Have You Ever Wondered ...

... Why the World Is
Sometimes so Awesome,
but Sometimes so Awful?

Indeed, the world as we know and experience it every day is both awesome and awful.

There are quiet summer evenings and clear winter mornings. There are impressive mountains, streams, forests, and deserts. There are beautiful sunsets and sunrises.

But then there are earthquakes, hurricanes, tornados and floods. There is terrorism and violent crime. There is hunger, disease, and poverty. There is drug addiction and alcohol abuse. There is kidnapping, child abuse and the break-up of families.

But why? Why is the world so awesome, but yet so awful?

For every meaningful thing that exists there has to be someone intelligent being who made it. Obviously this is true for the complex things human beings are able to make, like automobiles. How much more true should it be then for such a highly complex system as the universe?

Just as a car doesn’t suddenly assemble itself by a chance combination of parts, so the universe didn’t come into being by chance. And like a car, the universe needs someone to do maintenance – somebody who truly understands how it all fits together. The one best suited for this task is the one who assembled it in the first place.

It is indeed reasonable, then, to assume that there must be someone intelligent to put and keep the world together. This “someone intelligent” who made the world and everything in it we call God. God is the one who made the whole universe and who continues to maintain it so that human beings can live on the earth.

This is what the Bible, the Holy Scriptures, teaches. The Bible teaches that it was “the living God, who made the heaven, the earth, the sea, and all things that are in them” (Acts 14:15). The Bible also teaches that God is the one who miraculously provides for us humans on a daily basis: “He did not leave himself without witness, in that he did good, gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness” (Acts 14:17).

But if a highly intelligent Being, God, made the world, why do all the bad things happen in this world? Is God imperfect? Is the world, as we now know it, the best this God could come up with?

If the only car you had ever seen was a car that had been severely damaged, wouldn’t you then conclude: What poor craftsmanship! It does not work right! It’s useless! Whoever came up with the idea of building this thing called “car” must not have been very smart at all.

So it is also with this world as we know it. It’s been damaged. But that doesn’t mean that it’s always been that way. If you were to find a picture of the damaged car mentioned above when it first rolled out of the factory, wouldn’t you then understand: The way the car is now isn’t the way it always was. It is indeed damaged.

The Bible, again, describes the world in such a way. It describes both how the world was made by God and how the world was when God first made it. At the end of that account we read: “Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good” (Genesis 1:31).

When God made the world, it was very good indeed. But we know that it now is damaged.

The Bible also tells us what caused this damage. God made this world. He takes care of his creation. This world is God’s (Psalm 24:1-2). He wants all his creatures to live only out of his giving. Man first lived in accordance with this will of God. For man was created in the image of God (Genesis 1:26-27).

The “damage” occurred precisely when the first two human beings God created, Adam and Eve, ate what God in his Word had not given them to eat (Genesis 3:1-7). They disobeyed God’s Word. They no longer wanted to live out of God’s giving. They wanted to live out of their own taking. In this they sinned and damaged the world. They were the ones who, so to speak, “damaged the car.”

What kind of damage to the world did Adam and Eve cause? According to the Bible, this damaged first affected themselves: Eve would bear children in pain; Adam would have to labor hard to win bread; their relationship with one another and God was out of order; and they would die (Genesis 3:16-19). They lost God’s image and made themselves over in their own image (Genesis 5:3).

Because of the sin of Adam there is now pain, frustration, sin, and death in this world. It is damaged. And this damage affects us personally.

The Bible summarizes mankind’s sad story in this one sentence: “through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned” (Romans 5:12).

This is why, then, the world is both awesome and awful. There are still those beautiful parts; there is still joy and bliss. But there’s also sin, destruction, despair, and death.

So what is the solution? What can be done?

Through the centuries, many religious people, thinkers, and political leaders have come to realize: This world is out of whack. Something needs to be done about it. Fellow human beings are suffering; they need to be helped, fed, clothed, and healed.

Many indeed are the attempts of human beings to help their fellow human beings with new ideas and good deeds. And while there are certain improvements we enjoy today, we also see the negative impact of many, if not all, of these improvements. There just seems to be no really lasting change for the better. Humanitarian endeavors cannot erase the frustrating and deforming stamp of sin and death that we ourselves have put on the world and our own lives. We cannot restore God’s image to ourselves.

A beautiful flower once crushed cannot be put together anymore. It needs to be made new. And this is something only the One who first made it can do: God himself.

And he not only can do it. He in fact did do it. He has provided new life for a dying world. That new life is the forgiveness of all sins of all people. This forgiveness was won once for all by Jesus of Nazareth, who is the Creator of the world made man. When he had finished living and dying in our place, we all were fully saved.

The Bible puts it this way: “as through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life” (Romans 5:18).

This is the Gospel, the Good News of creation restored in and through Christ Jesus, without our help just like the first creation. Those who trust this Gospel receive what the Gospel gives as a free gift from God: forgiveness, life, and salvation – in a word: the restored image of God. As believers in this Gospel of Christ we are in Christ. We are new creatures in God’s sight. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

As such a new creation, restored in God’s image, we will begin to live again as God’s creatures that at all times gladly rely on God’s free, gracious giving. This enables us to begin to pass on God’s gifts freely to fellow creatures to alleviate their needs as much as possible in a world that remains fallen. Because we live out of God’s inexhaustible giving, we do not have to hoard his good gifts as if we still lived out of those gifts.

When this world has reached the end of its self-life, we will also enter the new heavens and the new earth God promises to create, again without our help. And in that new creation, there will be no more tears and cries, no more sin and failure. Finally, there will be only light, life, and joy. God will be in us, and we will be in him. He will be all in all.

The Bible uses these comforting words: “We, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells” (2 Peter 3:13). And: “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away” (Revelation 21:3-4).

You can learn more about God’s creation and salvation by reading the Bible or the Small Catechism or by visiting Trinity Lutheran Church in Carver, MN, on a Sunday morning. You may also simply get in touch with me at 952 448-7808 or pastor@trinitycarver.org.

Rev. Dr. Holger Sonntag, Pastor