The Problem of
Suffering
Russ
Blowers
1. Suffering is an intrusion
into God's universe
- Originally, everything God made was good (Gen
1:31)
- Evil and suffering came as a direct result of
man's rebellion against God the Creator
- After that, God tells women she will have pain
in childbirth (Gen 3:16)
- To the man God said, "You will have to work
hard all your life and then you will go back to the soil from which you were
formed (Gen 3:17-19)
- This eliminates he idea that suffering was an
integral part of creation from the beginning
2. God does not directly will
suffering
- Occasionally, In
His wisdom, God may choose to directly cause some event to occur to accomplish
some greater purpose known only to Him.
- God is love (1 John 4:16)
- He is good and wills good
- Our problems are caused by natural forces, human
weakness, or human sin
3. Sometimes the innocent
suffer
- Paul says all
creation suffered because of what man has done, and that nature groans in pain
(Romans 8:22)
- But there are times when suffering comes without
human responsibility
- The book of Job deals with the suffering of the
innocent
- Job is a God-fearing man who experiences the
loss of his family and possessions and health
- This book makes it clear that Job is not being
punished for his sins, but because of the malicious activity of God's ancient
enemy - Satan
- There is no easy answer given in Job,
however.
- Job's friends say his troubles are due to the
fact he is a sinner
- The end of the story has God reminding Job that
He is God, and He has everything under control.
- Job repents and admits he had forgotten the
greatness of the sovereign God and his trust is restored.
- Suffering is sometimes undeserved, but the
solution to that is to have confidence that through it all God is at work in us
and we can know that He causes "all things to work together for our
good." Rom 8:28
4. Jesus dedicated Himself to
relieving suffering
- If it was the will of God that people
suffer, than Jesus was going against the will of God be healing them - - and
Jesus never went against the will of God.
- Jesus quoted Isaiah 61 "The Spirit of the
Lord is upon me, because he has chosen me to bring good news to the poor, to
proclaim liberty to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind; to set
free the oppressed; and announce that the time has come when the Lord will save
his people."
- Matt 12:22-28 - Then they brought him a
demon-possessed man who was blind and mute, and Jesus healed him, so that he
could both talk and see. 23 All the people were astonished and said,
"Could this be the Son of David?" 24 But when the Pharisees heard
this, they said, "It is only by Beelzebub, [1] the prince of demons, that
this fellow drives out demons." 25 Jesus knew their thoughts and said to
them, "Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city
or household divided against itself will not stand. 26 If Satan drives out
Satan, he is divided against himself. How then can his kingdom stand? 27 And if
I drive out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your people drive them out? So
then, they will be your judges. 28 But if I drive out demons by the Spirit of
God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.
- Luke 13:15-16 - The Lord answered him,
"You hypocrites! Doesn't each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or donkey
from the stall and lead it out to give it water? 16 Then should not this woman,
a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be
set free on the Sabbath day from what bound her?"
- Luke 9:1-2 - When Jesus had called the
Twelve together, he gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and
to cure diseases, 2 and he sent them out to preach the kingdom of God and to
heal the sick.
5. Suffering can be good for
you
- CS Lewis said
pain is a megaphone that gets our attention
- It can act as a medicine, resulting in temporary
side effects, but with the potential of long term benefits
- Pauls thorn in the flesh (2 Cor 12) was painful,
but even Paul came to see that it disciplined him to be a better Christian, and
that in his weakness, God's power cam through.
- Through suffering, God matures us, and enables
us to trust
- His purpose in allowing us to suffer is not to
arbitrarily afflict us with pain, but rather to increase our capacity for joy
and praise by seeing with the psalmist "it was good for me that I was
afflicted, so that I might learn your decrees." Psalm 119;71
6. Jesus Christ experienced
suffering
- Isaiah 53 tells
us about the One who was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our
iniquities
- He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief
- He was sinless
- He had total authority