He is the Life
Mar 29, 2026 | By Yurim Jin MY ‘28
I used to have this obsession with the question of why. Why did God create Adam first, not Eve? If God so loves the world, why do so many die from hunger? Why do people commit murder without any guilt? I would go up to the pastor with a long list of things that didn’t make sense to me in the Bible and spend hours in his office (Now looking back, I’m amazed and grateful for his patience and love). I wanted to understand everything without even a hint of ambiguity.
But at some point in my life, I realized that Christianity is much more than just making sense. It actually doesn’t make sense at all; it is the inexplicable love of God who sacrificed the one and only Son on the cross for me, for us. [1] The Bible transcends our instinctual definition of what it means to live and die. We expect a God who explains himself by victory, by displaying power, by rewarding the good and punishing the bad. But God wins through defeat. He displays power through humility. He is the innocent lamb slain to overcome sin.
The crucifixion subverts all human systems of logic. It is the most inexplicable event in history because, to any observer on Friday, it looked like the absolute defeat of goodness. Yet, it was the very mechanism of the world’s salvation.
We may not know the specific reason why we are suffering. But because of the Cross, we know what the reason is not. It is not because God doesn't love us, nor because He is indifferent. If God was willing to forsake Himself on the cross, we can trust His hidden reasons. The story of Job shows God’s providence is often inexplicable precisely so that our relationship with Him can move from a commercial (I love you because you do give me A, B, C) to a personal one (I love You for who You are, not what You give me). If God had told Job why he was suffering, the test would have been nullified. And even though God didn't give an answer, the fact that He showed up was the answer. Job’s deepest need wasn’t a “Why” but a “Who.” Once he saw the majesty of God, his questions became small in the light of God’s presence.
In the story of Job, God is silent about the reasons for his suffering. On the cross, however, God Himself experienced that silence. When Jesus cries out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”, He is entering into the ultimate “Why?” The Cross is not a sign that God is indifferent to our suffering; it is a sign that He is so committed to ending it that He was willing to enter it Himself.
In this season of Lent, I looked back at how I read the Gospel. I realized that my trying to understand the Bible perfectly from start to finish was an awfully prideful attempt. It was not about logically understanding something in the first place. Jesus is not some abstract concept or a mere scholarly figure that we study or have to prove. He is the life [2].
“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
John 14:6
[1] John 3:16; Romans 5:8
[2] John 6:35; 11:25