In this week’s Life of Jesus class, we talked quite a bit about sin, suffering, and God’s will.
Why does God allow so much suffering? It’s not an easy question, and the answers we do have are less than fully satisfying.
Jared Wilson, quoted on Justin Taylor’s web site, offers ten reasons. Here is just one:
To remind us that the world is broken and groans for redemption
Romans 8:20-23 describes the condition, not just of the human race, but of all creation.
For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.
We experience corruption. We yearn for freedom and redemption. We live in a world that is subjected to futility, in bodies not yet redeemed. It is a frustrating way to live, but God has a purpose: to make us whole, and to make us wholly his.
This side of Heaven, we cannot fully know why God allows what he allows, but 2 Corinthians 4:8-9 gives us hope in God’s purposes and in his protection:
We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed