THE "PROBLEM" OF PAIN AND SUFFERING (FOR THE CHRISTIAN)
THE “PROBLEM” OF PAIN AND SUFFERING
EMBRACING THE SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD
The “Problem” of Pain and Suffering resides with the unsaved, not with those who are
born again.
For the unsaved,
IT GOES LIKE THIS:
Philosopher Alvin Plantinga called the problem of suffering
“the only good objection to God”.
The often-quoted argument goes:
“If God is all good (all benevolent) then God has the desire to end suffering, and if God is all-powerful (omnipotent) then God has the ability to end suffering. Therefore, if God does not end suffering, then God is either not all good, or is not all-powerful, and is therefore not God”.
Prior to Alvin..
Epicurus' trilemma (341-271 BC, Hellenistic Philosopher, a near contemporary with Alexander the Great and Aristotle)
If God is unable to prevent evil, then he is not all-powerful.
If God is not willing to prevent evil, then he is not all-good.
BUT...
The Christian embraces the Sovereignty of God
THE BIG PICTURE
We often use three words to describe the Christian life.
It begins with
Justification—being declared righteous before God. Clothed in his righteousness.
It continues through
Sanctification—
the process of becoming like Jesus. Growing in Christlikeness.
And it culminates with
Glorification in heaven.
We will be like him.
Glorification in heaven is just around the corner…
1 Jn 3.2 …We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.
Phil 3.20-21 For our citizenship is in heaven…the Lord Jesus Christ…who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory…
2 Cor 5.1-8 we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord.
Right now, at this very moment, we are going through the Sanctification process of our Christian life.
Whatever it is that comes upon you is for your sanctification and comes from the Lord.
God will use every one of your endeavors to do it.
Here's how the Lesson is structured:
A. The Principle of Suffering
B. The Purpose of Suffering
C. The Providence of Suffering
1. The “DO OVER” Proposition
2. The “ROOT OUT” Proposition
3. The “BACKDROP” Proposition
The older we grow the more we will experience. There is great loss mixed with reward in all of life's journeys.
So much for the Introduction. Let's begin.
There are so many things that may befall us. There is illness, hospitalization, death, accidents, catastrophic events.
Then, there is;
A. The Principle of Suffering
The Doctor asks:
“What is your pain level today, 1-10?”
Suffering doesn’t always have to be Level 10 – intense, gripping, all consuming. It can be a background drudgery that constantly taps you on the shoulder and haunts you day after day. It can be something that ebbs and flows and that distracts from peace and purpose.
There are times when God simply brings adversity into our lives when there is no known sin in our hearts.
Then there are times when we are contributors to our suffering or adversity whether by simple neglect or by disobedience. We can attribute that to “The Principle of Sewing and Reaping” or a “Banquet of Consequences”.
Here’s an example from a married couple that was in my local church:
Contributor to adversity-
There was a young married couple who had their first baby. There was celebration, baby showers and then baby birth and dedication. Then one day into being a new mother, she was giving her baby girl a bath in the tub and there was a knock on the door. She left her baby for just a moment and returned with her guest and found the baby had drowned. The guilt and shame were too great for the couple to overcome. Their marriage ended in divorce, and they left the church.
Here’s an example from a married couple who were colleagues:
Non-contributor to adversity-
The spouse to a seminary student was driving on a highway and slowing at an intersection for a red light and was crushed between two trucks. She was killed instantly.
One minute and then the next…It’s all gone.
Job 1.21
“…The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away.
Blessed be the name of the LORD."
Am I a contributor to my suffering? Was it simple negligence?
What if this adversity is chastisement and discipline from the Lord?
Would I even recognize it as discipline?
If I was a contributor,
We live an “If only life”…
“If only I hadn’t looked away”,
“If only I hadn’t have done that”,
“If only had waited one more second”,
“If only I had not said what I said”,
“If only had I had been more forgiving” …on and on…
"Pain is God's megaphone"
C.S. Lewis.
If I am a contributor to my suffering in whatever degree:
1. Sinful decision, drifting from Christ, hard heart, or
2. Simple neglect or thoughtlessness, distraction, or
3. Due to no cause that I can find in myself, but maybe I doubted God.
4. Perhaps suffering has revealed something in my heart that I had no idea existed.
How long does it take to repent or to reorder my purpose? Or, in the old fashioned sense, “To get right with God, again.”
About ONE SECOND.
IN ONE SECOND,
Cast your burdens upon the Lord! (1 Pet 5.7)
Cast your burden upon the LORD and He will sustain you; He will never allow the righteous to be shaken. (Psalms 55:22)
These sinful or negligent choices, my lack of trust are still covered by the Cross. I can be restored to fellowship as fast as I can run to the Cross. There it is. And God will cover the rest.
When thinking of all the things that could befall us, One may ask,
“Well, what about…?”
YES! Whatever it is, that’s it! And God is using it to refine you into the likeness of Christ.
John Calvin:
Many pray in such a manner also murmuring at the same time. In adversity, contented with what is given us, we mingle thanksgiving with our desires. We may biblically lament but in such a way that the will of God is more acceptable to us than our own. Cry every tear but in tears be thankful. (1 Thess 5.18)
1 Thess 5.16-18
Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.
Thanks for All things of all kinds, nothing is excluded. Suffering is not excluded for which to give thanks.
Suffering is both providential (in the suffering) and profitable (for the suffering).
Suffering is profitable because it is providential.
The question to ask that makes all the difference:
"Which way do we face when we are suffering?"
Psalms 34:18
The LORD is near to the brokenhearted And saves those who are crushed in spirit.
So, what do we do with suffering?
We embrace it, not resist it.
In our suffering we are in Christ. It is a gift of God’s grace.
Our God is Sovereign. He reigns forever.
We can resolutely turn toward the cross in every sorrow and adversity because the cross is not only the direction we face for “a broad place” but it is also where it all began for our deliverance.
Our Sovereign God is not only the source of our salvation, but
He is also the origin of our adversity.
He is where everything begins in our journey from justification, through sanctification unto glorification. There is no stray experience in the Christian’s life that is not utterly ordained by the providential hand of God.
Abraham Kuyper:
"There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Lord overall, does not exclaim, 'Mine!'
R.C. Sproul:
“If there is one single molecule in this universe running around loose, totally free of God’s sovereignty, then we have no guarantee that a single promise of God will ever be fulfilled.”
Knowing that God rules and is sovereign in my suffering
CHANGES EVERYTHING!
Ps 103.19
The Lord has established His throne in the heavens, And His sovereignty rules over all.
This is His universe. There is only one universe, and it is His dominion – He rules. Everything has to do with God – There are NO exceptions.
This world is God’s and God’s alone:
1 Chron 16.31
Let the heavens be glad and let the earth rejoice; And let them say among the nations, “The Lord reigns.”
Job 42.2
“I know that You can do all things, and that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted.
Ps 115.3
But our God is in the heavens; He does whatever He pleases.
Ps 121.2
My help comes from the Lord, Who made heaven and earth.
Prov 16.33
The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord.
Lam 3.37-38
Who is there who speaks and it comes to pass, Unless the Lord has commanded it? Is it not from the mouth of the Most High That both good and ill go forth?
Notice this:
We struggle so greatly to give reasoned answers to a culture lost in a non-transcendent reality. Yet, in the Bible, God simply gave the ultimate reason for His decrees,
“I am the Lord”.
Isa 45.5-7
“I am the Lord, and there is no other; Besides Me there is no God. I will gird you, though you have not known Me; That men may know from the rising to the setting of the sun That there is no one besides Me. I am the Lord, and there is no other, The One forming light and creating darkness, causing well-being, and creating calamity; I am the Lord who does all these.
There are so many verses we could visit: Joseph’s Life in Genesis; Matt 10.22; 24.13; Lk 21.19; Rom 5.3-5, 12.2; 1 Cor 12.6; 15.10; 2 Cor 1.21-22; Col 1.10-12, 23, 2.7; James 1.2-4; 1 Pet 1.6-7; 2 Pet 1.5-8; 1 Pet 4.13; 2 Pet 1.3-9; Heb 10.36; 13.21; Rev 2.2-3…and more.
BUT we’re going to begin in Philippians for our start out of the gate.
Philip 1.29
For to you it has been granted for Christ’s sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake...
“It has been granted to you meaning “grace.” a free, unmerited favor or kindness from God; therefore, it is a privilege.
Parallel verse to Philippians:
“For you have received the privilege of serving Christ and suffering for Him and with Him”. (Colossians 1.24)
The Greek word for suffer, πάσχω. Where we get our word, “PATHOS”. A deep, emotional experience.
To Suffer means:
“To experience something” which comes from without and which has to be endured”. “Something encounters me,” “comes upon me”, "to bear, undergo”
Both believing and suffering are present infinitives (verbal nouns) in Greek, thus indicating that the privilege of believing Christ and suffering for him is not a once for all action but it is continuous.
This leads us to observe what has gone wrong with our idea of sanctification today. There are two points to address.
There’s a problem with the Modern-Day version of Chrisitan “sanctification”.
There are TWO points.
1. Modern-Day Sanctification has become a quest for “Moral Behaviorism”. It is a pursuit for whatever makes me a better person – a better, improved Self. It is “The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self”.
2. Modern-Day Sanctification has succumbed to a “Therapeutic Culture”.
Let’s take a look at each point.
1. “Moral Behaviorism”.
Moral Behaviorism has been around a long time:
Job 2:9-10
9 Then his wife said to him, "Do you still hold fast your integrity? (stop being so moral, it’s not working) Curse God and die!"
10 But he said to her, "You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity?" In all this Job did not sin with his lips.
Sanctification is about growing in Christlikeness whereas I am NOT becoming a better version of ME but instead I am becoming more like Jesus.
We wrongly view trials as though it is something that God is using to teach us as a moral lesson.
And if we can just figure out the moral lesson in our suffering, then we will have passed the test, and the trial will be taken away.
If it’s patience, or whatever virtue we lack, then when I learn it, then the trial can be removed because I have just leveled up. I will be a better, more moral person.
WE ARE NOT trying to Increase virtue so that we can become a better “SELF”.
Sanctification is about growing in Christlikeness whereas I am NOT becoming a better version of ME but instead I am becoming more like Jesus.
Eph 4.22-24 (Bad Translation-NASB)
that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.
This is a bad translation. The word translated is not “SELF”, it is “MAN”.
ἄνθρωπος = MAN
Literally in the Greek, it means MAN. Old Man and New Man.
Who is the OLD MAN and NEW MAN?
Rom 5– The OLD MAN was sinful Adam. The NEW MAN is CHRIST. PUT ON CHRIST!
2. “Therapeutic Culture”
In the medieval era, this world was largely viewed as a vale of tears, a place of sadness and pain, where we prepared for eternity. Eternity loomed much larger then than it does now, and the desire for heaven and the sense of the wonder of heaven was much greater. We saw this world as a place of soul-making.
In our century, our technological advances have produced such physical comforts and such spiritual dimness that there are few, even among evangelical Christians, who long for heaven. Few of us can imagine a world better than this. Having dropped our expectation and hope for heaven, we expect more from this world, and we are disappointed.
Today, our “Therapeutic Culture” says,
The greatest joy we experience in our suffering is when it’s over.
And we want you to be happy.
From The Contemporary Counselor (even Christian):
“How can you be happy? Stop the suffering.”
(It even affects our evangelism, “Don’t you want to be a better person? Don’t you want your life fixed?”)
BUT, from The Biblical Counselor:
“How can you be transformed into the image of Christ in the suffering?”
Consider you are asked to pray for someone who is suffering. Their request is usually that this trial passes…that they would be done with it. I need the exit ramp.
These days, if you told them you would pray that God would use their trial to conform them into the image of Christ, they are likely to be offended. You are perceived as unloving and callous.
They want out. They want to move on and this trial is a hinderance to their life. Pray for them, of course. Pray for their healing. Pray in whatever the Spirit leads; but pray that they not miss the purpose of their trials.
Remember, our trials don’t require “resolution”, they only require a resolute faith in Christ. (Heb 11.13)
JOB never knew the whole account as to why he suffered until his dying day.
We pray too often for “closure”, but we are to walk by faith, not by sight.
By the way, the Christian’s quest is not to be HAPPY.
Being HAPPY depends on what “HAPPENS” to us.
Seeking happiness makes life a roller coaster ride.
The Christian’s aim is to be JOYFUL. Circumstances should have no bearing on the condition of the Christian.
NO. Again,
Phil 1.29
For to you it has been granted for Christ’s sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake,
TO believe and TO suffer are INFINITIVES. It is always ONGOING, continuous, it doesn’t stop until Glorification.
And it is not me who picks and chooses my adversity; it is God. Suffering is His gift. He chooses.
Charles Spurgeon
“Who are you that everything should happen just as you wish? Should the weather be fine simply because you want it to be so when a thousand fields are gasping for rain? Should you have the channels of trade turned in your direction when, if that were the case, scores of others would be beggared? Is everything in this world to be so arranged that you shall be the darling and pet of providence?”
(Maroth; or, The Disappointed)
If we resist suffering, we are resisting Christ.
Let’s get this right:
“It’s easier to go to a logical extreme than it is to remain in the center of biblical tension.” (J. Robertson McQuilkin)
On the one hand, we do not seek out suffering, that would be pathological,
(there is no pious merit in suffering, nor are we Justified by Suffering)
On the other hand, we do not sit on a throne of kingly expectations, untouchable by the winds of adversity.
We kneel before our Sovereign Lord, who grants us the privilege to serve and to suffer for His sake in the transforming work of becoming like Christ.
This is a good text for The center of biblical tension:
Eccl 7.14
In the day of prosperity be happy (Glad, thankful), But in the day of adversity consider— God has made the one as well as the other …
So that man will not discover anything that will be after him.
Note: Not all of sanctification comes by suffering…BUT,
Martin Luther on Eccl 7.14:
“Enjoy the things that are present in such a way that you do not base your confidence on them, as though they were going to last forever … but reserve part of our heart for God, so that with it we can bear the day of adversity.”
TOMORROW no one knows, but we know HIM:
Matt 28.20
I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
B. The Purpose of Suffering
I suffer for the sake of Christ, this is “GAINING CHRIST!”
The Paradox:
Suffering is loss and Suffering is Gain.
Try this: Read Philippians with this theme in Mind…“GAINING CHRIST!”
I think then that the reason for suffering will open new avenues to your sanctification.
Philip 1.6
For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.
This good work is my transformation into the likeness of Christ.
GAINING CHRIST.
Philip 2.12-13
So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.
God is at work in you to transform you into the image of Christ. And with fear and trembling, we endure this working-out of our salvation…by believing and suffering in His service. And it is our Sovereign God who is bringing upon you all your circumstances for His good pleasure. His good pleasure is that you be transformed into the image of Christ.
Philip 3.7-11
But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.
All I value is Gaining Christ
Gaining Christ must be
the PREEMINENT desire of my life.
He is not first in my life. He is my life.
God uses suffering to get rid of any competition to Gaining Christ!
Philip 4.10-13
…Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need.
I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.
I Am Satisfied In Christ.
Be careful. This verse is widely misused…Philip 4.13
I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.
We are not in pursuit of SELF
This verse is “Not that through Christ ‘I can win the football game’ or ‘pass my exam’ or ‘excel in all my endeavors”. It is a verse about contentment through various sufferings in the strength of Christ.
I have utter sufficiency in Christ with whatever may befall me.
Paul enumerates his sufferings for Christ in 2 Cor 11.
And then he tells us the worse of all…of his thorn in the flesh in 2 Cor 12.8-10:
Concerning this I implored the Lord three times that it might leave me. And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore, I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.
My Strength is Christ
This part of the verse above, “so that the power of Christ may dwell in/upon me” means…“Rest upon me”. It is the imagery of the TABERNACLE from the time when God pitched his tent with his people (Ex 40:34).
It is also the language used of Jesus when “the Word became flesh and dwelt [literally, pitched his tent] among us” (John 1:14).
So here in 2 Cor 12:9, Paul employs the same image to teach that the all-powerful Christ “pitches his tent” with his people in their weakness. His strength rests upon our weakness.
The image is that of the Shechinah or σκηνή, the glory which was the symbol of the Divine presence in the Holy of Holies, descending upon the faithful.
Adversity may even be the gift from God that keeps us from falling.
Owen Strachan
“David didn't fall when he was under duress, hunted like game by Saul, hungry and desolate, living in caves in the wilderness.
David fell when his power was at its peak, his enemies lay at his feet, and his God-given blessings overflowed beyond imagining.
David didn't fall when he lived in the wilderness.
David fell when he lived in a PALACE.”
Here Paul tells us about the real purpose for suffering.
Christ strengthened him because the trial forced him to depend on the Lord. The trial put him in a position of perpetual dependence. It was not a simple moral lesson he underwent.
In that perpetual dependence he is entirely reliant on the power of God and entirely focused on the grace of God.
Isn’t this the time to resolve in our hearts that if God brings upon us adversity, we should desire a perpetual dependence on Christ?
Can I come to the point where I am content in my weakness and thrive in the Strength of Christ?
The comforts of this life are stripped away and the temptation to rely on my own strength is removed. I am conformed more and more into the image of Christ.
This is Gaining Christ.
It was all about Christ, and Christ Alone.
Through suffering and adversities, sanctification culminates in glorification, conformed finally and fully into the image of Christ - the one in whose righteousness I am currently clothed and the one in whose likeness I am currently growing.
This is Sanctification:
Let’s look at 2 Cor 3.18:
But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.
We are “REVERSE MIRRORS”.
Normally, we use mirrors to see our reflection but as Christians,
My Glory is Christ
That is the sanctification process that delivers us into a very real Christlikeness. It culminates in glorification. One day our salvation will actually be complete. We will we see Him, and we will be like him.
The Work of God is Completed. It is the final, complete transformation of our total being, the end of the process of salvation, and the necessary preparation for a heavenly life. We will receive a resurrected or transformed body, like that of Jesus (I Cor. 15:52, Phil. 3:21). We will see him and immediately be changed into his likeness (I John 3:2).
This will be the end of the order of salvation outlined in Rom. 8:29-30. And though it lies in the future, it is so assured, so guaranteed, that Paul describes it as an accomplished fact.
GLORIFICATION
1 Jn 3.2:
Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.
2 Cor 5.1-8
…For indeed while we are in this tent, we groan, being burdened, because we do not want to be unclothed but to be clothed, so that what is mortal will be swallowed up by life. Now He who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave to us the Spirit as a pledge. Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord— for we walk by faith, not by sight— we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord.
Phil 3.20-21
For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.
Acquiring our needs and being good stewards of what God has given us is responsible, but don’t aspire to “nest” down here too long.
Be good stewards:
Psalms 37:3
Trust in the LORD and do good; Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness.
Jeremiah 29:5f
5 'Build houses and live in them; and plant gardens and eat their produce.
6 Take wives and become the fathers of sons and daughters, and take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters; and multiply there and do not decrease.
7 Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf; for in its welfare you will have welfare.'
In Paul’s perpetual dependence, he also learned the Preeminence of Christ:
Philip 1.21 (THE PREEMINENCE OF CHRIST)
For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.
For me to live is Christ IS MY PURPOSE – I have Joy.
To die is gain IS MY PERSPECTIVE – I have Hope.
Paul was never in prison….He was IN CHRIST.
Are you in adversity? NO! You are IN CHRIST.
The absorption with our “suffering” can diminish
if our passion to
GAIN CHIRST
becomes Paramount.
If I could illustrate this point, it would be with two flashlights. One would be the dimmer light “suffering” and the second would be the brighter light, “Gaining Christ”.
The brighter light, “Gaining Christ”, soon supersedes the dimmer light, “Suffering” when superimposed over it.
Paul continues to teach us that life is not about SELF.
Rom 14.7-8 (Phil 1.21)
For not one of us lives for him SELF, and not one dies for him SELF; for if we live, we live for the Lord, or if we die, we die for the Lord; therefore whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s.
SUFFERING IS HOW WE GAIN THIS PURPOSE AND PERSPECTIVE.
Life is all about Christ. We are no longer our own self. We put on Christ. We are In Christ. The sweetness of suffering is Christlikeness. The point for suffering causes us to display Christ more. Suffering is the most powerful defining point to make us more like Christ. Count it all Joy says James.
Let’s take a moment to review and correlate what we’ve learned so far in the previous verses…and a few more.
Note what Paul has taught us so far:
Philip 3.7-11
“…I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, … that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; …”
All I value is Gaining Christ
2 Cor 12.8-10
“…“My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.”
My Strength is Christ
Rom 14.7-8 (Phil 1.21)
“For not one of us lives for himSELF, and not one dies for himSELF; for if we live, we live for the Lord, or if we die, we die for the Lord; therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s.”
My Life is Christ
Colossians 1:27
“… Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
My Hope is in Christ
Col 3.15
“Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts…”
My Peace Is In Christ
These verses teach me that:
Though my circumstances may be tumultuous, my state is NOT.
I have the peace of Christ that rules in my heart,
I have The Strength and Grace of God that replaces my weakness,
I have contentment in all my adversity,
I have the hope of glory and future grace in all my travails,
I am gaining Christ as I am transformed into His image,
I have total identity and purpose in Christ, to live is Christ.
Christ Alone
Here it is…The APEX of Paul’s Teaching:
In light of all that Paul is teaching us about suffering,
I believe that it is possible that whether I am in
ADVERSITY OR PROSPERITY,
it should be the normal Christian response that the difference between the two should go largely unnoticed.
If I am not here, yet, I am not less spiritual.
The Christian Life is about DIRECTION, not PERFECTION
We embrace the God Who is Sovereign over all things in our life. GOD IS SOVEREIGN!
Jer 32.17
‘Ah Lord God! Behold, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and by Your outstretched arm! Nothing is too difficult for You,
Col 1.16-17
For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.
Neh 9:6
You alone are the Lord; You have made heaven, The heaven of heavens, with all their host, The earth and everything on it, the seas and all that is in them, And You preserve them all. The host of heaven worships You.
Ps 139 (All of it)
Job questions God, then God asks Job…
Job 38.4 “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding,”
Isa 43.13 “Even from eternity I am He, and there is none who can deliver out of My hand; I act and who can reverse it?”
Rom 11.36 For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.
Eph 1.9-12
9 For he has made known to us in all wisdom and insight the mystery of his will, according to his purpose which he set forth in Christ 10 as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. 11 In him, according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to the counsel of his will, 12 we who first hoped in Christ have been destined and appointed to live for the praise of his glory.
Col 1.17 And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.
(Even when Jesus was a babe in the manger, he was still holding all things together. He is GOD).
Heb 1.3 - And He (Christ) is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power.
Like a River Glorious
Like a river, glorious
Is God’s perfect peace,
Over all victorious
In its bright increase;
Perfect, yet it floweth
Fuller every day,
Perfect, yet it groweth
Deeper all the way.
Refrain:
Stayed upon Christ Jesus,
Hearts are fully blest;
Finding, as He promised,
Perfect peace and rest.
Hidden in the hollow
Of His blessed hand,
Never foe can follow,
Never traitor stand;
Not a surge of worry,
Not a shade of care,
Not a blast of hurry
Touch the spirit there.
Every joy or trial
Falleth from above,
Traced upon our dial
By the Sun of Love.
We may trust Him fully
All for us to do;
They who trust Him wholly
Find Him wholly true.
When all is said and done, Everything points to this reason:
For the praise of His glory
Sinclair Ferguson:
“People often assume that the glory of God stands in antithesis to their own blessing and may even be His calculated denial of it…that every ounce of glory that God gets proportionately diminishes their happiness and pleasure”.
But the Christian should know better than this.
It may be better to think of it like this:
Every ounce of Glory that God DISPLAYS to us INCREASES our Joy and pleasure.
“BUT”, one may ask,
“Why all the chaos, pain, suffering, loss, agony, darkness, and evil in ‘His’ universe, if God is really in charge?”
C. The Providence of Suffering
Let’s try to resolve this issue with three points…
POINT 1. “THE DO OVER” PROPOSITION.
POINT 2. “THE ROOT OUT” PROPOSITION
POINT 3. “THE BACKDROP” PROPOSITION
Summary of these Three points
1. THE DO OVER PROPOSITION:
If this world as it is was not exactly the way God ordains it, then He could have started over; but, since He is God, He would not have started over. He is simply God. Everything is perfectly in order. There is not one flicker of chaos.
2. THE ROOT OUT PROPOSITION:
If God were to root out all evil, then He would root me out – and you, too. The world as it exists right now is better than we could have ever imagined. He not only weaved His hand of providence throughout the sands of time and through hundreds of generations to bring you into existence. You were ordained into existence, elect of God before the foundations of the world. You are exactly where you need to be. In Christ.
3. THE BACKDROP PROPOSITION
There are so many things about God we would never experience in heaven were it not for our communion with Him in this life through the backdrop of suffering and trials.
Let’s go into some detail of these Three propositions
POINT 1.
“THE DO OVER” PROPOSITION.
If this world as it exists right now, were not the best that it could be – the most perfect design of history and events that ever could be – even down to the specific and particular events, traumas, losses and sufferings that I have or now do personally face due to this world in which I am living… then God would have started over.
“He could have started over a thousand times, and no one would have known, not even the angels.”
“What’s wrong with that statement?”
If God would ever have to start over to get it right, He wouldn’t be God.
We'd be stuck in this world with a God who just can’t seem to get it right…He’s figuring it all out as we go along. This is what we call “The Openness of God”.
And here we are, left to fight our way through and to rise above the heap. Fighting to get on top, or at least, to just stay afloat!
Or worse, we are stuck in some world where this idea of God was all a hoax, and we have no Transcendent reason for living.
NO reason outside ourselves for living. It’s all Darwinian Nihilism - life is meaningless, and at most, morality is just a useful instrument.
Just do the best you can with what you have and hope in whatever gives you relief or advantage, whether good or bad, vice or not. I can blame others for my adversity, or I can blame myself and bear the guilt. Too bad, so sad.
“Have faith” in whatever you can find and manage and manipulate your circumstances… may the strongest, most resilient win. And there’s always Karma, building up credit with the universe.
Or we can go with the world trying to be inspiring: “Whatever doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger.”
Again, if the way we see and experience everything now was not precisely as God ordains it, then there is no God, and everything is by chance and by manipulation of the strongest, loudest voices. The Mightiest wins. We lose.
BUT THIS IS NOT WHO OUR GOD IS!!
HE DOES NOT START OVER.
So it is, the day in which we start new every morning is precisely ordained for us as it is from the transcendent, yet immanent, omnipotent, sovereign, providential, loving hand of our Father.
God is Sovereign – He has the absolute right to do all things according to His own good pleasure. He rules.
“To the praise of His glory”
God’s Providence – HOW He goes about in our lives to bring about His sovereign rule.
“The praise of His glory”
“God is Sovereign – He rules.
He is not arrogant.
He is God.
He isn’t “running for God”.
(Voddie Baucham)
I am forced to look to God and ask, “What is He up to?”
“To what end is God DOING this?”
I did NOT say “To what end is God PERMITTING this?”
He is the Active Agent in all things.
And, because He is God, He doesn’t owe me an answer.
But He does give me answers … enough.
Before we go to Point 2…
There is one more little consideration we might add to the first point.
If I think for one second that God could have done better than what I see taking place in this world and in my circumference, what am I really saying?
“If I were GOD, I would not have done it this way”.
Is this not the real problem?
Satan offered this to Adam and Eve long ago –
“The serpent said to the woman, "You surely will not die!
For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." (Genesis 3:4-5)
“You can be like God”.
When I rebuff God in what befalls me, then I am usurping God.
Point 2. “THE ROOT OUT” PROPOSITION
One may ask,
Why doesn’t God just root out evil?
Why doesn’t He just get rid of all the bad stuff?
Why is He content to let evil seem to breed?
If God were to root out evil, then there would be no one left. And we are the product of sin.
We are descendants of the Fall. Adam’s sin was imputed to us (Romans 5).
“That’s not fair!”, one may say.
If we are ruffled at the imputation of Adam’s sin to us, then we must reject the imputation of Righteousness through Christ.
“THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE;
THERE IS NONE WHO UNDERSTANDS,
THERE IS NONE WHO SEEKS FOR GOD;
ALL HAVE TURNED ASIDE, TOGETHER THEY HAVE BECOME USELESS;
THERE IS NONE WHO DOES GOOD,
THERE IS NOT EVEN ONE.”
(Romans 3.10-12 from Ps 14.1-3; Isa 64.6)
God doesn’t have to root out anything – rather,
He rules over everything.
Neither satan nor sin is a stumbling block to our Sovereign God.
As a side note to this issue,
God is rooting out sin.
He is rooting out sin in the body of Christ. He is cleaning house everyday and purifying His bride and God the Holy Spirit is sanctifying every believer and transforming them into the image of Christ.
Since God doesn’t “Do Over”, He does not need to ROOT OUT anything.
We can rest in the fact that God is righteous and sovereign.
He could’ve Rooted Out Evil;
BUT HE DIDN’T.
(He is Righteous and He ordains evil at the same time…The Doctrine of Concurrence)
Look at the Providence of God.
God could have prevented the Fall and what preceded it. But He didn’t.
There were TWO FALLS in history. We all know of Adam and Eve in The Garden. But remember, there was the Fall from Heaven.
In some INSANE moment in Lucifer’s mind, he thought he could take on God and prevail.
How could he have thought for a second that he could ascend above the heights of the clouds and make himself like the Most High and say, “I am God”? (Isa 14.14; Ezek. 28.9)
Satan has more in common with a worm than he does with The Transcendent God, The Creator of all things.
How could Lucifer ever have thought He could have prevailed against God?
With a little bit of conjecture…I call it,
“The Iceberg Effect”
(Most of the iceberg is hidden from plain view. Only a smidgen is visible).
And that is what God displayed of Himself to Lucifer…a smidgen of His glory.
God did something similar with Moses:
As when Moses asked of God, “I pray You, show me Your glory!” (Ex 33.18)
But then God said, “You cannot see My face, for no man can see Me and live!” Then the Lord said, “Behold, there is a place by Me, and you shall stand there on the rock; and it will come about, while My glory is passing by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock and cover you with My hand until I have passed by. “Then I will take My hand away and you shall see My back, but My face shall not be seen.” (Ex 33.20-23)
God veiled His entirety from Moses!
(The ICEBERG EFFECT)
The Fall of Lucifer; The Fall of Adam and Eve, all providential and for His glory.
Then there was the Flood and then the Tower of Babel. How “chaotic” is our history. But maybe not.
Who would you have been if it were not for the Fall? You would never have existed. (And don’t say, “I would’ve been me, but without sin.” Impossible.)
God’s sovereign providence ran a hidden course throughout all the generations and through the darkest of world events to bring you life, and not only life, but life in Christ. And not only life in Christ, but abundant life in Christ, and not only that, but the Hope of Glory.
You are no fluke or accident nor is your suffering.
You were elect before the foundations of the world. (Eph 1.4)
You came into being as a direct result of The Fall.
You would not exist were it not for The Fall.
GOD RULES.
Why bemoan or travail over our condition and adversity when we have Christ, our Savior now and in glory to come?
We stand on Solid Rock now, and Eternity is just ahead.
How does God see time?
He sees it all at once. He is eternal and all things are present to Him. He is not subject to time. He created time. Nothing is a surprise. He is just as much with Abraham as he is with you and me right now. Every circumstance and every adversity you undergo, God already saw it– He sees it and ordained and providentially brought it to pass. He is already waiting for you in your tomorrows…for His Glory and for you transformation into the image of Christ.
Our only question to ask at this point is…
Would you rather have never been born?
And that, too, is an impossible question. You had no choice in the matter.
WHAT DO YOU BELIEVE!!?
WHAT WILL YOU BELIEVE!!?
Will you believe in the Sovereign Providence of God over your life and very existence?
How do we see our way in and through adversity?
Not only has He pitched His tent upon us, We see the Joy beyond the trials.
Heb 12.1-2
fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
I AM THANKFUL THAT I WAS BORN!
I WILL EMBRACE THE SUFFERING THAT IS GRANTED TO ME FROM GOD.
Point 3. “THE BACKDROP” PROPOSITION
When you visit a Jewelry Store, you should notice that its most precious gems sit upon a darker backdrop. This brings out the greatest highlights of the gems.
The Darker the Backdrop, the Greater the Glory
Gabriel Fluhrer (Reformed Theological Seminary):
“If we know God’s providence only by description, if all we possess is secondhand knowledge of it, we will acknowledge His providence, but we will not fall in love with it. But if on the other hand we know God’s providence by acquaintance, if we have fallen in love with the God of the sun and the storm, we will not only have just intellectual ascent to his providence we will also have deep affection for this incomparable, glorious, sovereign God.”
This is where we want to be:
Ps 73.25
Whom have I in heaven but You? And besides You, I desire nothing on earth.
Why even consider the thought that God would ordain evil? Or why does God let what seems to be horrible, traumatic things happen to me and to the ones I love? Why has this befallen me?
He reigns. Put Him out in front of everything that happens. He alone has the answers for the unanswerable. Let the Lion loose. God has never been and will never be reluctant to stand on center stage. This world is His stage. It is His footstool.
“See now that I, I am He, and there is no god besides Me; It is I who put to death and give life. I have wounded and it is I who heal, and there is no one who can deliver from My hand.”
And we have nothing to fear from this God. We stand in the shadow of the cross where the wrath of God has already burned.
This is God.
SHOOTING SOME BULLET STATEMENTS
When God is most glorified, I am most satisfied. (Piper)
Know that God is not all about just this life. He is not committed to providing an easy life for us in this flesh, "Our best life now".
He is so into communion with us that He ordains moments and epics in our lives that endears us to Him, puts us in perpetual dependence on Him that He may reveal the greatness of so many of His attributes and causes us to walk securely by faith, not by sight.
Were we to walk this life in ease,
we would always walk in fear of loss,
fear of change and
fear of death.
We would be consumed with anxiety.
Can you imagine the solution to our anxiety and fear could ever be
SUFFERING?
And in our SUFFERING, GAINING CHRIST.
Can you imagine that the very thing we most fear to suffer,
is the very thing that diminishes our fear?
And in our SUFFERING, GAINING CHRIST.
LIFE IS TOO SHORT TO NOT BE MEASURED IN VIEW OF ETERNITY. AND GOD HAS BETTER THINGS IN MIND FOR US THAN WE CAN IMAGINE BEYOND THIS BRIEF LIFE.
THERE IS MUCH MORE TO LIVING THAN STAYING ALIVE IN THE BODY!
IT’S NOT HOW LONG WE LIVE. IT’S HOW MUCH WE LIVE!
We were made for more than what this life can provide.
But we cling to this life as though that is all there is.
James 4.14
Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.
Abandon the thought that this is all there is.
“What” is God trying to accomplish in my suffering?
My transformation into the image of Christ.
Now, “WHY” is He desiring my transformation?
1. He created me to want Him and to want more of Him. He set eternity in my heart that only He can fill. (Eccl 3.11)
2. The Holy Spirit turned my heart of stone into a heart of flesh and dwells in me and fills me with a Hunger and Thirst for Righteousness. It is the NEW MAN I have put on.
3. It is a MANDATE, and it is ORDAINED.
Romans 8:29
"For those God foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son."
1 Cor 6.19-20
…and that you are not your own?
Col 3.1-4
“For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.
2 Cor 5.15
and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.
I can come to a point in my life, as did Job, and say,
Job 15.15
“Though He slay me, I will hope in Him. Nevertheless, I will argue my ways before Him.”
“but in such a way that the will of God is more acceptable to us than our own”
He has all the answers I need.
We undergo hardship, suffering and trials, among other reasons, to experience God’s person and presence in such a way that we could never know in eternity! There will be no occasion in Heaven for God to display the best of Himself to us.
The depths of His love, His riches and mercies, and His grace…never experienced – they are only known and sung by others in eternity who have suffered in this life.
We know Him best when the Backdrop is at its darkest – His fullest glory is highlighted and on display.
I AM GAINING CHRIST!
Round up time!
So, how do I best endure the Backdrop?
How do I Gain Christ without weak knees?
How do I accept suffering as a gift from God?
In all that we’ve discussed so far, there’s one more thing.
With JOY,
We Embrace it!
Without this purpose, “To Live is Christ”, we struggle to find JOY in our suffering. We have no peace.
Col 3.15
Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body; and be thankful.
God is fortifying our us through circumstances so that His peace has dominion in our hearts.
Without JOY, our suffering is insufferable.
How do we find JOY through our suffering?
In this brief life, our affliction is light and momentary, and it produces in heaven a weight of glory unimaginable if we have fallen in love with the depths of His riches and embrace His sovereignty through our suffering TODAY.
(2 Cor 4.17-18)
Through adversity is the way God gives us more of Himself.
Every gem of His divine attributes is ours – Given to us in unmerited favor…but we must see them first…and,
Generally, they are better seen for eternity’s sake on the backdrop of our worst days.
This is an Active view of God’s involvement. He must be in everything. He must be out-front and, in the middle, and at the end of all things or we are left alone at the worst of times. He is God when we need God the most.
Ps 22:28 For the kingdom is the LORD’S, And He rules over the nations.
Ps 103:19 The LORD has established His throne in the heavens; And His sovereignty rules over all.
This world is where the rubber meets the road, and it is a thrilling journey with a destination to the most grandeur of all glories in heaven.
When I look back at those dark times in my life, what do I see?
In Chaos there was calm.
In peril there was peace.
In danger there was direction.
And in death there is life.
This is For the praise of His glory.
His glory is manifested in your transformation to the image of Christ.
We are granted the privilege both to believe and to suffer for His sake.
THIS IS GAINING CHRIST!
ADDENDUM:
John Hammet (Theology Professor, SEBTS):
The sense of outrage that many have at the problem of evil is especially surprising when one realizes that we live in a time when there are more creature comforts, more ways to alleviate pain and suffering than ever before. Try to imagine a world without anesthetic or aspirin or antibiotics. Why do we feel this problem so much more severely than previous generations? They recognized it, and spoke to it, but felt satisfied that their explanations were sufficient. They experienced a greater degree of suffering and pain yet saw less of a theological problem with it. Why?
Perhaps part of it can be attributed to the rise of technology, which has given us, on the one hand, much greater efficiency and power in unleashing our hatred on one another, and on the other hand, has given us media which enable us to see in living color evil and suffering around the world. In previous times, people saw their own suffering; we see the suffering of the world.
I think a larger part of our problem with evil has been the fact that it shattered the illusion we wanted to maintain that humanity was getting better, evolving to a higher level, and that with a little more technology and education, all would be well. That was the reigning view in the late 19th century and early years of this century. The First World War jarred that idea, but there was still hope, for that was the war fought to end all wars, and the League of Nations would protect the peace. But the Depression, the Second World War, the Holocaust, and the atomic bomb shattered whatever optimism remained among most of the intelligentsia (some of the hope in evolution and technology remains on a popular level, as seen in Star Trek, for example). The evolutionary process does not seem to be improving humanity, and technological improvement has only improved our efficiency at destroying one another.
But I think by far the greatest factor in the growing sense that the problem of evil is an insuperable problem for Christian theism is a different view of what this world is for. For example, in the medieval era, this world was largely viewed as a vale of tears, a place of sadness and pain, where we prepared for eternity. Eternity loomed much larger then than it does now, and the desire for heaven and the sense of the wonder of heaven was much greater. In the theodicy stemming from Irenaeus, as we saw earlier, this world is a place of soul-making.
But from the Renaissance forward, a great shift began. Emphasis was placed on here and now, rather than eternity. At first it was a healthy balance, but soon the present began to crowd out eternity. With that change, the idea of the purpose of this world began to change. David Hume, in the Enlightenment, assumed that this world should be viewed like a house. God, as the presumed architect, surely would have wanted to make his house large and comfortable. But the presence of evil indicated to Hume that God was a very inept architect.
For later utilitarian philosophers like John Stuart Mill, the goal of life is to maximize pleasure and minimize pain. But the world does not seem constructed with that goal in mind. Thus, they concluded, God must not be good or must not be in charge.
In our century, our technological advances have produced such physical comforts and such spiritual dimness that there are few, even among evangelical Christians, who long for heaven. Few of us can imagine a world better than this (as the commercial says, "It just doesn't get any better than this"). Having dropped our expectation and hope for heaven, we expect more from this world, and we are disappointed. The problem is not with the evil in the world; it is with our expectation of this world. Jesus said, "In this world you will have tribulation" (Jn. 16:33); he said, "Great is your reward in heaven" (Mt. 5:12). The theological answer to the problem of pain lies in a renewed understanding of this world as the preparation for real and larger life, which lies ahead.
C. S. Lewis put it this way. If we think of this world as a hotel, we shall be very disappointed. The service is poor, the rooms aren't always comfortable, etc. But if we think of it as a prison, it's not all that bad. Actually, he says, we ought to see it as a school. We are here to learn, but it's not home. We need surrender neither the power of God nor the goodness of God; rather, we need to remember the purpose of God.
Comments
Post a Comment