by Jacob Ninan
Some preachers offer the hope that if we go to Jesus He will take care of all our life, saying that we will have health and prosperity and no suffering! But suffering in various forms is a part of life which no one can escape from. Jesus, after warning us that we would face trouble on this earth, encourages us saying that He has overcome (Jn.16:33). His way of helping us is not by taking the trouble away, but helping us to go through the suffering by giving us His peace in our heart. In other words, He does not give peace by taking the trouble away, but by giving giving us peace that helps us to go through the trouble. This suffering will only disappear one day when we stand on the new earth in eternity when there will be no more pain, tears, sickness, death, etc.
Our question about why there is suffering when God is there can be addressed in three parts.
1. When God is almighty and loving, how can there be so much suffering?
One major wrong assumption people make is that God is responsible for everything that happens. They think that God is sovereign – either everything that happens is from Him, or something He has permitted. They say, when He permits something to happen which He could have prevented, He is responsible for what happens. This approach is totally wrong.The truth is that God is perfect in all His ways. He is good and He never does anything evil or wrong. How can we attribute it to Him when something evil happens that causes us a lot of suffering? If God is responsible for all the evil that happens, then how can we admire such a God, let alone love Him? In that case, we can only live in fear of God, not knowing what evil He will do next! But it is actually blasphemous to attribute evil to God.
Then the question comes up, if God is not responsible for the evil, then who is? The simple truth is that we are. We human beings are the ones who have sinned and sinned and caused a lot of evil things to happen. When we sow to the flesh, we will have to reap corruption (Gal.6:8). We are now reaping the corruption that has come from our sins, but also the sins of everyone who has lived on earth. When people have misused and abused the earth for their selfishness and greed, not bothering about their effect on others, our air, water, land and all other creation are now suffering from the damage. We now suffer not only the direct consequences of sin, such as break in relationships, human trafficking, loss of jobs, etc., but also the indirect consequences such as sicknesses, poverty, famine, natural calamities, etc.
Why then are we blaming God or getting upset with God whenever we suffer? He can never do anything bad! In fact, He is One who has taken the punishment for our sins in order to make a way back for us.
One of the reasons for this kind of misunderstanding about God is a wrong teaching on God's sovereignty. They say that God is in full control and that everything comes from Him. But this is wrong, when we think of the practical implications. If everything comes from God, that would include evil, and then He cannot be justified in punishing us! But we are the ones who are doing wrong.
When God created us, He created us in His image. It is because of that that we are able to think, feel and make choices, just like God but in a small way. Another part of His nature is His sovereignty, and He has also made us sovereign in a small way, which we call our 'free will'. Our free will is limited in scope compared to His infinity. If we imagine the scope of God's sovereignty as a large circle, then our free will is a very small circle inside that. We can do whatever we like within that small circle. But God can intervene even within that circle if He chooses it to accomplish His purposes. But in general, we have this freedom of choice, which we have all misused, and we are now suffering for that.
There were two special trees which God had placed inside the Garden of Eden. The fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil is what has led to all our problem. Can you imagine what would have happened if Adam and Eve had refused to listen to Satan and instead eaten from the other tree, the tree of life? Then there would not have been all this suffering. But we have all eaten from the forbidden tree, and do we still dare to blame God?
Another smaller question that comes up within this question is, why God does not prevent the suffering when He sees it coming? Remember, we are suffering because we or someone has misused freedom. If God were to intervene every time someone planned to sin and prevented that, would it not be a nullifying of that person's free will? Then it would go back to God doing things sovereignly and man not having any free will. That is not how God has made things. In His sovereignty, He has made our free will also to work along with His overarching sovereignty. Actually, we have all experienced God's intervention on many occasions when we were protected from things that could have ruined us. In God's sovereignty there is provision for us to make mistakes, but there is also provision to protect us if things went beyond limits (Psa.37:23,24).
2. Why does God allow Satan to be on the earth?
Lucifer, the leader of the angels became Satan because he misused his own free will and rose up against God's authority. God cast him out of heaven, and now he is furious with God because of that. He has directed all his fury against us, God's people. His goal is, if possible, to turn us away from God and to destroy us (Jn.10:10). God warns us to be careful about him (1Pet.5:8). God has allowed Satan (and his demons) to tempt and test us, because He knows that it can work for our good.When we face a temptation, it shows us what corruption there is in our sinful flesh that draws us away from God. Each choice we make at the time of temptation demonstrates what we really value in our heart – to be pleasing to God or to seek pleasure, name, or some gain for ourselves. If we choose God, that makes us spiritually stronger. Even if there was no Satan, we can still be tempted because of the desires that are their in our flesh (Jas.1:14,15). But Satan also serves this purpose of giving us an opportunity to become stronger.
Satan is much more powerful than any of us, and that if he was able to do whatever he wished, he would have destroyed all of us. But God has placed restrictions on what he can do, as we see from the story of Job. God will not allow us to be tested beyond our ability (1Cor.10:13), but every time we are tempted He will also provide us grace to overcome and endure it. God has also given us authority in the name of Jesus over all the power of this enemy (Lk.10:19), using which we can cast him out. So we don't have to live in fear of Satan, even if people try to do witchcraft, black magic or sorcery against us (Num.23:23).
Finally, we can know now itself that Satan's destiny is to be cast one day into the lake of fire where he will be punished forever and ever (Rev.20:10).
3. Why are wicked people getting away with it?
God is supposed to be a righteous and just Judge who will punish the wicked. But what we see is a lot of wicked people who continue to be wicked and yet enjoy everything in life. At the same time, we who take pains to avoid sin and compromise come to face a lot of opposition and suffering! The question that comes up is where God is, and what has happened to justice!It is not that God does not know what is going on or that He has put away His justice. The truth is that He is giving time for the wicked people to repent (2Pet.3:9). If God were to punish people immediately whenever they sinned, then all of us would have been destroyed long ago. But because He was gracious towards us, we were able to come to repentance and find salvation. So, the wicked are not getting away with anything. Either their judgment will come while they are on earth, and then it will be a warning for others, or they will face judgment on the final day.
But He deals with us who are His children whom He loves, in a different way. He warns us when we go wrong, and when we still don't pay attention He will even discipline us. That is because He loves us and does not want us to go astray. So we may experience His chastening even when we do something small, while it looks as if others who do wicked things are getting away with them. But now we know the truth.
What God has prepared for us is far more than an enjoyable life here. He knows that we can partake of glorious aspects of His nature, when we go through suffering, which we could not have learnt if we had had an easy life here (2Cor.4:17). Let us apologise to God for blaming Him for suffering and thinking of Him in a distorted manner. Let us learn more of Him from His word and also our personal experience with Him.