Evil, Suffering & Pain - The Christian Response (NIV)

Gen.1:4, 10,12,31 light was good; land…seas was good; vegetation…was good; all that He had made and it was very good

Gen.2:16-17 And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”

2 Corinthians 5:19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. and he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.

1 Peter 3:18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit.

Rom.1:25 They exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator

Romans 5:8 But God demonstrates his love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

1 John 4:10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

Rom.8:38-39 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

1 Cor.15:17-19 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.

Romans 8:21-22  that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.

Evil, Suffering & Pain: The Book of Genesis describes no turmoil, suffering and pain in the beginning of Creation. The Creator and created human beings were in an intimate relationship. Genesis Chapter 1,2,3 describes how Adam’s disobedience resulted in the Fall of mankind and disruption of the fellowship with the Holy God. In the beginning, all creation was “good”, mankind was “very good”. The resulting Fall brought human shame, denial, and blame. The idyllic natural world was now tainted with toil, labour, and sweat.  Adam and Eve were expelled, and their generations behaved with envy, fratricide, vengeance, selfishness and greed.  The Bible says, they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator. Consequently, all the world needed salvation and redemption.

The Book of Job presents suffering at its worst - every kind of pain: emotional, physical, mental, and spiritual.  The victim is a righteous man - no idealized superhero - a fellow sufferer with whom we can identify.  Job's suffering was not the result of personal sin, yet God permitted it.  The Christian is called on to rest on the love and goodness of God although we don't fully understand. We see through a glass dimly. In the life of Jesus, we see God's desire to comfort and cure.  Jesus' grief reminds us that we are not alone in our suffering, even walking through the valley of the shadow of death. We cannot understand and explain fully all we desire to know, because God is infinite, and we are finite creatures. We are reminded, however, that there is a limit to suffering.  Pain and suffering do not go on forever. 

The Gospel declares that there is full redemption in Jesus Christ who came to suffer with us and die for us. All creation will one day be put right.  We cling to the old rugged cross, stained with suffering and shame.   At the Cross, the Holy and Just God exacted the penalty for sin, and the sacrifice of sinless Jesus paid for repentant sinners by His substitutionary atonement. For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus (1 Tim.2:5). God did not compromise His Holiness but paved the way to reconciliation.

Evil, Suffering & Pain: Three possibilities are proposed: 1) Evil proves that God does not exist (Atheism).

2) Evil isn't real (Atheism). 3) Jewish Rabbi Kushner (1981) proposed that God is benevolent but not all-powerful. On the other hand, the Christian declares that evil is permitted by a loving all-powerful God. The death of Jesus on the cross shows the reality of evil, and God's solution, resurrection for all who believe. 

The core of the Christian message displays a wholly unique expression in the face of evil. Jesus' death pounds forth a message with triple force: - It demonstrates: - 1) the destructiveness of evil which is the cause of suffering, 2) the ability to withstand undeserved suffering, 3) the plan of God to put an end to sin and suffering. Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel wrote of his experience as a prisoner in Auschwitz.  A fellow Jewish prisoner was being executed while the other prisoners were forced to watch.  An onlooker muttered under his breath with increasing desperation, "Where is God, where is He?"  From out of nowhere, Wiesel says, a voice within him spoke to his heart, "Right there on the gallows, where else?" Wiesel wrote: Job’s source of hope… must be ours.

By: Dr. Laurence Wedderburn June 26, 2024