If God is God, why is there a terrifying disease such as Sars? That question must be on many of our minds. It is not as if we do not have enough pain to bear. 

A war in Iraq. Terrorism with no signs of abating. Recession with no light of improving. If God is God, why is there pain?

For us as Christians, we should ask a different question: If God is God, why shouldn’t there be Sars? For the Bible gives us a rather different view of life. Because God is God and God is true, there will be Sars. Why?

God in His Word, the Bible, tells us we have sinned by rebelling against Him and his rightful rule over us. As a consequence of our sin, we now live in a world of disease, decay and death. This is the present order of things. This is the life we expect without God. This is the world we expect without God - a world of “death, mourning, crying, pain” (Revelation 21:4).    

 So, God is God and God is true.  Yet the world we live in and the life we live keeps denying sin, disease and death as the real state of affairs.

 We banish the word “sin” from our daily vocabulary but experience sin in our daily lives. We confine the sick to hospitals while we work on the glow of good health in our gyms. We send the aged to old folks home to postpone the reality of death. We actually do a pretty good job of living without sin, disease and death -  without God, in short.

 Ever so often though in such a time like this, the truth of God – which is more potent than any virus – breaks out of our quarantine. The truth leaks out from our hospitals. It shouts out from our funeral parlors. We pretend we are unafraid of death, only of nurses at crowded places. The weaker the argument, the louder the voice: We do live in a world of sin, disease and death.

 When we live with such a fierce denial of God we swing between optimism and pessimism.

 When things are good, the sky is the limit. There is nothing we cannot achieve. Optimism feeds our dreams. When things are bad, the ceiling is the limit. There is nothing we can achieve. Pessimism drowns our spirits.

 Christians should be neither optimists nor pessimists. We are realists. We are realists because we have been convicted by God to acknowledge we are sinners. Like the rest of fallen humanity, we will get sick and we will die as part of the old order.

 Belief in Jesus does not simplistically immunize us against disease nor fortify us against death in this world. So Esther Mok tragically loses her parents, Pastor Simon Loh dies, Dr Ong Hok Su succumbs. All believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. None are spared the old order of the fallen world. None are more sinful or cursed than the rest of us (Luke 13:1-5).       

 We are realists, however, not just because we recognize we belong to the old order but, more so, to the new world order that Jesus has come to usher in as God’s Christ (king).

 It is a new world order where sin is forgiven and diseases are healed. Jesus revealed this in his life. It is a new world order where death is reversed forever. Jesus accomplished this in his death on the cross and his resurrection from the dead.

  So, by faith in Jesus, we now live in the “in-between”. We are in between two ages with two towers of reality.

 One reality is that we are not magically vaccinated from the old order of disease and death. Yet, the other reality is that we do belong to the majestic kingdom of God where sin, disease and death will no longer be the last word.

So how should we live in a time like this? It is all the more important for Christians to reaffirm our faith in Jesus, our love for the saints and our hope in heaven (Colossians 1:3). This will affect our relationship with God, Christians and the world.

a.       Our relationship with God

We should examine whether we have faith or belief in this person called Christ Jesus. Do I believe that: Jesus died for my sin, paid for my death, delivers me from God’s judgment, promises me eternal life with God? 

 b.      Our relationship with Christians

This faith in Christ should lead to love for the saints (Christians). What decisions and actions we take must flow from both knowledge and love (1 Corinthians 8-10).

Knowledge may “liberate” some to be bolder. Some will have no problem meeting for fellowship in services and in groups. Yet others may be “weaker” in this area. Our love for the “weaker” in conscience about this disease, and at this time, may compel us to act otherwise. Whatever the case, we must not allow our different positions on Sars, or any other issue, to be the litmus test to measure authentic Christian faith.