9781433573606-epdf

Creating Good Works in Danger
when the Roman emperor Julian (AD 332–363) wanted to
breathe new life back into the ancient Roman religion and
saw Chris tian ity as a growing threat, he wrote, in frustration,
to the Roman high priest of Galatia:
Atheism [i.e., Christian faith] has been specially advanced
through the loving service rendered to strangers, and
through their care for the burial of the dead. It is a scandal
that there is not a single Jew who is a beggar, and that the
godless Galileans [i.e., Christians] care not only for their
own poor but for ours as well; while those who belong to
us look in vain for the help that we should render them. 11
RELIEVING GOD-SENT SUFFERING
There is no contradiction between seeing the coronavirus
as God’s act and calling Christians to take risks to alleviate
the suffering that it causes. Ever since God subjected the
world to sin and misery at the fall, he has ordained that his
people seek to rescue the perishing, even though he is the
one who has appointed the judgment of perishing. God
himself came into the world in Jesus Christ to rescue people
from his own just judgment (Rom. 5:9). That is what the
cross of Christ means.
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