If God Is Good, Why Is There Suffering?
One of the questions people ask is, “If God is a good God, why am I suffering” or “Why is my wife suffering? What did she do wrong to deserve this,” or “What did I do wrong to deserve this? I thought God was a good God.”
The World Is Under a Curse
The world is under a curse due to sin, which includes suffering and death (Genesis 3:16-19 NASB), and that includes you and me.
Following their fall from grace (when Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden by disobeying the command of God), Adam and Eve caused death to befall all of their offspring including themselves, and that death also includes you and me because we are all descendants of Adam and Eve.
What Specific Sin Was Committed That Affects Us Today?
It’s found in Genesis 2:16-17 (NASB) in the Old Testament: “And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you shall surely die.”
We know when Adam and Eve disobeyed God and consumed the fruit and disobeyed God, Adam and Eve did not actually perish. Genesis 5:5 says that Adam lived to be 930 years old. However, what DID happen was Adam’s spiritual separation from God as a result of his transgression, known as the first death, and we are all inheritors of the first death.
Jesus Knows What You Are Going Through
Jesus knows what you are going through and understands what you are going through. In Revelation 2:9-11 Jesus says, “‘I know your tribulation and your poverty but you are rich” (“rich” means those who have inherited the kingdom of God, heaven, when they die because they have accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior)…”Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life. ‘He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death.’” The second death is spiritual and eternal. Revelation 20:14 says, “And death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire.”
The Good News
- We have a lot to look forward to. For all believers, what we are living in now is not the end. We know that our time on earth is limited, and if we are suffering greatly, that too WILL END, if not in THIS life, then certainly in the next life.
- 1 Corinthians 15:51-54 (NASB) says, “Behold, I tell you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality. But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, “Death is swallowed up in victory.”
- THAT is GOOD NEWS!
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Blessings to you and your loved ones.
Pastor John Haggard