What is God Doing Through the Coronavirus?

By John Young

Good morning, Beloved! 

I hope this email finds you well and healthy. Instead of giving you some devotional thoughts on a passage of Scripture this morning, I thought I would summarize a portion of a book I commended to you last week by John Piper, entitled, Coronavirus and Christ. By clicking on the link, you can download it for free either to read a pdf, or for your kindle, or as an mp3 to listen to. It’s a very short book; I read it in my devotional time on Sunday morning.

The second part of Piper’s book is entitled, “What is God Doing Through the Coronavirus?” I think this is a very good question for us to consider as we may encounter unbelieving family members that may think this shows that God is on leave or he is not good or he is not powerful or he doesn’t exist! Or we may ourselves may be confused as we trust that God is sovereign over it but don’t understand how we relate to it. This is a valuable exercise for us because if we consider God’s ways, we can be strengthened even in these frightening, disconcerting circumstances.

I don’t believe I am ruining the book for you by doing this…it may actually convince you to read it. Consider it a brief synopsis of a part of the book that will enable you to possibly summarize 6 ways that the Lord is working through the coronavirus.

Now that last part is a very egotistical statement in itself. How can man know what God is up to? How can man search the hidden motivations and mysteries of God. We can be sure that God is accomplishing an immeasurable number of things and purposes.(p.57) For we know that God is sovereign and he isn’t running around after the fact trying to turn things into good…he intends them for good, he means them for good for those who are called according to his purpose. So he allowed the virus, he created the coronavirus, for our good and for his glory. (Read the first half of the book to understand this argument.)

But back to how can we know what God is up to. God has spoken through the Christian Scriptures; he is not silent in what he’s doing in this world; Eph 1:8-9 says that God has lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of his will.(p.56) So this isn’t man’s idea about what God may be up to. Rather, this is taking Scripture in context and seeing how God might be making connections to the coronavirus in our day. As Piper says, “I will point to what the Bible teaches and then make connections. Yours is to judge what is right.”(p.59)

What is God doing through the Coronavirus?

1. Picturing Moral Horror. God is giving the world in the coronavirus outbreak, as in all other calamities, a physical picture of the moral horror and spiritual ugliness of God-belittling sin.(p.61)

“Sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and death spread to all men because all sin.” (Rom 5:2) And because of this all of creation has been subjected to futility (Rom 8:20-22). And yes, even Christians are subject to this futility…death is an earthly judgment against sin. Except for the person who is trusting in Christ, this is not punishment, this is purification.(p.64) For the Christian there is no more condemnation for Christ took it on himself. (Rom 8:1). However, this pandemic is a helpful reminder to us all, both believers and unbelievers of the absolute horror of sin.

We need to see this, and feel this, or we will not turn to Christ for salvation from the ugliness of sin. We may cry out to escape the penalty of sin. But will we see and hate the God-demeaning, moral ugliness of sin? If we don’t, it will not be because God has not provided vivid portrayals of it in physical misery—like the coronavirus. Therefore, God is mercifully shouting to us in these days: Wake up! Sin against God is like this! It is horrible and ugly. And far more dangerous than the coronavirus.(p.67)

2. Sending Specific Divine Judgments. Some people will be infected with the coronavirus as a specific judgment from God because of their sinful attitudes and actions.(p.69)

This does not mean that all individual suffering is a specific judgment for personal sins, consider Jonah who “was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil.”(Job 1:1) (p.70) Yet, in Acts 12, Herod did not give glory to God but exalted himself and he was eaten by worms and breathed his last. (p.71)

The coronavirus is, therefore, never a clear and simple punishment on any person. The most loving, Spirit-filled Christian, whose sins are forgiven through Christ, may die of the coronavirus disease. But it is fitting that every one of us search our own heart to discern if our suffering is God’s judgment on the way we live.

If we come to Christ, we can know that our suffering is not the punitive judgment of God. We can know this because Jesus said, “Whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life” (John 5:24). There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Rom. 8:1). It is discipline, not destruction. “For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives” (Heb. 12:6).(p.72)

3. Awakening Us for the Second Coming. The coronavirus is a God-given wake up call to be ready for the second coming of Christ.(p.73)

From the very moment Jesus ascended into heaven in Acts 1:11, we have been hearing of the promise of Jesus’ return, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.” And Jesus himself said that when he returns, he will judge the world. (Mt 25:31-32)(p.74)

Romans 8:21-23 suggests that these are the contractions, the labor pains of the coming kingdom. We elders have talked in the last week about locusts infestations, earthquakes, volcanoes, pandemics that we’ve read about in the news…all of which are talked about in Luke 21:11. These are all God’s kindness to us to stay awake!(p.75) You must be ready for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect. (Mt 24:44). But we stay awake not in fear but in expectant hope (1 These 5:4-10)

4. Realigning Us With the Infinite Worth of Christ. The coronavirus is God’s thunderclap call for all of us to repent and realign our lives with the infinite worth of Christ. (p.77)

We have considered in the last few weeks how we are exiles and how we weren’t created for this and how fleeting its pleasures and certainties are. We have placed our hope in things that not only will not satisfy us but serve as a millstone around our necks dragging us to idolatry now and damnation for eternity. And not only that, but this pandemic shows us that life itself is fleeting and we are unable to master it. And so this provides us with a fresh chance to repent and see our sin.

This is what it means to repent: to experience a change of heart and mind that treasures God in Christ more than life. “Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you” (Ps. 63:3). This was Paul’s faith. It was true in life and death. In life, because Christ is the sweetness of every pleasure, and better than them all. And in death, because “in [God’s] presence there is fullness of joy; at [his] right hand are pleasures forevermore” (Ps. 16:11).

The coronavirus pandemic is the experience of loss— from the smallest loss of convenience to the greatest loss of life. And if we know the secret of Paul’s joy, we may experience the loss as gain. That is what God is saying to the world. Repent and realign your life with the infinite worth of Christ. (p.86)

5. Creating Good Works in Danger. The coronavirus is God’s call to his people to overcome self-pity and fear, and with courageous joy, to do the good works of love that glorify God.(p.87)

In the Beatitudes, Jesus tells his disciples to “let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”(Mt 5:16) Jesus calls us the salt of the earth and the light of the world, but what is often overlooked is that these good works were to be done even in the midst of suffering. 

Jesus has just said, “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven” (Matt. 5:11–12). Then, without a break, he says, “You are the salt of the earth. . . . You are the light of the world” (Matt. 5:13–16). 

It is not mere good deeds that give Christianity its tang and luster. It is good deeds in spite of danger. Many non- Christians do good deeds. But seldom do people give glory to God because of them. (p.88)

We can serve and love others without regard for our lives or our possessions because we have something more certain and lasting: Christ. We can be generous and giving, seeking to illustrate God’s kingdom and his righteousness because all of these things he will provide to us as well. (Mt 6:27:33)

6. Loosening Roots to Reach the Nations. In the coronavirus God is loosening the roots of settled Christians, all over the world, to make them free for something new and radical and to send them with the gospel of Christ to unreached peoples of the world.(p.95)

This may seem odd: how can we reach the nations if we can’t leave our houses or travel anywhere? But we see the Lord act through unimaginable events to cause his word to go forth. Consider the martyrdom of Stephen in Acts 7 and the persecution against the church in Jerusalem that arose in Acts 8 that scattered believers out of Jerusalem throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, exactly as Jesus predicted in Acts 1:8.

Jesus says, “I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” (Mt 16:18) “This gospel of the kingdom WILL be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations’ (Mt 24:14). Not MAY be proclaimed but WILL be proclaimed. (p. 97) God’s ways often include apparent setbacks that result in great advances.(p.97)

Piper offers a story about Pastor Hristo Kulichev, a Congregational pastor in Bulgaria, who was arrested and put in prison. His crime was that he preached in his church even though the state had appointed another man as pastor whom the congregation did not elect. His trial was a mockery of justice. And he was sentenced to eight months in prison. During his time in prison, he made Christ known in every way he could.

When he got out, he wrote, “Both prisoners and jailers asked many questions, and it turned out that we had a more fruitful ministry there than we could have expected in church. God was better served by our presence in prison than if we had been free.”

This is often God’s way. The global scope and seriousness of the coronavirus is too great for God to waste. It will serve his invincible global purpose of world evangelization. Christ has not shed his blood in vain. And Revelation 5:9 says that by that blood he ransomed “people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.” He will have the reward of his suffering. And even pandemics will serve to complete the Great Commission. (p.97-98)

May the Lord do all He intends through this trial for his glory and may we be patient and faithful, giving glory to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!