The Bible itself assures us that when it comes to understanding all of God’s purposes, there are some things that we will never comprehend in this life – “…how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!” (Romans 11:33).

Nevertheless, the Bible does shed some important light on this sensitive subject which we will seek to uncover.

Back to the Beginning

News headlines remind us every day of the reality of suffering and death:

•  “Thousands die in terrorist attack!”

•   “Child dies in car accident.”

•  “Tens of thousands left homeless from earthquake.”

•   “Cancer claims another victim.”

In order to understand the suffering we witness all around us, we need to go back and see how it all began.

The Bible tells us that God originally created a perfect world.  After all things were made by God they were declared to be ‘very good’ (Genesis 1:31).  This was a world without pain, violence, suffering or death.

But this sinless world was marred by the sin of the first man, Adam.  The result of Adam’s rebellion against God affected the world in a greater way than he could ever have imagined. 

Sin brought with it a curse that fell upon the earth and all of its subsequent occupants.  This is clearly set forth as the beginning of death:  “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned” (Romans 5:12).

Death and all forms of suffering were brought into this world as a result of sin and clearly were not part of God’s original creation.  God created man with a free will and man has used his freedom of choice to sin against His Creator and so all manner of suffering has ensued.

By man’s rejection of God’s authority, he declared his desire for a world without God’s government and, in a sense, this is exactly what he received.  The Bible tells us that in this present world it is Satan who is the “god of this world.”  It was Satan who tempted man to sin, and Satan to whom man yielded in the very first offence. Our world became a place in which Adam and all his future descendants would exist in a state alienated from God.  God is, therefore, giving the world a taste of life without him – a world full of violence, death, suffering and disease.

For What Purpose?

If this account of history is in fact true then it begs the question: ‘For what ultimate purpose does God allow His creation to endure such suffering and pain?’  The answer to that question can be found by understanding God’s subsequent purpose for mankind after its fall from innocence.

Immediately after Adam sinned, God brought about the first death himself by killing an animal and using the skins to clothe the first couple’s nakedness.  This first death was a vivid illustration of the consequence of sin.   Every time we experience pain and suffering or witness death we are reminded of the awful reality of sin.  As the Bible solemnly declares, “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23).  This is the underlying reason for the heartache that fills our world.

This, of course, affects innocent people.  Babies die in the womb and infants are often killed and maimed without any fault of their own.  Those who sacrificed their children to false gods in the Old Testament were said to have shed “innocent blood” (Psalm 106:38).   Thankfully, what injustices prevail in this life, God has promised to balance out in the next.

Looking at the Big Picture

As mortals, we have a very limited view of life and our existence.  We therefore tend to judge God by the events and circumstances that we experience in this life.  Unfortunately, this limited perspective leads many to charge God with injustice.  The truth is, no matter how much God may seem to be unjust to us, what Abraham declared of God thousands of years ago is still true today, “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” (Genesis 18:25).  We look at life from the back of the tapestry.  To us, most of what we see seems jumbled and pointless but from the perspective of eternity we can appreciate a perfect plan that a perfect God is putting together.

God’s Means of Recovery

From the very beginning God in His mercy had a plan to redeem man from his failure and rebellion.  This plan was pictured in the animal sacrifices that God ordered under the Old Testament.  Each innocent lamb that was slain as a sacrifice was a picture of the coming Lamb who would come into the world to pay the price of man’s redemption.  When John the Baptist laid eyes on the Lord Jesus Christ he declared, “Behold the lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29).

Jesus Christ was the only perfect Man to ever live.  If any man deserved not to suffer, it was him.  Yet, the Lord Jesus Christ willingly and knowingly suffered mockery, ridicule, beatings, a whipping and the agony and shame of a Roman crucifixion.

“For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit.”

1 Peter 3:18

Three days after His death upon the cross, Jesus Christ rose from the dead to show us that he obtained the ultimate victory over death.  His resurrection is a guarantee that all who put their faith in him will also rise one day.

“Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.”

John 11:25

It is because Jesus Christ died for our sins that man is given the hope of eternal life. One man brought sin into the world and one Man brought hope back into the world.  This is God’s great plan of reconciling man back to himself.  As Romans 6:23 plainly says, “the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

A Place Without Death or Suffering

Those who receive Jesus Christ as their Saviour and those who die before the age of accountability have a wonderful hope – they will spend eternity with the Lord in a place where there will be no more death or suffering:

“And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.”

Revelation 21:4

Death then, becomes merely a path that opens the door to a wonderful reality called heaven for all who trust Christ as their Saviour.  This is not a figment of someone’s imagination invented to comfort those who were dying, but the very promise of the Lord Jesus Christ

“Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.  In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.”

 John 14:1-3

A Place of Eternal Suffering

The Bible warns us that those who do not receive God’s means of redemption will not only face a physical death but will also face the second death.  The book of Revelation tells us of a time in which “death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death” (Revelation 20:14).

Most of us have heard about hell.  Jesus spoke solemnly of a place of punishment for all those who do not avail themselves of God’s plan of salvation.  The same God that we are often reminded of as being loving and merciful is all too often forgotten to be also a God of justice and holiness.

Will Suffering Do The Job?

Someone once referred to sufferings as “blockades on the road to hell.”  The sufferings in this life are to wake us up to the awful realities of sin so that we will turn to God and receive the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Scriptures tell us of a particular man who was almost at the point of death when he, along with one other criminal, was being crucified right next to Jesus Christ.  In the last moments of his life he cried out for mercy, “Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.”  Jesus responded with these comforting words, “Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43).

When it is our turn to face the furnace of affliction what will be our response?  Will we clench our fist in the face of God and bitterly declare him to be unjust?  Or will we recognise that suffering is God’s way of getting our attention so we will recognise our need of him and turn to him in faith?

Years ago, a woman and her little baby were riding in a stagecoach in western Montana. The weather was bitter cold, and, in spite of all the driver could do to protect her, he saw that the mother was becoming unconscious from the cold. He stopped the coach, took the baby, and wrapping it warmly, put it under the seat, then seized the mother by the arm, and dragging her out upon the ground, drove away, leaving her in the road. As she saw him drive away, she ran after him, crying piteously for her baby. When he felt sure that she was warm, he allowed her to overtake the coach and resume her place by her baby. Can we not imagine her gratitude when she realised that he had saved her life?  It is only an act of mercy that will shake us out of soul-lethargy and moral sleep that will ultimately end in death.

If you have never received the Lord Jesus Christ as your Saviour, you may do so by simply recognising yourself as a sinner unable to earn God’s favour by good works or religion and calling upon him to be your Saviour from sin.  Why not bow your head where you are right now and receive Jesus Christ into your heart?   The Bible clearly promises us that “whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Romans 10:13).

The Ongoing Role of Suffering

Becoming a Christian does not end the role of suffering in this life.  It was to His own disciples that Jesus cautioned, “In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).

Suffering is God’s means of making us what we ought to be.   Suffering’s purpose is to mature us and to produce patience.  The Bible tells us that “tribulation worketh patience” (Rom 5:3) and in similar fashion James says…

“My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;  Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.  But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect [mature] and entire, wanting nothing.”

James 1:2-4

Firstly, by bringing us to faith in Jesus Christ and then, as a Christian, by maturing us and bringing us to know God more deeply, suffering is merely a tool to mould and make us what we need to be.

“The bone that is broken is stronger, they tell us, at the point of junction, when it heals and grows again, than it ever was before. And it may well be that a faith that has made experience of falling and restoration has learned a depth of self-distrust, a firmness of confidence in Christ, a warmth of grateful love which it would never otherwise have experienced.”

Alexander Maclaren

Do not see suffering therefore as your enemy, but your friend.  A mysterious tool used by a loving God to accomplish His wonderful purposes in your life.  The words of the hymn writer aptly sum up what God would say to us in the our heartaches of life . . .

When through fiery trials they pathway shall lie,

My grace all sufficient shall be thy supply;

The flame shall not hurt thee; I only design

Thy dross to consume and they gold to refine.

 

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