2026
Life Is Not Fair!
Rev. Kenneth Redmann
Life does not always seem fair. We experience disappointment, suffering, loss, and circumstances that leave us asking where God is and why He has allowed these things to happen. In this sermon, Rev. Kenneth Redmann points us to the promises of Romans 8 and reminds us that nothing can separate God’s people from His love in Christ Jesus.
As an LCMS church in Tampa, Zion Lutheran Church proclaims the comforting truth that Jesus has conquered sin, death, and the devil. Even when life feels unfair, Christians can remain confident that God is faithful and that He works through all things for the good of those who love Him.
May the meditations of our hearts and the words of my lips be acceptable to You, O Lord. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Buried within the midst of our Epistle lesson this morning is the lament of God’s people. It almost seems out of place, “FOR YOUR SAKE we are being killed all the day long’ we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered” The holy writer, St. Paul, is encouraging his readers that the love of God is greater than tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword. Inspired by the Holy Spirit, Paul cites a passage from the Psalmist where he is crying out to the Lord that God’s Chosen People, FOR YOUR SAKE, are being killed all day long; they are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. That does not sound fair.
Hear the Word of the Lord from Psalm 44:
22 Yet for your sake we are killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.
And then the Psalmist tells God what he is REALLY feeling. The Bible continues:
23 Awake! Why are you sleeping, O Lord? Rouse yourself! Do not reject us forever!
24 Why do you hide your face? Why do you forget our affliction and oppression?
25 For our soul is bowed down to the dust; our belly clings to the ground.
26 Rise up; come to our help! Redeem us for the sake of your steadfast love!
Beloved in the Lord, we have all been there—right? How often have we not heard; how often have we not thought; how often have we not cried out ourselves, “Why! O, Lord!” or “Where were You, O Lord, when I needed you?” or “Life is not fair!”
And then there is this:
Dateline, New York, October 29, 1998, The New York Times:
After eight years behind bars for a double-murder conviction based entirely on what prosecutors now concede was fabricated testimony, a Brooklyn man was exonerated and freed yesterday by a judge who apologized to him for ”the entire judicial system.” The judge also expressed shock that he himself had been ”fooled” by the witness.
The man, Jeffrey Blake, . . . first lowered his head when Acting Justice Robert S. Kreindler dismissed the case against him.
Now THAT was not fair! The story continued:
Then, as the court session ended and Mr. Blake was ”now a free man,” as the judge put it, the liberated Mr. Blake hugged Michelle Fox, the Legal Aid Society lawyer who had led the effort to convince prosecutors that his conviction had been fully based on perjury and should be thrown out.
”You did it, thank you,” Mr. Blake said softly as he embraced Ms. Fox.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, as sinners, we are guilty as charged—the Bible says,all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, (Rm 8.23). YET, by grace through faith, we are declared completely innocent by God for Christ’s sake. Hear the Word of the Lord, (we) are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, (Rm 8.24).
Therefore, Paul asks rhetorically “Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect?” Paul continues, almost indignantly, “It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us” (vv 33-34).
Victory over sin is ours through Christ!
But in Christ, there is even more! God not only forgives our sin for Christ’s sake; God promises to use our sins (and the sins of others) in ways that work together for our good. You know the verse. You have heard the verse time and again. The verse is one of the most frequently MIS-quoted verses in all of Scripture. Here is the verse:
We know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose (Rm 8.28).
Beloved in the Lord, you heard it correctly. ALL THINGS. It is astounding! The “all things” therefore, MUST even include our sins—and the sins of others.
Biblical examples abound: Joseph’s brothers sinned against him horribly, “but God meant it for good” (Gen 50.20). Peter denied Christ three times, but Jesus three times reinstated him and called him to even greater ministry and discipleship (Cf Jn 21:15-19).
Paul was “the foremost” of sinners, and yet, precisely for this reason, Jesus chose Paul in order to “display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life” (I Tim 1.15-16).
And God’s holy Word declares, “In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us” (Rm 8.37).
***Through Christ, we ARE more than conquerors over SIN.
And the riches of God’s grace does not stop there.
The wages of sin is death, as we confess, temporal and eternal death, but hear this, “I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rm 8.38-39). Even death cannot separate us who believe from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Victory over death is ours in Christ!
Furthermore, the NEW life and NEW creation promised and won by Christ is even greater than God’s original plan. As perfectly “good” as God’s original creation was, the Biblical depictions of God’s NEW creation (Rev 21.1-4) and of our NEW, glorified bodies (I Cor 15.35-58) suggest that by virtue of Christ’s death and resurrection, eternal life in heaven will be exceedingly MORE glorious than the perfection of the original creation. And unlike the lesser glory in the Garden of Eden, heaven’s glory will be everlasting, forever unspoiled by sin, evil, suffering, death, and the devil.
Even our great enemy, death, is “swallowed up in victory” through Christ’s death and resurrection (Cf I Cor 15.54-56). St. Francis of Assisi understood this full well. In speaking of death for the Christian, he said, that death is “most kind and gentle” since
It leads to heaven the child of God,
Where Christ our Lord the way has trod (Lutheran Worship hymnal 436.6)
***Through Christ, we are more than conquerors over DEATH.
And there is more! Satan is indeed the “lord” of this world (II Cor 4.4; Jn 12.31). But Jesus has overcome the world and its cruel “lord” and has shared His victory with YOU. You have been freely elected, called and justified by God in Christ. VICTORY OVER THE DEVIL is yours in Christ!
Christ has not only defeated Satan; He now mocks and frustrates Satan by using the devil’s own weapons against him. Yes! It is true! The “ALL THINGS” in verse 28 must also include the works and the wiles of the devil!
Satan, the accuser, will never stop shoving our sins in our face. Don’t you just love the deviant Martin Luther? Luther suggests that you and I, when Satan is accusing us—again—that we can retort against Satan by saying: “Just by telling me that I am a miserable, great sinner you, Satan, are placing a sword and weapon into my hand with which…I can kill and floor you. For if you can tell me that I am a poor sinner, I, on the other hand, can tell you that Christ died for sinners and is their Intercessor” (What Luther Says, comp. Ewald M. Plass, vol. 1 [CPH, 1959, 1190).
The Bible says, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?” (Rm 8.35). The devil constantly attempts to use such things to weaken or even destroy our faith in Christ.
But God continually turns the tables on the devil by causing even our sufferings to work together for our good and to intensify our longing for the “hope of the glory” that is ours in Christ (cf Rm 5.1-5). “For I am SURE,” we can say with Paul, “that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rm 8.38-39).
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us (Rm 8.37).
***Through Christ, we are more than conquerors over the devil!
Beloved in the Lord, let us close with this: Jesus teaches us, “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world” (Jn 16.33).
Therefore, dear Christian, whatever tribulation you are experiencing this day, whatever the circumstance that the devil or the world or our own sinful nature that is causing you to cry out, “O, Lord, this is not fair!”, turn, I implore you, to your ever-faithful, ever-truthful, ever-dependable God.
He sent His only Son to live and die and rise for you. He speaks to you through His inspired and inerrant Word through His Holy Spirit. In Christ, God has already purchased and won for you all the treasures of His heavenly Kingdom.
God grant it for Jesus’ sake. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future (Jer 29.11).
Life in this fallen world will include tribulation, hardship, and moments that do not seem fair. However, Christians do not face those struggles alone. Through His death and resurrection, Jesus has secured forgiveness, eternal life, and victory for everyone who trusts in Him. Nothing in this world or the next can separate believers from the love of God in Christ Jesus.
Zion Lutheran Church is a traditional Lutheran church in Tampa where God’s Word is faithfully taught and Christ’s saving work remains at the center of worship. We invite you to join us as we receive the comfort, hope, and peace found only in Jesus.
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