While listening to a podcast one day, I heard a prominent Christian discuss his experience of dealing with the death of his child. I had tuned into the podcast hoping to listen to an honest discussion about the problem of evil and suffering in the world, as my own experience of losing my mother brought this topic close to home for me. So, when this man said that it was God’s will for his child to die and, in effect, that it was good, I recoiled. How could he say that the good and loving Lord wanted his child to die when death is an evil that God will one day destroy? To my disappointment, the podcast host, an apologist, made no attempt to bring more nuance to the topic.
Too often, we hear theologians and pastors make sweeping claims about the problem of pain in the world. They emphasize God’s sovereignty to the extreme of neglecting human free will and the reality of living in a sinful world. Or they depict the Lord as a powerless God who is unable to interfere on behalf of hurting people. Teachings like these lead many believers to ask faith-shaking questions. Someone may ask: “I have a chronic illness, and I pray for healing, but I am still suffering. Does God not care? Is He not powerful enough to heal me?” Another person could raise an issue with death: “Did God want my loved one to die (from disease, in a car wreck, from a shooting, by being murdered, etc.)?”
When we look at the Bible, we do not find neatly packed answers to our questions, despite how many theologians and pastors choose to depict these issues. The issue of pain in the world is complex. We must consider the wider teaching of Scripture when thinking of individual and widespread suffering.
And as we do, we need to hold loosely the manmade theological systems that we so easily cling to, submitting ourselves to the Bible.
Why Does Pain Exist in a World God Created to Be Good?
After a painful experience, individuals often shake their fists at the sky. Even Christians can grow angry. They know that God is in control of all things and that He is all-powerful. Why would He allow such terrible suffering? As easy as it is to blame God, pain is not His fault. Neither is death, evil, and disease.
God created the universe and everything in it, declaring it “very good” (Genesis 1:31, NIV). Animals and people did not die. Floods did not devastate lands. There was no disease to cause long-term pain. He had made everything good and walked with the first humans, Adam and Eve, in perfect harmony.
But He had given a command – not to eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2:17). This command was related to human free will. Adam and Eve could choose to love the Lord and follow Him or turn away from Him into rebellion and pride. They chose the latter option. As a result, sin and death entered the world, marring the relationship between Adam and Eve, as well as their relationship with the Lord. They both died spiritually that day and would eventually die and return to the dust from which they were created (Genesis 3:19).
The poison of sin seeped into everything. Where plants once flourished, now they would be choked with thorns and thistles. Easy harvest was replaced with back-breaking labor (Genesis 3:17-18). Animals began devouring each other. Inequality would plague women, as they would be subjected to man and bear children in pain (Genesis 3:16). As a result of sin, all creation groans (Romans 8:22).
So, when we hear about catastrophic hurricanes or wildfires, children being trafficked for slavery, and people dying from preventable diseases, we should not so quickly raise a fist but take a more sober look at the world around us. None of this was part of what God originally designed. Adam and Eve made a choice, which led to a sin-infected world filled with evil and pain. That is the reason individuals suffer from chronic illnesses. And yes, that is why all people die. While God knows the number of our days, He does not cause our deaths (Job 14:5). We die because we are sons and daughters of Adam, and “in Adam all die” (1 Corinthians 15:22, NIV).
How Free Will Opens the Door to Sin and Suffering
Not only are we born with a sinful nature, but all of us choose to sin. Like Adam and Eve, each of us has free will, and though not always to the same degree, we also all choose to go astray like our first parents (Romans 3:23). And the choices that each of us makes impact others.
Throughout the Bible, we read about the consequences of people’s sins, which bring suffering to others. Cain chose to murder his brother Abel. Jacob knowingly deceived his brother and his father-in-law. David committed adultery and murder. Amnon raped his half-sister, Tamar. Judas betrayed the Son of God.
The Lord did not approve of any of these actions, but still, they happened. Individuals were exercising their free will by choosing to do evil, and pain resulted. We could argue that God could have stopped or forced them to do right. Yet that would mean He would have to do away with their volition. We could no longer do wrong, but we could also no longer freely choose to love and follow the Lord. He has given us free will, which people use to do evil.
We can say that God allows these things in His general will since He gave us the ability to choose. But morally, evil is not within God’s will. When people steal, kill, oppress, abuse, assault, and cause pain to others, they are not acting within His holy and perfect will. He is holy and righteous, “and there is no darkness in him at all” (1 John 1:5, NIV). So much pain in the world happens because of sinful humankind.
God Entered Our Pain to Bring Redemption and Hope
When we experience painful events, we often assume the Lord is punishing us for our sins or trying to strengthen an area of our faith. God certainly can use bad circumstances for our good (Romans 8:28; Genesis 50:20). However, we should not assume pain occurs in our life because God is inflicting us or standing over us like a sergeant demanding we do better. We live in a fallen world infected by sin. Sometimes, that is the only reason we have for our suffering.
Our Lord, though, cares about our pain. He did not sit back and watch the world decay, powerless to change anything. After Adam and Eve sinned, He clothed them in animal skins, covering their sin and nakedness (Genesis 3:21). This act foreshadowed what the Lord later did by sending His Son into the world to save us (John 3:16).
God the Son took on human flesh and lived in this sinful world. He knows what it is like to mourn the loss of a loved one, to go hungry, and to experience pain. In love, He entered our suffering and bore our sins on the cross. The One who endured the most pain is the One who brought our healing (Isaiah 53:5; 1 Peter 2:24). He redeems us through His death and resurrection, bringing new life to all who believe. And this redemption will one day soon impact all creation when all things are made new (Revelation 21:5).
In response to all the suffering and evil in the world, God gave us Himself. He could have stood far off and left us to our sinful fate. However, He chose to enter our world and take on human flesh, dying in our place to provide forgiveness for sins. Whenever we are reminded of the immense pain in the world, we need to turn our eyes to the cross. There, we find a nail-scarred Savior who carried all the world’s sins to bring hope and healing to all who believe. Pain is a reality, but so is the truth that our Lord cares and has overcome.
Finding Hope in the Mystery of God’s Ways
An aspect of the question of pain that many of us are not as comfortable grappling with is mystery. We desire systematic answers that explain exactly why events happen. But many situations in life are not so easily grasped, and neither are the ways of the Lord (Isaiah 55:8-9).
Perhaps this is complicated further because of the predominance of prosperity teachings in America. For example, prosperity teachers advocate that following God brings blessings (in the form of material goods and health), while disobedience brings punishment. Such logic defies Scriptural teaching and what we see in the world. Why, then, do we hear about evil people prospering? Or why is it that some individuals live in comfort and ease while others suffer in poverty and oppression? The teachings that so often infiltrate our churches fail to contend with mystery.
What we can know is that the living Lord is good, loving, and just. We see evidence of His goodness and power in creation, as He showed Job (Job 38-41). Central to Job’s story is the problem of evil and suffering, yet nowhere in the book does the Lord provide a systematic answer to Job’s pain. His power and presence are the closest we come to a response since Job never learns of Satan’s involvement or why God allowed the pain.
Like Job, we also are not usually shown why pain occurs in our lives or the world. But still, we have evidence of God’s power and love around us. For amid the evil present on the earth, there are examples of His grace – the provision of rain, food, and the ability to experience joy (Acts 14:17). And the ultimate testimony to His goodness is the awesome mystery that He would send His Son to save us.
In His loving character, we can find hope even as we embrace the mystery of God’s ways and work.
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