It’s been quite a week. Of course, we’re all still reeling from the horrible tragedy that occurred earlier this week at Virginia Tech. And then there is mis-used opportunity of a convocation. Since America has become the PC zone that it now is, public tragedies and memorials have become a frustrating mish-mash of religious sentiment and verbiage. We have sunk to lows from which I am not sure we can ever emerge when we will allow a program of mutually exclusive doctrines to share a platform and try to bring hope and comfort to hurting, mourning people. It used to be that tragedy would at least turn our attention to the Lord God Almighty. Now it’s just a means to put on a multi-cultural, multi-religion dog and pony show.

On the off chance anyone affected by the VT shooting, possibly left feeling empty and confused by the conflicting and contradictory messages of a everyone-included religion-fest called a convocation, happens across this page, let me be real with you here. You are suffering at this moment because of something called evil. Evil exists in this world. Each day, every individual makes a series of choices, each of them containing the potential for good or evil. The young man who brought such horror to VT’s campus was apparently consumed by evil.

There is only one Counter to evil. And that is the ultimate Good, Jesus Christ. Only by Jesus Christ’s coming to earth and living a life perfectly pleasing to God (read: without sin), laying down that life, and taking it up again, is there any hope that evil will ever be defeated.

In John Piper’s The Passion of Jesus Christ (now re-titled 50 Reasons Why Jesus Christ Came to Die), Piper expertly explains the necessity and importance of Jesus’ perfectly sinless life:

Chapter 3: Christ Suffered and Died…

To Learn Obedience and Be Perfected

“Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered.”
–Hebrews 5:8

“For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering.”
–Hebrews 2:10

The very book in the Bible that says Christ “learned obedience” through suffering, and that he was “made perfect” through suffering, also says that he was “without sin.” “In every respect [Christ] has been tempted as we are, yet without sin”
(Hebrews 4:15).

This is the consistent teaching of the Bible. Christ was sinless. Although he was the divine Son of God, he was really human, with all our temptations and appetites and physical weaknesses. There was hunger (Matthew 21:18) and anger and grief (Mark 3:5) and pain (Matthew 17:12). But his heart was perfectly in love with God, and he acted consistently with that love: “He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth” (1 Peter 2:22).

Therefore, when the Bible says that Jesus “learned obedience through what he suffered,” it doesn’t mean that he learned to stop disobeying. It means that with each new trial he learned in practice—and in pain—what it means to obey. When it says that he was “made perfect through suffering,” it doesn’t mean that he was gradually getting rid of defects. It means that he was gradually fulfilling the perfect righteousness that he had to have in order to save us.

That’s what he said at his baptism. He didn’t need to be baptized because he was a sinner. Rather, he explained to John the Baptist, “Thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness” (Matthew 3:15).

The point is this: If the Son of God had gone from incarnation to the cross without a life of temptation and pain to test his righteousness and his love, he would not be a suitable Savior for fallen man. His suffering not only absorbed the wrath of God. It also fulfilled his true humanity and made him able to call us brothers and sisters (Hebrews 2:17).

I know you are suffering. I know you are questioning. But God does exist. And he cares about your pain. He felt your pain on the cross. It was for this evil, among a multitude of others, that He died. And He is a just God. He is a punisher of evil. And a Rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

I started out saying that each of us can choose between good and evil everyday. Only Christ’s power in us by the presence of the Holy Spirit can make us new creations, believers who seek to please Him by our actions, thus choosing good.

In our natural state, we are all sinful persons, capable of great evil, though we might not think so when we compare our deeds with this disturbed and evil gunman. But sin, in whatever dosage, is an affront to God’s holiness. It must be put away forever. It can be so done by our banishment to eternal hell. Or it can be accomplished by Christ’s blood atonement on the cross. We all have a choice to make.

In the midst of your pain, sorrow, loss, and questions, look to the true and only Source of goodness, and turn to Him for salvation. It is the only hope you have for peace.