Romans 8:28 … God Using Evil for Good

Say you are a corrupt police officer. You have been taking money secretly on drug busts. However, a police officer—a good one, a non-corruptible one—is now scared of you because you told him that if he tells anyone what you’ve been doing, people will mock him, not believe him, and he will end up looking crazy. And even if they did believe him, he has no evidence to prove it.

But meanwhile, someone who was listening outside of the conversation, a police leader, wanted to do something about it. So he goes and puts together a task force. He chooses the corrupt police officer on purpose and amps him up, basically raising his ego about how many drug busts he did and all the things. The good police officer who knows about the bad police officer is also on the task force but doesn’t know that the police leader knows.

So boom, they go and do a drug bust. The police leader ends up following the bad police officer to a secluded area with three other police officers, just in case he needs backup. Long story short, the bad police officer gets caught and goes to jail.

The moral of the story, when we read in 2 Kings 19, is that God can use evil for the good of those who love Him. He is powerful, and when He sees that there is injustice toward His children, He can decide to turn things around without even letting His children know. That is who God is.

People may question, “Well, if God knows that there is evil, why didn’t He stop it?” We are no one but human beings. If God wanted to give an explanation on why He does things, we would have too much knowledge and think we can be like Him. God knows our human nature, and He also knows us individually. That is why He deals with us on an individual basis. Conviction is different for everyone.

I think, at the end of the day, when we look back on our lives, there were some terrible things that we have done in His sight, but look at us now—forgiven and freed. Why? Because God knows us. We look at people like, “Ooo, they were evil, and they deserve every bit of punishment,” but have you ever looked at your life? Have you ever looked back and thought, “Dang, some of my actions, maybe although unintentional, really hurt someone else”? Or even if they were intentional, they had the power to ruin someone’s life. So why are you still here?

You are here because of grace and mercy. That’s what God wants to give to His children every day of their lives. You don’t think God maybe gave that person multiple chances to repent and to see what they’ve done wrong?

I think that is where we sometimes question the goodness of God. We think, “If God is good, why didn’t He stop this? Why did He allow that? Why didn’t He handle this person the way I thought He should?” But God being good does not mean that He is going to do things our way or the way we want Him to. He is going to do things according to His will because He knows our hearts. He knows the full spectrum of how good we can be and how evil we can be. He sees the person being harmed, but He also sees the person doing the harm. He knows when one needs protection, when another needs conviction, when there needs to be justice, and when there needs to be mercy. We only see what is happening in front of us, but God sees the heart of every person involved.

That’s what God is in the business of doing. Jesus came to give life, life more abundantly. There is a better way of living—to live in truth, stand on truth, and experience truth. That doesn’t take away evil, trials, or tribulations. It doesn’t mean that God calls evil good. But it does give us hope that evil does not have the final say. The same God who sees the person being harmed also sees the person doing the harm, and He knows how to deal with both. He can bring justice without losing His mercy, and He can extend mercy without ceasing to be just. And maybe that is where our trust has to come in. We may not understand why He chooses to handle something the way He does, but we can trust that He sees what we cannot see, knows what we cannot know, and is still good even when His way of handling it looks different from ours.