How Does God Turn Evil Into Good?

Genesis 50:20

How does God turn evil into good? How is it possible for something bad and hurtful to actually produces something good and helpful?

There are many ways God turns what was meant for evil into good. In this article I am going to share 4 ways God turns evil into good according to the Bible.

God Turns Evil Into Good When Our Suffering Ends Up Benefiting Others

One way God turns evil into good is when our pain ends up producing something useful for many other people. When our suffering teaches us something that we can teach others, and thus helping many avoid pain because we endured pain, God is using what was meant for evil for good.

Genesis 50:20, “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.”

Colossians 1:24, “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church . . . .”

God Turns Evil Into Good When Our Suffering Causes Us to Seek God More

Another way God can transform an evil circumstance into something good for us is by using our suffering to cause us to seek him more. God is the best. Sometimes when we live moderately comfortable lives we are stuck in the dangers of look warm waters.

God wants us passionate for him. Sometimes he allows evil and trials to make our lives worse so that we are motivated to seek him more. When we experience more of God’s goodness because evil made us run to him, God has turned what was meant for evil into good.

2 Corinthians 12:7-10, “So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. ⁸ Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. ⁹ But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. ¹⁰ For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

God Turns Evil Into Good When He Empowers Us to Reflect Him in Trials

Another way God can turn evil into good is being using our trials as stages for us to reflect his glory. God made us to glorify him. God is glorified when we bear his image. Sometimes the best way to bear the image of a holy God is against the backdrop of an unholy world. When we are surrounded by evil and darkness we can shine that much more brightly for Christ.

1 Peter 1:6-7, “In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, ⁷ so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”

Matthew 5:11-12, “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. ¹² Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

Philippians 1:29-30, “For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake, ³⁰ engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had and now hear that I still have.”

Philippians 2:14-16, “¹⁴ Do all things without grumbling or disputing, ¹⁵ that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, ¹⁶ holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.”

God Turns Evil Into Good By Glorifying Himself Through His Gospel and Grace

The ultimate way God turns what was meant for evil into good is through the gospel of Jesus Christ. Sin does not glorify God. But God uses sin for his glory by saving us from sin. When God sent his son to save us, he displayed his glory in the most profound way possible. Through the gospel God redeems us of sin and evil and thus brings himself immense glory. Therefore when we allow God’s grace to redeem us from our sins, God is turning what was meant for evil into good.

Ephesians 1: 4-6, 11-14, “In love ⁵ he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, ⁶ to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. . . .

¹¹ In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, ¹² so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. ¹³ In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, ¹⁴ who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.”

Ephesians 2:4-7, “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, ⁵ even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— ⁶ and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, ⁷ so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”

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