Perhaps you’ve watched the news in the last week and wanted to scream at the evil in the world. We think: “Why doesn’t someone do something? Why does this have to happen again and again?” In other words:
How can there be a God of love in a world of suffering?
The past: an explanation for suffering
The Bible tells the story of how suffering came into the world. It comes in Genesis chapter 3—within the first few pages of the whole Bible. When God first made the world, his verdict on it was that it was “very good” (Genesis 1 v 31); there were no problems and no pain. God created the first two people, Adam and Eve, and gave them a beautiful garden to enjoy. Adam and Eve could do whatever they wanted, except eat from one particular tree, because that tree symbolised deciding what was right and wrong.
They disobeyed. Both Adam and Eve decided they, not God, would run the place. And in doing so, they wrecked the place, not just for their lifetimes but for the whole of the rest of human history.
How does Adam and Eve doing one bad thing long ago ruin the world for everyone else, ever since? The Bible says that their disobedience—the Bible’s word for it is “sin”—had a number of consequences. First, humanity was ruined; and second, the world was ruined. People are ruined because when Adam disobeyed God, disobedience entered our bloodstream. We all started doing it, instinctively, like a ball falling on the ground when you drop it. It never takes me any effort to be lazy, selfish or big-headed. It just comes naturally. The Bible says it started with Adam, and that it continues in us. We are sometimes the victims of other people disobeying God and hurting us. We are often the people who do the disobeying and hurt others or ourselves. The Bible’s quite blunt about this: “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3 v 23)
So the sad fact is that we’re all like Adam.
Think of the world as a theatre musical. A brilliant writer-director-composer has written a masterpiece script. The costumes, props and lighting are realistic and stunning. All the actors make you feel that the story is completely real. It’s the greatest musical ever written.
But then, on the first night it’s being performed, the main actor gets drunk. The director has warned him not to, but he does it anyway. He mistakes his lines and blunders into the props and set, breaking them; he can hardly sing in tune; the plot of the play is mangled completely. The masterpiece is trashed by one man’s disobedience—and everyone suffers.
The same is true of our world. We live in a messed up master-piece, messed up by one man disobeying God, and continually messed up by us disobeying God.
We live in a messed up master-piece, messed up by one man disobeying God, and continually messed up by us disobeying God.
This story raises lots of questions: and the Bible doesn’t answer all of them. That’s because the Bible’s not actually most interested in why there’s suffering in the world or where it came from—it wants us to focus on what God’s going to do about it and how he helps us in the middle of it.
The future: freedom from suffering
The Bible promises that one day God will reverse the consequences of humanity’s disobedience. He will restore the masterpiece he’s made and end all suffering. The end of the Bible describes an amazing future scene:
“[God] will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” (Revelation 21 v 4)
Everything that could possibly be wrong in this world, from the minor to the serious, will be gone, but everything good will still be there. Fire will barbecue burgers, but never trap babies in buildings. The sea will be there for us to sail, swim and surf, but never to drown people. Work and study of all kinds will challenge and excite us, but never be boring, frustrating or too difficult. People will be united in love and never divided. Our bodies will be perfect and healthy and we won’t look in the mirror and feel only despair.
But best of all, Jesus will be there. The one who loves us more than we could ever imagine—the one who has remade this world for us to live in—will be at the centre of the creation, and we will know and experience his love completely.
Why hasn’t this happened yet? As I said earlier, we don’t always know the answers to questions like this, because the Bible’s more interested in hope and help than complete answers. But part of the answer is that God is waiting so that as many people can be there as possible. God is giving people time to trust in Jesus, so they can enjoy life in this perfect world too, instead of being shut out of it.
After all, don’t you want to be part of this perfect world? Doesn’t suffering make you hunger for it? The pain and hurt of life aren’t a reason to reject Jesus; they’re a reason to trust him and be part of the wonderful world he will make.
The pain and hurt of life aren’t a reason to reject Jesus; they’re a reason to trust him.
The present: the message of suffering
Let’s go back to the story of the drunk actor. Imagine, as he staggers through a dance routine, that he lurches off the stage and into the orchestra pit. His left-foot narrowly misses a violin, but his right foot tears right through a bass drum, wrecking an expensive instrument. Is the drummer more to blame than the violinist? Of course not. The drummer wasn’t more guilty than the violinist, just more unfortunate.
This has an important consequence: suffering has a general message for everyone, but a particular message for no one. Jesus made this point when he was talking about some people who died when a tower collapsed on them. He said:
“Do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.” (Luke 13 v 4-5)
Jesus is saying that people who suffer aren’t necessarily suffering because they’re worse than anyone else. Suffering usually isn’t a message from God to the individual person suffering, telling them they’re particularly bad.
But Jesus is saying that suffering does have a message to the world in general. What is that message? “Unless you repent, you too will all perish.”
“Repent” means turning to Jesus and beginning to follow him. Suffering reminds us that the world is messed up. The solution God has given to the ruined world is Jesus’ new world. When we see suffering in the world or feel it in our own lives, we long for it to be over. We long for a world where that pain doesn’t exist. And Jesus says we can enjoy that world, if we repent—if we turn to him, the loving ruler of that world, who when he lived and died and rose again did everything necessary to open the way for us to be part of that world.
So, when we read news stories about suffering, this should stir our hearts with compassion, frustration and even anger. It should remind us of how horribly messed-up our world is. It should make us turn to Jesus, who will one day repair our messed-up world. And that should make us want to help people who are suffering, because that’s what Jesus tells us to do.
When we read news stories about suffering, this should stir our hearts with compassion, frustration and even anger…
Any better ideas?!
There is no easy answer to the question of suffering. You may not like the Bible’s answer. But let me ask you to think about what the alternatives are.
Everyone deep down has an opinion about suffering. But if we reject the reality of God, then we’re rejecting future hope and we’re losing any reason to help now. If all human beings are is a random, pointless collection of blood and organs, thrown together by accident, then there’s no reason to care when other people suffer, and no reason to hope when we suffer ourselves. There’s no real reason to try to ease others’ pain, except that we’d like to be treated that way if we were suffering (which is, if you think about it, quite selfish).
I don’t think that we naturally want to answer the question like that. Jesus has a much better answer to offer. His answer begins with “repent” and it ends in a perfect new world.
This article is adapted from Tricky: The hardest questions to ask about Christianity… and some answers by Michael Dormandy and Carl Laferton. Now you've read this post, let us know what you think. Join the conversation and comment below. You can also like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, and subscribe to our YouTube Channel