God is Not Fair

"God, you're not fair!"

This has been a common complaint from my lips at various times in my life. We all know bad things happen to "good" people, and often times good things happen to "bad" people. Funny how we always think of ourselves as good, never deserving of the misfortune that inevitably comes upon everyone at one time or another on this earth. This is where we as Christians may feel betrayed by God. "God", we may say, "I've obeyed you, sought you with all my heart, and want to glorify you with my life. Why am I dealing with [fill in the blank] while Jeff, who doesn't care about you at all, doesn't have any problems? You're not fair!"

One day while I was thinking about this statement, it dawned on me what I meant by God not being fair. I actually was accusing God of not being just. If God was just, he would see my righteous desires and reward them with the absence of troubles, whereas unbelieving Jeff would have to pay for his willful rebellion. Through this, though, God has taught me a valuable lesson about His justice and mercy.

I should not be so quick to call for God's justice. You see, it would have been perfectly just for God to send me straight to hell for my sins. God did not have to save me from His wrath - He would have been fair to let me suffer the due penalty for my rebellion. Thankfully, though, God also excercises mercy with His justice. He decided, out of love, to send His Son Jesus to pay the penalty for my sin, thereby satisfying God's justice while at the same time extending His mercy to me as an undeserving sinner. He chose to save me out of no merit of my own, but rather because of His sovereign decision.

So when I look upon the fortune of unbelievers and compare that to my misfortune, I have no right to say "I deserve [fill in the blank]!" In actuality, the only thing I truly deserve is the fire of hell. The earthly fortunes of unbelievers are only temporary; unless they repent, their good times will quickly be forgotten in hell. I find myself actually pitying the unbeliever who has no regard for God because of his good fortune in this life.

In conclusion, we should not be so quick to say God is not fair and call for His justice. We must remember what we truly deserve for our sins. No, God is not equal in how He apportions His blessings. The Bible says that He sends rain on the righteous and unrighteous (Matthew 5:45), implying that God does not withhold His blessings based upon how "good" somebody may try to be. But I should not complain about His unfairness, because if He wanted to be truly fair (and excercise His justice), I would have my ticket for hell in hand. Our misfortune as Christians in this life is only temporary, and it will be used by God to shape us into Christ's image (Romans 8:28-29), and our perseverance through the trials will result in greater reward in heaven.

Word of Faith Overview

"Word of Faith" is the name of a brand of Christian doctrine also known as the "Prosperity Gospel" or the "Health and Wealth Gospel." As one who has sat under that teaching for a season in my life, I feel that I can accurately summarize what it teaches without misrepresenting it. I've provided a quick summary of the doctrine below.

At the outset I want to say that this is not a criticism of those who are Word of Faith Christians themselves. Many of our dear Christian friends are Word of Faith and we deeply love them. Nor am I saying that they are not Believers, and I am not calling Word of Faith a heresy. I simply wish to outline the doctrine and let you decide as to its orthodoxy.

The basic tenants of Word of Faith are as follows:

1. It is God's will (His desire) that mankind be free from the curses caused by sin, e.g. sickness, poverty, despair, and various ills, in this present life.


2. Jesus Christ's death on the cross and His resurrection (His atonement) purchased the victory over sin and thus with it the victory over the above mentioned ills, too.


3. Salvation from our sins comes by faith in Christ. Likewise, salvation from sickness, poverty, and demonic oppression in this life also results from our faith.


4. God wants to give us these good things (health, prosperity, deliverance), but will not do so if we are disobedient (in sin) and/or if we don't have enough faith for them to come to pass.


5. Therefore, if we have anything bad happen in our lives, it is because we either are in sin or we don't have enough faith for it to happen.


6. God is powerless to do anything in our lives until those two criteria are met. In the meantime, Satan runs roughshod over Christians trying to keep them from meeting these criteria.

I hope you have picked up on some of the errors in the points above. Each point has some truth and some error in it. It is not my intention to go into great detail about them this in this blog, since entire books have been devoted to this issue. Rather, I just want to point out the logical conclusion of this theology in #5. This leaves many Word of Faith Christians disillusioned when they're doing everything they possibly can to love and obey God, and yet suffering still comes upon them. There is a great deal of condemnation associated with this teaching for anybody that doesn't "have it together."

I invite any discussion from my Word of Faith friends on the points above. Perhaps at some point I will devote blogs to each point in an effort to shine the Light of the Word on them and to bring Biblical balance to them.

Until next time,

ChadDA