Why Does God Allow Suffering? Part 2

In our last post (Part One) we looked at the problem of suffering and ended with the question, “What is God’s solution (the Bible's answer) to the problem of suffering?”

It is our intention now to try and answer the question as truthfully as we are able, but that briefly.

God’s solution to suffering is twofold. One, he has called to himself a particular people (the King James’ version of the Bible calls them a “peculiar” people) whom he has redeemed from the penalty of their sin; these are known as the elect or remnant (“So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace”; “And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: ‘Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved’” (Rom.11:5; Jer. 3:14) and only God knows their number. We’ll talk about them in a minute.

Second, because of his eternal and infinite holiness, justice and righteousness, God’s judgement against sin and rebellion must stand (somebody must pay the price). In the same way that God could not make a square circle or a four sided triangle, so he cannot change the judgement against sin, as that would be contrary to his very nature and being. But as we’ve seen from Genesis, God can and did find a way to mitigate the harm done by our disobedience. In the genesis account, God made coats of skin for Adam and Eve. But in the ultimate fulfillment of this mitigation we are told by the apostle John, “God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16). This same message or “good news” is found variously throughout the entire Bible. It is God’s promise that because He still loves us He will find a way that will entirely undo the harm while still allowing just punishment for the crime of disobedience to his holy will and his just laws.

But first however, I can hear someone saying, “Hey, I wasn’t even around then, when Adam ate the forbidden fruit. Why should I be punished for his crime?” While it might be true that you were not around then, Adam was nevertheless our representative before God. That is, Adam was the first human who had a personal, intimate relationship with God, as God’s first born human offspring. Adam was the first to know God personally and experientially. Whether or not you believe that Adam was the first human being and sole progenitor of the human race does not alter that fact, made clear in the first few chapters of Genesis. Adam, because of his personal relationship with God (almost like that of a high priest, who represents the people before God) was by default our representative (even while we were in his loins, so to speak). Because of that, what he did, we do. In the same way that a nation is represented by its government and its ambassadors, and must live under the consequences of decisions made by the government, or in the way that a family must live under the consequences of the parent or parents, so too must we live under the consequences of decisions made by Adam. Moreover, because we inherited our human nature from Adam (as well as being made in the image of God) we inherit the very same qualities, traits or characteristics resident in him (and Eve—the biological inheritance) that create such strong tendencies to feel, think and act in the ways we do. In the face of such argument, there is no room to deny our involvement, even in our ignorance of the true state of affairs.

So all these of whom we have been speaking—Adam’s offspring—are guilty of the same crime as their father Adam. This includes the entire human race—every single human being who has ever lived or ever will live (Christ excepted). But we should remember from our first post that suffering is the result of our disobedience and cannot be blamed on a perfectly just and righteous God. It was caused as a result of an affront to God’s holiness and glory—his very nature—not to mention his laws, and because God is eternal in himself, so must his judgment. God is perfectly just and fair in condemning us and punishing us for our rebellion against him who is our creator and sustainer. The consequence of his justice we experience as suffering.

In the first part of this post we used the illustration of a judge. We said, “That once the judge had declared the one in the dock to be guilty, he suddenly came down from the bench and into the dock himself. There, he releases the guilty party, accepts the punishment on the prisoner’s behalf and newly declares the one charged to be justified, that is, found no longer GUILTY, as there is now someone else willing to take the guilty verdict and who is able to pay the entire price of the crime, to the very last penny. Now let’s add a slight but very important change to the illustration. Let’s say that instead of one lone criminal, there were a gang of criminals, all accused of the same crimes. After a fair and just trial, the judge is forced, because of the stipulations of the law, to find these men guilty of the crimes and pronounces the binding penalty, “Death.” But then the judge gazes over the criminal gang, resting his attention on one in particular. He removes himself from the bench, going instead down into the dock to join those he has just condemned. He points to the man he had previously looked at and tells the bailiff to release him and to set him free as the judge himself has decided to accept the guilt and to pay the penalty for the crimes and who then changes his previous declaration of “Guilty” to that of “Not guilty.” The condemned man is set free and his record expunged while the judge joins the others on the gallows and pays the ultimate price.

In this parable, the gang is the mass of humanity; all without exception. As such, all are found guilty of rebellion and subject to God’s punishment and wrath for their crimes. (It is important to understand at this point that God does not go out of his way to punish this gang. He merely leaves them to the perfectly fair and just outcome of their self-chosen rebellion.) The one selected or chosen by God represents God’s elect or remnant. These God foreknew from before the foundations of the world in a special way. They are the recipient's of God's saving love and for whom God is willing and able to make a sacrifice. The condemned criminal did not seek forgiveness, did not think to ask to be released. Rather it was the sole, sovereign and completely unconditioned choice of the judge to do what he did. In theological terminology this is “grace.” Grace is the unmerited favour of God toward those who, in fact, deserve condemnation as much as anyone else. They are the guilty declared innocent and made so by the substitutional sacrifice of a Saviour.

Now, admittedly this illustration is not perfect. It raises as many issues and questions as it attempts to resolve, nevertheless, taken as a kind of parable, it helps us to understand God’s solution to sin and suffering.

God’s solution to suffering is this: to permit it, because he must since it is a consequence of disobedience to his immutable nature and laws, but to provide a select number—and those he forms into his church, his elect—the wherewithal to accept suffering with a good heart and the assurance that they have a reward waiting for them, partially in this life—their freedom from eternal condemnation—as well as a promise of redemption and reward in a world remade in God’s true and original image.

The bible does not promise surcease from pain or suffering while being in the world. Indeed, in the OT, Job affirms the predicament of Adam’s race when he says, “But man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward” (Job 5:7). And Christ adds weight to this when he tells his disciples, “In the world you will have trouble” (John 16:33b). So it would seem that even for God’s chosen people, his elect, those he loves with a special love, there is no complete relief from the circumstances that cause suffering. And this is certainly true, as we can see from history. God’s people have fared no differently—in terms of their circumstances and experiences in the world—than others, “Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish” (Luke 13:4-5).

But yet we have this promise “that God loved the world and gave his son (as the payment for our sin) so that all those who come to believe in Him will be saved.” We are saved, not just from something—sin and death, “For the wages of sin is death”—but also for something—God’s glory and our enjoyment of him forever; “but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom.6:23).

In the verse quoted earlier (John 16:33b) there is more than the bare statement. There is yet another promise. Let me quote the entire well-known verse: “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” (John 16:33, italics added).

These words were addressed to Jesus’ church, God’s elect, “I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word” (John 17:6). These people include others from different times as well as places, “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me” (John 17:20-21).

So what do God’s elect get that others don’t? The promise is not the eradication or abolishment of any experience that may culminate in suffering. In order to make that happen, God would have to disregard not only his will as revealed to us in scripture, but also his very nature, which cannot be. For God’s people, those who come to believe in him as Saviour and Lord (John 3:16), do not seek to escape suffering, knowing, as we have seen, that it is not possible to do so in any event, because of God’s justice and eternal purpose. Rather, the Christian (and the church as a whole) is not to escape from suffering but to be able to bear suffering with the dignity and the hope that assurance of faith will bring. God (in such verses as John 16:33; 15:4 among many others) has given us His promise that just as Christ has overcome the world, and has prepared a place in Heaven for us as his friends and disciples (John 14:2) and is eager to welcome us home (Matt.25:21) so we too, in Christ as God’s adopted sons and daughters, may overcome the world by being faithful (to him) to the end (2 Tim. 4:7; 1 John 5:4). This is our hope and assurance in faith. It is not by our own strength that we are able to overcome and bear our burdens, with dignity and patience, but rather it is the work of God who enables and empowers us to do so. On our own we would not have any such ability whatsoever, “Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the LORD of hosts” (Zech. 4:6); “’My grace [Christ’s] is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I [Paul] will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me."

Moreover, as an added “benefit” or as a partial compensation, God’s elect have the assurance that God’s strength will be used by God for their continuing growth in grace as a way to build character, “It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes” (Psalm 119:71); “Behold, it was for my welfare that I had great bitterness; but in love you have delivered my life from the pit of destruction, for you have cast all my sins behind your back” (Isaiah 38:17); “According to his great mercy, he [God] has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 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” (1 Peter 1:3-8). “But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed...for it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God’s will, than for doing evil. For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit” (1 Peter 3:17-18)

So, hopefully, we now come to understand that suffering is a consequence of having a fallen nature in a fallen world. While it is unavoidable it is neither God’s will nor God’s fault, but our own. Hopefully we have also come to understand that there is a partial reprieve in the here and now from the painful effects of these circumstances which so often result in varying degrees of suffering—but only for those who, as God’s elect, have come to believe the promise or “good news” and who repent, turning away from all that displeases God, “Zion [God’s people all together] shall be redeemed by justice, and those in her who repent, by righteousness” (Isa. 1:27). “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15). “Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live” (John 11:25). “For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive” (1 Cor. 15:22).

Although we cannot hope to completely escape God’s punishment for our sin and the consequence of that sin which is suffering, yet we have a certain hope that there awaits a partial reprieve here and now, and eventually a complete and total redemption from all sin and suffering for God’s people and this by God’s revealed and eternal will, “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.’ And he who was seated on the throne said, ‘Behold, I am making all things new.’ Also he said, ‘Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.’ And he said to me, ‘It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment’” (Rev. 21:1-6).

Soli Deo Gloria.