HOW CAN AN ALL-POWERFUL AND LOVING GOD ALLOW …

HOW CAN AN ALL-POWERFUL AND LOVING GOD ALLOW PEOPLE TO SUFFER? | .AU/SUFFERING

HOW CAN AN ALL-POWERFUL AND LOVING GOD ALLOW PEOPLE TO SUFFER?

.AU/SUFFERING

The question of suffering is one we all face. At times it is immediate and acute for example, when I am reminded of my grandmother's dementia, or at the funeral of a friend's stillborn child. But even on happier occasions, the reality of suffering nags away in the background. Life in this world can be painful, cruel, and fleeting. How can an all powerful and loving God allow people to suffer?

1. God and suffering do not peacefully coexist.

The first thing to say is that the person asking this question already has a sense of a profound moral and theological truth.

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God and suffering do not peacefully coexist. As the questioner rightly assumes, there is an essential incompatibility between an omnipotent, benevolent God, and the suffering of the people he made in his image. That is not to suggest that God has lost control or forfeited his power when we suffer. Job, despite his inability to fathom the reason for his suffering, acknowledged - rightly - that the Lord gives and the Lord takes away, that both good and trouble came from God (Job 1:21-22; 2:10).1 Nevertheless, there is in the bible a tension between suffering and the goodness of God.2 "God is love", and "love does no harm to a neighbour" (1 John 4:8; Romans 13:10).

This basic incompatibility between the love of God and human suffering is amply demonstrated in the ministry of Jesus. When Jesus met people in pain like the widow whose only son had just died - his heart was stirred with compassion.3 But he did not merely empathise with them; he healed them. He cured the sick. He raised the widow's son. He gave sight to the blind. He cleansed the leper. He fed the hungry. At the tomb of his friend Lazarus, Jesus wept (John 11:35) - but he was also angry (John 11:33, 38). He was incensed in his spirit by death's intrusion into God's creation. The Son of God did not accommodate human suffering; he opposed it.

This essential incompatibility between God's love and human suffering provides a basis for hope for all Christians.

By its wording, the question "How can God allow suffering?" seeks an answer that will resolve the tension, that will explain all suffering, that will make sense of the pain.

But for the people of God who suffer in the bible, the more common question is not "How can...?" but "How long...?"

My soul is in deep anguish. How long, LORD, how long? (Psalm 6:3) How long, LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide

your face from me? How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and day after day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me? (Psalm 13:1-2)4

The question "How can...?" anticipates an explanation that will make sense of suffering. The question "How long...?" anticipates a solution which will end

1 The writer emphasises the truth of Job's words by twice affirming that Job did not sin in his speech (Job 1:22; 2:10). Job's suffering in some sense came from God, even though we as readers realise that in another sense it came from Satan, who "incited God against [him] to ruin him without any reason" (2:3). Job is commended for refraining from charging God with wrongdoing (1:22); he acknowledges that his suffering has come from God, but doesn't blame God. 2 In the book of Job, God's righteousness is demonstrated in his restoration of Job's fortunes (42:1017). The book of Job thus mirrors the bible as a whole: a somewhat mysterious misery is brought upon humanity by devil's schemes, which is ultimately overturned by the sovereign grace of God. The parallel is not precise, however. There is a stark contrast between Job as a righteous sufferer and Adam and Eve as guilty transgressors. 3 Luke 7:13; cf. Matt 9:36; 14:14; 15:32; 20:34; Mk 1:41; 6:34; 8:2; 9:22. 4 See also: Ps 35:17; 74:10; 79:5; 80:4; 89:46; 90:13; 94:3; 119:84; Jer 4:21; 12:4; Hab 1:2; 2:6; Zech 1:12; Rev 6:10).

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suffering. And that's the kind of answer the bible gives: it is more solution, than explanation.

The bible begins with a creation in which humans knew no suffering: "God saw all that He had made, and it was very good." (Gen 1:31) And the bible ends with a new creation once more set free from suffering: "There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." (Rev 21:4) When God dwells with people, whether primordially in the Garden or eternally in the New Jerusalem, there is no room for evil or darkness or grief. As creation once was, so it will be again: nothing but goodness and gladness and light.

Indeed, so perfect will be our peace, and so boundless our joy, that even the memory of pain will be eclipsed and the sorrow of the past forgotten. As Paul understood, "the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is going to be revealed to us." (Romans 8:18) So he could say, in the midst of suffering as a Christian, he did not lose heart. "For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all." (2 Cor 4:17)

While Christians wait, we "groan inwardly", to use Paul's expression (Rom 8:2223; cf. 2 Cor 5:2-4). That is, we long for the future perfection, we wait for what we do not have, we hope for what we do not see. We pray, with lips, heart and soul: "How long, O Lord?" And yet we do so with patience and in confidence, because we know that our all powerful and loving God will not abandon his people to suffering forever. This present pain is but for a moment.

A solution to suffering is, indeed, much better news than an explanation of suffering. Much better to know that suffering does not belong - and so will end - than to believe that suffering is fully explicable - so we're forever stuck with it.

But all of that leaves open the question - why is there suffering at all? Why is there a valley of tears between the Garden and the New Jerusalem? Why not uninterrupted bliss, from beginning to end? Why is there an interval of grief?

2. Suffering in a world broken by sin.

I said earlier that the answer the bible gives is more solution than explanation. But that does not mean that nothing is said by way of explanation. The bible's explanation is that our world is broken due to sin. Two forces lock this world in its present state of brokenness: human wickedness, and divine judgement.

On the one hand, the universal corruption of humanity is the direct cause of much of the misery in our world. All our violence, every act of unfaithfulness, each broken promise, all greed, envy, deceit, and slander - each of these hurts others and ourselves. Everytime we exclude someone who is different to us, or manipulate others to get what we want, or exploit our environment for short term gain - we contribute to the sum total of human suffering in our world. Try to imagine, if you can, just how much suffering would immediately vanish if

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human beings were completely, universally, consistently good. But we do not live in paradise. We live in a world which is full of violence, a world in which all people have corrupted their ways (Gen 6:11-12). We live in a world in which there is no one righteous, no one who seeks God, no one who does good (Rom 3:10-12). Evil brings misery; in a world full of sin, we suffer.

On the other hand, there is much suffering that is not the direct effect of specific instances of human evil. Natural disasters kill and destroy indiscriminately. So, typically, does disease (although in some cases, of course, the spread of disease may be amplified by human negligence). At the very least, all who live long enough will gradually be overcome by age; minds will unravel, bodies will decay, and death will eventually claim us.

I do not need to multiply examples. It is clearly the case that while much suffering is directly inflicted by humans, there is also much that is not. All of this is a result of the fact that the world lies under God's judgement. When humanity first sinned, God declared, among his various words of judgement: "The ground is cursed because of you." (Gen 3:17). Or, as Paul said, "the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it." (Rom 8:20)5 The very fabric of our world, its natural, God-given harmony, has itself been fractured by God in his judgement on human sin. The same is true of human society, for the unrestrained proliferation of human wickedness is itself one expression of God's wrath, as he hands humanity over to our own depravity (Romans 1:18-32).

So we live out our days in a world which was created good, but we now only experience as broken goodness. Our life in this world is mixed. We are simultaneously under God's blessing and his curse, simultaneously near to him and far from him; simultaneously alive and dead.6 In our lives now, we know both joy and sorrow. Every breath is a signpost to the grace of the God, the giver of life; every tear is a reminder that death - the penalty of sin - looms over us, and that we live out our days in its shadow.

At this point it is worth clarifying that one perspective on suffering which the bible emphatically rejects is the idea that suffering is divvied out among humanity in direct proportion to our evil, that each instance of suffering is God's direct punishment on the sufferer's individual sins. The book of Job is the most extended refutation of this error - a simplistic notion which resembles the Hindu concept of karma more than biblical thought. Jesus also rejected this suggestion on two separate occasions (John 9:1-3; Luke 13:1-5).7

In a general sense, then, suffering is the consequence of sin. If there were no sin, there would be no suffering; but as all have sinned, so our world is now riddled with misery. However, the degree to which someone suffers in this life is not a measure of the comparative magnitude of their sins relative to those of others.

5 Cf. Isaiah 24:4-6; Hos 4:1-3. 6 For the positive aspect of our experience, see, for example, Psalm 104; Acts 14:17 and Acts 17:2728. 7 Cf. Psalm 73.

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3. God's answer to suffering is his answer to sin: the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Given the link between sin, judgement, and suffering, any response to suffering which does not address our evil and God's wrath is at best a fleeting reprieve, and at worst a hollow deception. The only permanent and comprehensive answer to suffering is the gracious act of God through the death and resurrection of his Son.

At the cross Christ absorbed the penalty of sin and turned aside God's wrath. He endured in his own body the full weight of suffering due to human sin: he drank the cup of God's anger; he bore the curse of the Law; he died for sins (John 18:11; Gal 3:13; 1 Cor 15:3).

By raising Christ from the dead, God inaugurated a new creation, a creation free from sin, death and decay (Romans 6:9-10; 1 Cor 15:20-23, 42-45). Those who believe in Christ share in his victory, and so await a glorious resurrection when like our Lord we will be set free from the suffering of this present world (Rom 8:19-25 ; Phil 3:21).

The hope we have in the face of suffering is thus based on what God has already achieved through Christ's death and resurrection. And it looks forward to the full outworking of that salvation when Christ returns and his people join him in resurrection, new creation life.

In the face of suffering we pray, "How long, Lord?". And we do so with complete confidence that God's answer will not be "Forever". The redemption already accomplished in Christ must be vindicated and fulfilled in the final redemption of all creation.

In the midst of suffering we are comforted not only by the knowledge that God will end suffering, but also that he shares our suffering. God's compassion for and solidarity with his suffering people inspired the faith of many psalms: "Record my misery; put my tears in your bottle -- are they not in your record?" (Ps 56:8). "Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his faithful servants. " (Ps 116:15) How much more consolation is there for we who live after the coming of Christ?

We confess as Lord the Servant who was "despised and rejected by men, a man of suffering who knew what sickness was. ... Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering." (Isa 53:4-5). We trust as Saviour the merciful and faithful High Priest who "himself suffered when he was tempted" and who is able to "empathize with our weaknesses" (Heb 2:18; 4:15). We address as "Father" he "who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all" (Rom 8:32). We

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