Whenever there is a dreadful, large-scale event, e.g., a terrorist attack or the outbreak of disease, someone is sure to announce that this is God’s judgment on the world for our sins. Without a doubt, by nature, after the fall, we all deserve nothing less than eternal condemnation for our sins both original and actual.
Corporate Guilt And Corporate Gospel
According to God’s Word, all human beings were represented by the first man, Adam. We were in him both genetically and legally. He stood in our place. We were there. We were created in righteousness and true holiness (Heidelberg Catechism 6). Scripture says, “And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day” (Gen 1:31; ESV). Adam was created with the ability to obey. He was not created fallen. He was not created with concupiscence, i.e., a corrupt desire.
It is implicit in Genesis chapters 2 and 3 that Adam represented all of humanity, since the judgment pronounced in 3:14–15 is corporate:
Yahweh Elohim said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall strike your head, and you shall strike his heel.”
It was not only Eve and serpent who were cursed: “between your offspring and her offspring” makes Adam a public, i.e., representative person. We are as related to Adam as we are to our great grandparents. What Adam did affects us all. The judgment that he incurred, we incurred.
Scripture is clear that the wages of sin is death (Rom 6:23). God had covenanted with Adam to reward his obedience with eternal life and to curse his disobedience with death: “the day you eat thereof you shall surely die.” That is why there were two trees in garden, a tree of life and the tree of death. Mysteriously, tragically, Adam chose death and we see and feel the consequences all round. In Deuteronomy 27:26 God repeated the demand for perfect obedience after the fall and he repeated the curse too:
‘Cursed be anyone who does not confirm the words of this law by doing them.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen’ (Deut 27:26; ESV)
In Galatians 3:10 the Apostle Paul quoted this very verse in explaining the consequences of sin and the continuing demands of the law even after the fall. The law is holy, just, and good. It demands what it demands because God is what he is.
Scripture is equally clear, however, that the “gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom 6:23). The good news is that the gospel was also promised to more than to Adam and Eve individually: “ he shall strike your head, and you shall strike his heel.” The covenant-making and covenant-keeping God, Yahweh Elohim, made a promise to the the Evil One. He would be finally judged and in that judgment, he would be allowed to strike the heel of his conqueror but the conqueror would strike or crush his head. Again, this work was not for one but for all those for whom the conqueror would come, whom the Father gave him, for whom he died. He would save them all in that one act of obedience (Rom 5:19). He acted on behalf of all his people. In Heidelberg Catechism 60 the Reformed Churches confess that, for those who believe in Christ, it is as if “as if I had never sinned nor been a sinner, and as if I had been as perfectly obedient as Christ was obedient for me.”
For those who are in Christ, by grace alone (sola gratia), through faith alone (sola fide), there is now, therefore no condemnation (Rom 8:1). Jesus himself said that, in his cross, the judgment against the Evil One was executed: “Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out” (John 12:31; ESV). Believers are not under judgment. Jesus said: “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life” (John 5:24; ESV).
There remains yet a final judgment, a condemnation for those who are outside of Christ. Our Lord said, “Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment” (John 5:28-29; ESV). Those who are in Christ have “done good.” He is our good. Those who are outside of Christ face eternal condemnation. If you are reading this and you have not acknowledged your sin and misery under the law of God and turned to Christ, do it now!
Of Towers And Blindness
So, there is no question of our sinfulness. There is no question of the way of salvation. Further, there is no question that the effects and affects of sin still plague the world. As I write cities in the USA are being shut down, businesses closed, and worship services postponed because of the virus that spread, apparently, from a “wet market” in Wuhan, China to the rest of the world. This virus is particularly deadly for those who have an underlying illness (e.g., a respiratory ailment) and seniors.
In response, some have predictably announced that this is a divine judgment. To be sure, there have been divine judgments in the world. The Lord flooded the earth (Genesis chapters 6–9) and he plagued Egypt until Pharaoh released the (temporarily) national people of God (Exodus chapters 6–14). There were episodes when the Lord afflicted the Canaanites, who surrounded the Old Testament national people of God. There are a couple of episodes where the Lord struck down individuals, e.g., Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5) and Herod (Acts 12:23).
Nevertheless, our Lord Jesus himself cautioned us about inferring from calamities a direct causal link or even a correlation between a calamity and the sins of a group:
There were some present at that very time who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And he answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish (Luke 13:1-3; ESV).
This is a fallen world. Thorns, thistle, pollen, and viruses are all around us. Just as there is common grace, whereby God restrains the evil consequences of the fall, so too there is common suffering. Faithful, godly believers get cancer. There are thoroughly rotten people who seem to get through this life without a scratch (Jer 12:1). Their day of accounting is postponed.
Our Lord Jesus here warns us against drawing a correlation or a causal link between the sins of a people and their afflictions. The Galileans were not worse sinners than anyone else. So it was with the man born blind in John 9:
As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him” (John 9:1-3; ESV).
The disciples made the same error. They thought they too could interpret providence, that they could draw a correlation and a causal link between particular sins and particular judgments.
Here is a tip: God’s ways are not our ways. His thoughts are not our thoughts. Qoheleth, the convener of the covenant assembly, explained:
There is a vanity that takes place on earth, that there are righteous people to whom it happens according to the deeds of the wicked, and there are wicked people to whom it happens according to the deeds of the righteous. I said that this also is vanity (Ecclesiastes 8:14; ESV).
The Lord himself had warned us against the folly of trying to outguess him:
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares Yahweh. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts (Isaiah 55:8-9.
The Lord knows the end from the beginning. We do not.
Interpreting Providence
Interpreting providence is a great but hazardous temptation. When an earthquake disrupted the trial of John Wycliffe in London, his enemies interpreted it as a judgment against him and he interpreted it as a judgment against his accusers. So it is when we try to draw specific messages from general revelation.
Jesus did teach us how to interpret providence. The key term here is general. In both cases our Lord Jesus did tell us what sorts of inferences we should draw when we see affliction. In the case of the man born blind, the Lord said that he was blind so that the he, Jesus, could heal him and demonstrate God’s power. This interpretation is special, not general since our Lord Jesus is not with us bodily healing and raising (and we may fairly doubt those who claim the power to do the same). In Luke 13, however, he did give a general application of the specific episode: “ No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” This is a general application that applies to all of us everywhere.
What does Covid-19 tell us? It tells us that as often as we think that we have everything under control, we do not. It tells us that God is not absent from us. It reminds us of his power to disrupt the ordinary course of things with, as it were, the flick of a finger. It is not that God was absent and then intervened (occasionalism) but that God is always working in and through all things that occur. This is the Christian doctrine of concursus.
This episode, like many others we can all recite, remind us that this is a fallen world. That we are frail. Look at the hordes emptying the shelves in panic. Look how quickly late modern life can be reduced to basics, food, shelter, and washing one’s hands. We delude ourselves with the dream that we are mighty and powerful when in fact we may be felled by a tiny little virus. You might be a vector (a carrier) right now and not even know it. Thousands have already died across the globe despite national health care (or because of it) and high-tech late, modern medicine. We mock the medieval world for being backward and plague-ridden until we discover that every touch screen in McDonalds is covered in filth. This is the illusion of Enlightenment. We mock the medievals for witch trials but just let someone raise a question about the causal link between human activity and “Climate Change” and witch trials look positively rational by comparison.
There is a judgment coming but this is not it. This is only a mild warning of what is to come. God the Son became incarnate to save sinners. Remarkably, we crucified him for telling the truth but he did not remain in the grave. He was raised. He still speaks to us in his Word. He is still warning us to repent and inviting all who will to come. As he said through his prophet Ezekiel,
“And you, son of man, say to the house of Israel, Thus have you said: ‘Surely our transgressions and our sins are upon us, and we rot away because of them. How then can we live?’ Say to them, As I live, declares the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel? (Ezekiel 33:10-11; ESV)
The Lord spoke those words to his Old Testament national people but they apply today. The Apostle Peter wrote, “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance” (2 Peter 3:9; ESV).
These words were written in regard to all. We are in the same condition as Noah and “the world that then was.” The coming judgment is being announced and some are listening and some are not. Those who listen will climb aboard the ark and Christ is the ark of salvation. Come to him now before it is too late.
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i found this helpful
https://www.logcollegepress.com/blog/2020/3/13/reflections-by-francis-j-grimk-on-the-1918-spanish-flu?rq=grimke
Amen!
The Book of Common Prayer:
“In the time of any common plague or sickness.
O ALMIGHTY God, who in thy wrath did send a plague upon thine own people in the wilderness, for their obstinate rebellion against Moses and Aaron; and also, in the time of king David, didst slay with the plague of Pestilence threescore and ten thousand, and yet remembering thy mercy didst save the rest; Have pity upon us miserable sinners, who now are visited with great sickness and mortality; that like as thou didst then accept of an atonement, and didst command the destroying Angel to cease from punishing, so it may now please thee to withdraw from us this plague and grievous sickness; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.”
It was put to me today that though Dr Clarks thesis that specific acts can’t be said to be judgements from God against specific sin (or sins) by specific people, in general, we can say that calamities are a judgment of God against the sins of the world. God revealing his wrath everyday and so forth.
What is the mind of this comment section on this idea?
that though Dr Clark’s thesis ….*is right* , in general…
Richie,
I agree with this.
Romans 5: 3-4 Trials and difficulty are also used by God to build character. Not every hardship is a punishment for sin. Our faith is tested and strengthened by adversity. When we persevere through the trial by the grace of God, we see how God preserves us and makes good the promises that nothing can separate us from the love of God. Rom. 8:38 So all things, even the worst of them, work for the good of God’s people.
Thanks Dr Clark for sticking with me.
Ive asked enough so if anyone else would like to answer this but what do ye think think the purpose of the parable of the fig tree means straight after this teaching in Lk 13 refers too?
Could it be that the fig tree represents the Jews, for whom to sit under their own fig tree was a type of blessing from God, who rejected Christ? So the withering of the fig tree was a type of their coming judgment because they rejected their promised Messiah. So every crisis is a pointer to the ultimate judgment when Christ returns. In all things God is in control. Jesus speaks and the fig tree withers, demonstrating his deity, that he is the God/man that would fulfill the covenant promises to Adam, Abraham and David. He is in control.
God works in all things for the good of His elect, who look for another country, who are just passing through this town on their way to the celestial city. All things work together for their good. Rom. 8:28, Hebrews 2:10 God made the Captain of our salvation perfect through suffering. Trial and suffering are the way to glory for God’s people, so we should look to it as a blessing, as the way God makes us to conform to the image of Christ. Rom. 8:29 God’s greatest saints are those who suffer the most.
Richie,
Chris Gordon does a nice job with the parable of the fig tree:
https://agradio.org/resource/the-fig-tree-mark-11-part-1
https://agradio.org/resource/the-barren-fig-tree-part-2-4
Hello Scott,
This was a good one. You could do an entire followup post on the severe sufferings of God’s saints throughout history (and down to today) who have either suffered terribly as the result of personal sickness or tragedy (e.g., Charles Spurgeon and Horatio Spafford), or those who suffer right alongside the “unrighteous” during widespread sickness, famines or natural disasters.
When I read your post it put me in mind of what Michael Horton wrote nearly 30 years ago in ‘Beyond Culture Wars’, that “I have always wondered why any homosexual would listen to us the way we talk about AIDS as the judgement of God. I have often reflected that it is a good thing that God does not hand out judgements for gossip and slander and greed and self-centeredness and self-righteousness or many of our evangelical churches would be empty.”
God can and will most certainly use the present situation to convert some, to harden others, and to strengthen His faithful, but He would be doing that anyway through other means even if we had never heard of Covid-19, and He will keep on doing it after this particular period is just a memory.
If you do a follow-up it might be well to remind your readers of Q. 1 in the Heidelberg Catechism. Grace to you!
Amen! The gospel in a nutshell. “I am not my own but belong body and soul, in life and in death to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ. He has fully paid for all my sins with his precious blood, and has delivered me from the tyranny of the devil. He watches over me in such a way that not a hair can fall from my head without the will of my Father in heaven; in fact, all things must work together for my salvation. Because I belong to him, Christ, by his Holy Spirit also assures me of eternal life and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for him.” Yes indeed, that is grace to you!
This particular virus, mostly because it has a name, is candidated as a possible judgement. It seems the data almost universally shows this whole pandemic is more hype than uniquely harmful. I wonder if the ‘judgement’ here might be more interestingly looked at through Romans 1:18 onward, as a manifestation of the loss of human reason and a broad giving over to incoherence. I am sure many will throw stones, but frankly auto accidents, bee stings, and a host of other problems cause far and away more physical illness, carnage, death, and societal damage than this virus. Consider that whole world, its many economies, and millions of people are being irreparably harmed, unemployed, and financially ruined – by news or rumors. And in the Church – worship suspended not by persecution, but for what appears to be a fairly pedestrian illness – where it to have remained unnamed. I see the judgement here may in fact be that the Lord is showing humanity in its sophisticated arrogance that it is easily lead off the rails by rumor and smoke. While the true fire of God’s Wrath continues to burn and will eventually give mankind something to truly to panic about. Lest anyone think me unkind, unwinsome, or cruel, I am in several of the high risk categories, as well as some of my close family members. So I am not talking about something from a safe location.
Randall,
Please see this:
https://heidelblog.net/2020/03/therapeutic-moralistic-deism-is-real/
Randall,
Those were my thoughts also. In an effort to dodge the Pale Horseman (or Pale Donkeyman in this case), we are swerving right into the Black Horseman (economic calamity). We seem more and more prone to mass hysterias. Our ability to reason and think scientifically has gotten much worse in the past couple of decades. Speculation as to why abounds. I’m not optimistic about our ability to deal with a real crisis, and we have only 6 months until the next round of wildfires about which little has been done.
My prediction is that the economic fallout of our martial law lite is going to be far, far worse and kill more people than this glorified flu. People are already losing jobs. Soon, they’ll be losing houses.
Dr Clark
Somewhat off topic but still related.
I’m thinking here of WCF 17.3 that talks of “bringing temporal judgements upon themselves ” with prooftexts 1 Cor 11:32 ” When are judged by the we are being disciplined so that we will not be condemned with the world” and Psalm 89:31,32 ” ..I will punish their sin with the rod , their iniquity with flogging..”
Would it not be fair for an individual to ask God if their personal hardship from this virus is God disciplining/punishing them for their sins?
Richie,
Did I not address this question in the essay?
Did the divines confess (do we confess) that we may draw a direct correlation between this episode and this sin?
They dont say either way. Only that at times our sin brings temporal judgements upon us.
Are you positing that it is never possible to associate my hardship with God disciplining me?
How then can we know what “temporal judgements” ever are?
Richie,
I think you’re making an assumption that I am not (and that I am rejecting): that we can see and draw and one-to-one correlation between “this sin” (or these sinners) and “this judgment.” As I understand our Lord (as expressed in the essay) and the divines, we may not. We are to infer from every such calamity God’s general judgment against sin and turn to the Lord in faith and repentance.
I’m somewhat confused now!
The divines are quite clear that “temporal punishments” can come from the Lord because of our continuing sin. Are you saying that all though they believed in the concept they never named something they saw as a temporal punishment ? What then is the point of this doctrine? .
Richie,
Don’t we resolve the problem if we simply omit the demonstrative “this“? Yes, the Lord sends temporal judgments. if our Lord’s words have any meaning we must not say: “this temporal judgment came because of this sin.”
Omit the demonstrative pronoun and all is well. Keep it and you’re in the business of interpreting providence with all the difficulties entailed.
Good column. Could you clarify this sentence for me? “It tells us that as often as we think that we have everything under control, that God is not or absent, we are reminded of us his power to disrupt the ordinary course of things with, as it were, the flick of a finger.” It is in the paragraph just above the picture of a virus.
Joseph,
Revised thus:
Better?
Thanks.