Making Sense of the Coronavirus Outbreak
A series of video talks given by our pastor, Revd. Spencer Cunnah, during the worldwide coronavirus outbreak of 2020.
Part 1 – Monday 30th March 2020
Part 2 – Tuesday 31st March 2020
Part 3 – Wednesday 1st April
Part 4 – Thursday 2nd April 2020
Here is the full text of this series
Introduction
How do Christians make sense of a viral epidemic like the coronavirus outbreak? Let’s start with a Biblical fact. The Lord Jesus Christ has all knowledge and authority over the natural and supernatural forces of this world.
Psalm 33 verse 11 says that ‘The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of His heart to all generations’
The Lord knows exactly how and where this virus pandemic started. He has complete power to restrain it or not. Neither sin, nor Satan, nor sickness is stronger than the Lord Jesus Christ. He’s never backed into a corner. He is never forced to tolerate what He does not will.
So, the question is how are we to understand what is happening in this coronavirus pandemic? Can we make sense out of it? Over the next few days, I am going to look at four biblical realities that we can use as building blocks in our effort to understand what is happening.
- Trust God’s sovereignty
Christians trust in God’s sovereignty and therefore are to be characterised by peace in the face of anxious circumstances.
Isaiah 26:3-4 ‘You will keep him or her in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on you, because he or she trusts in You. Trust in the Lord forever, for in YARWEH, the LORD, is everlasting strength.’
Where does Christian peace come from? From staying or resting our minds on God and trusting Him. Whenever trouble threatens, we need to stay our minds on the Lord. We need to remind ourselves of the great truths about who God is – Father, Son and Holy Spirit; one God in three Persons.
We believe, for example, in the sovereignty of God. That’s something we need to stay our mind on as this coronavirus pandemic spreads. We believe that the Lord is King over all the forces of nature.
Psalm 29 tells us that the Lord sends forth His voice – as He did in the beginning at Creation – and nature obeys.
Psalm 29:10 The Lord sat enthroned at the Flood, and the Lord sits as King forever.
The word for flood is the word used of the great flood in Noah’s day — a fearful disaster that engulfed every nation and every creature. Yet the Lord was in control of that, bringing His good and righteous purposes to pass.
The Lord asked Job in Job 38:8-11 – “Who shut in the sea with doors, when it burst forth and issued from the womb; when I made the clouds its garment and thick darkness its swaddling band; when I fixed My limit for it and set bars and doors; when I said, This far you may come, but no farther, and here your proud waves must stop!”
God sets limits not just for the waves but for everything in the universe. The waters of the flood are often a symbol in Scripture for evil — but they are not outside of the Lord’s will. Viruses, no less than the waters, are subject to His mighty will. There is not a single molecule anywhere in the universe that is outside of God’s sovereignty.
We may not always understand the details of God’s plan, but we know that it is perfect. Who knows how the Lord will use this disease? In China, for example, the Christians of Wuhan have put themselves in harm’s way to show practical love and help to the people of their city. This comes at just the time when the Chinese authorities are cracking down on Christians. New regulations came into force in China on 1 February this year which required religious leaders and organisations to display complete devotion to the Chinese Communist Party. Yet Christians are displaying complete devotion to Jesus and showing how the church outsuffers the world.
We know too that the Lord has ordained the exact number of our days.
Psalm 139:16 ‘In Your book were written all the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them.’
Nothing in all creation can alter the time and the manner of our death – it will be whatever the Lord in His sovereign, wise and gracious will has ordained. It cannot be brought by bad luck causing us to get infected and die before our time. So the Lord Jesus Christ tells all those who trust in Him not to worry, because it will not add a single hour to our lifespan (Matthew 6:27).
- Trust God’s sovereignty
- Recognise creation’s futility
When sin entered the world through Adam and Eve’s rebellion, God ordained that the created order, including our physical bodies, as persons created in His image, would experience corruption and futility, and that all living things would die.
Christians, by being saved through the gospel of God’s grace, do not escape this physical corruption, futility, and death.
The basis of this point is Romans 8:20–23: – 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. 23 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.
The day is coming when all creation will be set free from its bondage to disease and disaster and death and inherit the freedom of the glory of the children of God. Until then, Christians — even we who have the Spirit — groan with all creation, sharing in the corruption and futility and disease and disasters and death, as we wait with groaning for the redemption of our bodies. That will happen at the resurrection on the Last Day.
The difference for Christians, those who trust in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation, is that our experience of this corruption is not condemnation. God has not destined us for wrath (1 Thessalonians 5:9). We die of disease like all people because of the Fall. But for those who are in Christ, the sting of death is removed (1 Corinthians 15:55).
The Bible also speaks of God as the Protector of those who trust in Him. Yet Christians are dying of coronavirus. Is the Bible really true? Can we find comfort from the word of God in these uncertain times? We certain can! Let me show you why the Bible is true, and why the word of God can bring us great comfort as we face the coronavirus threat.
At the time of the Lord Jesus Christ’s temptation in wilderness Satan challenged Jesus to throw Himself down from the temple and to be divinely delivered from death, to show that He was the Messiah. Satan tried to convince Jesus that since God’s promises promised deliverance from suffering and death, God would deliver Him.
The Lord Jesus Christ responded by referring to the Scripture which forbade putting God to the test. What Satan would only later learn is that the promises of the word of God were ultimately fulfilled through the suffering and death of Jesus, on the cross of Calvary. God promises deliverance to those who trust in the Lord Jesus Christ because Jesus would suffer in their behalf on the cross, and would rise from the dead, the Victor over sin, and death, and Satan.
Indeed, the suffering of Jesus is the reason why the people of God are protected and removed from suffering. The important question is this:
From what sufferings are Christians delivered? From what dangers and destruction are we delivered?
The Bible does not promise Christians a long, trouble-free life on this present earth. But it does assure believers that in Christ we escape the wrath of God. In this life, we do not need to fear danger or even death, for the Lord Jesus Christ will raise us from death to eternal life, in His presence, free from pain and sickness and sorrow. That is the Christian hope, and thus we can rejoice even in suffering and death.
This hope is not for everyone, but only for those who have turned to God for their security and safety. Jesus Christ suffered the wrath of God, and by faith in Him, we may be sheltered from it. If you would share that hope you must trust in the only Saviour of sinners, the Lord Jesus Christ. May you experience such joy and hope in believing in the Lord Jesus Christ as your Saviour and King.
- Trust God’s sovereignty
- Recognise creation’s futility
- Hear God’s megaphone
All natural disasters — whether floods, famines, locusts, tsunamis, or diseases — are a shout of divine mercy in the midst of judgment, calling all people everywhere to repent and realign their lives, by grace, with the infinite worth of the glory of God by trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ.
The basis for that building block is Luke 13:1–5. Pilate had slaughtered worshippers in the temple. The tower in Siloam had collapsed and killed eighteen bystanders. The crowds want make sense of it all. So they ask the Lord Jesus Christ: Tell us what you think about this disaster. These people were standing there, and now they’re dead.
What is God saying to us?
Here’s Jesus’s answer in Luke 13:4–5: – Those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them, do you think that they were worse sinners than all other men who dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you, no; but unless you repent [notice that the Lord Jesus Christ shifts from them to you], you will all likewise perish.
Now, that’s the message of Jesus to the world under the coronavirus threat at this moment in history — a message to every single human being. Me, and you, and everybody, even every ruler on the planet – we are all receiving a megaphone message from God, saying, Repent.
I think all national rulers and authorities should especially pay attention, rulers and authorities in our own nation, and particularly those in nations who have become increasingly harsh and repressive against followers of Jesus Christ. Repent and seek God’s mercy. Repent and call on the name of Jesus Christ for forgiveness of sin and acceptance before God. Bring your lives — remember this applies to all of us — bring your lives into alignment with the wonderful grace of God in JC. To repent means to turn away from a life built around yourself and to wholeheartedly entrust yourself to Jesus Christ so that He becomes first and central in your life. hear God’s megaphone. Do not harden your heart. Today is a gospel day, a day of gospel opportunity. May it be for you a day of salvation.
- Trust God’s sovereignty
- Recognise creation’s futility
- Hear God’s megaphone
- Be lights in the darkness
I’m not a healthcare expert. But I am a minister of the gospel, and can tell you that we there is someone we can turn to for any and all crises, including a health issue like this coronavirus pandemic. That wonderful person is the Lord Jesus Christ who gives us forgiveness, peace and hope.
For believers, this is a time to remember that our hope is not in our physical health. Neither our health, our job or the financial markets provide the source of our identity.
Psalm 20:7 puts it like this: – ‘Some trust in chariots and some in horses; But we will remember the name of the LORD our God.’
We might say: Some trust in their health, their job or their bank balance, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God.
This is critical to remember when fear threatens to overcome our hearts. God is sovereign and He is not taken by surprise by a virus pandemic.
Neither is He disinterested in our fears. He is our rock, our light, and our salvation (Psalm 27:1). You know, this might be a good time to look to the Bible instead of sensationalist media outlets for support.
As Christians in the UK we are accustomed to security. Suddenly as the possibility for reversal becomes greater, it is how we respond in times when we feel powerless and vulnerable that may offer Christians the opportunity to witness to others. Jesus tells Christians to let our light shine in a dark world, and our response in a time like this may be such a time to shine.
The history of the church abounds with examples of the church stepping into the darkness of suffering to shine as lights.
Let’s look back in history:
Sociologist Rodney Stark explored one such one example. In AD 251 a plague swept through the Roman Empire decimating the population. In his Easter letter around AD 260, Dionysius wrote a tribute to the believers whose heroic efforts cost many of them their lives during that plague.
Pagans tended to flee the cities during plagues. But Christians were more likely to stay and minister to the suffering. According to Dionysius:
Most of our brother Christians showed unbonded love and loyalty, never sparing themselves and thinking only of one another. Needless of danger, they took charge of the sick, attending to their every need and ministering to them in Christ, and with them departed this life serenely happy.
Dionysius added:
The best of our brothers lost their lives in this manner… winning high commendation so that death in this form, the result of great piety and strong faith, seems in every way the equal of martyrdom.
This example reminds Christians that the gospel calls us to live sacrificially in the face of crisis. Although fear can threaten to flood our hearts and tempt us to panic or hoard, Scripture anchors our hope in a God who is greater than the pain we endure in this life. History reveals that even in the storms we must weather, there are windows of opportunity to minister in times of calamity. In doing so we testify to the truth that world is not our home, we are citizens of another world. We seek a city which has foundations whose builder and maker is God. The city of God.
Prayer-infused confidence, compassion, and selflessness should mark how we live in the midst of this coronavirus pandemic. Why? Because our Saviour put on flesh and stepped into our sickness, sin, and death. He healed the sick and cared for the hurting. We must do likewise.
None of this means we should be reckless. Neither Christ’s love nor God’s Word encourages careless risks, but both promote obedience. Loving the sick doesn’t mean we intentionally infect ourselves. It means taking small practical steps like washing our hands and staying home if we’re sick. Seek appropriate medical care as symptoms arise.
But as we watch the world react to this crisis — itself a stark reminder of our mortality — if you are a Christian don’t neglect to share the hope you have in Jesus. Share how Jesus has rescued you from the universal epidemic of sin and the penalty of death. Share that your hope is not found in remaining healthy this side of heaven.
Eventually we all face death. But thanks to the Lord Jesus Christ we can come to that day with confidence. For the Christian, to live is Christ, but to die is gain. We truly have ultimately nothing to fear. Jesus is King.
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