God responded to the evil and suffering that originated from us by suffering for us so that we could have hope in the midst of suffering...

This week we have been addressing the fifth of the eight common questions that those who are skeptical ask as a challenge to God and the Christian faith. And that question is this: “Why would a good God allow so much suffering?” So far this week we have discovered that first, the response of followers of Jesus to the existence of evil and suffering in the world is not to deny or minimize its existence. Instead, as followers of Jesus, we are to readily admit the reality of evil and suffering because Jesus and the letters that make up the Bible shed a spotlight on it in a way that exaggerates and reinforces the existence of evil and suffering in the world.

While we know evil when we see it, the evil we see is only the tip of the iceberg of the evil that God sees.  You see, as human beings our experience of evil is focused on the outward acts of violence and hatred or the suffering caused by natural disasters. However, God sees an additional dimension of evil, which is the spiritual dimension of evil that is personified by a being that the letters that make up the Bible refer to as Satan, or the Devil.

Evil is real and is deeper and far more pervasive than we can possibly fathom because God is far more right and just than we can possibly imagine. And this is where what is referred to in church mumbo jumbo talk as “the fall” comes in. Evil is not something that has an existence all its own; evil is a corruption of that which already exists. Evil is the absence or deprivation of something good. For example, tooth decay can exist only as long as the tooth exists. The cause of evil is not material. Instead the cause of evil is moral.

Evil came into existence the moment that Adam and Eve used their God-given freedom of choice to choose to rebel against God by disobeying God, which is recorded for us in a section of the very first letter in the Bible called the book of Genesis, in Genesis 3. While God’s plan included evil when he gave humans the freedom of choice, the actual origin or evil came from man who directed his heart away from God and toward his own selfish desires. Thus, whereas God created the fact of freedom, man created the act of evil.

However, not only does evil exist and is far worse than we realize as a result of what is found in our own hearts that rebel against God. A second response of followers of Jesus to the existence of evil and suffering in the world is that evil and suffering actually reveals that God is far more loving than we could ever hope.

After all, if evil originates from the rebellion of humanity who directed their hearts away from God and toward their own selfish desires, then an all good and all-powerful God should simply do away with humanity so as to do away with evil. If the problem is humanity, just remove humanity and the problem is solved. But the letters that make the Bible make it abundantly clear that God did the exact opposite. We see the Apostle Paul reveal this reality just a few chapters later in the book of Romans. So let’s discover that reality together, beginning in Romans 8:18-25:

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. ¹⁹ For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. ²⁰ For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope ²¹ that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. ²² For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. ²³ And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body. ²⁴ For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees? ²⁵ But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it.

Paul begins this section of his letter to the members of a first century church that was located in Rome by explaining that he considered the sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. In other words, as Paul looked at the suffering that he and other followers of Jesus experience as we live life on earth, he viewed those suffering as insignificant. Paul viewed the troubles and trials that we experience as a minor inconvenience for followers of Jesus.

Now it was not that Paul was unaware or was minimizing the troubles, the trials, and the suffering that followers of Jesus experience as we live here on earth. However, Paul was comparing what we experience here on earth with something that is to be revealed to us in the future. Paul also revealed for us the reality that all of God’s creation is looking forward with an eager expectation to something that will be revealed in the future.

Paul then revealed the reality that even natural evil- earthquakes, Tsunamis, tornadoes etc. - is the result of the corruption that invaded the earth through our wrong use of free choice that selfishly rebelled against God and led humanity to do evil things that cause pain and suffering for others.  All of creation was created by God perfect, but is now flawed and broken as a result of selfishness and sin. God does not cause natural disasters, the consequences of selfishness and rebellion cause natural disasters to occur on earth. God ordains and God works through the evil of natural disasters to reveal the stark contrast between selfishness and sin and His glory and grace. God ordains and uses what selfishness and rebellion desires for evil and destruction to advance His Kingdom and to enhance His reputation.

Paul then reminded the members of the church at Rome that, as followers of Jesus who have received the Holy Spirit, we also groan under the consequences that selfishness and rebellion produce. We groan because we have experienced God’s transformational activity in our lives through the power of the Holy Spirit; and yet there are times that we still act in selfishness and rebellion. We groan while here on earth because while we are saints that have the Spirit of God within us, we still sometimes sin.

We groan because we want to be set free from our earthly bodies that have been corrupted by selfishness and rebellion so that we can fully experience life in the relationship with God that we were created for. As followers of Jesus we eagerly await the day when we will be released from our corrupted earthly physical bodies and fully experience the relationship with God that we were created for as His children.  And just a few verses later, we see Paul ask the members of the church at Rome a question that provides a timeless answer to the question ““Why would a good God allow so much suffering?”. So let’s look at it together in verse 31-39:

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? ³² He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? ³³ Who will bring a charge against God's elect? God is the one who justifies; ³⁴ who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. ³⁵ Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? ³⁶ Just as it is written, "FOR YOUR SAKE WE ARE BEING PUT TO DEATH ALL DAY LONG; WE WERE CONSIDERED AS SHEEP TO BE SLAUGHTERED." ³⁷ But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. ³⁸ For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, ³⁹ nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

If Paul was writing this letter in the language we use today, these verses would sound something like this: “who is going to get in between God and those whom He has lovingly and graciously rescued through His Son Jesus? If He allowed His Son to be treated as though He had lived our selfish and sinful lives so that He could treat us as though we lived Jesus perfect life, what is going to get between that love? Are troubles and stressful circumstances? Don’t think so.  Is harassment and opposition from those who reject His Son? Don’t think so. Is hunger, poverty, danger, or violent death? Don’t think so.”

Paul then explained that, in spite of the price that may be paid at the hands of those who oppose God, followers of Jesus overwhelmingly conquer through Jesus. You see, Paul had a certainty and a security that nothing could separate us from God’s loving rescue through Jesus Christ. No sphere of existence; No supernatural power; no dimension of time; no power imaginable; no dimension of space; nothing. Nothing can get in the way of our glorious future where followers of Jesus will be transformed into saints who never sin again that participate in the glory and splendor of God as we live in intimate relationship with Him.

And it is here that we discover the timeless answer to the skeptical question “Why would a good God allow so much suffering?” And that timeless answer is this: God responded to the evil and suffering that originated from us by suffering for us so that we could have hope in the midst of suffering. The letters that make up the Bible reveal the reality that God responded to evil and suffering by sending His Son Jesus to take on humanity and experience evil and suffering in the most powerful and profound level possible, so that humanity would have the opportunity to be rescued from evil and suffering. And it is in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus that God provides the evidence that God is good.

You see, it is at the cross the God’s justice and love collide. In His justice, God demands the punishment of death for the selfishness and rebellion of humanity. And in His love, God sent His Son Jesus into humanity in order to allow Himself to be treated as though He lived our selfish and sinful lives so that God the Father could treat us as though we lived Jesus perfect life. Jesus death on the cross satisfied God’s justice, and demonstrated God’s love by giving what was closest to Himself to rescue what was furthest away.

The cross of Jesus is not a picture of a suffering Jesus, but of a suffering God.  Through Jesus, as God in a bod, God suffers the cost of our selfishness and rebellion. The cross demonstrates that God is not a distant and disinterested Being who is indifferent to the evil and suffering of this world. This is what distinguishes Christianity from every other religious system.

Unlike every other religious system, Christianity proclaims that the One True God entered into the world to share in our suffering. This morning, God is not unaware of the suffering and evil in the world. God did not choose to be a God apart from humanity and the suffering of humanity. Instead, Jesus responded to the evil and suffering of the world that originated from man by becoming a man to experience evil and suffering in order to provide an opportunity for humanity to be rescued from evil and suffering and restored to the relationship with Him that they were created for. As God in a bod, Jesus has entered into our experience, shared our suffering and our pain. And God sent His Son Jesus so that God would ultimately defeat evil and suffering so that there would be a future world free from evil and suffering.

The evil and suffering that is experienced in this world is only temporary. You see, it is in the cross that we see that Jesus shared in our suffering and it is in the resurrection of Jesus that we see our future triumph over suffering. The resurrection of Jesus demonstrates that God will make all things right in the world, because in Jesus that process has already begun. That process will finish at the end of God’s story here on earth, when Jesus will return to defeat selfishness, sin, and death that produces evil and suffering and usher in the kingdom of Heaven in its fullest sense.

A kingdom that will be free of evil, suffering, and death. And this is the hope that followers of Jesus have in the face of evil and suffering. A hope that we can lean into in times where we experience evil and suffering in our lives. A hope based on reality, not fantasy. A hope based on the reality that evil exists and that suffering is inevitable as a result of living in a fallen, broken world. A fallen and broken world that we broke as a result of our selfishness and rebellion that gave birth to evil and suffering.

A hope that is based on the reality that the God of the universe entered into human history in order to experience pain and suffering in the most powerful and profound way to provide us an ultimate, eternal rescue from the selfishness and rebellion that resulted in evil and suffering. A hope that is based on the reality that God is true and trustworthy. 

And this is where the rubber meets the road when it comes to this question, isn’t it? The answer to the question “Why would a good God allow so much suffering?” leads us to the ultimate question, which is “Can you trust God, even in the hurt that comes in the midst of pain and suffering?

In the midst of pain and suffering, can you place your trust in that fact that God responded to the evil and suffering that originated from us by suffering for us so that we could have hope in the midst of suffering...