Overcoming Evil with Good

By Doug Floyd

God created a world of glory and wonder. He created a man and woman in the center
of this world and taught them the rules of this world that governed how they
relate to God, to one another and to all creation. While their violation seems
almost innocent to us, it is a tragic violation the breaks the laws of relating to
God, to other people and to all creation.

The first few chapters of Genesis records the impact of such a violation. Broken
relationship leads to self-preservation to jealousy and eventually to murder,
which leads to destructive civilizations and eventually to a world of chaos.

Into this world of evil God sends a flood to wash away almost everything. While
the flood is judgment, it is also a gift of restoration where evil and chaos
infiltrated almost everything and everyone on the planet.

Genesis reveals the end result of the kingdoms of this world. The football teams,
glee clubs, restaurants, businesses, cities and families are kingdoms infected
with sin and evil. This is not a light innocuous infection. Without intervention,
it leads to chaos, destruction, death and disaster. Given time and space, sin and
evil continue unraveling, corrupting, and destroying everything.

This is hard for us to grasp because we see the seed of sin. The beginning looks
minor. A stolen fruit. An angry thought. A little self pity. But left unchecked,
the seed keeps growing. Death keeps overtaking the person. Tolkien captures this
corrupting aspect of evil in Lord of the Rings with Gollum. He starts out as a
Hobbit, but over time evil corrupts and corrupts and corrupts him eventually into
a monster.

Even more disturbing is the recent image of the Joker in the movie, The Dark
Knight. We see evil given full reign. Total chaos. The Joker acts for the sake of
destruction and chaos. No desire for revenge or greed or power, but absolute chaos
and destruction.

Think of the most horrid crimes and evils that plague our world, and you see the
fruit of the works of man. No matter how creative, how industrious, how
disciplined and even how religious humans are, given time, sin will blossom into
horrid evils that destroy our worlds and destroy our souls. In one sense, hell is
the unchecked, unstopped, uninterrupted place and time for evil to completely
corrupt, completely destroy, and completely ruin.

So the question is, “How do we confront evil?” Whether a person believes in God or
not, they still face the challenge of evil all around them. Every day the
newspaper brings fresh evidence of evil and corruption. Scandals and abuses are
not limited to one political party, one religious or non-religious group, one
social class.

Look over the headlines from one year of news and you’ll find images of slavery,
physical and sexual abuses, murder, stealing, and more in people from all sectors
of society. From church group leaders to politicians to outspoken liberal and
conservative commentators, we see evil and corruption abound. Just this year a
wealthy couple from Rhode Island were indicted for slavery.

Somehow we are shocked by such heinous stories. Somehow we wonder, “what caused
this?” “How could they be so bad?” Some of the best educated have given in to dark
actions as much as the poorest and least educated. This should somehow be a clue
that evil is not “out there” but “in here.” If we but think about our own
imaginations, we may realize all of us are capable of unthinkable evil.

The Bible is not prudish but honest about this evil. While we like to debate the
origins of evil, the Bible spends little time answering our metaphysical
questions. Instead, it reveals God responding to evil.

The Bible reveals a world crying out for the sons of God to vanquish evil and
restore the earth. With that context, we can see the law as God’s response to that
cry. The law revealed to Moses is but the beginning of God’s fulfillment of His
promise to Abraham.

The gracious gift of blessing the whole earth through Abraham’s seed is the great
and wondrous blessing of recreating a world corrupted by sin and evil. Instead of
flooding it again, God works through Abraham’s seed to overcome evil with good.
The kingdoms of this world are coming under subjection to our God.

The law is given to the children of Israel as God redeems them from Egypt. In His
love and grace, He chooses a specific family at a specific time in history to
freshly reveal His kingdom, His rule, His order. Within the seed of Abraham, the
seed of the law is planted and it will grow to reach all nations.

Paul reveals that the particularities of the law in relation to the Jewish people
were just for a season. As John Frame explains, those particularities of a
specific family, a specific priesthood, , a specific temple, and a specific piece
of land would flourish through Jesus into a new nation of Jew and Gentile, a
priesthood of all believers, a temple made of believers, a kingdom stretching
outward to every tribe and nation around the world.

Through Jesus the law comes into fullness by the power of the Spirit. While the
tablets of stone were glorious, the law written on the heart by the Spirit is even
more glorious. For now, we are all through Jesus growing up into the image of our
God.

Think back of the image of a family. Through Jesus we are becoming human. We are
learning to walk, to talk, to eat, to live for the glory of God. The law is
revealed in and through us by the Word and Spirit. As children of God, we are
immersed into the kingdom of God.

We are immersed into the rule of God. In and among the people of God, we see the
Spirit outworking the law in His people. Just as the child grows and learns and
develops in relationship, we grow and learn and are shaped in relationship with
God and God’s people.

With this in mind, think of Moses’ command to the people about studying the law:
And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. 7 You shall
teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in
your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. 8
You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between
your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your
gates. (Deut 6:6-9)

If we apply Moses’ command to the picture of a child learning and practicing to

walk and to talk and to eat, we begin to understand that the law is shaped and
formed in a family relationship. As children of God, we are learning in
relationship. We are learning by practicing. We are playing at being human.

We don’t go to school to become human. We become human (in Christ’s image), by the
grace of God working through us as we learn His word and act on His word. In other
words, we are learning by living in the midst of decaying kingdoms all around us.

Outwardly, the kingdoms of this world are wasting away. But He is renewing us
inwardly. He teaches us. We are growing in grace and truth. We are learning
through failure, through suffering, through conflict and even through success.

A parent does not give a child a rule for how to respond to every particular
situation in life. Rather, the child learns from the parent how to think and act
and move within a framework. The Spirit of God is teaching His framework through
which we think and act and move.

This framework is not simply ideas but is ideas rooted in relationship. As we

meditate on God’s Word through study, prayer, and fellowship we grow in knowledge
of the law. As we act upon the Word through speaking and acting, we grow in
understanding.

This growth prepares us to rule. We rule in the various kingdoms. We rule in the
bowling clubs, the businesses, the Boys and Girls Scouts, the local community, and
in the churches. We speak and act upon the wisdom of God in the midst of kingdoms
of this world.

Every day of our lives, we will be working out His kingdom in the midst of the
kingdoms of this world. We are participating, but it is His Spirit that truly
establishes the kingdom in and through us.

And His glory is being revealed. And the slaves are being set free. And the
fatherless are being fathered. And it’s happening in offices, restaurants, car
dealers, day care centers, car washes, prisons, coffee shops, and even churches.
And the most-quoted Psalm in the New Testament is being fulfilled:

“The LORD said to my Lord,

“Sit at My right hand,
Till I make Your enemies Your footstool.”
Psalm 110:1