The Doctrine of Suffering
Life in a broken world brings pain in many varieties. Our human experience can involve physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual distress. Suffering entered the world when Adam and Eve fell into sin, and sin’s curse corrupted the natural world, including the people of earth. Some suffering is the direct result of personal or societal sin. Much pain, however, represents the natural consequences of sin’s broad damage. Life on planet Earth includes natural disasters, aging bodies, global pandemics, and strained relationships. Grief and anguish regularly invade human lives. Like Elijah, even God’s faithful servants suffer.
Suffering accomplishes God’s sovereign and good purposes. Some of our pain comes as God’s loving discipline, to correct and perfect us. Times of suffering often reveal our human limitations and our utter dependence on God. Suffering challenges people to face their own mortality and human limitations, even if they fail to turn to God.
We often struggle to explain the hardship we face. While we cannot adequately document God’s every motive in the suffering He allows, He can be trusted. The pain that is our regular fare in this fallen world makes us long for the day when Jesus will end sin’s devastation and will reign on the earth without rival. The fact that God allows suffering does not mean He does not love us. In the ultimate expression of His love, God allowed His own Son to experience bitter suffering on the cross. Jesus suffered so that all who turn to Him can eagerly anticipate a day when this world’s suffering will end.
This world’s trouble is difficult to explain without a biblical perspective on suffering’s source and purpose. If we do not recognize the relationship between human suffering and sin, we might question God’s goodness. If we fail to recognize God and His redeeming purposes, the pain seems pointless. We are left with only throbbing pain we must endure but cannot reconcile. Where is the hope without Jesus?
Your suffering offers a personal invitation to trust the Lord. Jesus warned that living a countercultural lifestyle in this world would bring suffering. He suffered in ways we cannot fully describe. We are called to seek God’s purpose and experience His peace in the midst of our pain. John 16:33 says, “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” What is the most painful situation you face today? Are you willing to trust God with the pain, even if you cannot explain His purpose in it?
Resource: Bible Study Fellowship Online - People of the Promise: Kingdom Divided Lesson 05
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