The Gospel and Suffering

[Resource Manager]

 

The Gospel and Suffering

 

Suffering is a problem in life that comes home to everyone. A child is born blind, deformed or mentally afflicted; and the question comes: Why? The child has done no harm. A man or woman of fine character and in the prime of life is racked with pain in a hopeless disease that can only end in death. Why him? Why her? These are the people who can least be spared. Millions in the world are suffering semi-starvation and disease in the countries with vast populations and little fertility. Why should they suffer? Pain, torture, death have been imposed on helpless millions by the tyranny of man and the destructiveness of modern war. People ask: Why does God allow it? The questions readily rise to mind and on the surface seem reasonable: yet a candid look at them shows that they carry certain implications. They imply that suffering in human life is inconsistent either with the power or with the love of God: that either as a God of love He has not the power to prevent the suffering, or if He has the power then He has not the will, and is not a God of love. It is assumed that the prevention of suffering as it now occurs for the apparently innocent would be a necessary act for a God of love who is also Almighty. Are these assumptions justified?

 

Facts of life

 

Some facts about life must be taken into account before we try to form a judgment.

1. The first is the bearing of natural law on man's life. Man lives in a universe of cause and effect and the consequences of certain causes are inescapable. Fire burns, water drowns, disease germs destroy. When men abuse the bodily powers that are given them they damage not only themselves but, possibly, unborn generations. These facts have moral implications. Men live in a universe in which the consequences of what they do are inescapable, and therefore their responsibility for what they do is equally inescapable. Without this burden of natural law men could do as they liked with impunity, and there would be no responsibility. Inevitably, the effects of natural law cannot be limited to the men who defy it. But the existence of this principle of cause and effect is not only part of the laws of physics and physiology: it is part of the moral order of a created universe. It is as God made it because He is a moral God who makes men responsible beings.
   
2. Consequently man's misuse of his own life has corrupted the stream of human life itself, and left evils which fall on succeeding generations. These, again as part of natural law, may manifest themselves as weaknesses and tendencies to disease. The very stuff of life may be affected as it is passed on from generation to generation.
   
3. The consequences of men's acts are not only directly physical. The social and political evils which they have created throughout history have left a gathering burden on the generations following. Men today are caught in a net of the consequences of past history, and even when they try to right one evil another is brought to bear.
   

 

Should men be saved from themselves? Taking such facts as these into account, it must be asked, what is it we are really doing when we require God to remove suffering? Are we not asking that God should a) suspend natural law, b) divert the consequences of heredity, and c) turn aside the effects of man's inhumanity to man? Have we the right to expect God to save men from the consequences of human acts? Would it be a moral universe if He did? If we look beyond human acts to natural disaster, we find that it falls upon all, innocent and guilty alike. Are we saying that it should be selective in its working?

[Resource Manager]

An evil or a symptom?

 

Underlying all the loose thinking on the subject which has been surveyed so far is one basic assumption: it is that suffering is evil in itself rather than the symptom of a deeper evil. It is this belief that suffering is the essential evil that lies at the root of Buddhism. The Bible view is radically different for it portrays suffering as a consequence of sin: not necessarily the sin of the individual who suffers, but sin in the history of man and in human society. Its origin is succinctly put by the Apostle Paul:

 

“Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned”

(Rom 5:12).

 

The sentence upon the woman after the disobedience in Eden says:

 

“I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.”

 

To the man, God says:

 

“In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return” (Gen 3:16,19).

The teaching is simple. With man’s disobedience there came a dislocation in the relationship between the Creator and the created; the relation between God and men is out of joint. The first sin brought a change in the whole order of being which affects all with the evils which are common to man. Death is universal: God does not modify it for the particular individual. The Bible teaching is that men are left to their own ways and the working of natural law, though there may be times when natural disaster is divinely directed as a judgment upon men and for the cleansing of the earth. The outstanding example is the flood in the days of Noah.

 

At the same time it is true that the Bible shows a particular relation both to God and to suffering for those who seek Him. What is it?

 

A godly man’s experience

 

The answer may be seen in the example of Job. Here is a devout man who meets with disaster in the loss of his flocks and herds —the source of his wealth; with terrible bereavement in the loss of all his children at one stroke; and then is stricken with a tormenting disease which separates him from men. Yet he says: “What? Shall we receive good at the hand of the Lord, and shall we not receive evil?” (Job 2:10). He recognizes the important principle that he cannot claim good as of right: it is not for him to lay down what God shall do.

[Resource Manager]

The agonizing problem

 

The time comes, however, when the suffering is so unbearable that death seems preferable. In agony and bewilderment he asks, in effect: Why should a man live if it is only to suffer? Can God, who has made man, destroy him like a discarded plaything?

 

Job’s friends argue that there is a direct connexion between a man’s sin and his suffering and they therefore contend that to suffer so greatly Job must have greatly sinned. Job is convinced of his own integrity: he is human, but he knows that he is not guilty of the sins they try to fasten upon him. Yet he has enough of his friends’ philosophy to feel now that he suffers unjustly. Has God chosen him to be set up as a mark to shoot at? Because, compared with others, his sufferings seem wholly disproportionate to any faults he can confess. To him it seems that his affliction can only mean that God has turned against him, and this moral problem adds to his bitterness. The tents of robbers prosper: why should the righteous suffer? If God is judging him, is it right that he should be judged by a standard human nature cannot reach?

 

The friends utterly fail to shake Job’s conviction in his own righteousness, and at last they cease to argue. But underlying Job’s contention is an ultimate faith in God, in spite of all the questionings, and a belief in God’s justice; and so Job reaches out to the hope that in another life, if not now, God as his Redeemer will vindicate him and be on his side. And so he introduces a new element in the argument when he looks beyond the grave to resurrection and reconciliation. That belief, adumbrated in Job, is declared fully elsewhere in both the Old and New Testaments, and it gives a new perspective to the problem. Yet it does not in itself explain why men and women should suffer in this life.

 

God speaking to men

 

When the friends are silenced and Job has made his final speech, the young man Elihu comes into the argument. He shows that Job in his extremity has impugned the righteousness of God, but he also throws a new light on the problem. God speaks to men a) through revelation, and b) through suffering. God, by His own means, is communicating with men and bringing them to Himself.

 

“For God speaketh once, yea twice, yet man perceiveth it not, In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falleth upon men, in slumberings upon the bed; Then he openeth the ears of men, and sealeth their instruction, That he may withdraw man from his purpose, and hide pride from man. He keepeth back his soul from the pit, and his life from perishing by the sword.”

(Job 33:14-18)

 

God speaks to men, says Elihu, for their spiritual education, their guidance in life and their preservation from destruction. He “withdraws man from his purpose, and hides pride” from him, leading him away from his own self-assertive course of life, for pride is the source of sin. As to the other means of communication, Elihu says:

“He is chastened also with pain upon his bed, and the multitude of his bones with strong pain: So that his life abhorreth bread, and his soul dainty meat. His flesh is consumed away, that it cannot be seen; and his bones that were not seen stick out. Yea, his soul draweth near unto the grave, and his life to the destroyers.”

(Job 33: 19-22)

 

The description of suffering perfectly fits Job, and Elihu is saying that even he needs the chastening, reproof, discipline of the Lord—not for the specific sins alleged by his friends, for Elihu does not mention them, but for a more subtle fault. Elihu has already hinted at it, for it is the sin of spiritual pride, and only the experience of suffering can bring it to light so as to convict him of it—for all these various meanings are involved in the word rendered “chasten”. Job’s need is for the ways of God to be interpreted to him by one who can act as mediator—a foreshadowing of the great Mediator who was to come. Then there would be deliverance and restoration. And so Elihu continues:

“If there be a messenger with him, an interpreter, one among a thousand, to show unto man his uprightness: Then he is gracious unto him, and saith, Deliver him from going down to the pit: I have found a ransom. His flesh shall be fresher than a child’s: he shall return to the days of his youth: He shall pray unto God, and he will be favourable unto him: and he shall see his face with joy: for he will render unto man his righteousness.”

(Job 33:23-26)

 

To “see God’s face with joy”—the blessing granted to the “pure in heart” (Matt 5:8)—is to be received into favour before God.

 

Thus, while Elihu does not indulge in the crude and brutal charges of the friends—so vigorously repudiated by Job—he does lay bare an inner flaw which needed the Divine discipline to remove it: but it is a truly educative discipline leading to grace and joy before God.

[Resource Manager]

God’s working with men

 

Suffering can, therefore, be part of the ways of God’s working with men for their own development and to bring them to knowledge of Himself; and the outcome for Job was a new and intimate knowledge of God. He could say:

“I have heard of thee with the hearing of the ear: But now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”

(Job 42:5-6)

 

This working of God with men must in its nature be individual: only the man who suffers can gain this as a personal experience. The larger problem of suffering remains, and the only answer to be extracted from the Book of Job is that man cannot question the majesty and wisdom of God: He is the creator and sustainer of all life, and His works are beyond man’s knowledge. It is this answer which is elaborated with such power and beauty by the Voice from the whirlwind in chapters 38 to 41. Men can only accept that the ways of God are beyond their judgment. Job is ironically challenged to debate with God in view of the wonders of His power and wisdom in creation and His continuing providence for all creatures. But it is a humbled Job who himself becomes “mediator” for the three friends who have “not spoken of God the thing that is right” (42:7), and it is Job who offers sacrifice for their reconciliation.

 

“Does Job serve God for nought?” While, therefore, the Book of Job offers no simple answer to the problem of suffering, it has been raised to a wider level. And further insight is reached when another aspect is perceived which was unknown to Job himself. An Adversary (we need not now inquire who or what he was) had asked: “Doth Job serve God for nought?” The answer is demonstrated in the only way it could be, wrought out in the agonizing experience of Job:

 

“Though he slay me, yet will I wait for him; Nevertheless I will argue my ways before him. He also shall be my salvation.”

(Job 13: 15-16, R. V. and margin)

 

Only by loss and suffering could he himself know that he did not serve God for the sake of houses, lands, flocks and herds, or even children. He did not even serve for the sake of his own skin, his health and wellbeing. He worshipped God for Himself, and in spite of all the wild words which came from his stress of mind and body he had an ultimate belief in God’s righteousness and faithfulness. It was only when stripped of everything that he really knew that God was his only refuge, and in that discovery he was triumphantly vindicated against the slander of the Adversary. Job’s faith in God was put to the test under trial, and by trial it was tempered as steel. It was by his final acceptance of the wisdom of God, and by learning that faith could be developed through suffering, that Job came at last to the fuller knowledge of God.

 

Some conclusions

 

The conclusions to be drawn from what has been considered so far may be summarized as follows:

1. Men live in an ordered universe of cause and effect and must accept its consequences; and since sin entered into human life these must involve suffering. The suffering, however, may not be directly related to the sin of the sufferer but may result from the acts of former generations.
   
2. At the same time it is the universe of a God of wisdom and love who can guide and control the suffering for those who seek Him in order to bring them to a deeper knowledge of Him.
   

[Resource Manager]

A divine discipline

 

It is in the light of this latter conclusion that we may understand a passage in the Letter to the Hebrews based on a saying in the Book of Proverbs:

 

“And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. “Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees…”

(Hebrews 12:5-12; Proverbs 3:11-12)

 

Read in its context, the passage expounds itself. Suffering and loss are common to man, but for the children of God they are directed by their heavenly Father as a spiritual training, and as such are the expression of His love.

 

Does God suffer?

 

One stage more may be reached in the understanding of suffering. It is that God Himself is involved in the suffering of men, for out of His love He gave His own Son to die for them:

“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.”

(John 3:14-17)

“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”

 

Greater love even God could not have than to give His beloved Son to the suffering of the cross for the redemption of men.

 

It is true, therefore, to say that even God suffers, and it becomes possible to understand the saying of the prophet concerning God’s relation to Israel:

“In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them.”

(Isaiah 63: 9; see also Judges 2:16)

[Resource Manager]

Obedience even to death

 

The Yahweh of Israel is not a remote, impassive First Cause: His Holy Spirit can be grieved, He can be moved with yearning compassion. He can love with an everlasting love. All these are scriptural expressions, and they reveal God as the supreme Personality who can from His holy transcendence enter into the lives of the men and women He has created.

 

Above all He entered into the lives and history of men by giving His Son Christ Jesus to share in human suffering to the uttermost in order to bring about redemption from sin and death. Christ came in the life and nature of men; he shared their experience even to the most dreadful death which men have devised, in order to bring about their deliverance. And in so doing, “though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience in the things that he suffered” (Hebrews 5:8). In accepting suffering in obedience to the will of God he raised it to a new plane, and showed it no longer as the greatest evil but as a means to an end: for through suffering, in his perfect obedience to God, he overcame the power of sin in human nature, and so made possible resurrection from the dead to eternal life with the Father. In this he obtained perfection, a tried and tested faith, completeness in obedience, wholeness in the love of God and the service of men.

 

And “having been made perfect, he became unto all them that obey him the author of eternal salvation” (Hebrews 5:9). He is the author, the source, the cause, of a salvation men cannot attain for themselves, since on account of his sacrifice men and women who come to him for life are by God’s grace accepted as members of Christ. And so as Christ rose the third day there is spiritual resurrection to new life now for those who are baptized into him, and the hope of physical resurrection and a change to immortality in the day when he returns.

 

“Partakers of the divine nature”

 

If men were to become “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4), raised out of sin to a level where they could truly know God, enjoy eternal fellowship with Him and share His incorruptible life, then God alone knew the conditions on which that was to be accomplished consistently with His own majestic holiness. It was the way which required the gift of His Son to die even the death of the cross.

 

If, then, God suffered, and if in obedience to the Father Christ suffered even to death, the whole problem of suffering for men is raised to a new level. Without faith in God, suffering is an evil to be endured. With faith, and the example of the Son of God, suffering may purify and ennoble, and be a means by which God brings the sufferer nearer to Himself. It can be truly a divine education, the chastening of the Lord.

[Resource Manager]

“All things new”

 

If God’s Son suffered, can men expect to escape? But beyond the suffering was resurrection, and beyond resurrection will come the Kingdom of God when Christ will come to enter into his reign, taking to himself those who are his. Then shall be fulfilled the words heard by the seer in Patmos:

 

“And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.”

“And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes: and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.”

“And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new.”

(Revelation 21:3-5)

 

For those who answer the call of God’s love, the way of suffering may be the way of life, and that is the ultimate purpose of the existence of suffering in the world.

 

If, then, it be asked, why does not God intervene? the final answer is that God will intervene when a people for His name have been born out of human life with its experience of suffering, and when it seems that in the world the evil threatens to overwhelm the good.

 

L. G. SARGENT

 

TheGospelAndSuffering.pdf

 

 

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