The World's Great Longing: The Bible's Answer to the Problem of Pain

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Introduction

What is it that you long for? What is it that you deeply desire? We all long for things. If you watched the Chiefs game this past Sunday, like me, you probably long for their defense to have a pulse. If you’re in college or graduate school right now, maybe you long for the end of the semester and you’re in the thick of tests and schoolwork. Maybe if you’re a foodie, you’re longing for the long awaited Torchy’s to finally open up in KC. Maybe you’re longing for Thanksgiving so that you can finally listen to Christmas music. Some of us are already living out that longing. Maybe you’re longing to be with a lost loved one during the holidays. Maybe you’re longing for a restored relationship. Or maybe you’re longing for Disney+, so you can relive your childhood. Whatever you’re longing for, the reality is that we all have longings.

Group Question 1:

As we prepare to dive into our passage tonight, I want us to talk about longing at our tables. What is it that you’re longing for right now? Is it for the guy across the room to talk to you? Is it for a Popeye’s chicken sandwich? Is it more serious than that? Whatever it is that you’re longing for right now, whether funny or serious, talk about that at your tables for 2-3 minutes and then we’ll get some answers.

The Longing of Creation

Did you know that your dog or cat has a deep longing, far greater than for you to give them a treat or pet them? Did you know the trees outside have longings? Did you know that Pluto, which is for sure a planet, has longings? In fact all of creation has longing despite not having a pulse or a brain. In fact, it’s the same deep longing that we all have.

Tonight, our goal is to look at how the love of God in Romans 8 speaks to that universal longing.

Romans 8:18-25

If you have your bible, turn or tap with me to Romans 8. We’re going to begin in verse 18

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

There’s so much we could say about this passage, but for our purposes tonight, we’re going to spend our time answer 2 questions

1.) What is the great longing of the world?

2.) What is the fulfillment of that longing?

The Great Longing of the World

Let’s start with our first question: what is the great longing of the world?

Verses 19-23 give us the answer in a few different ways

Verse 19

“For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.”

So creation longs for the revealing of the sons and daughters of God

Verses 20-22 give us a related angle of the same answer

Verses 20-22

“For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.

Not only does our answer relate to the revealing of the sons and daughters of God as we saw in verse 19. We also see that the the great longing of the world relates to the freedom of creation from corruption.

Verse 23

“And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.”

It’s not just creation that is groaning in pain, but we ourselves too. Nothing escapes the effects of corruption and brokenness.

Verse 23 tells us that we humans long for the our adoptions as sons and daughters of God and the redemption of our bodies.

So between verses 19 and 23 we’re told that the great longing of the world relates to:

Creation’s longs for the revealing of the sons and daughters of God.

The freedom of creation from corruption.

And humanity’s longing for for the our adoptions as sons and daughters of God and the redemption of our bodies.

Notice that those longing relate to both physical and spiritual realities; both body and soul.

Physical

We see the physical in creation’s longing to be freed from the pain of corruption and brokenness

And we see humanity’s physical longing in our desire for the redemption of our broken bodies.

Spiritual

We see the spiritual in creation’s and humanity’s longing for us to be adopted as sons and daughters of God.

If we combine these answers, both spiritual and physical, we see the totality of the world’s great longing and the answer to our question:

The great longing of the world is to be redeemed, both body and soul, physically and spiritually, from the corruption of sin. It’s to be at peace with God without tears, death, mourning, crying, pain, or brokenness.

Our passage tonight tells us that we can see this longing everywhere. We can’t look anywhere without sensing this longing.

Pain and Suffering, and the effects of sin are everywhere.

Imagine sin and pain personified as Mufasa and Simba looking out across their vast kingdom. It’s as if sin said to pain, “Everything the light touches is yours.”

In order to feel the weight of this brokenness and this great longing of the world, I want us to take a moment to talk at our tables.

Group Question 2:

When you look out around the world, what signs of brokenness, pain, and suffering do you see? This could be the existence of kansas Jayhawk fans, any BBQ other than Kansas City-style, the third Godfather movie, or something more serious like natural disasters, terminal cancer, suicide, or any number of things. Talk about that at your tables for 2-3 minutes and then we’ll get some answers.

We cannot escape the reality of the brokenness of the world.

So how did we get here? Why is there such perverse brokenness in the world?

There are two competing answers to this question

To hear the first answer you could look for famous philosophers such as David Hume, Sam Harris, Daniel Dannett, Richard Dawkins, or most of the commercials from Super Bowl about general human kindness. If you were to read the works of modern natural philosophers and humanists, you would see a different answer. Despite the obvious brokenness of the world, there are many proclaiming that this is just the way the world is supposed to be. It’s the natural manifestation of billions of years of random chance mutations and reactions through complex physical processes and Neo-Darwinian evolution. Sure, they see hurt in the world, but they say that this is just the way as it lives in a world dominated by the naturally occurring physical processes. The solution of this first answer we’re told is human ingenuity and kindness. These are incredibly powerful forces. In fact, I would feel confident in saying that a great number of the most impactful moments of all of our lives relate to profound acts of human ingenuity and kindness. These moments could come in the form of a friend forgiving you after you hurt them. It could be someone befriending you in a time a loneliness. It could be the way someone came alongside you and cared for you while you were hurting. We have all experienced the power of moments like these and we know how powerful they are.

Group Question 3:

In light of that, I want us to take 2-3 minutes at our tables to talk about some of the most profound moments of human kindness, forgiveness, and love we’ve ever seen. Talk about something that’s happened to you or that you’ve seen and then we’ll discuss some answers.

I trust you heard some beautiful stories of human kindness and love. These are deeply profound experiences and they have the power to impact the world in amazing ways. But despite their beauty and power, they aren’t capable of fulfilling the world’s great longing. They aren’t capable of redeeming the world for the corruption of sin. The world around us testifies to that. Wars rage, racism endures, increased natural disasters, new technology ushering even more ways to inflict pain and suffering that never existed before, and we can’t even agree on some of the most basic facts surrounding what it means to be human. If there is no God, no supernatural, then human kindness and ingenuity are the best this world has to offer. There is no hope outside of ourselves, and yet we continually seem to prove that despite our best efforts, we pale in comparison to the task of healing the world. But this is all only one account of the brokenness of the world.

The Bible gives a very different explanation of the brokenness of the world and it does so within its first 3 chapters.

Genesis 3:17 says,

“And [God said to Adam], “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you;"

The brokenness of both the world and humanity is the result of human sin.

It is because we humans sinned that creation is groaning and in pain.

Think about that. Sin is so gross, so evil, so dark, so unholy, so unjust, so horrific that through the advent of a single human sin in the world all of creation and all of humanity was affected for myriads of generations.

That reveals a powerful truth to us: sin is never private. You wound far more than just yourself when you sin.

If that’s the brokenness that one single sin can cause, think about the brokenness of the incalculable number of sins committed by each of the billions of people who have walked the earth. Last week we talked about how we’re far more sinful than we could ever realize. We talked about how even if we say no to the physical manifestation of our sin, like looking at porn, lying, or whatever, if even for a split second we enjoyed the thought of the sin before we said no, we still sinned. We sin far more than we could ever realize. If it took one single sin to separate us from God and to corrupt the entire world, imagine how broken the world must be when we factor in the near infinite number of sins committed by humanity since the dawn of time.

We have no idea just how broken the world really is.

Human ingenuity stands no chance when compared to the brokenness of the world. We could strive for the rest of time to heal the brokenness of humanity in our own power and we would wouldn’t even touch the tip of the iceberg of the world’s pain and suffering. In order for the brokenness of the world and our souls to be healed, in order for the great longing of the world to be answered, it will take something far greater than mere human kindness and ingenuity.

The Great Fulfillment

This leads us to discuss our final question of the night, namely

What is the fulfillment of the great longing of the world?

We know there’s brokenness in the world and we long for redemption from that brokenness. But as we just saw, nothing in this world can free us from the pain and suffering around us, not even the best of human kindness and ingenuity. So what hope do we have for the fulfillment of that longing?

Romans 8:24-25 alludes to this hope when it says:

“For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.”

So what is this hope?

To paraphrase C.S. Lewis, if we have a longing that can’t be fulfilled in this world, then it means that our fulfillment must come from something outside of this world.

The hope of the Christian faith is that fulfillment of the world’s great longing to be redeemed from pain and suffering, both spiritual and physical, comes not from human ingenuity and kindness, but the transcendent God of the universe.

This God put in us the longing for the healing of the world because He has shown us in our heart of hearts that this is not how the world is supposed to be.

But how is it that we can have this redemption? How is it that God will redeem all things and fulfill the great longing of the world?

Ironically, the redemption and healing of the world, both spiritually and physically, was secured in the most vile act of evil and brokenness the world has ever seen: the cross.

At the cross we see the greatest crime ever committed in the history of the universe: the murder of the innocent and infinite Son of God.

At the cross, Jesus didn’t just secure our salvation from sin; He secured the redemption of the entirety of creation!

At the cross, God turned Satan’s weapons back on Himself. At the very moment Satan thought the hope of the world was being extinguished, God set into motion the very way by which the world could have a holy fire of hope that could never but put out.

Despite the utter brokenness of the world, we can have hope.

But you might ask, how is it that one man could possibly pay for the entirety of our sins on the cross is like this. How is it that one many could heal all of creation from a brokenness so deep we can’t even fathom it? The answer is simple.

Rope example

The sin and evil of the world, while unfathomably large, is ultimately finite. There is a limit to it. On the other hand, Christ’s love, goodness, and holiness are also unfathomably great, but they have no limit. They are infinite. The finite amount of human sin and evil was no match for the infinite love, goodness, and holiness of Christ. This was no tug of war match that was close until the end. No, the infinite love and power of Jesus meant that His victory over sin at the cross was the greatest overkill the universe has ever seen. Sin, Satan, and the brokenness of the world never stood a chance!

Now we await the fruit of this redemption to manifest itself physically.

What About the Pain of the World? Is This All there Really Is?

Satan has already lost the war, but that doesn’t mean he can’t have victories in battles along the way. And he does this all of the time.

To unfallen eyes, this hope of redemption isn’t obvious. In fact, it seems blatantly false. It doesn’t take much effort to look around the world and see the pain and suffering all around us.

How many times have you heard this, or asked it yourself? How could there really be a good God out there with all of the pain and suffering we can see in the world? It doesn’t take much effort to look around around see the poverty and sickness of sub-Saharan Africa, sex trafficking in Indonesia and Thailand, and the mass shootings here in America. We could keep listing examples for the rest of the night. There is pain and suffering everywhere.

Satan’s victory in our lives is to get us to look around at the pain in the world and our lives and think, “Is this all there really is?” My guess is that many of us here tonight have asked that very same question. We’ve looked at the pain and suffering of the world and asked, “Is this really all there is?” I know many of your stories. I know the excruciating pain you’ve experienced. I know how easy it would be for you to look at the pain you’ve experienced and wonder, “Is this all there is?”

As someone that has ministered to a number of folks who have had thoughts of suicide, I’ve seen how they have asked this very question. Satan siphons their hope away with every pain, every rejection, every broken relationship until they only hope in what they see, and all they see is pain and loneliness. It’s there in the darkness that they ask, “Is this really all there is? How could my life be worth it if this is all there really is? Why would continue to endure this pain if this is all there is?”

Satan has ravaged our world by dulling our minds to the hope of the world and blinding us so that we can only see the pain and darkness of the world.

2 Corinthians 4:4 says, ““In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”

Satan wants to keep us from placing our hope in God by faith. He wants to keep us from seeing glimpses of God’s glory and provision in the world so that we might look around at this world and think, “Is this all there really is?”

Where is it in your life that you are only hoping in what you can see here? Where is it in your life that the pain and confusion has become so overwhelming that in the darkest moments you’ve begun to ask yourself, “Is this all there really is?” What sins in your life do you continually succumb to because you struggle to see how God could provide something better and live as if this is all there is. Where has Satan caused you to lose hope that God is actually better and tempted you into sin and despair because of it? Where in your life are you most tempted to say, “Is this really all there is?” It is there that Satan has begun to dull you and blind you.

But friends, this is not all there is. There is something more, something better.

In verses 24-25, Paul gives us hope in light of problem of pain; the single most common objection to Christianity.

“Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.”

If we look around the world and believe the lie that this is all there is, the lie of atheism, then we have no hope. To simply trust in what we see is not hope.

But despite Satan’s attempts, God has a different strategy.

2 Corinthians 4:6 tells us, ““For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”

God wants us to see the glimpses of His glory in the world, whether in the existence of the world, acts of human kindness, the historical records of His goodness of millenia set down in Scripture and more. He was us to see all of that and put our faith and hope in Him. He wants us to see that this isn’t all there is. He wants us to trust in His past grace and goodness, as we hope for His future goodness as He redeems the world.

Can we see Jesus right in front of us working the redemption of the world? Of course not. But that doesn’t mean He’s not at work. God has shown Himself faithful time and time again, and has shown us we can put our hope in Him, what we can’t see, as we wait for the redemption of the world.

In many ways, the cross pictures our Christian lives in miniature. Surely when the apostles were looking about Jesus dying on the cross they would have been tempted to lose hope. As they stared upon the death of their hope in the world, the one who they had following for those years, all those miles, surely they would have been tempted to ask, “Is this all there really is?” They had been told that this wasn’t all there was. Jesus had told them he would rise again on the 3rd day. But they couldn’t see everything going on behind the scenes. All they could see was the pain and suffering in front of them. Imagine if they had lost hope and turned away. Think about what they would’ve missed out on soon after. They couldn’t see all that God was doing behind the scenes. They couldn’t see the redemption and restoration God was working. They couldn’t see the billions of lives being bought back from the pangs of death and punishment. They couldn’t see the restoration of the world being initiated. All they could see was the pain and suffering of the cross...But that’s not all there was. There was so much more going on. In many ways, the cross and resurrection stand as a picture of our lives in miniature. Right now, all we can see is the pain and suffering of the world. It’s as if all we can see is the cross. And like the disciples, we can’t understand all that God is doing. But we can trust that even when we can’t see all that God is doing, we know a resurrection is coming. We can trust that God is working to redeem and restore the world. We can lean in and wait expectantly for what miracle God will work next.

We can see God’s faithfulness and love all around us, even if we can’t see all that He is doing. As we wait for the redemption of the world, this gives us hope.

Verse 25 speaks of how in order to have hope you must have patience. This leads us to an important truth.

Our lives are an exercise in leaning in and asking what God will do next. This doesn’t mean all pain will go away immediately. It doesn’t even mean we will see the solutions in this life. But it does mean that one day we will see all be made right and it will all be worth it. One of my favorite parts of my job is getting a front row seat at God’s redemption. Yes, I encounter excruciating tragedies all of the time as I meet with folks, but each and every meeting is a chance for me to lean in expectantly and say, “God I don’t understand what’s happening, but I can’t wait to see what you do next!” And boy does He do it. I wish I could tell you all of the stories of God’s faithfulness and redemption I’ve seen.

Friends, the waiting and hoping is hard, but it is totally worth it. We have no idea the kind of satisfaction, peace, and delight that awaits us.

Think about the greatest moment of your life. The moment where you felt the most joy and peace. Think about the moments where you began to understand your calling or what you were made for. Think about the moment where you’ve felt the most at peace with the world. Think about the moments where you’ve felt the most loved and known and cherished in your life.

As beautiful and incredible as those moments were, in some way they were broken. In some way they are groaning from the weight of sin. In some way, they were imperfect. If we can experience such joy, delight, peace, and love in this broken world, imagine the kind of joy and beauty we’ll get to experience in the New Heavens and New Earth! We have no idea the delight, relief, and happiness that awaits us.

In fact, that joy and satisfaction will be so great and so glorious that if God were to give it to us now in our broken bodies, we literally couldn’t handle or fathom it.

If we can experience of of this love and peace here on earth, imagine what we can experience with resurrected bodies, minds, and senses.

Imagine how beautiful the world will be when it is totally redeemed. The incredible sunsets we’ve seen these past few days make me giddy to think about the beauty we’ll get to experience when the earth is redeemed!

Imagine a world with no more death, or depression, or pain, or bullying, or loneliness, or rejection, or divorce, or racism, or surgery, or suicide, or broken relationships, or tears, or hurt. That’s what awaits us.

And in that world, we won’t need hope. In that world, we won’t have to trust in what we can’t see because in that world, we will finally see the sum total of all goodness, glory, peace, beauty, power, and love. We will see the one who

upholds the universe by the world of his power.

Who laid death in his grave.

Who defeated the greatest enemy in all of the universe as he demolished sin and death.

We’ll see the one who did the impossible and fulfilled the law like we never could.

We’ll see the one who took the worst sin of man and used it to atone for all the sin of man.

We’ll see the one at whose name chains break and demons flee.

We’ll see the one upon whom the sinless angels could not gaze and who the prophets covered their eyes and fell down in awe of.

We’ll see the one who holds all authority in the universe, and commands all of reality.

We’ll see the one who showed the world the greatest act of love it had ever seen.

And we shall see him face to face. In a single gaze, we all of the cares of this world, all of the pain and suffering, and worthless idols will melt as we experience the first taste of an indestructible satisfaction and peace that will never end. And His name, Jesus, will be on our lips in praise forever.

Angels’ Joy/Conclusion

This is incredible news, but the bible tells us that it’s not just incredible news for us.

As we prepare to enter into the Christmas season, I can’t help but think of the angels here.

The angels have been with God forever. They trust Him, but they don’t understand all that He is doing. In fact, 1 Peter tells us that the angels longed to gaze into the truths of the Gospel. Sure they trusted God, but they could see the pain and suffering of the world. And surely they wondered how God would redeem it all. They longed to see how God would heal the world. Then, out of nowhere, in a nowhere town, at a time where hope seemed lost, the angels saw something. They saw the dawning of indestructible joy, the one who would heal the world and fulfill it’s great longing. They saw a little baby born in a manger to nobody parents in an insignificant town and they couldn’t help but burst forth in worship in the presence of the shepherds singing, “Glory to God in the highest!”

But they’re not the only ones who worship in hope. The Bible tells us that all of creation cries out in praise to God. Isaiah tells us that the mountains will sing and the trees will clap their hands in worship. Jesus tells us that if we would not worship, even the rocks would sing His praise.

I think there is no better way for us to close out tonight than by joining the angels, and rocks, and trees, and all of creation in singing praise to our King as we wait in hope for Him to fulfill the great longing of the world

Let’s pray and then we’ll stand and sing.

Pray