The “problem of pain,” as the well-known Christian scholar, C.S. Lewis, once called it, is a potent weapon against the Christian faith. Our human intellects and notions of fairness reject the apparent contradiction between a loving God and a world of pain. A way to reconcile this issue is to view the world from God’s perspective. Understanding God’s perspective begins with reading the Bible. Note the biblical references in this article. The Bible tells us that God created a “very good” world (Genesis 1:31). Mankind was happy to live in community with God in a beautiful garden created by God Himself (Genesis 2:8-9). However, mankind rejected God and His “very good” creation. Mankind disobeyed God’s simple rules and chose to taste of the fruit of evil. As a result, suffering entered the world (Genesis 3).
Throughout the Bible purpose appears in the face of suffering. God placed meaning in suffering. God’s ultimate purpose for suffering is redemption for mankind (1 Corinthians 15:22) and the renewal of all creation (Acts 3:21). Suffering from grief and loss is the natural result of living in an imperfect world.
Jesus Christ is the perfect model of humility, servanthood, and suffering (Romans 5:8). He experienced temptation, pain, and death just as we do (Hebrews 2:17, 18). With Christ’s death on the cross, He reclaimed what Satan stole in the garden, and provided the way to redemption for all mankind (Hebrews 2:14, 15).
Suffering was how Christ set creation back on the road to restoration. We forfeited our chance for eternal life without some cost when we rejected God in the beginning. This cost applied to Jesus, God’s only begotten Son, and it applies to each of us. Although suffering had no place in God’s original design, it became nevertheless useful to God’s ultimate plan. Our sin caused our separation from God and made Christ’s suffering necessary. Our sin caused our imperfect world and made our suffering inevitable.
While suffering and death in this corrupted world are guaranteed for each of us, God takes no pleasure in the suffering of His children (2 Peter 3:9). He is patient, loving and merciful, operating for our eternal good outside our notions of time and fairness. God knows our pain and stands with us in our grief. He does not leave us alone (John 11:32-37).
“Why would an all-powerful, all-loving God allow pain and suffering?” Begin answering this question by viewing our fallen world from God’s perspective. God exists in the dimension of eternity. His primary objective is to love us and have us love Him in return, and eventually be restored to him in heaven.
From God’s perspective, although his original design was a perfect world, he gave us free will to choose to love him and in so doing provided the opportunity that we would not choose him, and the world would be imperfect. In this imperfect world he uses our suffering to draw us close to him.
Suffering is a fact of this fallen world. However, the complete message of the Bible is that God has a plan for redemption and a return to an existence without suffering. (John 1:12, Romans 6:23, Ephesians 2:8, 1 Corinthians 15:1-4, Revelation 21:4) In our suffering we are not alone. In addition to his presence, he has given us each other to suffer and be comforted together in community. (2 Corinthians 1:3-7)
There is value in sitting with our suffering whether alone or in community and meditating on its meaning. It is in our suffering that we learn about ourselves, others and about God. The pain of loss may not be lessened when meaning and purpose surface, but the fear of meaningless suffering dissolves and we experience the deep significance of love and loss.
Based on a post at All About God https://www.allaboutgod.com/faq/now-that-im-thinking.htm Edited by Karl Shackelford; Founder, We Grieve