Our (certain) hope

A couple of months ago, I got a text from one of my best friends back in the States. Normally, I love hearing from him, but that day he had some bad news. His father had just passed away. It was totally unexpected. I really felt it, because his father had a big impact on me. It was because of his ministry, that I became a Christian. And it was because of his ministry that I’m in Japan right now doing what I do. I owe a lot to him.

But as much as I feel loss at his death, I’m sure his wife and sons feel it even more. Especially this time of year. Two of the biggest family holidays in America are Thanksgiving in November and of course Christmas next month. This will be their first holiday season without him. And yet, through their pain, they do have hope. And it is a certain hope. They will see their husband and father again.

But for a lot of people, they are hurting and they have no hope. And because of that, the question they often wrestle with the most is, “Why?” Why is there so much suffering in this world? Why all the evil? I think even for us Christians, we wrestle with that question. A few weeks ago, we talked about one of the “daizentei,” one of the major premises we face as Christians: we will face suffering in this world.

In that message, we touched briefly on the reason for our suffering, but I want to take a much deeper dive into it today. So let’s look again at Romans 8, starting at verse 20.

For the creation was subjected to futility—not willingly, but because of him who subjected it—in the hope that the creation itself will also be set free from the bondage to decay into the glorious freedom of God’s children. (20-21)

What does Paul mean by this world being subject to futility? In short, Paul’s talking about how this world is falling apart. In physics, we call it the law of entropy. Everything is literally falling apart. That’s why we see earthquakes. That’s why we see typhoons. That’s why all living creatures eventually die. The sun itself will eventually die. It’ll probably take another 5 billion years, but it will die unless Jesus comes first.

And Paul tells us that God is the one who subjected this world to futility. But why? To find that answer, we have to go back to the first book of the Bible, Genesis.

When we look at the first chapter of Genesis, what we quickly find out is that this world and all its creatures are not just an accident. It didn’t all come together by coincidence. God was the one who created all things. And the thing that you see time and again in chapter 1 was that when God created everything, he created it good. Again and again, you see God creating something, looking at it, and saying, “This is good,” “This is good,” “This is good.” (1:4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25, 31).

Everything was perfect. There was no entropy. This world was designed to last forever. We ourselves were designed to live forever.

But not only was creation perfect, relationships were perfect too. It says in chapter 2, that when the first humans Adam and Eve were created, they were naked but not ashamed. This isn’t just talking about sexual intimacy. This was a complete baring of heart and soul to each other with complete love and acceptance.

More importantly, their relationship with God was perfect. Whenever God would visit them in the garden, they would run to greet him. It seems that their relationships with animals were perfect as well. They didn’t fear us and we didn’t fear them. (This changed after the flood: Genesis 9:2)

So what happened? In one word, sin. Here in Japan, when people hear the word sin, the first thing they think about is crime, things like murder, rape, or theft. But in the Bible, sin comes down to one thing: distrust of God. Not believing that he is good. Not believing that he cares about us. Not believing he knows and desires our best. And from that distrust, comes disobedience and rebellion against God and his commands.

And that’s what you see in Genesis chapter 3. God gave Adam and Eve only one prohibition. They were not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. There were lots of other trees in the garden God placed Adam and Eve in. And he said, “Hey, feel free to eat from any of them. Eat as much as you want. Enjoy. They’re all good. But that one tree in the middle of the garden, don’t eat from it. Trust me. It’s death to you.”

I’m not sure, but it’s possible that God even put other trees around that one tree that had the exact same kind of fruit. And it was perfectly fine for Adam and Eve to eat from them. But God said, “Just that one tree…don’t eat from it.”

And for some time, Adam and Eve trusted and obeyed. How long that was, we don’t know. It may have been only a few days. A few weeks. It may have been years. But there came a time when God’s enemy Satan entered into the picture. The Bible tells us that a serpent in the garden spoke to Eve. How that’s possible is pure speculation.

Some speculate that at one time, all animals could speak. Others speculate that just this one time, Satan enabled the serpent to speak his words. God once enabled a donkey to speak, so it’s possible that Satan can do the same. But however it happened, we know Satan was behind the serpent because the apostle John specifically makes that connection in Revelation. Paul also seems to allude to it in Romans. (Romans 16:20, Revelation 12:9, 20:2, )

At any rate, look at what Satan said through the serpent.

“Did God really say, ‘You can’t eat from any tree in the garden’?” (Genesis 3:1)

Notice what Satan is trying to do right from the start: Destroy the trust that Eve had in God. And he starts by twisting God’s word. God had said, “You can freely eat from any tree in the garden.” God was incredibly generous to Adam and Eve. But Satan tried to make God seem very stingy. “Did God really say you can’t eat from any tree in the garden?”

Eve said, “No, no, we can eat from the trees of the garden, just not the one in the middle. If we eat from it or touch it, we will die.”

Satan then responded with an outright lie in verses 4-5.

“No! You will certainly not die,” the serpent said to the woman. “In fact, God knows that when you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

Not only does Satan contradict God’s words, he throws doubt in Eve’s mind. “God’s lying to you. You can’t trust him. He’s holding back something good from you. If you eat that fruit, you will be like him, knowing good and evil. But God wants you to stay stupid and ignorant. That’s why he gave you that command.”

Satan’s strategy hasn’t changed in thousands of years. To this day, he spreads the same lies. God doesn’t really love you. He doesn’t really want your best. He’s holding back what’s good from you.” Have you ever found yourself believing those lies? Those lies are as old as creation. It led to Eve distrusting and questioning God. And it led to her eating from that tree. She then gave the fruit to Adam and he ate too. What was the result?

The first thing was shame. Look at verse 7.

Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. (Genesis 3:7)

The complete openness, the complete love and acceptance between Adam and Eve was gone in an instant. Now they suddenly felt the need to hide themselves. Certainly from each other, but also from God. Verse 8.

Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. (Genesis 3:8)

Before, when God came into the garden, Adam and Eve would run to him. Now they ran from him. And so God called to Adam, “Where are you?” Not because he didn’t know where Adam was, but because he wanted Adam to come out into the open. To stop hiding.

Adam sheepishly came out and said, “I heard you coming, and I was ashamed because I was naked.” God answered, “Who told you were naked? Did you eat from that tree I commanded you not to eat from? (10)

Adam heard that but instead of repenting, he got defensive. “The woman you gave me, God, she gave me the fruit and I ate.” (11-12)

Not only was he blaming Eve for giving him the fruit, he was blaming God for giving Eve to him. Can you imagine the hurt Eve felt hearing those words come from Adam’s mouth? “He doesn’t want me. He doesn’t love me. He wishes I had never been created.”

God turns to Eve and said, “What have you done?” And she said, “The serpent deceived me and I ate.” At which point, God turns to the serpent. And while some of God’s words seem directly targeted toward the serpent, some seem targeted toward Satan who was behind the serpent. Verses 14-15.

Because you have done this, you are cursed more than any livestock and more than any wild animal. You will move on your belly and eat dust all the days of your life. I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel. (Genesis 3:14–15).

Some people speculate that serpents used to have legs, and part of the curse was that they lost their legs. I don’t know if that’s true or not. But its crawling on its belly certainly became a sign of its debasement. But the second part of God’s curse seems directed at Satan. And God told Satan, I will put hostility between you and the woman, between her offspring and your offspring. And the woman’s offspring will strike your head and you will strike his heel.

That offspring of the woman is referring to Jesus. The offspring of the serpent are all those who walk in rebellion against God. The whole Old Testament is filled with stories of Satan using people to attack the Israelites through whom Jesus came. And when Jesus actually came into this world, people threatened his life time and again (John 8:38-44).

And then for a moment, it seemed like Satan had finally succeeded. Jesus was executed on a cross in a brutal death. But that death was only temporary, just as the effects of a serpent’s bite are only temporary if dealt with quickly. But when you stomp on a serpent’s head, it’s dead. When Jesus rose from the dead three days later, he cast Satan and his demons out from God’s presence forever (Revelation 12:7-8). And the day is coming when he will destroy Satan once and for all.

But that day is not yet. And in the meantime, God subjects this world to futility. If you read verse 16, it seems that the pain women experience at childbirth is much more than God originally designed it to be. Strained relationships between husband and wife also seem to be a result of the curse. (Genesis 3:16)

And for men, work became much harder. We were always designed to do work even before sin came into the world. God had given Adam the responsibility of caring for the garden (Genesis 2:15). But that work was intended to be joyful and rewarding. After Adam sinned, however, God cursed the ground, and it started to grow thorns and thistles. Adam would have to work much harder to get the ground to produce its fruit. (Genesis 3:17-19)

But the ultimate curse was death. God banished Adam and Eve from the garden of Eden so that they could not eat from the tree of life. And he told Adam, “I made you from the dust of the earth, and you will eventually return to dust. You will die.” And when you read Genesis 5, that’s what you start to see. Again and again, you see the author saying, “This person died, and that person died, and that person died.”

Why did God have to curse this world? It wasn’t simply to punish us. It was to wake us up. You see, it’s so easy for us to ignore God in this world, especially when life seems good. It’s so easy to ignore his warnings about how destructive our sin really is. Most people don’t even have any idea what God says in his Word. And though God has given us all a conscience, many choose to ignore that too. We’re so good at justifying ourselves whenever we do wrong. But the one thing we can’t do is ignore pain. Oh, we might be able to ignore dull pain for a while. But when that pain becomes sharp and crippling, we can’t ignore it any longer.

C.S. Lewis who wrote the Chronicles of Narnia, once wrote these words: “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”

And death is the ultimate megaphone. There’s something about death that makes us scream, “This isn’t right. This isn’t how things are meant to be.” We can try all we want to convince ourselves that death is “natural.” And it is natural in a broken world. But it was never meant to be that way. And deep down, all of us know it. All of us rebel against the bitter fact that people we love die. That we must die. And God says, “You’re right to feel that way. Death is only natural because you have walked away from me. My ways are the ways that bring people life. I am life. And so to live apart from me means death. Your sin will ultimately destroy you. But if you’ll turn back to me, you will find life and peace. (Romans 8:6-13)

The amazing thing is that before we even turned to God, he pursued us. When Adam and Eve were hiding in the garden, God pursued them. Before they even repented, he made his first promise to send Jesus to destroy Satan and his work. He then chose a man named Abraham through whose line he would bring Jesus. And though Abraham’s descendants weren’t always faithful to God, he was faithful to them.

And then 2000 years ago, he fulfilled his promise to Adam and Eve by sending his Son. And on a cross, Jesus took the punishment not only for Adam and Eve’s sin, but for your sins and mine. But when Jesus died, he didn’t stay dead. He rose three days later and he’s alive today. And one day, he will come back and everything that our sin has broken, Jesus will make new.

Which brings us back to Romans 8. Yes, God has subjected this world to futility in order to wake us up and bring us to him. But when we turn to him, there is hope. And it is a certain hope. This futility, this suffering we go through will not last forever. And all creation, including us who are God’s children through faith in Jesus, will one day be set free from our bondage to death and decay. We see that in Revelation 22:1-3. There the apostle John tells us what that new heaven and earth will be like.

Then he showed me the river of the water of life, clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the city’s main street. The tree of life was on each side of the river, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree are for healing the nations, and there will no longer be any curse. (Revelation 22:1-3)

Those last few words are the key: there will no longer be any curse. Adam and Eve were banned from the tree of life. But here, we regain access to it. And at that time, we will find healing for all the hurts and pains we experience in this world. Earlier in Revelation 21, John wrote this.

[God] will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; grief, crying, and pain will be no more, because the previous things have passed away. Then the one seated on the throne said, “Look, I am making everything new.” (Revelation 21:4-5)

So where do we go from here? When we are going through painful times in our lives, what do we do? First, hold on to God’s truth. You may be getting tired of me saying that. But that’s what this daizentei series is all about. It’s learning God’s truth so that we can root our lives in it. What’s the truth? God is good. God is trustworthy. And God loves you deeply. Those are the truths that Satan distorted in order to deceive Eve. And if we don’t hold on to these truths, these major premises, we will fall into Satan’s deception as Eve did.

For some of you who are new to church, they may be new concepts to you. But a relationship with God starts with embracing those three truths. Those truths may seem counterintuitive to you. Because of your pain, you may feel God hates you. That he isn’t good. That he can’t be trusted. But holding to those lies won’t heal your pain. They’ll only make it worse. And ultimately those lies will destroy you. But if you will embrace these three truths, your healing will start to begin.

Second, in your pain, lean into God, don’t run away. If you want to see an example of that, just read through the Psalms. Psalm 42 is one I often go to, but there are many others you can read as well. You don’t have to read through many psalms before you find King David crying out to God in his pain.

I’ve talked before about praying through the Psalms. It’s something that has enriched my prayer life this year. And one reason is that David wasn’t always happy, happy, joy, joy when he wrote his songs. He was totally honest about his struggles. He experienced betrayal. People he loved, even his own son, sought to take his life. He experienced sickness. He experienced defeat. And so when I go through struggles, David’s prayers become very real to me. And his prayers teach me how to lean into God when I’m struggling.

Unlike Adam and Eve, we don’t have hide in shame from God. We can come to him boldly and honestly, knowing that he is good, that he is trustworthy, and that he loves us.

I’ve been a Christian for over 40 years now. I’ve experienced heartache. I’ve experienced health problems. I’ve experienced financial struggles. And I’ve experienced tragedy and hardships in my family. But here’s what I can tell you. God is good. He is trustworthy. And my Abba, my heavenly Father, loves me. Can you say the same?