Are you a believer who is hurting right now, and wondering if that means you have done something wrong?
If so, somebody may have sold you a lie. Health-and-wealth teachers have spread the idea that it is your divine right to be rich, that God’s will is for every one of the King’s kids to be crowned with affluence. Some have gone so far as to say it is a sin to be poor. That teaching is lousy theology, and it does not square with the lives of countless godly Christians.
Can a faithful believer suffer? You and I both know the answer is a resounding yes.
A woman who can only move her head
Joni Eareckson Tada is the perfect example. At seventeen she dove into the Chesapeake Bay and broke her neck. She has been a quadriplegic ever since, able to move only her head and neck. And yet God has used her books, her art, her radio program and her speaking all over the world.
In her autobiography she writes that her accident was not a punishment for wrongdoing. She says only God knows why she was paralyzed, and that if she were still on her feet she might have drifted through life selfish and dissatisfied. When a teenage girl asked whether she was really happy now, Joni said she was, and that she would not trade her life for anything.
Her body is badly damaged. Her spirit is not. Her story shows one way God can work through suffering. Leo Tolstoy was right on target when he said the world has been advanced by those who have suffered: pioneers, martyrs, and people who paid a price the rest of us benefit from.
What we have seen so far
In this series we have been working through biblical reasons God allows suffering, and each one comes with a benefit. In the first message we saw that God can turn suffering toward good, the way he did for Joseph; that it builds within us a need for God, like the prodigal son; and that it cultivates character, as James 1 teaches. In the second we saw that it examines our faith, furthers our obedience, equips us to comfort others, and humbles us, like Paul with his thorn.
There is one more reason, and it is an important one.
The whole race took a nosedive
Paul lays the groundwork. When Adam fell in the garden, the entire human race made a nosedive into the swamp of sin. Even the cutest, most angelic-looking baby has caught what I call the S-I-N virus. No one is immune, and the infection is terminal.
God knew our diagnosis was fatal. That is exactly why he sent his Son to suffer.
You and I are not the only ones acquainted with suffering. God himself is intimately acquainted with it, and nobody comes close to suffering to the degree he has.
Romans 5:8: God proves his love
Here is the verse. “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).
It is easy to skim a verse you have read a thousand times. Slow down with me on two things.
First, the verb is present tense. God did not only demonstrate his love to Moses and Abraham and David and Esther thousands of years ago. He is demonstrating it to you, today.
Second, the word means to prove, to confirm, to bring out clearly. Paul uses the same word elsewhere for establishing something beyond doubt. God could have told us he loves us in a hundred other ways. He could have arranged the clouds to spell it out. He could have announced it from heaven in a voice that rattled the windows. He could have sent a notarized letter by overnight courier.
He had something else in mind.
The last four words give the answer: Christ died for us. The evidence of God’s love, the proof that would hold up in any courtroom, is a cross. Jesus said it himself in the upper room, the night before he died: “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). Put together the kindness of Mother Teresa, Florence Nightingale and the volunteer in your church nursery, and it still pales beside that.
Notice the circumstances, too. He did not die for us once we were worthy, or virtuous, or lovable. He died while we were yet sinners. The verses around it call us helpless and ungodly.
Why this belongs in a series on suffering
You may be thinking, “I get it, Jesus died on the cross. But what does that have to do with suffering?”
Think about it this way. If suffering did not exist, Jesus would never have suffered on the cross. And if he had never suffered on the cross, God would not have demonstrated his love for you to this extent. So here is another biblical reason for suffering: to demonstrate God’s love. The cross is the apex of it.
Swap the Y for an O
Maybe you respect what Jesus did, and you are still struggling, because what you are carrying feels like more than you can handle. You may feel like Job on his ash heap.
If so, your relief may be one letter away. Swap the Y for an O.
Job asked “why” again and again, and God never answered that question. What God gave him instead was himself: who is in control, who cares, who sustains and vindicates. Job did not need to know why. He needed to know who.
If you keep asking why this tragedy, why this diagnosis, why me, and you keep your eyes on the misery of it, you will become bitter. If you ask who, who is the God of the Bible I claim to know, and fix your eyes on his goodness, his sovereignty and his love, you can become better.
Not bitter. Better.
Come to Jesus
Maybe you have tried the recommended treatments, seen different specialists, and received plenty of advice, and you still do not have the relief you need. I wish I could wave a wand and make your suffering disappear. I can’t. But I know someone who would love nothing more than to give you comfort and strength in the middle of it, and his name is Jesus Christ.
When did he ever love you? When he died on the cross, he had you in mind. Read Romans 5:8 again and put yourself in it. God commends his love toward us, and that includes you. While we were yet sinners, and that is still you. Christ died for us. He died for you.
Come to him right now and receive him as your Savior and Lord. Believe that he died for your sins and was bodily raised from the dead. Turn from your sin and trust Christ. Come just the way you are.
If you make that decision, or rededicate your life to him, I would love to hear from you.
Until next time, may God grant you and yours his strength for today.
