JimPulse

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.