"For God so loved the world" may be one of the boldest claims the Bible ever makes. How can this be true, after all, considering how much pain and death there is in the world today?
According to National Public Radio, around 9 million people die from hunger and related causes every year. That amounts to about 17 human beings a minute. The World Health Organization's statistics show that 9.6 million people died from cancer in 2018. To compare, imagine every single person living in the states of Wyoming, Arkansas, and Missouri being wiped out within the span of a single year.
And these are only two of the reasons 150,000 people die every 24 hours.
The statistics above aren't just numbers. They represent individual human beings like you and me, with souls, feelings, thoughts, and dreams. Even so, they hardly represent the scope of human suffering. Every single day, billions more around the world suffer from disabilities, heartache, and disease. And those of us who haven't yet felt such pain most certainly will feel it, in one form or another.
I think this is a question that every Christian will be asked sometime in their life, whether it proceed from a skeptic, from a loved one, or from the depths of their own heart.
So how can we as Christians say that God is loving and all-powerful when there is so much death and suffering in this world? I think this is a question that every Christian will be asked sometime in their life, whether it proceed from a skeptic, from a loved one, or from the depths of their own heart. I don't claim to be an expert, but I have thought a bit on this issue. So, without further ado, here are five thoughts I have on why God allows suffering to exist in this world.
Romans 6:23 shows us that suffering is ultimately our fault, not God's. We all sin and fall short of the glory of God, and for that reason we deserve death. God made His creation—including humanity—perfect, but He gave us the gift of free will as well, because He desired us to be real, animate, soulful beings truly made in His image. Since Adam in the Garden of Eden, each one of us has chosen to taint God's perfect creation with the darkness of our sin. The natural laws He has set in place dictate that rebellion against our Creator incurs a penalty.
Joseph had a hard life, but his fervent belief that God was orchestrating events to save the lives of his family and many more besides enabled Him to forgive his brothers for inflicting pain on him by selling him into slavery. He believed that God, in His ultimate wisdom and goodness, uses our suffering and the evil in this world to accomplish His good purposes. Romans 8:28 echoes this idea: "[w]e know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose."
The Bible shows us that God is more concerned about our spiritual growth than our present physical discomfort. As much as it is painful in the moment, suffering cultivates holiness in us, without which "no one will see the Lord" (Hebrews 12:14b). The author of Hebrews summarizes this idea well in Hebrews 12:11: "No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it."
We owe all that we have to God's love for us, including our friends, families, health, and His constant provision for our basic needs every single moment of every single day. He doesn't owe any of these things to us and yet He gives them to us freely. So how can we complain when He uses suffering and pain—which are deserved consequences of our sin—to grow us spiritually and draw us closer to Himself?
Thankfully for us, "For God so loved the world" doesn't end there. They would be mere words on a page if not for what comes next. "For God so loved the world" is only true because "He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life." The Son of God Himself came down from Heaven to experience our suffering and provide us a way to live with Him forever. He suffered an excruciating, humiliating death as a criminal to give us the gift of eternal life. The truth is, God knows our pain and our grief, and even though we deserve to suffer for our sin, in His mercy He is making something beautiful out of our brokenness.
This is how much God loves the world.
What are your thoughts on the issue of suffering and God's love? Have you read The Problem of Pain by C. S. Lewis?