A friend shared this with me today and I can't seem to read this enough, so much comfort in these words.
The cross of Christ is the warrant for confidence in God's promises of ultimate good, despite great heartache. Jesus' agony did not indicate that God failed, or that the faith of the one who died was weak. The suffering caused and inflicted by evil (Psalm 22:16) still was within God's will (Acts 2:23) and served a purpose so loving, so powerful, and so good that our eternity changed as a result. (Isaiah 53:4, 10, Matthew 26:31, Revelation 13:8)
Through Jesus' resurrection, we learn that our God has power over evil, but through the cross he gains power over our hearts. Though the human mind will reach its frayed end trying to reconcile earth's tragedies with God's goodness, the heart remains bound to God, knowing that the provider of the cross can mean no ill. Making much of the blood is neither maudlin nor manipulative; rather, the sacrifice of Christ is the heart's ultimate solace in times of greatest pain.
When we remember the cross, our faith in God's sovereign purposes strengthens and comforts our hearts, though the tragedy comes and human answers fail. No less a faith stalwart than John Stott acknowledges the import: "I could never myself believe in God, if it were not for the cross" Pastors embrace these truths, acknowledging often the mysteries of the sovereignty of God in the face of tragedy, but affirming with greater frequency the necessity of confidence that his eye does not blink and his hand does not fail.
If our God has lost control or never possessed it, then we are at the mercy of the cosmic dice of fate. The Bible tells us a different story, insisting that the Lord rides on the storms to deliver his people from the present evil world and to secure us for the next (Psalm 68:4, 33) We trust him not because we can explain our circumstance, but because our God has revealed his character at the cross. The one who shed his blood for us can be trusted to love us; the One who gave his life for us can be trusted to provide what is best for us; and the One who proposed all this before the foundations of the earth were laid can be trusted to direct our paths to glory.
Sheep trust the shepherd who they have learned is good, and we trust our Good Shepherd because he has laid down his life for us. This helps to learn how to trust the Good Shepherd when the darkness is too great to see our way or discern his.
