Making Sense Out of Suffering

The heart wonders The mind asks The heart to calm her soul The mind to satisfy his thoughts Together they journey Will they find what they seek?

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“If God is so good, why is there suffering?”

A million-dollar question. I wish there was a short answer to this, but I think that’s part of the problem—we usually look for simple, short answers to such questions. Maybe there is a shortcut, I don’t know. But I’d like to reflect on this question the long (as in super loooooong) way.

Okay. So if God is a good, kind, loving God, why is there suffering in this world? The problem, I believe, is that many times, the gospel is not preached in its entirety, or the less appealing parts are glossed over, leaving us with an incomplete picture of who God is.

This is what people want to hear: “Believe in Jesus Christ, and you will have eternal life. Not only will you have eternal life, but also a good life here on earth. Because God loves you and cares for you and has good plans for you.” Are these all true? Yes, of course! But if we preach the gospel that way, cutting out the less comfortable parts, then we’re doing more harm than good. We have to read through the whole book to appreciate the ending.

So. What’s the full story?

Once upon a time, God created man to live in paradise where everything was provided, and everything was good (Gen 1). He commanded us this, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” (Gen 2:16-17). Disobedience therefore, will result in death. Still, man disobeyed and was banished from paradise (Gen 3). Ever since, “God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Gen 6:5). We can only imagine the kind of suffering this evil brought (and still brings). This gave God so much grief, to the point that He even regretted making man and decided to wipe out the human race (Gen 6:6-7). And He did, during the great flood, except that He saved some people (Noah and his family), for Noah “found grace in the eyes of the Lord” (Gen 6:8) and God found him “righteous in his generation” (Gen 7:1).

We have to read through the whole book to appreciate the ending.

Let’s pause for a moment here and look at what just happened. God, being our creator, had the power to wipe out the entire human race, to literally crumple everything into a ball and start anew with a fresh, sinless, batch of humans. He could have done it then, and He could easily do it now. But He didn’t. Why? It was because of His grace. It was because of His love. Remember the rainbow? It was a promise that God wouldn’t send a flood to destroy the earth anymore, a covenant between God and the living creatures of the earth (Gen 9:12-16). God, in His grace, chose to save some of these undeserving creatures simply because He loved them and He is faithful to His covenant (Deut 7:7-9). God wouldn’t go against His very nature—love.

On the other hand, we may ask, ‘Why then didn’t God just let our sin go? Why didn’t he just forgive and forget?’ First, we have to establish that God is a just and righteous God (Deut 32:4, Daniel 9:14). Now imagine a murderer standing in front of a judge, who rules the man ‘not guilty’ simply because he could. That doesn’t make sense, does it? Each one of us, guilty of sin, deserved to die for our own sin. God didn’t make our sin disappear even if He could, because He wouldn’t go against His very nature—just. God is both loving and just. He is, no doubt, good.

Now back to the story. Was the earth cleansed of sin after the great flood? No, because as we can see from the rest of scripture—the Old Testament accounts—sin was evident in humanity. It was evident in the New Testament accounts. We just take one look around us and see that it is evident even to this day. And sin leads to death. Man, being sinful, deserves death. This is the first uncomfortable truth of the gospel. We have to acknowledge our sinfulness. We have to accept the fact that our hearts are inclined towards evil and that we deserve death because of our disobedience.

And sin leads to death. Man, being sinful, deserves death. This is the first uncomfortable truth of the gospel.

I believe the next part is more familiar. Remember how God is just and won’t sweep our sin under the rug? And how He is loving that He wouldn’t send us all to our deaths? He thought of one way--someone had to pay. And it can’t be any of us humans because we are the ones at fault. We are the ones that need saving. Someone with a sinless heart will have to pay. And that’s the good news. God, in His love, made a way for us to be reunited with Him. It is ONLY by God’s grace that we even have this chance of not being ruled ‘guilty’. Enter the most popular verse in the bible John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.” Isn’t that good news? We only need to believe in Jesus Christ and we’ll be saved?

And that’s the good news. God, in His love, made a way for us to be reunited with Him.

This is good news indeed. But is it really so easy to believe?

At this point we have to take a closer look at our Savior. Do you know how much Jesus Christ suffered just to fulfill His role as the ultimate sacrifice? His death wasn’t an instant, peaceful death. He died a horrifying and humiliating death. Before that, He was hated by the world (John 15:18), troubled in His spirit as He endured betrayal from one of His closest disciples (John 13:21), denied by Peter three times, and was even left alone (John 16:32). Needless to say, Jesus Christ suffered a lot—physically, emotionally, mentally. Remember how He even cried, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me”? (Matthew 27:46). Just how much suffering did Jesus endure that He had to cry out as such?

As we can see, Jesus Christ is not some happy-go-lucky hero who saved the world by His magical powers. Jesus Christ came to save by dying a horrible death. And He suffered a lot. A LOT. This is the second uncomfortable truth of the gospel. Salvation came into the world through suffering. For someone who claims to believe in Christ, one must believe in all of Him—including His suffering. For someone who claims to be a disciple of Christ, this means sharing in this suffering.

This is the second uncomfortable truth of the gospel. Salvation came into the world through suffering.

And so we continue with the story. Jesus Christ died. As in He was a dead human for three days. But on the third day, His human body came back to life. Christ’s work of salvation did not end with death, but with His resurrection. By His coming alive, salvation is made complete. This is a sign of God’s everlasting love for His people, a sign of His promise that He will build us up again, so we may find rest and joy in Him (Jer 31:4). This assures us that the life of a believer doesn’t end with physical death. We are given hope of eternal life in Him.

At this point, do take a few moments to read John 17. It is a beautiful and heart-warming prayer by Jesus himself for believers past, present and future, because He knew the difficult road ahead of them. Because He knew that we would, and must, share with His suffering. It speaks of eternal life, of God’s glory, of joy, of protection, and of love. A true disciple of Christ, aware of the suffering he will go through, will be able to endure and overcome because greater is his hope for eternal life, and greater is the love of the One who dwells in him.

Have we answered the million-dollar question? I hope so. First, there is suffering because sin exists. Since God is good and just, He will not wipe away sin, hence suffering will remain. Second, for believers, suffering is a mark of living a Christ-like life. This is probably why Paul was able to see suffering in a positive light (Romans 5:3, 2 Corinthians 12:10, Colossians 1:11). Since God is good, He is able to take the suffering of His people and use it for His glory. Suffering is NEVER meaningless, and it is only by knowing Christ that we are able to see suffering for what it truly is.

I end with words from Gene Veith, “Why doesn’t God just make everything good and perfect? He did—in the paradise that we rejected—and He will, in the eternal paradise that He has prepared for His people.”

To God be the glory forever and ever.

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P.S. Grabe no ang haba haha. But it doesn’t answer everything and only opens doors to more questions. Which is good, I think. Praying this could help jumpstart journeys of seeking and questioning. For the Lord is generous to those who seek wisdom for the advancement of his kingdom. And God is good. He really is.