In times of uncertainty, we often hear the reassurance that God is in control. This statement is true if we mean that God is far greater than all else in the heavens and on earth, and is therefore able to accomplish his will despite whatever is happening. Paul affirms that God will ultimately bring about his good ends when he says that all things work together for good (Romans 8:28). However, if we say God is in control and mean that we ought to be at peace because God is causing and dictating all that happening, that all that happens is his plan, including all our present misery, this is not only more disturbing than comforting but something I do not believe is true. God is not the author of our suffering, but rather the “God of all comfort” (2 Corinthians 1:3).
For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ. 2 Corinthians 1:5
The sufferings of Christ were not caused by God but rather by the powers of darkness and people who were enslaved in that darkness. We share in similar sufferings, but God in Christ now extends that comfort to us as well. One sense in which God is in control is how he is fully able to comfort us no matter what difficulties we are experiencing.
Because the statement that God is in control is ambiguous and not found in scripture, I would rather say what is testified in scripture, that God is love. God is in love with the world he created, including everyone and everything in it. This is better way to speak about why we should not be afraid, because we can trust in the love of God. Saying God is in control leans more toward trusting in his power, but the power of God is his love.
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:38-39
Paul’s confidence in this passage is not that God is in control over life and death, all spiritual beings, the present of future, and whatever may happen, but that the love of God is invincible. Paul knows that he is loved no matter what happens, not that whatever happens is somehow a plan that God is implementing.
I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ. Ephesians 3:16-18
When Paul speaks of having power through the Spirit in our inner being, it is a power to grasp the unsurpassable love of Christ. We find peace, joy, and courage in knowing we are loved by God which is how he remains in control. When awful things are happening, instead of saying God is in control which may sound to some as if we are claiming God is causing our suffering for his own purposes, we remember that despite all of this, we are loved by God.
“I have made Your name known to them, and will make it known, so that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.” John 17:26
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