The one thing we can all agree on is that life is not always fair. Some good people die too young and some of the not so good people live long lives. Some work very hard and barely make it, while others cheat, lie and steal and have abundantly. The truth is that life is not always fair.

In the unfairness of life, our tendency is to question God. If God is a righteous God, why does He allow so much unfairness? Why does He allow bad things to happen to good people? Before we can answer this question, we must first ask ourselves, who are the good people?

“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” – Romans 3:23 NIV

On one occasion a man ran up to Jesus and asked, “good teacher what must I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus answered, why do you call me good? Only God is good”. This was precisely what Paul meant when he wrote, that all have sinned.

The problem with asking, why do bad things happen to good people is that according to God, there are no good people. Because good as defined by God means perfect. In our system, there may be good people, but even in our system, no one is perfect. We think that most people are good people who occasionally do something bad. In God’s system of perfection, everyone is a bad person and some occasionally do something good.

In God’s world, no one is good, because God’s glorious standard is perfection. The problem with a perfect system is that any sin no matter how big or small disqualifies us from inheriting eternal life. But, because God is good, He canceled the debt that sin created between Him and us. And because He is perfectly righteous, He could not leave our sins unpunished. Therefore, in His perfect righteousness, He demanded that the debt of sin be paid. And Because He’s a perfectly good God, He paid the debt.

“All are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”  – Romans 3:24 NIV