How Can a Good God Allow Suffering?
- Tom Terry
- Feb 20, 2022
- 8 min read
Updated: Feb 2
The Bible does not systematically address the problem of suffering or provide a comprehensive explanation” – Lexham Bible Dictionary. But we can deduce several things about suffering from the Bible.
Questions:
Is inflicting suffering on someone a sin?
Why do you think God allows suffering?
Suffering often has a purpose.
Joseph as an example of suffering with a purpose.
“As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today” (Genesis 50:20).
Jesus as the ultimate example of suffering with a purpose.
Suffering was a necessary component of Jesus’ mission.
“Jesus said to them, ‘The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him, and he will be raised on the third day’” (Matt 17:22–23).
He suffered anguish while considering the plight of others. “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!” (Luke 13:34).
The passion of Christ was a focal point of agony and suffering, even an experience of abandonment. “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matt 27:46).
Paul urges us to “Share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God” (II Timothy 1:8).
The Apostle Paul desired to “know” Christ and “the fellowship of His sufferings” (Philippians 3:10 NKJV).
He declared that we are “heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him” (Romans 8:17 NASB).
Therefore, “tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword” cannot separate the believer from the love of Christ (Romans 8:35 ESV).
He argues that “This light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison” (2 Corinthians 4:17 ESV).
There are two views about the nature of suffering and death.
The first view is that God built suffering and death into the system when he created the universe. In this view, suffering and death were intentional and not an accident. Suffering and death are functional in nature and were created with a purpose in mind.
One support for this idea comes from God’s statement to Eve after the fall. God told her, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing (Genesis 3:16). Some translations read, increase, multiply, and intensify. These signify that there was already some amount of pain in childbirth before the fall. After the fall, God increased that pain.
Additionally, under this view the world already had some degree of suffering in it, including death of animals, but that Eden, as sacred space, was a unique place of blessing—where there was to be no suffering or death. Adam was brought into it to experience the presence of God but was exiled when he and Eve rebelled.
What do you think about this view?
Though God does not suffer in his being, he has chosen to experience suffering as the means to demonstrate his love and great power.
“Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13).
“God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).
Love cannot be fully expressed without sacrifice and suffering. This is one of the answers as to why God allows suffering. He allows suffering because he wanted to express the full measure of his love for us, by enduring great suffering for us. Without suffering, God’s expression of love would have been limited.
God’s love is greater than man’s. Therefore, God presented the ultimate expression of his love by becoming a man in Jesus Christ and suffering on our behalf.
“Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:5-8).
By becoming a man, Jesus chose to embrace suffering for his good, and for our good.
“Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered” (Hebrews 5:8).
As Jesus grew up, he learned through a process of suffering. But he also embraced greater suffering through the cross that we might be brought into a right relationship with God. In this way we see that suffering is not always bad but can be used by God for good. This means that suffering and death, though unpleasant, are functional in nature. Though they might be regarded as enemies (I Corinthians 15:26), they have a purpose in God’s created order.
There are three areas in which we experience suffering.
In our spirit.
Separation from God because of sin.
“Your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear” (Isaiah 59:2).
Guilt for sin until forgiveness comes.
“I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,” and you forgave the iniquity of my sin’” (Psalm 32:5).
We deal with Spiritual suffering by committing our lives to Christ.
“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23).
In our minds.
Oppression, Depression, Stress.
Turmoil over our sin or imperfections in life
We deal with mental suffering by renewing our minds “Be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect” (Romans 12:2) and submitting every thought to Christ. “[We] take every thought captive to obey Christ (II Corinthians 10:5).
In our bodies.
Physical aliments and consequences of sin
“Receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error” (Romans 1:27).
We are constantly at war against sin. “So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin” (Romans 7:21-25).
Suffering is a hard thing. Everyone hates to suffer. Yet the Bible encourages us with two facts about suffering:
Suffering is only a temporary condition for the Christian.
“He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away” (Revelation 21:4).
Suffering is used by God to bring good.
We’ve already seen this in the lives of Joseph, Jesus, and Paul.
Can you think of a time when you suffered through something that turned out good?
Suffering is used by God for good purposes. We should not view suffering as pointless or always bad, but as something that can contribute to good character.
“It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes” (Psalm 119:71).
“For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it” (Hebrews 12:11).
“In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (I Peter 1:6-7).
God decided to use suffering as the means to express his love. God gave a purpose to suffering that brings temporary and eternal benefits—good character and salvation from sin.
We are commanded to endure and sometimes even embrace suffering to demonstrate the love and power of Christ, just as he endured and embraced suffering in the same way.
“We suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him” (Romans 8:17).
“For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (II Corinthians 12:10).
Who are some of the people you admire the most? Did they endure suffering?
Throughout history the people we admire the most are the ones who have endured great hardships and suffering. We recognize that perseverance in suffering is a character trait to be honored and imitated.
We cannot become like Jesus without experiencing suffering.
“I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death” (Philippians 3:10).
“For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps” (I Peter 2:21).
Since Jesus suffered for us we can expect that at some time in our lives we will have to suffer for him if we want to obey his word. Jesus said we should expect to suffer if we follow him.
So, let’s boil this down to some direct answers.
Why does suffering exist? God planned for suffering to exist and wanted it to exist for these four reasons.
So that God can express the greatness of his love through the suffering of Jesus.
So that man can express greater love through his own suffering.
So that man can experience the love of God and others while we suffer.
So that man can grow in character that would be otherwise unobtainable without some measure of suffering.
Application. There are four ways we can deal with suffering in our lives…
Understanding.
If we come to understand that suffering is used for our good and to deepen our relationship with God, then we do not need to feel an attitude of victimhood or defeat. Suffering wasn’t permitted just for the sake of suffering, rather, suffering has a purpose. We may not know that purpose from time to time. Joseph didn’t know the purpose for at least 13 years, until he met Pharoah. But there was a purpose, nonetheless. Thus, suffering has a spiritual purpose.
Endurance.
Knowing that suffering has a purpose, we can see what suffering does in the life of the Christian.
“We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us” (Romans 5:3-5).
Submission.
We can fight against suffering, and that’s okay. Or we can submit to it, looking for the greater good that comes from it.
“Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus” (II Timothy 2:3).
“We know that God works all things together for the good of those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28).
Forgiveness.
When others cause us pain, no matter how great, we should always strive to forgive. As Jesus forgave from the cross while he was in the process of being murdered, so too, we should adopt his attitude.