Author: admin

Tim Keller writes:

Because God is both sovereign and suffering, we know our suffering always has meaning even though we cannot see it. We can trust him without understanding it all.

When one of my sons was around eight years old, he began to exert his will and resist his parents’ directions. One time I told him to do something and he said, “Dad, I’ll obey you and do this—but only if first you explain to me why I should do it.” I responded something like this: “If you obey me only because it makes sense to you, then that’s not obedience, it’s just agreement. The problem is that you are too young to understand most of the reasons why I want you do to this. Do it because you are eight and I’m thirty-eight—because you are a child and I’m an adult and your father.”

We can easily see why children need to trust their parents even when they do not understand them. How much more, then, should we trust God even though we do not understand him? It is not just that the differential in wisdom between him and us is infinitely greater than the difference between a child and a parent. It is not just that he is sovereign and allpowerful. We should also trust him because he earned our trust on the cross. So we can trust him even when he hasn’t shown us yet the reason why.

(Walking with God through Pain and Suffering)

Tim Keller writes:

…There are an increasing number of theologians who are so glad to emphasize the suffering of God that they lose the idea of divine sovereignty, depicting God as one who is not all-powerful and not able to stop suffering in the world.

Some might argue that suffering and pain are only ever caused by the Devil, or by our own foolishness and particular sins, or by the randomness that comes from living in a fallen world.  However, if this were true, then God is certainly not sovereign; he is powerless to prevent the Devil or human beings from exerting their will.  Then God is forever reacting with a “Plan B” in response to each action or decision brought about by humans or by the Devil.

Ronald Rittgers writes: “The idea that God has a causal relationship to adversity and misfortune is rejected by many contemporary theologians. The notion of God as co-sufferer is welcomed, but the idea of God as agent of suffering is shunned.” But, Rittgers adds, “the God who has no causal relationship to suffering is no God at all, certainly not the God of the Bible . . . who is both suffering and sovereign. Both beliefs were (and are) essential to the traditional Christian assertion that suffering ultimately has some meaning.”

Keller continues:

That is absolutely right. If God is out of control of history, then suffering is not part of any plan; it is random and senseless. …If God were somehow limited or out of control, his suffering would not be so radically voluntary — and therefore not so fully motivated by love.

(Walking with God through Pain and Suffering, Chapter 7)

Jesus’ suffering on the cross was foreordained, and part of God’s plan, not some random result of human history.  God was in control of Christ’s crucifixion, just as he is in control of all human history, including every trial, pain, and experience of suffering that we encounter.

Tim Keller writes:

According to all branches of Christian theology, the ultimate purpose of life is to glorify God. That means that the first—but perhaps hardest to grasp—purpose for our suffering is the glory of God.

(Walking with God through Pain and Suffering, Chapter 7)

Implicitly or explicitly, many Christians act as though one or more things (not giving glory to God) are the ultimate purpose(s) for their lives: wealth, comfort, happiness, fame, even spiritual gifts. These other priorities are pressed into our world view because they pervade the culture around us.

…In 1 Peter 1:6-7, the apostle explains why his readers are “suffering grief in all kinds of trials.” “These have come.” he writes, “so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.” Our sufferings, if handled properly, bring the Lord glory.

This is a difficult truth for some to accept.

Many of the most popular churches today teach that God will make you happy, healthy, and prosperous, that he is there for your personal benefit. If we tacitly accept that view of things, we may find it offensive to hear someone say that tragedies and evil can honor and glorify God.

If we believe our purpose is to enjoy a “good” life, material wealth, health, and prosperity, we will come to see God as existing in order to supply those things for us.  Suffering and pain have no useful place in such a mindset.  To suggest that God would cause his children to suffer, and that suffering is actually an instrument God uses to refine his people’s character and to bring glory to himself — these statements are abhorrent to the one who adheres to a theology of health, wealth, prosperity, and blessing.

Tim Keller writes:

What do we mean, first, when we say that God is sovereign over history and therefore over suffering? The doctrine of the sovereignty of God in the Bible has sometimes been called compatibilism. The Bible teaches that God is completely in control of what happens in history and yet he exercises that control in such a way that human beings are responsible for their freely chosen actions and the results of those actions. Human freedom and God’s direction of historical events are therefore completely compatible. To put it most practically and vividly—if a man robs a bank, that moral evil is fully his responsibility, though it also is part of God’s plan.

It is crude but effective to think of this in percentages. We think that either God has planned something or that a human being has freely chose to do it —but both cannot be true at once. Perhaps we grant that the event is due 50 percent to God’s activity and 50 percent to human agency. Or maybe it is 80-20, or 20-80. But the Bible depicts history as 100 percent under God’s purposeful direction, and yet filled with human beings who are 100 percent responsible for their behavior—at once.
 
This way of thinking is counterintuitive to both ancient and modem ways of thinking. The Greek notion of “fate” or the Islamic notion of “kismet” are quite different from the Christian doctrine of God’s sovereignty. The Greek myth of Oedipus tells of the main character who, the oracle predicts, is fated to kill his father and marry his mother. Though Oedipus and all around him do all they can to avoid this fate, all of their schemes to avoid this destiny only end up hastening it. The destined end is reached despite everyone’s choices.

The Christian concept of God’s sovereignty is quite different. God’s plan works through our choices, not around or despite them. Our choices have consequences, and we are never forced by God to do anything—we always do what we most want to do.  God works out his will perfectly through our willing actions. 

The Bible everywhere presupposes this “compatibilism” between God’s plan and our actions, and at many places explicitly teaches it.  In Isaiah 10, God calls Assyria “the rod of my anger” (v. 5). He says he is using Assyria to punish Israel for its sins, and yet he nonetheless holds Assyria responsible for what it is doing. “I send him [Assyria] against a godless nation [Israel],” says God, “but this is not what he intends, this is not what he has in mind, his purpose is to destroy” (v. 6-7). While God uses Assyria as his rod according to his wise and just plan, that nation’s inner motivation is not a passion for justice but merely a cruel and proud desire to dominate others. And so God will judge the instrument of his judgment. Assyria’s actions are part of God’s plan, and yet the Assyrians are held accountable for their free choices.  It is a remarkable balance. On the one hand, evil is taken seriously as a reality. And yet there is an assurance that in the end, it can never triumph.

(Walking with God through Pain and Suffering, Chapter 6)

Tim Keller writes:

God is called the one “who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will” (Eph 1:11). “Everything” that happens fits in accord with, in harmony with, God’s plan. This means that God’s plan includes “little things.” Proverbs 16:33 says, “The lot is cast into the lap, but the disposal thereof is from the Lord.” Even the flip of the coin is part of his plan.

Ultimately, there are no accidents. His plan also includes bad things. Psalm 60:3 reads, “You have made your people see hard things; you have given us wine to drink that made us stagger.”
Suffering then is not outside God’s plan but a part of it. In Acts 4:27-28, the Christian disciples pray to God, “In this city, there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus . . . Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.” Jesus’ suffering and death was a great act of injustice, but it was also part of the set plan of God.

(Walking with God through Pain and Suffering, Chapter 6)

Tim Keller writes:

According to the Bible, God plans our plans.  Proverbs 16:9 says, “The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.” The author assumes that while we make our plans, they only fit into the larger plans of God.
There are many texts that weave free will and divine sovereignty together in ways that startle us. In Genesis 50:20, Joseph explains how his brothers’ evil action of selling him into slavery was used by God to do great good. “You intended me harm, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.” Notice Joseph assuming that what they did was evil—they “intended” harm, it was deliberate. Yet he says God’s plan overruled and used Joseph’s troubles and sorrows for his own good purposes.
The New Testament version of Joseph’s saying is Romans 8:28—”All things work together for good to them who love God.”
In Acts 2:23, Peter again tells us Jesus was crucified “according to the definite plan” of God, and yet the hands that put him to death were guilty of injusdee and “lawlessness.” In other words, the death of Jesus was destined to happen by God’s will—it was not possible that it would not happen. Yet no one who betrayed and put Jesus to death was forced to do it. They all freely chose what they did and were fully liable and responsible for their decisions. Jesus himself puts these truths together in one sentence: “The Son of Man will go [to his death] as it has been decreed, but woe to that man who betrays him” (Luke 22:22).
One of the most fascinating examples of this biblical perspective is found in the account of Moses’ confrontation with Pharaoh in Exodus 7-14. Moses continually calls Pharaoh to release the Israelites from bondage and declares that this is the will of God. Over several chapters the text tells us Pharaoh “hardened” his heart and he stubbornly refused to let the people go. This obstinate refusal led to untold misery and death for the Egyptians. But the text is fascinating, because it tells us that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart (Ex 7:3; 9:12; 10:1; 11:10; 14:4, 8) almost the same number of times it tells us Pharaoh hardened his own heart (Ex 8:15, 32; 9:34; 10:3; 13:15). So which is it?
Did God do it or did Pharaoh do it? The biblical answer to both is yes.
Look at the sins in the life of the patriarch Jacob, whose life is recounted in the book of Genesis. Jacob deceived his father and robbed his brother; as a result, he had to flee his homeland and experienced great suffering and injustice in a foreign land. Yet there he met the love of his life and had the children through which Jesus was descended. It is clear that his sin did not put him into a “plan B” for his life. It was all part of God’s perfect plan for him and even for the salvation of the world. Was he therefore not responsible for his sin? No, he was. Did he not suffer consequences for his foolish behavior? Yes, he did. But God was infallibly in control, even as Jacob was completely responsible.
In the end, the Christian concept of God’s sovereignty is a marvelous, practical principle. No one can claim to know exactly how both of these truths fit together. And yet even in our own ordinary experience, we know something of how to direct people along a path without violating their free will. Good leaders do this in part—why would the infinite God not be able to do it perfectly? The sovereignty of God is mysterious but not contradictory. It means that we have great incentive to use our wisdom and our will to the best effect, knowing God holds us to it and knowing we will suffer consequences from foolishness and wickedness. On the other hand, there is an absolute promise that we cannot ultimately mess up our lives. Even our failures and troubles will be used for God’s glory and our benefit. I don’t know a more comforting assurance than that. “God performs all things for me!” cries the psalmist (Ps 57:2).
This teaching has both high-level and practical implications for how we approach suffering. At one level, this means that, as Don Carson writes: “It must be the case that God stands behind good and evil in somewhat different ways; that is, he stands behind good and evil asymmetrically.”  While moral evil cannot be done outside the bounds of God’s purposes, “the evil is not morally chargeable to him” since the perpetrators are responsible. Yet since all good impulses in the human heart come ultimately from God (James 1:17) —when good things happen, they are directly attributable to him.
At the most practical level, we have the crucial assurance that even wickedness and tragedy, which we know was not part of God’s original design, is nonetheless being woven into a wise plan. So the promise of Romans 8, “that all things work together for good,” is an incomparable comfort to believers.

(Walking with God through Pain and Suffering, Chapter 6)

Timothy Keller, in Chapter 2 of his new book “Walking with God through Pain and Suffering,” writes:

[Saint] Gregory taught that…suffering in the world is of many different kinds and serves “a number of purposes in the divine economy.” Some suffering is given in order to chastise and correct a person for wrongful patterns of life (as in the case of Jonah imperiled by the storm), some suffering is given “not to correct past wrongs but to prevent future ones” (as in the case of Joseph sold into slavery), and some suffering has no purpose other than to lead a person to love God more ardently for himself alone and so discover the ultimate peace and freedom. The suffering of Job, in Gregory’s view, belonged to this last category. A personal God is a purposeful God, and in the Bible, it is possible to recognize different ways that suffering operates in lives.

Timothy Keller, in his new book, “Walking with God through Pain and Suffering,” says that our culture treats pain and suffering as things to be avoided at all costs.  As Christians, we often adopt a similar posture, but Keller suggests that suffering can play an important role in our lives:

[Max] Scheler writes: “It is not the glowing prospect of a happy afterlife, but the experienced happiness of being in a state of grace of God while in throes of agony that released the wonderful powers in the martyrs.” Indeed, suffering not only is made bearable by these joys, but suffering can even enhance these joys, in the midst of sorrow. “The Christian doctrine of suffering asks for more than a patient tolerance of suffering. …The pain and suffering of life fix our spiritual vision on the central, spiritual goods of…the redemption of Christ.”