Sermon Central
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Why Does A Loving God Allow Suffering? Series
Contributed by Brad Stone on Jun 21, 2024 (message contributor)
Summary: We all have ask the question of how a God who loves and is omnipotent could allow certain events that result in suffering to occur. In this message, I try to answer that question and bring hope to people who may be suffering.
Biblical Answers to Life’s Tough Questions: Why Does a Loving God Allow Suffering?
How many of you have ask this very question before? I know that I have. I have questioned why an omnipotent God doesn’t stop certain events from happening. We realize and have faith that God can do all things; can stop all things; can cause all things; so why doesn’t he stop certain events from occurring that result in such suffering?
While I realize this is an incredibly difficult question to tackle, I hope this morning to do my best to help you understand some things that may answer this question, if even slightly, for you.
Before we get into answering this question, I want to remind you what the apostle Paul said in regards to suffering. “For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. 9For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. 20For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, 21Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.” (Romans 8:18-21)
We need to reflect upon these verses each time we experience suffering in this world. Regardless of what type of suffering we experience in this lifetime, it is incomparable to the absolute joy and perfection we will experience in Heaven.
Paul writing a little later in Romans 8 tells us this: 28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. 29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
In other words, the good that God is working all things together for is the conforming of you and me to the image of His Son. And if Jesus was made our perfect high priest by His continued obedience through suffering (Heb. 5:8–9), shouldn’t we expect to also suffer?
In the midst of suffering, we cry out for God to deliver us, when what He may want to do is transform us. He doesn’t merely want to move us out of our suffering; He wants to change us through it. This is a hard truth.
God, in His infinite wisdom, works all things—painful things, difficult things, heart-breaking things, terminal things, and excruciating things—together for good, so that we will be more Christlike.
If the goal is your immediate comfort and your temporary happiness, then God has failed. But that’s not the goal. God is more concerned about your holiness than your happiness. His goal is your eternal character, not your immediate comfort.
So, why does God allow suffering?
The short answer for this is that God allows suffering because it is a byproduct of sin. Sin happens because God gave us free will, even though he opposes sin and helps us overcome it when we are willing. God gave us free will because he loves us. And although suffering is not a good thing in and of itself, God can and does use suffering for the good of those who love him.
It might seem arrogant to attempt an answer to this huge question. The question is often asked more out of agony than curiosity. But a lot of people ask the question, and unfortunately some of the answers given in reply just make things worse. As I attempt to offer an answer, I’d like to offer an important caveat: I can’t attempt to answer why you are facing the particular waves of suffering that are slamming into you. The Bible does give us some indicators as to why we face capital-letter Suffering.
To say that suffering is caused by sin seems to be just about the most calloused answer possible when somebody is suffering.
The Bible never said that Person A’s suffering always traces back to Person A’s sins. Of course, sometimes it’s because of my sin (e.g. I rob a bank and go to jail). But other times, it’s because of someone else’s sin (e.g. Someone cheats me out of my money). Very often it goes back to the first sin.
And the Lord God commanded the man, “16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: 17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” (Gen. 2:16-17)
Paul reminds us that, as a result of this very first sin, we all inherit a sin nature. “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:” (Romans 5:12)
