IF GOD IS GOOD, WHY DOES EVIL STILL EXIST?

Few questions trouble the human heart like this one. Wars, injustice, sickness, and tragedy lead many to ask: “If God is truly good and powerful, why does He allow evil to exist?” This is not just an intellectual problem; it is deeply personal. And yet, Scripture does not shy away from the tension; it addresses it with honesty and with hope.

1. Evil Is Not Created, but Corrupted

The Bible makes clear that everything God created was “very good” (Genesis 1:31). Evil did not originate in Him. Evil is not a substance or “thing” God made, but the distortion of what is good.

  • Light exists; darkness is the absence of it.

  • Good exists; evil is the twisting and rebellion against it.

Satan and the fallen angels chose rebellion. Humanity, given freedom, chose disobedience. The entrance of sin brought corruption, death, and suffering into the world (Romans 5:12). Evil, then, is parasitic; it cannot exist apart from the good it distorts.

2. Human Freedom and Responsibility

For love to be real, it must be freely chosen. God did not create robots but people in His image, capable of fellowship with Him. That same freedom allows the possibility of rejecting Him.

C.S. Lewis famously said: “Free will, though it makes evil possible, is also the only thing that makes possible any love or goodness or joy worth having.”
 In other words, the very capacity that makes us truly human, the ability to love God, is the same capacity that makes rebellion possible.

3. God Is Not Absent in Our Suffering

Some imagine God as distant, watching evil unfold. But Christianity proclaims a radically different truth: God entered into our suffering.

In Jesus Christ, God took on flesh, faced temptation, endured injustice, carried our griefs, and was crucified. The cross shows us a God who does not merely permit evil but bears its full weight to bring redemption.

“Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.” (Isaiah 53:4)

This means that God is not indifferent. He is Emmanuel, God with us, even in our darkest valleys.

4. Evil Serves a Defeated Purpose

Though evil is real, it is not ultimate. The resurrection of Jesus is the guarantee that evil does not get the final word. God can and does bring good out of suffering (Romans 8:28).

  • Joseph, sold into slavery, could later say: “You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good” (Genesis 50:20).

  • The cross, the greatest act of injustice, became the means of the world’s salvation.

This doesn’t minimize pain, but it reframes it: evil, though painful and destructive, cannot thwart God’s purposes.

5. The End of the Story: Evil Will Be No More

The Bible ends with a promise:

“He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore.” (Revelation 21:4)

Evil is temporary. Justice is certain. The Lamb who was slain is also the Lion who conquers. The Christian hope is not escape from suffering but the renewal of all creation, where evil will be fully and finally eradicated.

Conclusion: The Gospel Answer

So, if God is good, why is there evil?

  • Because love requires freedom.

  • Because rebellion distorted creation.

  • Because God allows evil for a time, yet He works through it for redemption.

  • Because, in Christ, He has already begun its defeat.

The cross and resurrection are God’s definitive answer: He is not the author of evil, but He is the Redeemer of those broken by it. Evil exists, but it will not endure.

For the believer, this shifts the question from despair to hope. Instead of asking, “Why is there evil?” we proclaim, “Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:57).

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