If God is real, why is there suffering?

This week we are tackling a really big question, and a really hard question. It all has to do with suffering. I am sure we have all been through times in our life where we have experienced hard things - maybe we have lost family members or friends, maybe parents have split up, maybe we just look around us and see so many people suffering. We don’t have to look far to see so much pain and trouble in the world!

When Christians talk about God, they say that He is a good God. That He is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, and just. For many, though, that does not align with their experience of the world. Atheists argue that a good, all-powerful God would not allow evil. They say:

If God is all-good, he would eliminate evil.

If God is all-powerful, he could eliminate evil.

Evil exists.

Therefore, (1) God doesn’t exist, (2) He exists but is not all-good, or (3) He exists but is not all-powerful.

Christians argue that the presence of evil is another piece of evidence FOR God’s existence.

 Sounds complicated, right? What do you think? Turn to your friends around you and talk about why you think suffering exists. 

Let’s jump in.

2. The solution to the problem

In Genesis 1–3, evil entered the world through temptation and the fall. The result was alienation from God and one another, broken relationships, physical and emotional pain, toil, and death. These early chapters of the Bible portray suffering as an intruder of paradise. It was never meant to be there. (cue animal stuck in a weird place).

Christians argue that this is where sin came from.

But why? Why did God even allow it? If God is all powerful, why doesn’t He stop evil before it even happens? Why did He allow it into the garden? Why did He even PUT the tree of good and evil in the garden? We need to talk about something called free will.

I love how C S Lewis writes this:

If a thing is free to be good it is also free to be bad. And free will is what has made evil possible. Why, then, did God give them free will? Because free will, though it makes evil possible, is also the only thing that makes possible any love or goodness or joy worth having. A world of automata--of creatures that worked like machines--would hardly be worth creating. - C S Lewis

God can create free people, but He can’t cause them to do only what is right. If He did, then they would not be free at all. To create creatures capable of moral good, He must create them capable of moral evil (He can’t give them the freedom to do evil things, and also prevent them from doing so). 

The fact that free creatures sometimes do evil things does not count against God’s omnipotence (all-powerful) or against His goodness; for He could have stopped evil ONLY by removing the possibility of moral good.  

In short--God wanted us to freely love Him. A forced love is no love at all.

Galatians 5:13 NIV

You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love.

Ok so free will means people can make bad choices or good choices, some of which causes suffering. Free will helps me understand why God allowed evil to enter the world, and why it still exists in the world - I can understand that. But. Not all suffering is because of things people do, right? It makes it sound like suffering is some kind of choice or caused by something. Sometimes it doesn’t seem that way! And then why do good people suffer? I still have some questions about suffering that happens - it doesn’t really seem fair to me still.

Ok. Why does suffering happen and why do people have to go through hard things? Honestly, the Bible isn’t clear. It doesn’t ever provide an explicit explanation as to why suffering exists and why God allows it. From what we do read, and what we can infer, we see suffering in a few different ways.

1. we see that suffering is most often the result of sin (we just talked about this right) -> someone did something wrong and it causes suffering. Example: Hannah leaves her phone on top of her car like a muppet, and someone steals it. Hannah suffers because she has to buy a new one. Hannah was foolish - but someone else sinned and it caused pain. That person could then suffer if they were caught and charged with theft. Right?

2. Suffering can be a form of discipline. Has anyone ever gotten into trouble at home? Parents punish kids, right? A kid does something wrong and parents punish them to help them grow and teach them what is right - to prevent more suffering. Well in the Bible we see God using punishment to correct His people - to help them grow, stop making bad choices and draw them closer to Him.

3. But then, why did my dad have to suffer and die? No-one sinned and caused cancer? My dad was an amazing person, so I don’t think it was a punishment to change his ways!! So we see another kind of suffering that is allowed - one of sickness and disease. We don’t understand it. But God does allow it. God allowed the enemy to cause Job to suffer in the old testament - he lost his wife, his children and his possessions - and we read that Job was a good man! Bad things happen to good people.

There is a big mystery surrounding why suffering is allowed to exist.

3. Living in the reality of suffering

The Bible doesn’t say IF suffering happens, but tells us to expect it. The Bible also might not tell us why suffering must be endured, but it does tell us how to endure it.

The Bible speaks as suffering is a given.

So how do we live in the reality of suffering? Can our experience of suffering, and how we live in it, actually show people God? Can our actions actually show who God is and be a powerful witness? Can our suffering bring us closer to God? Can it mature us?

Yes. 

This is one of my favourite passages and it comes from Romans 5:3-5

We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. 4 And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. 5 And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.

Or another translation says: we rejoice in our sufferings

For some, this question about suffering is a stumbling block. It’s hard. But I would argue the key question is not really about why suffering exists, because we know that it does - it’s a reality-, the question is really about how we can endure it and overcome.

Paul writes in Romans that when we suffer, we know that it produces endurance and strengthens our character. James also writes this...

James 1:2–4 NIV

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

Consider it pure joy! Pure joy!! We see that suffering leads to maturity and growth - he writes ‘not lacking anything’ - suffering perhaps produces contentment - a deep sense of happiness and closeness to the Lord.

But that seems hard, right? And it doesn’t mean we can’t be mad or sad when we are suffering. In fact look here:

Psalm 22:1–2 NIV

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from my cries of anguish? My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer, by night, but I find no rest.

The psalmist is honest about how they feel and what is going on! They don’t hide their suffering from God - they cry out to Him and ask Him to answer! But they also go on to say - you are enthroned, I trust you, you are my God, you are Holy, you are my strength, you will rescue me, and even ends by saying ‘He has done it!’ as if it is already certain that God will come through.

And those words might sound familiar. Did anyone recognise ‘my God, my God, why have you forsaken me’? Who said that?

Jesus.

Jesus suffered. He spoke these words as he died on the cross. Completely innocent He suffered. He suffered so that we may live and have hope. And here, on the cross is where we see God’s ultimate response to evil and suffering:

It does not have the final word.

As followers of Jesus we enter into suffering with the knowledge of what Jesus has accomplished and with hope in our heart that God is working to redeem all things. That in the end there is no suffering. There is no sickness. There is no evil. Jesus has already beaten it.

Right now we live in the in-between and when we face suffering in our lives, we are challenged to do so with humility. We are to accept God’s power with humility and endurance, seeking refuge in God, trusting Him, blessing those who cause our suffering, and remaining faithful. We are to comfort and support those who go through suffering, to pray for the sick, to provide for those who are needy, and to show compassion to those going through trials.

Let’s pray.