The heart is a complicated thing. No, I’m not talking about the physical organ of the body that pumps blood to the different parts of the body (although it is a complicated organ). The heart is just the name we give that non-physical aspect of a person. It is what makes a person who they are. It is the center of their being/existence. Most cultures refer to that as the heart, while others have thought of it as the stomach and the kidney. Nevertheless, it exist as that part of us that makes us, us.

The thing about the heart is that it can never be forced. It is the truest part of a person. Where the mind can lie and deceive itself, the heart wants what it wants. It can not be forced. The great romantics throughout history understood this. They knew that the heart must be “won” or “courted” or “sought after.” It can never be forced.

Faith does not exist in the intellect. I am not saying that faith is not intellectual. I am saying that faith seems to exist in the heart of a person – the truest part of who they are. Intellectually, you can say you believe something; you can even try to trick yourself into believing it, but genuine faith exist at the core of a person – their heart.

Because it exists in the heart, it can not be forced. Just some thoughts.

I always have to remind myself that my faith is not one in an isolated bubble without any influence from anyone else. I always have to remind myself that I am standing on the shoulders of the giants of the faith who have gone before me. There have been great men and women of God who have gone before me and who have wrestled and experienced deeper things of God. Larry Powers, my church history professor during my undergrad, used to say that church history is simply getting to know your family. I took heart to those words.

Unfortunately, as I interact with other followers of Christ, there seems to be a resistance towards these great men and women of God. The common sentiment is, “We follow Jesus not men!” They wrongly see the study of other great men and women of God as worship of men but that’s hardly the case. They will admit that they do read and follow the works of more of the modern pop-Christian authors/speakers/pastors. I don’t see how that’s different? How can a person quote Rick Warren and at the same time despise the works of Augustine?

Are we so advanced and so sophisticated as a society that these great men and women of God have nothing to say about our situation today? This is a very immature perspective to take. It’s like a high school student who refuses to listen to words of wisdom from their grandparents simply because they are old. I am deeply sadden by the blind arrogance that has gripped many evangelicals.

Our faith is part of a larger story. In the timeline of history, we are just part of what God has been doing and will do on this earth through men and women. It is so important that we heed the words of those who have gone before us. Not as worship but as advice and as wisdom from God.

Introduction

In part 1 of “Developing a Theology of Art” I introduced the historical-redemptive paradigm in which the four major meta-narratives of the Biblical story becomes the basis of art. I stated that all art (Christian or not) some how connect back (unintentionally or intentionally) to one of the meta-themes of the Biblical story (Creation, Fall, Redemption, and Restoration). I admit that in developing this theology, I am coming from previous worldview and theological commitments and that many will disagree with my thoughts. However, the goal in developing this theology of Art is to give language to artists (specifically Christian artists) who sense that their art is transcendent in nature but have no idea why. As well, it is also to give a paradigm to Christian artists realize that they don’t have to slap a “Jesus” label on their work in order for it to have Kingdom value. Their work, in it of itself, does have Kingdom value because it communicates the great meta-themes of God’s story.

In Part 1 my focus was on the artwork. In part 2 I want to focus in on the Christian artist. It is one thing to give artist and critics of art theological paradigm/language in evaluating, considering, and interpreting art and it’s another thing to help Christian artist understand their role in this world. In part 1 the goal was to give a language for art and in part 2 I want to address the role of a Christian artist in the world.

Theology of People

What is the role of a Christian artist? How does being an artist contribute to the realities of the Kingdom? Is the job of a Christian artist to simply created power point backgrounds, bulletin covers, and things to make the church more “seeker” friendly/trendy? What about their work that has nothing to do with the church; does that have any Kingdom value? What is the role of a Christian artist?

In understanding the role of a Christian artist we must understand the role of a Christian in general. More specifically, we must understand a theology of people. Why did God create humanity? Many churches do not have a clear theology of people. To them, the role of people on this Earth is to get more people to join them. This sort of becomes a giant pyramid scheme. Was God’s intention of creating man to simply have many “witness” to fellow man?

From the Genesis account see that man was to serve as regents on this Earth. Humanity was to have dominion over creation. The idea of dominion does not necessarily mean to exploit and use creation, but it carries the idea of ruling and tending. It is the idea of a king bringing order and care for his kingdom. Man was originally created to rule and care for creation with God.

But this narrative all changed with the fall of humanity and the introduction of sin into the world. Man lost his place as a regent and became slaves to sin. Colossians 1:13 points to the reality that humanity was no longer ruling but under the rule of the dominion of darkness. The role/identity of humanity was lost.

The only way humanity could come back to its original intention was through the process of redemption. This is exactly what happens on the cross. At the cross not only was man debt to God paid for but also through Christ’s resurrection humanity is adopted and restored to it’s role. As Christ rules, we are to rule with him (Eph. 1:20-22, 2:6). To a certain extent, we share in Christ’s role on this earth. This leads us to three specific roles of Christ on this earth that redeemed humanity is to share with Him.

This leads us first to the idea of the priesthood of all believers. In other words, every Christian shares in the priestly role of Christ. This is not a select few ordained clergy. In Christ, we are a royal priesthood. Generally, the role of a priest is a mediatorial role. Their work was to build bridges, bring understanding, bring meaning, evoke faith in others, bless, and bring grace. As Christ played a mediatorial role between God and man, redeem humanity share in that same role through worship, intercession, and service to others.

The second role is the idea of the prophet-hood of all believers. Christians share in the prophetic ministry of Jesus. The prophet Joel prophesied that there will come a day when the Spirit will be pour out on all people and they will prophesy. In the book of Acts, Peter confirms the fulfillment of this prophecy. Redeemed humanity is to prophesy. Every believer knows God through the Spirit and have access and understanding to His Word. Redeemed humanity stands as a prophetic voice in the world. As Christ was the voice of God to the world, redeemed humanity share in that voice to world. E.H. Oliver says this concerning the prophetic function of the church:

“The church does this by acting as conscience to society, by educating and inspiring, by pioneering new ministries, by studying to prevent rather than to cure, by transforming the helped into the helpers.”

The church (redeemed humanity) shares in being a voice to the things that God cares about on this world. Their mere presence and activity in the world is prophetic in a sense.

The third role is the role of a kingship of all believers. 1 Peter 2:9 calls believers, “A royal priesthood.” Yes redeemed humanity is a community of priests, but more specifically a “royal” priesthood. In Ephesians 2, redeemed humanity is seated with Christ. The idea is of being seated carries the idea of ruling. As co-rulers with Christ, redeemed humanities roles is to bring the Kingdom (the rule and reign of God) on Earth. The church is NOT the fullness of the Kingdom of God. Rather, the Kingdom of God is His rule and reign on earth. By bringing justice to this world, believers are living out and bringing the realities of the Kingdom. By bringing goodness and creativity to the world, believers are living out the realities of the Kingdom. This is only a part of what it means to rule with Christ.

The Artist as a Prophet, Priest, and King

If it is true that all redeemed humanity share in the Christ’s role as a prophet, priest, and king on this earth, the same ought to apply to the artist. More than just creating works of art and slapping a Jesus label on it, the role of a Christian artist is one of a prophet, priest and king.

As a priest, the artist’s role is that of a mediator. A priest builds bridges, brings understanding, brings blessings, and brings grace. As a Christian artist creates in their discipline, by bringing joy, encouragement, understanding, to this world they are fulfilling the role of a priest. When their work evokes faith and even deeper questions that could only be answered by God, they are fulfilling their role as a priest. As I’m writing this, I am thinking about my sister-in-laws sister. She’s an animator. No she does not work on Veggie Tales or any Christian cartoon show (that I’m aware of). But by simply creating animations that are entertaining and bring joy, that is doing good in this world that it does not deserve, ultimately bringing the grace of God to this world.

As a prophet, the artist’s role is that of being God’s voice on the Earth. This is a call of excellence in their work as well as a call to be the voice of God on Earth, communicating what God cares about. Their work is essential in being a prophetic voice to the world about who God is, what He cares about, and what His truth is all about. Works that expose the ugliness of systemic oppression, or the realities of the fall, or the grace found in ruins, are all prophetic voices. In part 1 of this topic, I mention that many artists create with a wayward voice. The redeemed artist creates with a prophetic voice. Not a voice about being lost but a voice about coming home. These are all prophetic acts of an artist.

As a king, the artist’s role is that of organizing and bringing order from disorder. The idea of order from disorder is meant to be in the most general sense. For an artist, technical excellence in their craft is a manifestation of this kingly role. The ability to raw materials that are not organized and to organize them with excellence into something with meaning is direct reflection of the King. An interior designer is a great example of a kingly role of an artist.

Conclusion

The prophet, priest, and king paradigm does not only apply to the artist but apply to all believers. It is from this paradigm that a person can begin to see how serving God does not always have to be ministry related. In fact, the priesthood/prophethood/kinghood of all believers ought to lead them to think about their specific vocation and how it is important to the Kingdom.

I’ve been thinking a lot about L.A. a lot recently. Better yet I find a lot of my prayers and hearts call is turning towards the city of L.A. This all started from having a conversation with Dan. We talked about the possibility of planting a church out in LA in the future. Both of us recognize that there seems to be a major demographic shift that is taking place in the city. More and more young working professionals are moving back into the city and no longer settling for the suburbs. They are moving back into the city that is full of ethnic-centered churches. These working professionals are a part of a global reality and so joining an ethnic centered church carries very little appeal to them nor are those churches equipped to communicate/relate to this new global paradigm.

We both see the need and I believe that our hearts call is for the city but there is huge question that we are both currently wrestling with – Is this just young ambition or is this really a God thing? Dan and I have committed to spend the next month in prayer and seeking the heart and will of the Lord before we even making an major commitments/decisions.

We both gathered on Thursday to spend some time praying for the city and our friends in the city. As we were praying two impressions really weighed heavily on my heart. I don’t know how to really explain the first impression other than to say, “This is real.” This is no longer a game but if this were to happen it would be real. Talent, giftedness, abilities, and skills would not cut it. If this is a God thing, it’s real and the only way it’s going to happen is through Him. No amount of planning, talent building, skill refining, and ability growing will ever bring this to reality. Honestly, the thought of not having those things to rely scares me. I never thought it would, but as we were praying I was afraid.

This led to the next impression which was very personal in terms of my own prayer/spiritual life. Lets face it, my prayer/spiritual life is no where it needs to be in order to establish a Kingdom Community within the heart of LA.  Somewhere along the lines I took on the habit of “just getting by” in life and in ministry. I really felt like God was calling to task my prayer life.

I’m not sure where this leading nor if this church plant will ever take place, but I’m also seeing God use this time to put me into check and to put my prayer/spiritual life on “blast.” If anything, maybe this is a season to for me to go deeper.

This is my interactions with Francis Schaeffer’s Art in the Bible.

As evangelical Christians, we have tended to relegate art to the very fringe of life. The rest of human life is more important. Despite our constant talk about the Lordship of Christ, we have narrowed its scope to a very small area of reality. We have misunderstood the concept of the Lordship of Christ over the whole of man and the whole of the universe and have not taken to us the riches that the Bible gives us for ourselves, for our lives, and for our culture. (p. 375)

Not only have we relegated art to the fringe of life, we’ve relegated artists to the fringe of church life. Most evangelical have no idea what do with artists. They see ones Spiritual life and art-life as unrelated or as totally separate things. I suspect that if you ask an artist if their art has a spiritual element, most of them would agree.

Schaeffer identifies the problem as a narrowing of the scope of the Lordship of Christ. This narrowing has been to exclusion of anything outside of formal “religious” practice.

The Lordship of Christ over the whole of life means that there are no Platonic areas in Christianity, no dichotomy or hierarchy between the body and soul. God made the body as well as the soul, and redemption is for the whole man. Evangelicals have been legitimately criticized for often being so tremendously interested in seeing souls get saved and go to Heaven that they have not cared much about the whole man.

The Bible, however, makes four things very clear: (1) God made the whole man; (2) in Christ the whole man is redeemed; (3) Christ the Lord of the whole man now and the Lord of the whole Christian life; and (4) in the future as Christ comes back, the body will be raised from the dead and the whole man will have a whole redemption. Therefore, let us consider more fully what it means now to be a whole man whose life is under the Lordship of Christ. It is within this framework that we are to understand the place of art in the Christian life. (p.375-376).

This conversation doesn’t only apply to art but all areas of life. The Lordship of Jesus is over the whole of the person and the whole of the persons life. Art, social activism, and vocational calling has generally been labeled as “liberal” endeavors. This label has wrongly been applied because these things are not directly related to “evangelism” or “church life/activity.” However, Schaeffer says that these areas of life, under the Lordship of Christ, is in fact at the core of what true “conservative”/”orthodox” evangelical ought to be about.

But there is another side to the Lordship of Christ, and this involves the total culture – including the area of creativity. Again evangelicals or biblical Christianity has been weak at this point. About all that we have produced is a very romantic Sunday School art. We do not seem to understand that art too are supposed to be under the Lordship of Christ… The arts and science do have a place in the Christian life – they are not peripheral. For a Christian, redeemed by the work of Christ and living within the norms of Scripture and under the leadership of the Holy Spirit, the Lordship of Christ should include an interest in art. A Christian should use these arts to the glory of God – not just as tracts, but as things of beauty to the praise of God. An art work can be doxology in itself. (p. 377)

The thought that everything a Christian does ought to be connect with evangelism stem from the 2nd Great Awakening. During this time in history, leader like Charles Finney, emphasized evangelism. Although evangelism was important, it was eventually elevated to the MAIN thing of the Christian life. Instead of being holistic, Christianity began to separate secular and sacred. It began seeing certain activities, especially those that relate to evangelism, as sacred and other activities as “normal” or secular activities.

Today many evangelicals have difficulty shifting the paradigm away from the church being about evangelism to being about the total Lordship of Christ. Yes, under His Lordship we preach the Gospel. But this is not the only thing nor is it the main thing that Christians are about. It is a PART of the Christian life, just as art, work, studying is. EVERYTHING under the Lordship of Christ and to the Glory of God.

*Schaeffer, Francis “The Complete Works of Francis Schaeffer: A Christian Worldview. Volume 2″ Westchester, Ill: Crossway Books, 1982.

After my last blog about developing a theology of art, I received a response by my good friend Steven. I really appreciate his comments and his push back because they challenged me to think deeper about the Christianity and culture. It’s been almost a week since I last updated this blog, but it’s because I spent a lot of time thinking and reading about culture and Christianity. Here are my thoughts:

The discussion about “calling” or “vocation” is usually divided into two mandates. The first is the cultural mandate from Genesis 1, where God called man to have dominion over the earth. This is practically lived out through civic responsibilities like our jobs or our practice within society. An example of the cultural mandate is a person who is a doctor. By being a doctor he is fulfilling the cultural mandate by providing care for the sick, so that they (as a society) can continue to flourish and have “dominion” over creation.

The second mandate is the “Great Commission” that is found in Matthew 28. Some refer to this mandate as the New Creation Mandate. This mandate is centered around the idea of “going into all the nations and making disciples.” Essentially, this is a call to evangelize or preach the Gospel to the world.

Different churches tend to emphasize one mandate over the other. For example, more of the mainline denominations tend to focus on the creation mandate. They focus on social issues like caring for the poor and social equality. While many of the evangelical churches focus on the Great Commission. They focus on the missions and “spreading the Gospel.” The separation of these two mandates has caused many to pin compassion ministry against evangelism. The mainline denominations will see evangelism as a way to support their social cause, while evangelicals will see compassion ministry as a means of evangelizing. Neither options seem genuine. Both options cheapen the intrinsic value of evangelism and social involvement.

But why are these two mandates separated? Why is it “one or the other” and not “both and”? We must see Salvation as both a rescue mission (God saving the lost) and completion mission (God completing his intended work in this world through man). In the Old Testament, when Salvation was mentioned it usually referred to this idea of the Day of the Lord, where he sets everything right. In the New Testament, when Salvation is mentioned is refers to the rescue of sinners. Salvation is both/and. It is both a rescue mission and a completion projection.

To understand this we must understand it within the historical redemptive paradigm or the four major themes of Scriptures (Creation, Fall, Redemption, and Restoration).

In the Garden (Creation)

• God called man to be in communion with Himself
• God called man to be in relationship with each other
• God called man to steward and co-create in the world

The Fall

• Man is alienated and cut off from God
• Jealousy leads to murder and man begins to take advantage of others
• Instead of stewarding and co-creating man begins to use and abuse creation (Tower of Babel).

The Redemption

• Man now has access to God through Christ Jesus
• Dividing social, racial, ethnic, economical wall are torn down through the cross (neither Jew nor Gentile).
• Man’s work is redeemed and now done to the glory of God

The Restoration (2nd Coming of Christ)

• Man will be in full communion with God
• Nations will come together under the Prince of Peace
• Beauty, creativity, and work will be fulfilled in the City.

When Jesus calls us to make disciples of the nations, He is call us to not only preach the Gospel to them but to teach them how to participate in this completion project. Their vocation is significant. It is wrong to think that there is a higher calling or different calling than “regular vocation.” All of person’s life is ministry unto God. Some are simply called to vocational ministry. This does not make their calling greater.

Going back to my previous post, this means that an artists work is very important in fulfilling this idea of “Salvation.” It is just as important as the evangelists work of preaching the Gospel. Their work brings beauty, to the world and gives a redemptive language/call to those who see it. This can apply to any other vocation. A stay at home mom’s work is just as important as a pastor who preaches each week. Both are essential to this holistic idea of “salvation.”

I’m currently working on a potential project for this fall that involves putting together an art exhibit. My mind works in mysterious ways. Where some people think about the practicality, and purpose of this project, my mind instantly shoots towards the theology of it. More specifically, a theology of art.

In order to develop a theology of art, the overarching Biblical narrative must be considered. It is not enough to find isolated Biblical texts that take about art and about how believers used art. A theology of art has to consider how art fits into the great narrative of God’s story. Does it fit? What place does art have in the Kingdom of God? The Gospel is a gospel of proclamation and not painting, so how does art fit into it?

There are four overarching themes within the Biblical narrative – creation, fall, redemption, and restoration. Everything in Bible follows one or more of these themes and to a certain extent, everything in this world follows these four meta-themes. Art is not excluded from these four themes.

A lot of art has been defined as self-expression, which it is to certain extent, but that self-expression fall into a greater narrative. For example, there was a performing art piece that made its way on Youtube of a girl opening a can of spaghettios, cutting a hole in the crotch of her pants and stuff the spaghettios into that hole.. The rest of the performance was a little to graphic to describe. Is that art? Of course it is. But what kind of art? What is it ultimately expressing? Like much of the art that is created today, the meta-theme behind the works is the waywardness of man, or the fall.

Most of the contemporary art world has given expression and language to the waywardness of man. A lot of contemporary art is guided by the principle of self-expression but “self” is fallen, lost, on a journey, wandering, etc. This kind of art gives language to the “Fallen” theme. However, there are pieces of art that are beautiful, that do inspire, and that gives language to a theme other than fallenness. I am not talking about art that slaps a Jesus label on it or art that is a picture of the cross (although that can be beautiful). I’m not even taking about art that is done by Christians. I’m talking about works of art, done through common grace to reflect something about one of the other three meta-themes.

One of my favorite artists right now is BANKSY. As far as I’m aware of, he’s not a follower of Christ. But some of his work is amazingly brilliant. Although most of his work is consider illegal, the work itself reflects something about beauty. For example:

He took what appears to be an airconditioning unit and created a work of art. Normally this airconditioning unit would just sit outside. Now, there is some different, beautiful about it. This piece follows the theme of redemption. BANKSY incorporated a random airconditioning unit that most people would not even notice, and he created a work of an art.

It is easy in a fallen world for artists to give language/expression to the waywardness of man. But it is essential for artists to give language to the return of man. A theology of art, is looking at art from through the lens of these four Biblical meta-narratives.

Art that follows or gives expression to the Creation theme, is art that gives language to that inner longing for the way things once were and ought to be. It is art that points home or to a paradise that has been lost. It follows a utopian theme of the garden. In some ways, art that expresses the idea of original beauty follows this Creation theme.

Art that follows or gives expression to the Fallen theme, is art that exposes, expresses, gives language to the waywardness of humanity. It exposes the depravity of humanity as it attempt to hide itself under the theme of creation. It can be shocking, but it can also be subtly destructive. It is a wandering away from the Creation theme.

Art that follows or gives expression to the Redemption theme, is art that see the fallenness and depravity that exists but creates beauty from it. It is the language of the underdog. Art that follows this theme is art that takes the common and makes it beautiful. It takes the fallen theme in its uglies form and creates beauty from ashes.

Finally, art that expresses this Restoration theme, is art that points forward and gives hope. Within the Biblical narrative, although humanity looks back to the garden for the ideal, it ultimately is promised a new city to look forward to. The Biblical narrative is not a return to the garden, but a looking forward to some even greater. Art that follows this theme expresses the hope of what can be. It points to the glory to come. It gives language to something that transcends the past and present.

Artist tend to sit on the fringe. Within the church they seem to never really find a place. When churches find artists they tend to use artists. It is important for the church to understand that artists do not exist for the church, but that the church exists for the artist. What I mean by that is that the church exists to give language (the four meta-themes) to artist. Ultimately, it is the artists who develop and change culture. When an artist can see how their gifts and talents fit in the greater Meta-narrative and not just in the churches story, their work will impact that Kingdom. The church desperately needs to develop a theology of art inorder to give language to art world.

I’ve been thinking about art recently. More specifically, I’ve been thinking about why art is not part of the conversation within the church. I recently started following the works of Makoto Fujimura, an artist in NYC. He is a devout Christians but his works are not what you would expect from a Christian artist. He is a contemporary artist who is highly respect in the New York art scene. He talkes a lot about how art ought to bring us back. Most art gives language to wandering or journeying but rarely does art give us the language of home. From what I understand, he views art and beauty as bringing us back to the garden or pushing us forward to the New Heavens and New Earth.

At any rate, I’m wondering why art is not a major part of the conversation within the church. Art has been hijacked by postmodern values. It calls beautiful what is not beautiful. Could it be possible to see a revival of art in the church? Is it possible to see people think deeply about beauty?

I’ve been reading through Redeemers Church Planters Manual recently. It is a personal dream of mine to plant of church in an urban setting with the intention of cultural transformation through a Gospel centric ministry. Instead of simply dreaming and waiting for it to fall in my lap, I’ve decided to be more intentional about making this dream a reality. Part of that is to start learning on what it means to be a church planter and HOW to be a church planter.

In the Church Planting Manual, Keller writes about profiling people by looking into four areas of their lives.

• Interior life -This looks a person’s hopes, fears, aspirations, and problems
• World-view -What aspects of Biblical truth does this person grasp (justice, love, compassion, fairness, sacrifice, etc)? Which aspects of Biblical truth do they reject? What is their alternative? What symbols and myths function in their lives?
• Social Context – What is their education level? Economic level? Ethnic background/context? Demographics.
• Religion – Religious exposure? How is their religion structure or organized (belief system)? How does the person view their religion?

Essentially, these four areas will tell you a lot about a person. This will give you an idea of how to minister and meet their needs (felt and unfelt). Most importantly, it will help you contextualize the message missionally.

Here are some good questions to ask:

1. What brought you to the city and how do you like living here?
2. What are your dreams for your family?
(interior life)

3. What kind of church would this city need?
4. What would it look like?
(religious life)

By Wednesday their mind was made up –  this Jesus must die! In the past, they were not able to execute justice on Jesus because he had the favor of the people. But after riding into the city as if He was the promised Messiah, after destroying part of the Temple worship, after questioning the authority of their (religious leaders) authority, and after claiming his authority came from God, it was a perfect time to execute a plot to silence this man.

The goal of these religious leaders was to pain Jesus as a criminal. One who blaspheme the God of Israel, the Temple, and the Laws of Moses. As well, they wanted to make sure they painted him as a social rebel who has come against the Roman government. They knew that popular opinion about Jesus at this time was still on the fence, so their plot must be executed in secrecy. They planned an illegal arrest at the dead of night. Even though it was illegal to put a man on trial at night, away from the public eye, they still planned to put this Jesus on trial at night. They did not want to give Jesus a chance to talk his way out of this as he had done time and time again.

They plotted and schemed throughout Wednesday, fueled by their disdain for Jesus. Their we’re going to kill Jesus.

So who killed Jesus?

The Jewish leadership planned and plotted to kill Jesus. Their motives were evil and they freely set their heart see this man silenced.

But who really killed Jesus? From this account it seems clear that it was the Jewish leadership. But was it? I only ask this question because of the testimony of the Old Testament seem to point to the reality that Jesus’ death was planned from the very beginning.

Isaiah 53:10

Yet it was the LORD’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer,
and though the LORD makes his life an offering for sin,

So whose plan was it to kill Jesus?

When we talked about God’s sovereignty we talked about how God can plan and work through the sinful actions of man. This is very reminiscent of the story of Joseph (Genesis 37 – to the end of the Book). Joseph’s brothers plotted to kill Joseph but eventually sold him into slavery. Through a series of events and through the sovereign hand of God, Joseph rose to become the most powerful man in Egypt next to Pharaoh. In his place of power Joseph was able to save Israel from a severe famine. At the end of the story Joseph replies, “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good.” Joseph does not deny that the intention of his brothers was evil, but God’s intention for allowing it was good.

Did the Jewish leaders plot to kill Jesus? Yes! Were their intentions evil? Yes! Will they be held accountable for it? Yes! But was it God’s plan to kill Jesus? ABSOLUTELY!

When evil happens, it’s easy to divorce God from the evil. After all, God is good. But time and time again, the Bible shows that when evil happens, God has a greater good behind it. The choices of evil and the responsibility of evil still falls on those who do the evil, yet God also is behind it. The human agent might be evil, but the divine agent is always good.

If all we see is the evil that was plotted in the conspiracy against Jesus, we will have a weak God, unable to save. The religious leaders meant it for evil, but God meant it for the greatest good. For the Christian this is an important understanding to have. Yes, evil does happen, but instead of being a victim, Christians can trust in the sovereignty of God. When evil happens, we believe that that although the intentions of the perpetrators are evil, God’s intentions are always good. We might not see it or understand it in this life, but there will come a day when we will. This is our hope. The only option that is left is to see a world where evil doers have full reign and our God is powerless against senseless evils. This leaves us in a place of despair.

Only in the cross of Christ and the total miscarriage of justice that he face will we see the goodness of God in the midst of evil of man. The cross shows us that from the human perspective there is nothing but evil intention, but from the divine perspective there is nothing but good intention. We always be victims to the pain, suffering, and injustice of this world until we learn to see and trust the sovereignty of God. Our lives will be full of despair and hopelessness, so long as we fail to see and trust that God’s intentions behind evil is always good.

To the extent that you see the cross as the ultimate evil in the world and at the same time the ultimate goodness of God is to the extent that you will trust in the sovereignty of God in places of suffering and injustice. When we fall into despair and hopelessness, we are disbelieving and not trusting in the sovereignty of God.