A question raised by the book of Job. The same question raised by the atheists and even many of the theists. It has touched the lives of nearly every person born at some time in this world. If indeed we worship a Sovereign, Almighty God who can do all things. And if His nature is really good. Then how can we justify evil, pain, and suffering in our life? If the rain falls on the just and the unjust, then what is our hope anchored to.? I daresay everyone in this room has asked that question at some time.
Most of his life, C. S. Lewis had carefully guarded his heart from love. That is until he met Joy. Ultimately theirs became a deep friendship and then on her dying bed, he realized he loved her more than he could imagine. He married her there. Miraculously she did recover somewhat and lived for 3 years before the cancer overtook her body once more. In his book, A Grief Observed, he wrote,
Not that I am (I think) in much danger of ceasing to believe in God. The real danger is of coming to believe such dreadful things about Him.[1]
That seems to be the same danger Job was confronted with. Mine was somewhat different as I believed that God was good and all powerful, but perhaps I was too unworthy to be loved by Him. All of which beg for an answer not initially found when the pain seems too great to bear and answers are too far from our hearts and minds to comprehend.
But God
As we saw last week. All the evil that surrounds us, God can use for good and promises just that.
Romans 8(NET) 26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know how we should pray, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with inexpressible groanings. 27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes on behalf of the saints according to God’s will.
28 And we know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose, 29 because those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. 30 And those he predestined, he also called; and those he called, he also justified; and those he justified, he also glorified. 31 What then shall we say about these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 Indeed, he who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, freely give us all things?
Note this. He did not spare His own son. All things work together for good, not that they in and of themselves seem good at the time. It all works together to transform us into the likeness of the son. As such, we become a part in His joy as well. This is what He prayed for before going to the cross, enduring the greatest injustice of all willingly.
A Really Good Almighty God-John 17
These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee: 2 As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. 3 And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.4 I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.
5 And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was… 11 And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are….13 And now come I to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves.
His joy fulfilled in us. What kind of joy is His? Perfect joy as within the Godhead.
Now is that a frivolous kind of joy? Afterall, did he not say,
“If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. 26 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? Matthew 16:24-26 (ESV)
Deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. For what? To gain perfect joy, love, and glory? Yes.
So, What Does Pain Have to Do with Joy?
Pain is the megaphone awakening us and the world from our slumber. Only then can we recognize our discontent with frivolous joys.
Soren Kierkegaard wrote in The Gospel of Suffering:
When worldly wisdom is capable of realizing goodness, faith is not capable of seeing God. But when worldly wisdom cannot see a hand’s breath before it in the dark night of suffering, Faith sees God. For faith sees best in darkness.[2]
without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Hebrews 11:6
We come to Him by faith—faith is knowing HE IS (Yahweh) and faith understands HE does reward those who diligently seek Him.
By Grace are ye saved by faith, and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God. Ephesians 2:8
Even then it is God who gives us that faith. Albeit it may have to come from a long training in suffering that gives us that kind of faith.
let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.3 Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. Hebrews 12:1-3 (ESV).
Am I at any point to think myself less worthy of suffering than my Savior? And from what standpoint?
Really Good Almighty God and Job’s suffering
He (Elihu) saw the superior purpose God had in allowing suffering to come to a child of His who was acknowledged to be a good man. The three friends had each accused Job of being guilty of gross sin of one kind or another because, according to their viewpoint, no man would suffer as he had suffered unless he had done something very evil. They thought of suffering as punishment and when Job refused to accept their judgment, they call him a hypocrite.
Elihu points out that Job’s problem and sin was a wrong attitude toward God and toward God’s judgments. Job failed to see that even a good man needs refining in God’s school of practical Christian living. Elihu saw that suffering is not exclusively punitive, it may be corrective. He saw that God allows suffering not always as a penal matter but for moral ends. Suffering is not necessarily to requite a man for sin but to bring a man to an even closer fellowship with God. It may not be for punishment at all, but rather for purification. (Or) It is not necessarily the Judges rod of punishment, but the Shepherd’s Crook to guide us. It is designed to push us a little further on in maturing our spiritual lives. [3]
Example of How a Really Good, Almighty God Allows Suffering
C.S. Lewis wrote in The Problem with Pain
My own experience is something like this. I am progressing along the path of life in my ordinary contentedly fallen and godless condition, absorbed in a merry meeting with my friends for the morrow or a bit of work that tickles my vanity today, a holiday or a new book, when suddenly a stab of abdominal pain that threatens serious disease, or a headline in the newspapers that threatens us all with destruction, send this whole pack of cards tumbling down. At first, I am overwhelmed and all my little happinesses look like broken toys. Then, slowly and reluctantly, bit by bit, I try to bring myself into the frame of mind that I should be in at all times. I remind myself that all these toys were never intended to possess my heart, that my true good is in another world and my only real treasure is Christ. And perhaps by God’s grace, I succeed, and for a day or two become a creature consciously dependent on God and drawing its strength from the right sources. But the moment the threat is withdrawn, my whole nature leaps back to the toys; I am even anxious, God forgive me, to banish from my mind the only thing that supported me under the threat because it is now associated with the misery of those few days. Thus, the terrible necessity of tribulation is only too clear. God has had me for but forty-eight hours and then only by dint of taking everything else away from me. Let Him but sheathe that sword for a moment and I behave like a puppy when the hated bath is over—I shake myself as dray as I can and race off to reacquire my comfortable dirtiness, if not in the nearest manure heap, at least in the nearest flower bed. And that is why tribulations cannot cease until God either sees us remade or see that the remaking is now hopeless.[4]
Can a Really Good Almighty God Allow Suffering in Our Life?
I found this beautifully written post by Justin Craft posted in 2021 at https://withallwisdom.org/2021/04/16/the-problem-of-evil/amp/
I do recommend you read it. So well done.
But he points out:
Man is wholly responsible for his fallen state, and God does not sin nor tempt others to evil (James 1:13). Though, by the fact of His omnipotence, God could have prevented the Fall, in His perfect wisdom He allowed it to happen for a glorious and perfect purpose.God has allowed men and angels to commit evil and pervert His good creation for the purpose of revealing the riches of His glory. He is making aspects of Himself known to His creation through the display of His justice in the destruction of the wicked. His power and wrath, which is being revealed even now in creation and which will be poured out for all eternity on the reprobate (Rom 1:18), has revealed and will continue to reveal for all time God’s glory to creation. And it has revealed things about God that would have remained veiled to creation otherwise….As God is all-wise and all-good, and does all things perfectly, this way, with evil and all must be the best course of action. John Piper coins this as “the best-of-all-possible worlds,” which means that “God governs the course of history so that, in the long run, his glory will be more fully displayed and his people more fully satisfied than would have been the case in any other world.”4 It is that satisfaction we see in verse 23. For God has wisely revealed the riches of His glory in the destruction of the wicked, not to merely reveal that glory to creation in general, but also so that He could redeem us. And as Jonathan Edwards says in his great work Concerning the End for Which God Created the World, “The glory of God is the ultimate end of the work of redemption.”5 Without evil in the world, without God’s perfect justice being meted out on sin and evil, God’s elect would not have known God’s mercy and glory and love and goodness in redemption. For there would be no redemption if there was nothing to redeem.[5]
A Final Thought
Romans 8 (NET) 18 For I consider that our present sufferings cannot even be compared to the coming glory that will be revealed to us. 19 For the creation eagerly waits for the revelation of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility—not willingly but because of God who subjected it—in hope 21 that the creation itself will also be set free from the bondage of decay into the glorious freedom of God’s children.
22 For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers together until now. 23 Not only this, but we ourselves also, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we eagerly await our adoption, the redemption of our bodies 24 For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope, because who hopes for what he sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with endurance.
We who know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior are that hope. The whole creation eagerly waits for the revelation of the sons of God. We are the light, the love and the comfort to a world drowning in fears, sorrows, and suffering. We know the truth and that is what sets us free from the bondages of this world. Our joy, hope and love are found in Him, regardless of the circumstances. So let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily besets us and let us run the race, looking unto Jesus our Savior, the author and the finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12)
And as for my faulty theology.
It was precisely a time of deep pain intermingled with God’s grace giving me the ability to love another human unconditionally that gave me to truth. God loved me unconditionally before I was ever born. That love so overwhelming that I want only to please Him now. I love Him more than life itself, because He first loved me. A lesson learned through years of tragedy and sorrow, but so worth the learning. Jesus is my foundation. He is my joy overflowing, steadfast and unwavering. That, my friend is worth every tear I ever cried–just to know Him as my Lord and Savior.
DO YOU KNOW CHRIST AS YOUR SAVIOR AND LORD? He is our only Hope in Life and Death! Our Joy is found in Him.
Therefore if you don’t know Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord: I urge you today. Go to my page titled How to Be Saved by clicking on this link. There is nothing more important than this; because He is the way, the truth and the life. Therefore, I urge you to seek Him today.
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DISCLOSURES
©Effie Darlene Barba, 2023
Disclosure of Material Connection: I have not received any compensation for writing this post. Furthermore, I have no material connection to the brands, products, or services that I have mentioned except for my own books. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.
Credits
New King James Version (NKJV)
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
New Living Translation (NLT)
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
English Standard Version (ESV)
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
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[1] Lewis, C.S., A Grief Observed, Harper, San Francisco, CA, ©1961, page 6
[2] Kierkegaard, Soren, Gospel of Suffering, 1847 translated by A.S.Aldworth and W.S.Ferrie, James Clarke & Co, Cambridge, ©1955, p36
[3] Epp, Theodore H., Job, A Man Tried as Gold, ©1967,2014, Grace Gospel Press, Duluth, MN, 111-112
[4] Lewis, C.S., The Problem with Pain, ©1940, Harper, San Francisco, CA, pages 106-107
[5] https://withallwisdom.org/2021/04/16/the-problem-of-evil/amp/ ©2021, accessed 1/28/2023