What is God doing through the coronavirus?

In his 114 page book, Coronavirus and Christ, John Piper responded in Part 2 to the question,  "What is God doing through the coronavirus?" Attempts like this to answer such question may appear presumptuous and insensitive in a time that many a people are hurting and confused. This charge of presumption and insensitivity can only be answered if one will take the time read the book. In fact, one of his relatives was infected with Covid-19. Moreover, in addition to the 2005 diagnosis that he had a prostate cancer, he no longer expected to see the publication of this book because of his age and the condition of his lungs. 

In this article, I just want the share an excerpt from Piper's book showing his response to that controversial question:

# 1 - "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."

“In other words, physical evil is a parable, a drama, a signpost pointing to the moral outrage of rebellion

against God.”

“Because in our present condition, after the fall, blinded by sin, we cannot see or feel how repugnant sin against God is. Hardly anyone in the world feels the horror of preferring other things over God. Who loses any sleep over our daily belittling of God by neglect and defiance?”

“But, oh, how we feel our physical pain! How indignant we can become if God touches our bodies! We may not grieve over the way we demean God every day in our hearts. But let the coronavirus come and threaten our bodies, and he has our attention. Or does he? Physical pain is God’s trumpet blast to tell us that something is dreadfully wrong in the world. Disease and deformity are God’s pictures in the physical realm of what sin is like in the spiritual realm.”

“They are warnings. They are wake-up calls to see the moral horror and spiritual ugliness of sin against God.”

“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.”

# 2 - "Some people will be infected with the coronavirus as a specific judgment from God because of their sinful attitudes and actions."

# 3 – “The coronavirus is a God-given wake-up call to be ready for the second coming of Christ.”

# 4 – “The coronavirus is God’s thunderclap call for all of us to repent and realign our lives with the infinite worth of Christ.”

“Let’s not talk about the dead; let’s talk about you. This is more urgent. What happened to them is about you. Your biggest issue is not their sin but your sin.”

“What God is doing in the coronavirus is showing us— graphically, painfully—that nothing in this world gives the security and satisfaction that we find in the infinite greatness and worth of Jesus. This global pandemic takes away our freedom of movement, our business activity, and our face-to-face relations. It takes away our security and our comfort. And, in the end, it may take away our lives.”

“This is the message of the coronavirus: Stop relying on yourselves and turn to God. You cannot even stop death.”

“The coronavirus calls us to make God the all-important, pervasive reality in our lives. Our lives depend on him more than they depend on breath. And sometimes God takes our breath in order to throw us onto himself.”

# 5 – “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.”

“Therefore, one of God’s purposes in the coronavirus is that his people put to death self-pity and fear, and give themselves to good deeds in the presence of danger.”

“The answers included the forgiveness of sins through Christ and the hope of eternal life beyond death. This was a precious message in a season of medical helplessness and utter hopelessness.”

“Therefore, the good deeds of God’s people will include prayers for the healing of the sick and for God to stay his hand and turn back the pandemic, and that he would provide a cure.”

# 6 – “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 the unreached peoples of the world.”

Source: Piper, John. 2020. Coronavirus and Christ. Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway.