It is not just a question for skeptics or philosophers. It is a question asked in hospital rooms, funeral homes, living rooms, and lonely moments of grief. Why does a faithful Christian get cancer?
Why does a godly family bury a loved one? Why does someone trying to do right still face sorrow, sickness, betrayal, loss, and heartbreak?
The Bible does not ignore this question. Job wrestled with it. David wrote about it. Asaph struggled with it in Psalm 73. The disciples revealed their confusion in John 9 when they saw a man who had been blind from birth and asked Jesus, “Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?”
In their minds, suffering meant someone had done something wrong. But Jesus answered, “Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.”
Jesus was not saying they were sinless. He was saying this man’s suffering was not the result of some specific sin. It was not proof God was angry. It was an opportunity for God to work in a way others could not yet see.
Many people still think like the disciples. They assume every trial is punishment, every sickness is judgment and every burden means God must be displeased. But the Bible teaches that bad things do happen to people who love God.
Jesus said in John 16:33, “In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”
The Christian life is not a guarantee we will never suffer. It is the promise that we will never suffer alone.
One reason bad things happen is because we live in a fallen world. God created a perfect world, but sin entered in Genesis 3, and with sin came death, disease, pain, sorrow and brokenness.
Romans 5:12 says, “By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin.” This world is not broken because God made it broken. It is broken because sin has wrecked it.
Sometimes suffering comes not because a person has personally done something wrong, but because we live in a world where sin has left scars on everything. Another reason bad things happen is because God allows faith to be tested. Job was called “perfect and upright” in Job 1:1. He feared God and hated evil.
Yet Job lost his possessions, his children, his health, and much of his comfort. Job did not understand all that was happening, but God was still on the throne. When Job lost everything, the Bible says he “fell down upon the ground, and worshipped.” Faith is not the absence of tears. Faith is trusting God through tears.
God also works in ways we cannot see. Joseph was hated by his brothers, sold into slavery, falsely accused, and forgotten in prison. For years, it looked like bad things kept happening to a good man. But later Joseph said in Genesis 50:20, “Ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good.”
Romans 8:28 does not say all things are good. Cancer is not good. Death is not good. Betrayal is not good. Loss is not good. But the verse does say, “all things work together for good to them that love God.” Most importantly, when we ask why bad things happen to good people, we must look to the cross.
The worst thing to ever happened, happened to the best person who ever lived. Jesus Christ was sinless, yet He was betrayed, mocked, beaten, crucified and buried. But His suffering was not meaningless. At Calvary, man did his worst, but God was doing His greatest work. Jesus suffered, bled and died so sinners could be saved. Then He rose again, proving that God can bring life out of death and victory out of sorrow.
We may not understand why bad things happen, but we can know this: God is still good, Christ is still risen, grace is still sufficient, and Heaven is still coming.
© 2026 The Blackshear Times
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