The doctrine of God’s sovereignty is the bedrock upon which the suffering Christian must stand. The Westminster Confession and the 1689 London Baptist Confession both affirm that God, from all eternity, did freely and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass. This includes your suffering. This includes your unjust conviction. This includes the corrupt prosecutor, the biased judge, and the false witnesses. “The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will” (Proverbs 21:1). The same God who holds kings’ hearts holds the hearts of magistrates, jurors, and prison wardens.

Trusting in God’s Providence is crucial for our existence and mental health. Consider: if He went to the extraordinary extent (speaking as if He were a man) of loving and choosing you before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4-5), of sending His only begotten Son to die in your place (1 John 2:2; Romans 11:27), of calling you to faith and salvation (Romans 8:30; 1 Corinthians 1:2; 2 Timothy 1:9), of comforting you (Acts 9:31; Romans 15:5; 2 Corinthians 1:3-4), of giving you peace (Philippians 4:7; Isaiah 26:3; Romans 5:1; Colossians 3:15), and of constantly caring for your every need (Matthew 6:32-33; Philippians 4:19)—do you really think He will forsake you now during your period of suffering wrongfully?

Yet you may still wonder: “Why does He let me suffer unjustly?” Because He has received more glory for your suffering, and you will receive greater eternal rewards than would otherwise have been received. God is not bound by time and space (Psalm 90:4; 2 Peter 3:8). He sees this life as a mere blip in the eternal timeline He has laid out for you. After ten million years in heaven with great rewards, will you still dwell on your five, ten, or twenty years of unjust suffering? Let us hope not. God already sees you as glorified, given the completed tense of the Greek verbs in Romans 8:30: “Moreover, whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.”

Right now, if I may speak reverently, He is looking for an opportunity to boast about you. He is growing with even hotter anger (Psalm 7:11) against your enemies. He plans to judge them even more harshly—unless He chooses to magnify His grace and save some of them, as He did Saul on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:1).

The purposes of God in your suffering are real, even when they are hidden from you. You may never see the full picture this side of eternity. But you can trust the character of the God who ordained it. He is not capricious. He is not cruel. He is not indifferent. He is working all things according to the counsel of His own will (Ephesians 1:11), and His will is always, without exception, good (Romans 8:28).

How Modern Democracies Can Be as Oppressive as Ancient Tyrannies

The Christian in a modern democratic society often makes the mistake of believing that because he can vote, he is free. But the ballot box provides no protection against the tyranny of the judiciary. In my case, I was convicted by a system that allowed a politically motivated prosecutor to present a theory that violated basic physics, that relied on forensic evidence contradicted by the physical facts, and that ignored the overwhelming indications of self-defense. The judges were not elected. They were not accountable. They were not interested in the truth.

The penalties imposed by democratic states for violating proactive public policies—policies that often have no foundation in biblical morality—include fines, loss of property, loss of children, and imprisonment. The Christian who practices self-defense in a jurisdiction that forbids “disproportional defense,” who educates his children according to biblical convictions in a society that mandates state curriculum, who refuses to affirm ideologies that contradict Scripture—this Christian is as vulnerable to unjust suffering as any first-century believer under Nero. The mechanisms have changed. The reality has not.

As I pondered this from within the prison, I reflected: “There is nothing surprising going on here. It is the nature of the state to produce such corruption, and it happens all over the world, not just in Chile. More than any disease or natural disaster, nothing in history has been more lethal to people than the state.” All the social theory and public choice economics I had studied in graduate school were being confirmed at the expense of my life.

Action Steps

Read 1 Peter 2:19-25 daily during the first month of your imprisonment or ministry. Let its doctrine settle into your soul before you attempt to process your suffering emotionally.

Study the lives of Joseph, Jeremiah, Daniel, and Paul with specific attention to the duration and purpose of their suffering. Note that God did not rescue them quickly. Note that He did not explain Himself in advance. Note that He vindicated them—on His timetable, not theirs.

Memorize Romans 8:28-30. This passage is the theological anchor for every Christian in affliction. Know it by heart so that when your emotions fail you, the Word of God remains.

If you are a ministry worker, prepare to teach the doctrine of God’s sovereignty clearly and unapologetically. Inmates will ask you why God allowed their suffering. Do not answer with platitudes. Answer with Scripture. The hard truth of divine sovereignty is more sustaining than the soft comfort of vague reassurances.

Reject prosperity theology, universalism (including praying that God would bless and prosper unrepentant, sinful criminals with benefits), and easy-believism wherever you encounter them in the prison. The notion that faithfulness guarantees material or spiritual blessing and protection against demons is not merely wrong; it is spiritually destructive to men who are suffering precisely because they have been faithful. Teach them that God’s commendation of the suffering saint (1 Peter 2:20) is worth infinitely more than temporal comfort or vain hope based on errant platitudes from Gandhi (1929 thesis) that God loves the sinner but hates the sin.

Discussion Questions

How does the distinction between suffering for sin and suffering for righteousness affect how we counsel incarcerated persons? Should our approach differ based on why a person is in prison?

Read Genesis 50:20. Joseph says that God “meant” his suffering for good—not merely that God permitted it. What is the difference between these two ideas, and why does it matter theologically?

How does the biblical understanding of the state (as one of the Christian’s four enemies) challenge the common assumption that democratic governments are fundamentally benign? How should this understanding shape the church’s posture toward the criminal justice system?

If God is sovereign over all suffering, how do we reconcile His goodness with the reality of wrongful conviction and unjust imprisonment, especially of Christians? Is it possible to trust God’s purposes without understanding them?