Why suffering, if there is God?

Good evening everyone.

I thank God for this wonderful opportunity to talk about the most important thing in a person’s life. Also, I thank each one of you for joining us this evening.

Most of us make new year resolutions, and plans for the year. I am sure that many of us who are attending this meeting has prepared many plans for this year. But in relation to our resolutions and plans for the year 2020 is different than past many years. Most of the time our plans are defeated by ourselves but this year circumstances defeated our annual plans. When last year around this time, an epidemic started in Wuhan in China, no one thought that it will conquer the entire world and change all of our plans and life style. In very few days it became a pandemic and almost all the countries in the world responded to the pandemic in the same way. So far it killed more than 1.5 million people and more than 65 million people got the virus. Many more millions of people lost their jobs, many people lost their livelihood, many lost their educational opportunities, many peoples relationships are affected, the boarders are closed, economy has crashed. in short almost everyone in the world is affected by this pandemic.

If we check the history we can understand that it is not a new thing. Around 100 years ago, in 1918 the world was affected with another pandemic, the Spanish flu, with approximately 50 million death and 500 million suspected cases according to CDC website. The world witnessed 2 world wars during last century. From the history we can see that the world is going through suffering from time to time. Many wars, pandemics and epidemics, natural disasters, man made disaster. And common people are suffering because of all these things.

These facts bring an important question.

Why suffering if there is a God?

Different world views

We understand that people have different world views. Different religions, different political parties, different ideologies etc.

If we categorize the world views in relation to God, there are mainly two world views - a group of people who believe that there is no God and another group of people believe that there is a God. The above mentioned question “why suffering if there is a god” is often asked to the theists or those who believe in the existence of God. Today we will check why there is suffering if there is a god.

If we check the word of god, the Bible, we understand that the world and everything in it is created by god. And when god created everything, he saw that everything is good. We can see that after creation of each thing god declares that it is good. Gen 1:3 God saw that the light is good, Gen 1:10 God created earth and the sea and He saw that it is good, Gen 1:12 God created plants and trees and he saw that it is good. And finally God created man and in Gen 1:31 we read that god evaluate that the creation of man is “very good”.

If everything that was created was good and very good, how the bad thing, the suffering came into this world?

We can find the answer to this question in the Bible. People rise this question to prove that there is no god. But if we analyse this issue we can understand that in fact the answer to this question proves that there is a God.

Bible clearly says that the sin of man is the reason for all the suffering we can see. In the garden of Eden man sinned and as the judgement of sin, suffering entered the world. Now you might ask

what is sin?

If we read Bible we can understand that anything that we think or say or do that displeases God is sin. When we lie, when we steal, when we use abusive language, when we hurt someone physically or emotionally, when we destroy the creation of God, we are displeasing God and thereby sinning. In the garden of Eden Adam and Eve went against the instruction of God, their creator and displeased God or in short they sinned. As a result God judged them and man started suffering. We can read that judgement in Gen 3:17-19

In toil you will eat of it

All the days of your life.

18 “Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you;

And you will eat the plants of the field;

19 By the sweat of your face

You will eat bread,

Till you return to the ground

Ge 3:17–19.

So it is evident that the suffering we can see around us is the result of disobedience of man and the suffering we can see around us proves the existence of God rather than disproving it.

But the scary part is not this suffering. Average life span of man is 70 or 80 years and the suffering lasts only for so long. The scary part in relation to the consequence of sin is that there is a consequence of sin after this short life on the earth. Man has a life after death. And Bible says that the

“For the wages of sin is death” Rom 6:23

This death is not our physical death but an eternal separation from God. The dwelling place of God is heaven and if man is separated from God, he will go to hell in his life after death. That is scary!! We know that almost all religions teach about hell and no one wants to go hell irrespective of his religious background and his worldview. Hell is the place of tormentation and a place where man is separated from God. The most scary part of this is that there is no end to this separation. If man is separated from god and sent to hell, that is for a timeless period. I know it is not a good news and I don’t think that anyone would want to go to hell for eternal suffering and separation from god. I dont want to go to hell.

Then what to do??

How can one escape from this eternal suffering?

Can man save himself from this punishment?

Bible clearly teaches us that no one on this earth can save one person from this eternal punishment. A man can not save himself from the eternal hell fire, no religion can save man, no philosphy can save man, no political party or ideology can save man, no technology can save man. Man can not save himself by doing good deeds because even the best deeds of man can not satisfy the standards of holiness and righteousness of man.

Then how can man avoid this eternal damnation.

Solution

The verse we read sometime back gives an answer to this question.

For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Rom 6:23

Eternal life is the gift of God!! When Bible says eternal life, it means an eternal life with God, in heaven. What a wonderful news it is?? I do not want to go to eternal hell fire, I do not want to be separated from God forever. And now the Bible says that God has promised us an eternal life.

But is that gift of eternal life from God available to every one? How can I receive the gift from God? What is the criteria to receive this gift?

The only thing we need to get gift from God is to accept that gift. A gift will not be mine just because someone offers it to me. The gift belongs to me only if I accept it. Bible says that one needs to believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God to receive this gift.

John 3:36

New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update Chapter 3

“He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”

This verse clearly teaches that we need to believe in Jesus Christ to receive this gift from God. So the only criteria is our faith in God. Our good deeds, our religious background, our race, our nationality, nothing matters. Only one thing matters in our life. and that one thing is whether we have faith in Jesus Christ or not. The wrath of God comes on those who do not believe in Jesus Christ.

You might ask what is it mean by believing in the son of God? How can I do that and receive the free gift of eternal life from God.

Rom 10:9

New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update Chapter 10

that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;

When God created everything, He did not intend suffering to be there. But suffering is a result of man’s sin. The suffering can be divided into two types - one is the temporary suffering which will end in this world. the second suffering is an eternal suffering. And there will be a time in the future where all these suffering of those who believe in Jesus Christ will be removed.

Revelation 21:4 NASB95

and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.”

God will wipe away all the suffering and pain forever.

One thing I can not skip while talking about the gift of God is the price of this salvation plan God has prepared for us. Bible says that Jesus Christ took our punishment and he died instead of you and me on the cross of Calvary. Why might ask why he did that? God, being God could have just saved us. But our God is a righteous God and he can not leave the sins unpunished. That is against His godly character. So in order to save you and me he died on the cross of Calvary.

The gift of eternal life is available to you, the freedom from eternal suffering and punishment is available to you. The choice is yours. If you believe in Jesus Christ you will get freedom and eternal life. I request all my listeners to think about these truths you listened from the word of God and take a decision wisely. I have assurance that I am freed from this eternal suffering and many of us have the same assurance. I want you to be with me in the heaven. Again the choice is yours. May the Lord bless you to take a decision wisely.

I just want to take one moment to introduce our church to you. Our church’s name is Detroit Brethren Assembly. We are a small group of people believing in the Holy BIble and follow Jesus Christ. If you appreciate the friendship and fellowship of Bible believing Christians, feel free write to any of us. Also if you want to know more about the Jesus Christ and the wonderful things he has done for each one of us, we are more than happy to spend some time with you and help you understand more.

Let me pray.