On Monday, I wrote an article about the religious leaders who refused to believe Jesus was the Messiah and how their hard-heartedness resulted in Jesus being crucified. I quoted from Paul who wrote, almost lamentingly, that “if they had known [that Jesus was the Messiah] they wouldn’t have crucified the Lord of Glory” (1 Corinthians 2:8). At the end of the article, I said this…
Paul McCartney showed more of a willingness to believe than the literal priests and rabbis that presided over Israel. Had the Beatles been playing in 33AD, Jesus would not have been unjustly murdered.
…which, snark aside, probably seems like an odd thing to read if you didn’t read the whole article.
Anyway, that remark sparked another point that needs to be addressed, one which I’ve been asked about before. The question is this:
If Jesus’ death was the plan of God and the ultimate instigator of our salvation, then why do we talk about it like it was a bad thing?
It’s a fair question worth considering. I’ve also had the same core idea phrased in a different question:
If Judas’ betrayal is what led to Jesus’ crucifixion, then why is Judas considered a ‘bad guy’?
You can see how someone’s thought process might easily lead them down that path, but both questions can be answered with a simple axiom: Evil that God uses is still evil.
Throughout the Old Testament, God is seen stirring up nations against His people. During the period of the Judges, God frequently caused the Amorites, Philistines, or some other neighboring Kingdom to invade and conquer Israel. When the nation fell into unrepentant idolatry, God sent Assyria into the North to destroy them, and sent Babylon into the South to carry them away into exile. Those were evil Kingdoms and the things they did were certainly evil, too. Nevertheless, God used those evil nations to carry out His will. That does not make God evil, nor does it make those Kingdoms good.
It actually shows the ultimate supremacy of God, in that we—unlike Him—are limited only by our choices: We can choose to do good or to do evil, and that’s it. When we choose good, the Lord blesses us, and when we choose evil, the Lord rebukes (Ezekiel 18:26). It’s very binary in that way. God is not so restricted: God can take the evil that we did—evil for which we are punished—and, if it be His will, convert that evil into something He can use for His ultimate good. We can’t take our evil and make good out of it; we can’t justify our evil in that way. God can, and throughout human history, God has done just that.
The death of Jesus Christ involved the betrayal of the people against an inspired Prophet. It involved a conspiracy of the religious leadership against an innocent Priest. And it involved an unjust murder by the presiding government against a Divine King. There is no good found in the actions of Judas, the Sadducees, the Government of Pilate, or anyone else who had a part to play in putting Jesus on the cross. It was an evil act done by “wicked hands” (Acts 2:23).
The fact that God was able to take so wicked an act, so irredeemable a crime, and use it to purchase man’s righteousness and secure man’s redemption is solely a credit to God Himself. Evil that God uses is still evil, but the good He does with it is amazingly good indeed!
~ Matthew