There is evil, and there is also a way to escape from it. That way is the way of Jesus Christ.
There are some things we simply have to place in God's hands, to trust to God's eternity. Many of us have heard the story of John Newton, author of the hymn, "Amazing Grace." Newton was the captain of a slave ship -- one of those unjust people whom the proverb promises will "reap calamity" -- but he was converted to the way of Jesus Christ: whereupon he immediately changed his life, no longer trading in slaves.
Someone once asked Newton, years later, how he explained the persistence of evil in the world. Here is what he said: "Many have puzzled themselves about the origin of evil. I am content to observe that there is evil, and that there is a way to escape from it, and with this I begin and end."
There is evil, and there is also a way to escape from it. That way is the way of Jesus Christ.
