If you could ask God one question and know that He would answer, what would you ask Him? If you could ask God one question out of all the questions you have for Him, what would it be?
I’ve asked that question of dozens of people and I will tell you that the response normally has to do with one thing: suffering. Why is the world the way it is? Why doesn’t God just flip a switch and end all the suffering? What is God doing?
First, why is the world this way?
The Bible says God created the world good. If you go back to the very start of creation, there was no suffering. Man lived in harmony with God and so we had harmony with one another. We lived as we were created to live – with and for the one true and living God, our Creator.
The first man and woman, Adam and Eve, didn’t think that was enough. Man wanted to exalt himself to God’s status. He didn’t trust that God was doing a good job, so he took matters into his own hands. The one rule that God made for man is the one rule that man wanted to break. So, he did. He took the one fruit that God said not to eat.
That might not sound like a big deal, but when the Creator of the universe gives you a command and you break it, you have committed cosmic treason. Adam’s cosmic treason brought a curse on all of humanity and the world. Adam’s sin caused separation between humanity and our Creator, the Author and Giver of Life. That’s why there is suffering and death in the world! Because we have separated ourselves from the Source of Good, from the Source of Life.
Why is their pain and suffering in the world? Because it’s filled with people like you and me. We take after our great-great-grandfather Adam. We live our lives for ourselves. We think we know better than God. We are broken people trying to run the world our way.
We all know we haven’t honoured God as He deserves to be honoured. He made the sun rise for us this morning. He put breathe in your lungs this morning. Did you honour Him for that? Have you always kept His commandments? You know you’ve lied more times than you can count. You know you’ve stolen something at some point in your life. You know you wouldn’t want your thought life displayed on a movie screen for the world to see. Deep down, you know that you’re part of the problem.
Which leads us to another question. Why isn’t God doing anything about all this suffering?
God is perfectly capable of handling the problems on this world. The problem is, because people are the source of evil, He’d have to get rid of us to stop evil. He did that once before. The Bible says he purified the planet with a Global Flood because it had gotten so evil. The only reason you think you want God to stop evil today, right now, is because you’ve deceived yourself about how good you are. You’re not. I’m not. None of us is good. If we wanted God to snap His fingers right now and stop all sources of evil and suffering in this world, He’d have to start by snapping away you and me.
Does that leave us hopeless? No!
God actually has a purpose for all the suffering in this world. It’s to drive us back to Him. He is the only source of Good. He is the only source of Life. He lovingly today is calling out to you to stop living for yourself and trying to be the god of your own life.
You can’t make up for the evil you’ve done in your life. You can’t clean yourself up. That’s like trying to wash yourself with dirty hands. You just make the situation worse.
Thankfully, that’s not what Christianity is about. That’s not what the Bible is about. That’s not what the Gospel is about.
This is the Gospel message: God sent His own Son into the world, Jesus Christ, to live the perfect life that Adam, Eve, you, and I failed to live. He did what Adam couldn’t. He did what you and I couldn’t. He always honoured God. He even honoured God in His death. Because our sin deserves a penalty, when Jesus died on the cross as the perfect sacrifice for sin, He paid the penalty of sin for those who put their trust in Him. He became the way we could be made right with God our Creator.
All of Jesus’ suffering was made meaningful by God when He raised Jesus from the dead. His suffering had purpose. The Bible says God has lifted Jesus on high and given Him a name that is above every name so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
Repent and Believe
All of the suffering and pain you’ve gone through in your life doesn’t have to be meaningless. We brought it all on ourselves with our sin, but God redeems what is broken.
The Bible’s clear message is this: turn from trusting in your own ability to make things better. Turn from following yourself and your own purposes. Turn to Jesus. Turn back to Your Creator. You were created to worship God and be with Him forever. Jesus’ perfect life and His sacrificial death make that possible. Trust in Him alone to save you from yourself, your sins, and meaningless suffering.