God is not required to seek the sinner’s permission for doing with the sinner what he pleases.
R.C. Sproul
I bumped into this quote during my morning blog reading, and I found it quite striking. And it's quite striking because it's just wrong - at least according to the prevailing attitude of our culture. Now, no one is going to come out and say, 'Hey, God! Did I say you could do that to me?!?' But how else shall we understand all the accusations against God these days? There's a tornado here and an earthquake there. Terrible things, evil things, to be sure. But does God have to run these things past us to make sure they're okay with us?
Those who are still in their rebellion have no rights with God. They're rebels against the King! And those who have been reconciled through Jesus know that they can trust their Father when he uses evil. After all, they know that his goal in using that evil is ultimately for good. And the best example of that is the Cross.