It’s often asked, “How can a loving, good, and personal God exist when there’s so much suffering in the world?” This is a perfectly legitimate question. When asked this, I think a follow up question is also in order, such as, “How can a good and loving God allow bad people to prosper?” What do these two questions tell us about the nature of God and man? Similarly, a common question asked is, “How could a good, loving, and personal God allow anyone to go to hell?” I think an additionally appropriate question to ask is, “How could a holy and just God allow anyone to go to heaven?” Again, what do these questions tell us about the nature of God and man? How God operates tells us great things about His nature, and His love for us. He operates the only way a good, loving, just, and holy God can, as I think this essay will demonstrate.
This essay will address the question, “How can a loving, good, and personal God exist when there’s so much suffering in the world?” The purpose of suffering is threefold; 1. Our suffering calls attention to a greater eternal problem. 2. Our suffering tells us to avoid certain behaviors. 3. Our suffering allows us to empathize with others.
Let’s look at point #1 – Our suffering calls attention to a greater eternal problem. In Mark 2:1-12, Jesus heals a paralyzed man. I encourage you to read the encounter in full, but in summary – A man who was paralyzed was carried on a pallet by his four friends and brought to Jesus to be healed. When Jesus saw the man, Jesus said to him, “Your sins are forgiven”. This is a curious response as the man was brought to Jesus of course to have his body healed. After Jesus noticed the rumblings of the crowd in attendance, He told the man, “Get up, pick up your pallet and go home.” Immediately the man’s body was healed, and his strength was as though he had never been paralyzed. What’s the point? Jesus fixed the most serious problem first, which was the man’s sin. Jesus later addressed the simpler problem (paralysis). This man’s greatest need was a soul paralyzed from sin. Our suffering should point us to a greater condition, our sin condition, which has eternal significance beyond the suffering in this present life.
Consider also the story of the rich man and Lazarus, found in Luke 16:19-31. Again, I encourage you to read the full account yourself, but in summary – There was a rich man living in comfort and excess while a beggar named Lazarus lay at the rich man’s gate. Both men died. The rich man went to hell and Lazarus the beggar went to heaven where he was being comforted by Abraham. Why is the poor man in heaven and the rich man in hell? Are heaven and hell about money? No, but the explanation is simple. The suffering of Lazarus compelled him to put his trust in God. The comfort of the rich man caused him to disregard his need for God. In the story, the rich man in hell calls out to Abraham in heaven and asks, “Send Lazarus to my brothers so that they will be warned to avoid this place”. On earth, the rich man’s brothers also enjoyed much comfort. Abraham replied, “They have the scriptures to tell them the truth.” The rich man begged, “But if someone rises from the dead, they’ll repent!” Abraham reminded the rich man that his brother’s lack of faith wasn’t due to a lack of evidence, and even seeing a dramatic miracle wouldn’t compel them. Perhaps their lack of faith was due to lack of suffering? I think the rich man should’ve asked that suffering fall upon his brothers to disrupt their comfort. Our suffering calls attention to a greater eternal problem.
Point #2 – Our suffering tells us to avoid certain behaviors. Imagine accidentally sitting on a hot stove but without feeling pain? Pain is one of God’s loving ways to warn us that we’re doing something wrong. Pain is God’s symptomatic expression of the sinful nature that is broken inside of us. You might say, “Sure, but what about suffering that you don’t deserve like a kid getting cancer, or being hit by drunk driver, etc.?” If you ask an atheist, they have a solution for the suffering of humanity…it’s that a loving and personal God doesn’t exist! The atheist’s “solution” pacifies the atheist’s mind, but doesn’t provide any reason or purpose for suffering. An atheist concludes that we all will suffer and then only to meet death at the end. This “solution” provides total hopelessness. This hopelessness means all suffering is meaningless, and life is meaningless. If you remove God from the equation, you’ve removed all meaning and hope. However, because of the reality of Jesus, our suffering has meaning and hope! Jesus provides hope in suffering and here’s how. Jesus is God who became a man and died on a cross. This shows that God is not distant from the problem of suffering, but that He engaged it completely and most horribly. He knows pain. His death and resurrection from the dead give hope of eternal life beyond this present suffering. We have a God and Creator that understands how much we suffer! So, what comfort does an atheist have to offer a dying cancer patient? Or, what purpose does an atheist give to parents who’ve lost a child? An atheist has absolutely nothing to say.
This leads me to point #3 – Our suffering allows us to empathize with others. Christians empathize, just as Jesus did. Christians weep alongside suffering people because of what sin has done. Christians explain the big reality that death is not the end. Jesus’ own suffering allows Him to empathize with us, and our own suffering allows us to empathize with our hurting neighbors. How has someone else’s pain and suffering ministered to you? How can you minister well to someone that is experiencing crisis right now?
Consider the testimony of Annie Johnston Flint – born 1866, died 1932. Raised an orphan, and who later acquired rheumatoid arthritis. Her body bent over in pain most her life, she lived in bed with a body covered head to toe with sores. Additionally, she came down with cancer and fell to blindness. Imagine her suffering! She wrote this poem about her Lord and Savior to encourage others.
He giveth more grace when the burdens grow greater,
He sendeth more strength when the labours increase;
To added afflictions He addeth His mercy,
To multiplied trials, His multiplied peace.
When we have exhausted our store of endurance,
When our strength has failed ere the day is half done,
When we reach the end of our hoarded resources
Our Father’s full giving is only begun.
Fear not that your need shall exceed His provision,
Our God ever yearns His resources to share;
Lean hard on the arm everlasting, availing;
The Father, both you and your load will upbear.
His love has no limits, His grace has no measure,
His power no boundary known unto men;
For out of His infinite riches in Jesus
He giveth, and giveth, and giveth again.
If I trust in Jesus to forgive me of my sins, my suffering ends at death. However, those that deny the Lord Jesus will spend eternity suffering and living apart from Jesus. This present suffering will end, praise the Lord for that truth! 1 Peter 5:10, “And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.”
Ecclesiastes 7:2 says that it’s better to attend a funeral than a party, because at the funeral, the living (those in attendance) take to heart the matters of life and death, and in doing so can make decisions of forgiveness and trust in Jesus which have eternal results. As difficult as it is to experience the loss of a loved one, God’s desire is that while we grieve, we also turn in our faith to Him.
Regarding the question, “Why do good people suffer?” we need to remember that God doesn’t view our behavior as good. Yes, there are people who make more frequently poor choices than others, but God doesn’t place our lives on a scale and compare us to one another. He only compares our unrighteousness to His righteousness. In God’s eyes we all fall way short of being “good”. All people are on equally shaky ground; all needing to be saved from our sin.
Below I’ve summarized some additional thoughts from a pastor that I greatly respect, John Piper. He says, “I find it helpful to distinguish between what I call micro and macro reasons for why people suffer. When it comes to micro reasons, we usually don’t have answers. Why this particular suffering, like cancer? Why cancer in this particular person, who is seemingly a good guy? Why at this particular time, when he’s so young? Why this particular intensity, when others experience a lesser degree?”
The Bible doesn’t address micro suffering as to why on any given day one person suffers a certain crisis. But, when it comes to macro reasons for why there is suffering in the world at large, the Bible is rich with helpfulness. Here are five purposes for suffering.
Repentance – Suffering is a call for us and others to turn from treasuring anything on earth above God. Luke 13:4–5, “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.”
Reliance – Suffering is a call to trust God and not the life-sustaining props of this world. 2 Corinthians 1:8–9, “We were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead.”
Righteousness – Suffering is the discipline of our loving heavenly Father so that we come to share his righteousness and holiness. Hebrews 12:6, 10–11, “The Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.” . . . He disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.”
Reward – Suffering is working for us a great reward in heaven that will make up for every loss here a thousand-fold. 2 Corinthians 4:17, “This light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.”
Reminder – Suffering reminds us that God sent his Son into the world to suffer so that our suffering would not be God’s condemnation but his purification. Philippians 3:10, “. . . that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings.”
So, it is understandable that the Christian heart would cry out in suffering, “Why?” since we don’t know most of the micro reasons for our suffering. But don’t let that ignorance of the micro reasons cause you to overlook the massive help God gives in his word by telling us his macro purposes for us. “You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful,” James 5:11.