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Can God and suffering coexist?

Suffering seems to be an intrinsic part of life. We all suffer.
How can God sit in the clouds watching us suffer if He loves us? Surely if God existed, we
wouldn’t see so much suffering.

“Human evil is one of the most significant causes of catastrophic questioning of faith; another is the
experience of intense and seemingly pointless suffering”- Alister McGrath

Relatable?
I am a university student, writing this from a place of questioning and exploring in the midst of
the COVID-19 pandemic. I love to think and battle with questions because I believe God is good
and I want to help make sense of the world through this lens.
This is a piece of writing which explores the reasoning behind this question of suffering,
however I do not want to undermine the pain and personal experiences of suffering which you
may have or may currently be going through. Jesus is with us in our pain and it is not what He
desires.

Those who observe suffering are tempted to reject God; those who experience it often cannot give up
on God in their solace and their agony. As Christians we have evidence that love is stronger than hate,
light is stronger than darkness, that laughter, joy, compassion, gentleness, truth, all these are so much
stronger than their ghastly counterparts, all through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
God cries with us, He is a God of compassion and who came down to earth and chose to experience the
pain we experience. He experienced all our suffering on the cross. He understands. He redeems. Jesus
could have backed out at any time, but He didn’t because of love. God’s character doesn’t change, and
He still wants us to experience this love.
-Philip Yancey

Do you believe God is good?

There is a hidden irony behind protesting against God. You can only protest the evil in the world
if you believe God is good, otherwise you have no sense in your protest. When a person claims
atheism, they denounce the basis of morality -that there is an objective right and wrong,
because a moral law demands a moral law giver. Ravi Zacharias states that “if you need a good
God to account for evil, then you can’t disprove that good God with evil.”
His goodness is beyond our ability to understand but not beyond our ability to experience.
“Taste and see that the Lord is good” – Psalm 34:8
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What you believe about God doesn’t change who He is, it changes you. SO instead of looking at
what we think, let’s start with who Jesus says He is.
“The thief comes to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it
abundantly. I am the good Shepard; the good Shepard lays down His life for the sheep”-
John 10:10-11

Here’s an analogy key to my discovery:

The Balcony- Mackey

Imagine a road and a balcony. We, humans, are walking along the road. The person on the
balcony, is God.
The view of from the road is one of immersion, where our capacity is limited to view and
observe those among us and what we can learn from each other’s experiences. As Thomas Nagel
says, “we cannot escape the condition of seeing the world from our particular insertion in it.”
We cannot get to the balcony to gain this big perspective. But what if the perspective of the
balcony was to be brought to us?
This is the incarnation of Christ, that God who sees all things from the balcony, who has a total
mapping of reality, decided to come and walk along the road to give us revelation and a glimpse
of the bigger picture; but the incarnation also affirms the presence of God on the road we
travel.
We cannot escape limiting perspectives and must learn to work with them and to trust God that
He has the big picture which we cannot see. Trusting that He is good and works all things for
good for those who love Him.

The beginning- the original design

Let’s start at the very beginning (a very good place to start *sings the sound of music*) because
it is key to what I have learned so far.
Genesis: The world was good. No suffering. No pain. No death. No natural disasters. No cancer.
No depression. No bombing. No rape. No COVID-19…We could go on.
This is how God made it. He made it good. This is how it was intended to be- the original design
if you like.
Yet we all know this is not what we experience. There’s a gap between how it was and what it
is.
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So, what changed?

The notorious story Adam and Eve eating the apple: Essentially, they chose their own will over
God’s will. The world fell- which means it was no longer the way God made it. Sin entered the
world, God and humanity were separated and the whole of creation fell- creation being
everything created, which includes DNA, plants, the natural world and our human nature. We
cause some suffering directly (lying, selfishness, greed, drugs, crime, etc.), but sin causes
suffering indirectly (because of sin this earth is corrupted, deteriorating, painful and evil).
The world is no longer the original design.

God is not the cause of suffering; He is the author of good

James 1:13-17
When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil,
nor does he tempt anyone; but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their
own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin,
when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.
Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters. Every good and perfect gift is from
above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting
shadows.

So, if God knew free will would lead us here, was it unfair for Him to
give us free will?

As with most things with God, the answer lies in His character. He is love. Everything He does
ultimately roots back to His love for us. Yet the link isn’t so clear here, right?
How does giving us free will show us that He is love?
If God created us and He gave us free will, He must have known we would sin. If God created all
the world and everything in it, He must have created evil… right?
The kind of world God made depends on His values. Christianity teaches that God values
relationship above all else. A relationship must be chosen by both people in the relationship.
Yet, when there is a possibility of rejecting God it also means there is a possibility for pain,
suffering and sin.
Imagine a child, their parent loves them unconditionally. Yet the child has a choice; they can
listen to their parent and receive their love, or they can choose to reject their parent and do
their own thing. If the parent was to force the child to love them then it would no longer be
love, it would be dictatorship, we would be robots wired to beep “I love you” all day. Love is a
choice. God loves us there for He had to give us free will- the ability to choose Him, or “not-
Him”. Sin and suffering entered the world, when we chose “not-God”.
God did not create evil, but He created beings with the potential to do evil.
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So, what’s Gods plan?

Revelation 21:4

He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death will not exist anymore – or mourning, or
crying, or pain, for the former things have ceased to exist.

A lot of people get stuck here. They don’t want to believe in a God who would watch all this
suffering. Michael Ramsden taught me this analogy:
Imagine you’re in a river, humanity on one side of the river and God on the other side of the
river.
You say “We live in a broken, fallen world.”
TRUE.
“And I’m just thrown in the river, I didn’t choose to be here”
TRUE
“And I’m drowning in it”
TRUE
“And then I die and there’s nothing I can do. It’s not fair. This suffering was inflicted on me.”
Well…Yes that would be unfair, if this is where the story ended.
Now just imagine you’re in the water, and you can’t swim, and you’re trying to get to the other
side of the river. A man reaches out his hand and says “take my hand, I’ve built a bridge to the
other side.”
You reply, “no, no, I can do it myself.”
And He says, “you can’t swim. You can’t get to the other side by yourself, but I can save you.
I’ve built a bridge to the other side.”
You then have a choice whether to take His hand.
Ultimately God’s plan is to be in relationship with us and to do that the barrier of sin needs to
be overcome. God isn’t going to abandon us in our current situation- He desires to be in
relationship with us remember! God sent His Son Jesus to conquer and overcome the things of
this earth by dying and rising to life, thus defeating death and the power of sin, and building a
bridge which we can walk across if we choose, to live eternally with Him. This ultimately means
that nothing can ever separate us from the love of Christ, as said in Romans 8, because Jesus
built the bridge. This is an incredible word of comfort to those suffering. That He came down
from the balcony and gave us access to a new road with no more pain or suffering through
forgiveness.
In C.S Lewis’ words, freedom is preserved in that each person makes his own free choice to determine
his destiny. Evil is overcome in that, once those who reject God are separated from others, the
decisions of all are made permanent. Those who choose God will be confirmed in it, and sin will cease.
Those who reject God are in eternal quarantine (COVID-19 QUARANTINE IS ENOUGH FOR ME THANKS!)
and cannot upset the perfect world that has come about. The ultimate goal of a perfect world with free
creature will have been achieved, but the way to get there require those who abuse their freedom to
be cast out.
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Redemption

The whole Bible is a story of redemption. This does not mean that God inflicts the suffering
(more on this later), but He can take the old and make it new. So why do we still experience
suffering?
We are in the middle of the story of redemption. It would be unfair to claim that God is bad,
justifying our statement with the suffering we experience, because our world is broken, and we
aren’t living in a world which is reflecting its original design. It would be like Paul Hollywood
judging a loaf of bread after it had been put through a blender.
We experience the reality of suffering on our planet, yet He can redeem and bring good out of
the bad. It says in Romans 8:28 that all things work together for good to those who love God.
Let’s not get confused here.
Firstly, He doesn’t send the suffering in order to redeem it and flex a little. If God was inflicting
suffering, then why did Jesus heal the sick? It would be counterproductive. Redemption is a
display of His ability to turn evil conditions around for His glory and our benefit, but the evil
itself undermines our purpose on earth and the original design.
Secondly, “for those who love God”. Sin has consequences. For justice to be prevailed, the price
must be paid. The gospel teaches us that it is only through the Jesus that we can be saved
because He bore our sins on the cross and payed the price for sin- which is death. It is through
the resurrection that we know the job was done, because He conquered death, meaning we can
live eternally with Him if we choose. Therefore justice (the price is paid) and forgiveness can
coexist.
As Ravi Zacharias so wonderfully summarises
1. If God is all-good, He will defeat evil.
2. If God is all-powerful, He can defeat evil.
3. Evil is not yet defeated.
4. Therefore, God can and will one day defeat evil.

Why doesn’t He end all evil now?

To end evil God would have to destroy the cause of evil – people. (To explain, read the C.S.
Lewis quote above).
So, He sent Jesus!
God didn’t ignore the outcome of human freedom and suffering; He became one of its victims
on the road. He didn’t eliminate sin or evil, but He did reveal how God is willing, even at
immense cost, to forgive sin and to heal its damage.
The three things which God gives us are grace, truth and time. One of those things being God
gives us redemptive time, this is so that as many people have the opportunity to hear and
respond to the good news.
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Suffering of the innocent

He committed no sin,
and no deceit was found in his mouth.
When they hurled their insults at him, He did not retaliate; when he suffered, He made no
threats. Instead, He entrusted himself to him who judges justly. (1 peter 2:18-23)

Jesus was innocent. The innocent, the man who committed no sin, suffered. Yet He trusted God,
not because God told Him why He was suffering, but because He trusted in God’s character, that
God was just and He values relationship above all else.
We later find out “He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live
for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.” For “you were like sheep going astray,” but
now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.” (1 peter 2:18-23)

Jesus had to endure this suffering, His soul was “overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of
death.”(Matthew 26:38), so that we could live eternally in relationship with God. Yet Jesus did not
know this at the time. He did not know the purpose for His suffering.
In Romans 8:18, Paul states that the sufferings are not worth comparing to the glories revealed to us.
Now this man, Paul, suffered! He was persecuted and killed. Yet He held to this vision that in comparison
to what God will redeem, and the eternity we will spend with Him, it is not even worth comparing our
sufferings to.

There are many other questions, such as why doesn’t God heal everyone?
We live in a world where we have our own will and His will. So why does He sometimes extend
mercy and not other times?
There is no clear answer to this, yet when Daniel is being put in a furnace for worshipping God and not
the king, the king asks, “who is the god who can rescue you from my power?”
They answer “Nebuchadnezzar, we don’t need to give you an answer to this question. If the God we
serve exists, then He can rescue us from the furnace of blazing fire, and He can rescue us from the
power of you, the king. But even if He does not rescue us, we want you as king to know that we will not
serve your gods or worship the gold statue you set up.” (Daniel 3:17-18 NIV).
They came out of the furnace unharmed, God protected them, but they still went into the furnace and
the fire still burned around them. God will save us in this life or through death for our eternal salvation.
(Isaiah 43)

Daniel knew that God is all powerful and God is good. He trusted God, because ultimately, we have
limits to our understanding as finite beings on the road. God has a bigger picture from the balcony.
We can rest in the fact that God is good no matter what the outcome because of what is revealed
through Jesus.
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Where is God in the suffering?

He’s on the road and offers hope from the balcony. Jesus didn’t ever condemn those who suffered or
inflict suffering on them, He healed them. Jesus suffered so that He could be with us in our suffering. He
understands. Whatever we feel, God feels more.
God was grieved to his heart, Genesis declares, over the violent wickedness of his human creatures. He
was devastated when his own bride, the people of Israel, turned away from him. And when God came
back to his people in person—the story of Jesus is meaningless unless that’s what it’s about—he wept at
the tomb of his friend. St. Paul speaks of the Holy Spirit “groaning” within us, as we ourselves groan
within the pain of the whole creation. - N.T. Wright

God doesn’t just tell us to trust Him in the midst of suffering from a distance, rather He showed us how
to do it. He was suffering and yet He trusted Him who judges justly. -See the suffering of the innocent.
For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who
has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God’s throne of
grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
-Hebrews 4:14-16

Do we have to wait until heaven until we can get relief from suffering?

Psalm 23 paints two very different pictures, both of which we will all be familiar with. The first being
‘He makes me lie down in green pastures, He leads me beside quiet waters, He refreshes my soul. He
guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake’ and the second being ‘Even though I walk through
the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.’
The language used is KEY. He leads and guides us to the first scene, and He is with us in the dark valley.
We still live in a world with more than one will. Even Jesus prayed the prayer “your kingdom come, your
will be done”. Showing us that this world doesn’t represent only God’s will; and we all suffer the
consequences, directly and indirectly of our own and other people’s choices. In our lives, in every
decision we make, we give authority to God or Satan, it’s a choice, and unfortunately, we don’t always
choose God’s will.
Jesus overcame the power of sin so that we can choose to turn away from it. He is with us within our
suffering. He offers us a hope beyond our suffering.
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Limits on our suffering

Loren Cunningham, the pioneer of YWAM speaks on this.

He talks about the spiritual, mental and physical limits on suffering. In the Word we have been prepped
with spiritual armour to limit our spiritual suffering, as well as Jesus and the Great Commission-that we
have been sent out to heal and do great things just like Jesus! (Matthew 28:16-20). He talks about
mental weapons to limit suffering. In the Word it teaches us to practice thankfulness, if we praise the
Lord because He is greater, then God will show is what we can be grateful for. As we understand him and
his purposes- not that He causes those, but He is greater than them. Then, as we praise him He can turn
the bad into the good, He can give us the alternative/redeeming factor (Romans 8:28.)
Finally, He talks about the physical. Firstly, that we get mental limits of physical suffering. I found it
interesting to hear that you don’t remember what physical pain feels like, you can only that it was
painful; on the other hand, you can remember beauties. He believes God has even given us limits to
physical pain with unconsciousness. He also spoke about the practicality of physical pain in some
circumstances. That a lesser pain warns us of the greater problem and danger. For instance, hunger
warns us of starvation.

What about other religions?

Christianity is the only religion where we God comes to us. We are saved by grace, (which is about what
God did, meaning we can receive forgiveness for our wrongs through repentance), and not by works
(what we do). In any other religion it would be considered blasphemous to even have a relationship with
God, let alone God coming down to earth in human form. No other god has done this.
This is why Jesus is the only way to heaven. All religions who believe in sin agree that god cannot be in
the presence of sin. Religious practices, repentance and re-incarnation are examples of actions which
get them to god. They must work in order to get to heaven- to get to the other side of the river if you
like. This poses the question; can you ever be good enough to be in God’s presence? Is it possible to be
sinless and human?
For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right
with God through Christ. -2 Corinthians 5:21
This is why Jesus is THE way, THE truth and THE life.

Good reads:
• The Bible (I always forget about this one)
• The Question that never goes away. What is God up to in a world of such tragedy and pain? by
Philip Yancey
• Is it real? by Amy Orrwing
• Science, God and the human quest for meaning by Alister McGrath

Podcast to take a peeky at

Why the Innocent Suffer – Loren Cunningham
Why Did God Create Satan? - Ask Away Podcast, RZIM
Why Doesn't God Intervene to End Suffering? - RZIM