> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.truehopeforjoy.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People? (Part 10) - URL: https://www.truehopeforjoy.com/why-do-bad-things-happen-to-good-people-part-5-2/ - Published: 2026-09-27T23:15:12.000Z - Updated: 2026-09-28T17:31:22.000Z - Author: m - Tags: Bible, Christian, death, grief, hope, loss, verses, why do bad things happen to good people ## The Who *This is the tenth in a multi-part series on what the Bible says about why bad things happen to ‘good’ people. You can*[ *read Part 1 here*](https://www.truehopeforjoy.com/why-do-bad-things-happen-to-good-people/)*.* We are almost at the end of our series on ‘Why do bad things happen to good people?’, but before we can get to the question of ‘why?’, we need to look at one more question first: ‘Who?’ Who is the One who is sovereign over all of these ‘good’ things and ‘bad’ things? Who is the One who blesses the people we see as ‘good’ by giving them hearts that delight in doing good? Who is the One who redeems the people we consider ‘bad’ by calling them to repent and giving them new hearts that then also desire to choose good? It matters who this God really is. Because underneath the question ‘Why do bad things happen to good people?’ is sometimes another, more difficult question. A question, we are sometimes even afraid to admit to ourselves. When we are experiencing an excruciatingly painful thing and we are asking the question ‘why?’, sometimes what we are really wrestling with is a slightly different question. Sometimes, what we are really asking is: Can we trust God? > Before we can answer the why, > we have to look at The Who. Who is this God we are supposed to trust in the excruciatingly painful moments of life? Is He real? If He is powerful enough to end pain, why doesn’t He? Is He truly good? These are some of the difficult, yet honest questions that come up in our hearts when we are in deep pain. Especially when that pain catches us off guard. We are not alone in asking this question. Lots of times in the Bible, when God’s people experience something exceptionally painful, they ask these types of questions. In [Part 5](https://www.truehopeforjoy.com/why-do-bad-things-happen-to-good-people-part-5/) we saw John the Baptist’s disciples ask if Jesus was even really the Messiah? ([Matthew 11: 2-6](https://read.csbible.com/?book=matthew&chapter=10&ref=truehopeforjoy.com#:~:text=2%20Now%20when,offended%20by%20me.%E2%80%9D)) It was hard for them to imagine that if He was powerful enough to rescue John from prison, that He would not intervene. We see something similar when Jesus meets with Martha and Mary after their brother Lazarus has died. > Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. > [John 11:21 (ESV)](https://www.esv.org/John+11/?ref=truehopeforjoy.com#:~:text=21%C2%A0Martha%20said%20to%20eJesus%2C%20%E2%80%9CLord%2C%20fif%20you%20had%20been%20here%2C%20my%20brother%20would%20not%20have%20died.) In this week’s article, we’ll look at who God is by digging deeper into this story of Mary, Martha, Lazarus and Jesus. So who is this God? ### The God who loves > Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. > [John 11:5 (ESV)](https://www.esv.org/John+11/?ref=truehopeforjoy.com#:~:text=5%C2%A0Now%20qJesus%20loved%20Martha%20and%20her%20sister%20and%20Lazarus.) Many who grow up hearing Bible stories are familiar with the stories of Mary, Martha and Lazarus in the Bible. The Gospel of John tells us that Jesus loved this family. He knew them by name. This love we see Jesus embody for Mary, Martha and Lazarus reflects the love God has for all of His children. It’s one of the main ways God describes Himself. God is love.([1 John 4:8](https://www.esv.org/1+John+4/?ref=truehopeforjoy.com#:~:text=8%C2%A0lAnyone%20who%20does%20not%20love%20does%20not%20know%20God%2C%20because%20mGod%20is%20love.)) ### The God who cares about our pain > As soon as Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and told him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother wouldn't have died! ” > When Jesus saw her crying, and the Jews who had come with her crying, he was deeply moved in his spirit and troubled. “Where have you put him? ” he asked. > “Lord,” they told him, “come and see.” > Jesus wept. > So the Jews said, “See how he loved him! ” But some of them said, “Couldn’t he who opened the blind man’s eyes also have kept this man from dying? ” > [*John 11:32-37 (CSB)*](https://read.csbible.com/?book=john&chapter=11&ref=truehopeforjoy.com#:~:text=32%20As%20soon,man%20from%20dying?%E2%80%89%E2%80%9D) We see here that Jesus is not indifferent to Mary and Martha’s pain. It moves Him, not just to tears, but to *weeping*. It grieves His heart to see the people He loves hurting. This compassion, this lovingkindness is also core to who God is. ### The God who sacrifices to give the best to His people In the story of Martha, Mary and Lazarus the Bible tells us that Jesus loves them in John 11:5\. A bit later in the chapter, Jesus’s love is seen more clearly because He is moved to weeping by His love. But the Bible tells us that the ultimate test of love is sacrifice. We can tell how much someone values us by what they are willing to give up for our good. By what they are willing to lose so that we may gain. The God who is love, defines the greatest love in this way: laying down your life for someone. The ultimate sacrifice is the ultimate proof of love. > No one has greater love than this: to lay down his life for his friends. > [John 15:13 (CSB)](https://read.csbible.com/?book=john&chapter=15&ref=truehopeforjoy.com#:~:text=13%20No%20one%20has%20greater%20love%20than%20this:%20to%20lay%20down%20his%20life%20for%20his%20friends.%2014%20You%20are%20my%20friends%20if%20you%20do%20what%20I%20command%20you.) Rarely, but sometimes, we see glimpses of this type of love with other people. But the thing that makes Jesus’s sacrifice so much more than even the next most loving person is how much more He chose to sacrifice. He sacrificed more than we ever could because He had so much more to lose that we do. We live in a world where we have both joyful and painful experiences. But Jesus did not have to have the experience of pain at all. He chose to descend into a world filled with the sin and pain of the very people He helped to create. > “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep…. > “I am the good shepherd. I know my own, and my own know me, just as the Father knows me, and I know the Father. I lay down my life for the sheep…. > No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own. I have the right to lay it down, and I have the right to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father.” > [John 10:11;14-15;18 (CSB)](https://read.csbible.com/?book=john&chapter=10&ref=truehopeforjoy.com#:~:text=11%20%E2%80%9CI%20am,from%20my%20Father.%E2%80%9D) Jesus endured the ultimate suffering, separation from God the Father, for us. And His sacrifice is thus the ultimate proof of God’s love. Paul uses this as a part of the core of his argument in Romans 8 for how we can trust that God will work all things together for good. This Holy Spirit given argument is pretty tight: Since God has already made the greatest possible sacrifice for us, we know that we can trust that He cares and will work out the other painful things in our lives. Even when we don’t understand why, we know we can trust the character of Jesus who has already sacrificed everything for us. > What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? > [Romans 8:31–32 (ESV)](https://www.esv.org/Romans+8/?ref=truehopeforjoy.com#:~:text=31%C2%A0What%20then%20shall%20we%20say%20to%20these%20things?%20pIf%20God%20is%20for%20us%2C%20who%20can%20be9%20against%20us?%2032%C2%A0qHe%20who%20did%20not%20spare%20his%20own%20Son%20but%20rgave%20him%20up%20for%20us%20all%2C%20how%20will%20he%20not%20also%20with%20him%20graciously%20give%20us%20all%20things?) God has proven, by His actions, that we can trust Him. Jesus has proven it by laying down His very life. And He’s proven He has the *power* to fix the hard things by His resurrection. He is not a god who desires to do good, but whose power is limited by sin in this world or by the free will of the people He created. He has the desire and the power to save. And we can trust that He will- even when we are in the middle of our stories and it seems like He hasn’t fixed things yet. Just ask Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. This is why even when we are struggling with the ‘whys’ in the painful things in our own lives, we know that we can always trust our good, loving and all powerful ‘Who.’ > **When we are struggling with the 'why?',** > **we can always trust The Who.** Thank you for reading. *This is part of a multi part series on what the Bible says about why bad things happen to ‘good’ people. You can*[ *read Part 1 here*](https://www.truehopeforjoy.com/why-do-bad-things-happen-to-good-people/)*.* If you would like to receive an email as soon as a new article posts, you can sign up [here](https://www.truehopeforjoy.com/#/portal/signup). This copy in this article was written by a real person, me 🙂, not AI. For true hope and joy, \~m