Which comes 1st, grace or humility?

Which occurs first? Our seeing God as the Source of life, love, and all created things more clearly or our being weaned from an ¹inordinate delight in created things? 

Several places in scripture teach that God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. This indicates humility comes ²before grace (i.e., the gift of ³God revealing Himself more fully to us) or at least it is the means of experiencing ongoing and increasing grace. 

We must recognize attempts at being our own God - our arrogant independence - do not work long-term, i.e., we must humble ourselves. We must die to live. Death to our attempts to save ourself comes before life. 

God is our greatest happiness. Anything that increases our union with Him is good, even (and maybe especially) pain.

For a discussion on the necessity of humility click here

 

How do we discover God's love in our pain? click here

For a further discussion on the primary role of pain click here

For a further discussion of how God uses evil for our good click here...and here.

The greater the evil the greater the opportunity for healing/

grace click here.

For a discussion on the key lesson from the book of Job, click here.

For a discussion on the value of paradox, click here.

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Footnotes:

¹Why do we hold on to and pursue created things so tenaciously? It allows us to temporarily cling to our independence from God. We want the delights of creation without the humility of admitting they are all gifts from our Creator or the necessity of our submission to and dependence on Him. 

²The old saying is you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink. 

However, you can also salt its oats. 

The choice to not drink is up to the horse. Salting its oats is up to someone else. 

While the choice to humble ourselves precedes our experience of grace, pain is often a means by which we are humbled. We often have no control over painful circumstances, even though we have control over how we respond to them i.e. we can either humble ourselves in response to pain or become defient and rage at God for it.

³it is not because God is hiding that we can't see Him, but because our pride - our tenacious clinging to our independence - blinds us to seeing Him clearly. It takes humility to see and appreciate humility i.e. to see Christ as the humble servant He is. We can't see or grasp what Christ is truly like without humility because He is humble. 

Without humility we project on to God arrogance when He says we should honor and praise Him i.e. we don't see Him correctly. We suppress the truth in our unrighteousness i.e. our unbelief -  and value (worship) created things over our Creator (Rom 1:18-23).

Yes Christ is the Lion of Judah but he is also the Lamb of God who willingly humbled and submitted himself to the Father to be slain... and that for our sake and the Father's glory i.e. he did this for the sake of others. 

What is spiritual blindness?

Spiritual blindness. What is it and why does it occur? 

There are two parts.

The 1st part has to do with our being creatures (finite) and not the Creator (who is infinite). Even though we are like God in many significant ways we are not God. This is not a blindness per se but more a limitation as created beings. 

The 2nd deals with our rebellion to our creaturehood i.e. to our limits.

How do these affect our moral choices?

 

1. We are finite (limited) in our understanding and do not know everything there is to know, and must know, in order to make the right and best choices - though we often think and act as if we do. 

Only God is all-knowing, all-wise, all-powerful, and everywhere present. These characteristics enable Him to know the right and best course at all times, in all things, with the unlimited ability to carry it out. We, on the other hand, are not all-knowing and do not know the best course of action or have the ability to live it out perfectly without His wisdom, enabling (power), and direction. 

2. We must recognize we are in rebellion against God, the Source of all knowledge and understanding. We have turned away and cut ourselves off from Him whenever we seek the right course on our own - i.e., when we seek to "be like God" knowing good and evil; right from wrong - without His input and direction.

Adam and Eve choosing to eat from the forbidden tree clearly demonstrated they did not know right from wrong, or have infinite knowledge, otherwise they would not have eaten from it i.e. it was forbidden for a good reason. A reason they clearly did not understand or feel the need to agree with. 

We often choose the wrong course, believing (trusting) we are right. We seek to take the role of God - i.e., to be like God in knowing right from wrong - when we clearly are not God - demonstrated by all the pain and suffering of humanity as the result of making the choice He warned them  not to make (which was clearly the wrong choice).

Only God has full knowledge of good and evil i.e., He knows all things. In other words, only he knows perfectly the best course of action to take in any and all situations. We do not. 

Because He does, we must seek and follow him - His directions - to know what is truly good and evil, and not seek to ¹determine this on our own. This is what Adam tried to do in the Garden of Eden when they chose to eat from the forbidden tree of the knowledge of good and evil. 

For us to receive understanding and direction from God, we must do the opposite of what Adam sought to do. We must humble ourselves i.e., accept our limitations and admit we are not God who knows all things. ¹We do not know right from wrong without God revealing it to us. Whatever understanding we have of right from wrong only occurs because God has told or shown us. 

As Proverbs 3:5-6 says, we are to...Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, (that He alone knows all things) and he will make straight your paths. Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord, and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones.

¹We do not see how arrogant and flagrant a violation of reality this truly is - unless God reveals it to us. In fact we sympathize with Adams choice. We are rebels and in rebellion to God who alone knows right from wrong. 

If Adam and Eve had made the right choice and rejected the serpent's proposal (a promise to be like God in a way they aren't designed to be), they would have stepped onto the right road of knowing (understanding) good and evil the right way, i.e., in faith-filled obedience to God vs rebellious distrust of Him. The issue wasn't that God didn't want them to know good and evil, but to know it the right way, i.e., under His care and guidance, not on their own with our limitations. .

For a discussion on how God created us with choice before we rebelled against Him, click here.

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Footnotes:

¹Though over time, through trial-and-error, we learn there is design in the physical universe and act accordingly e.g. we learn that going without air or water will eventually result in our death or putting our hand in the fire will result in getting burned. This article is addressing our moral and spiritual understanding i.e. what is right and wrong and that right and wrong is a real thing - it actually exists objectly.

Advancing in pain

The age-old question is if God is good, why is there so much pain. 

But maybe the answer is not what we usually think. Maybe God allows pain to remain to humble us and help us see our need for Him, with the long-term goal of our spiritual advancement. 

While pain is ultimately the fruit of our rebellious distrust of God, He uses it. If God could not bring good out of evil, evil would not exist. Christ's death would be the ultimate example of this profound paradox. 

Acts 2:23 "this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men."

Therefore, we must not allow it to discourage or shame us, or ¹cause us to fall into self-pity e.g. "You're a loser! Why keep trying? Just quit!..." etc. 

But we must embrace pain and embrace God and His love for us in our pain and failures for our advancement to occur (God is for us, not against us. Nothing separates us from God's love...Rom 8:31-39). 

"...Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 

Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 

and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us..." - Romans 5:2-5 ESV 

As long as we look at failure and mistakes as losing and not stepping stones to winning, we will not embrace them with thanks, learn from them, and let them advance our maturity and walk with God. When we recognize or failures and mistakes are a key to our spiritual advancement, we embrace them with gratitude and experience more of God's grace, mercy, and love. 

Having our identity/value rooted in God as the bedrock of our existence - and the very Source of love itself - frees us from seeing failure as losing. The whole mindset of the Bible is that ²failure is a necessary stepping stone to progress and maturity. 

"When all kinds of trials and temptations crowd into your lives my brothers, don’t resent them as intruders, but welcome them as friends! Realise that they come to test your faith and to produce in you the quality of endurance. But let the process go on until that endurance is fully developed, and you will find you have become men of mature character with the right sort of independence..." - Jas 1: 2-8. J B Phillips translation. 

This is foundational to understanding and embracing pain instead of a avoiding it. 

The importance of humility

Another vital key to the value of failure is humility. To understand we will never reach the maximum potential we were created for without God (which failure helps us to see) causes us to look to Him in greater dependence. Greater dependence on God as the Source of life, love, and all things is the essence of humility. Only through humility can we reach the potential God intends for us and designed us for.

How do we discover God's love in our pain? click here

For a further discussion on the primary role of pain click here

For a further discussion of how God uses evil for our good click here...and here.

The greater the evil the greater the opportunity for healing/

grace click here.

For a discussion on the key lesson from the book of Job, click here.

For a discussion on the value of paradox, click here.

For a discussion on the necessity of humility click here

____________________________________

Footnotes:

¹nor let pain embitter us. At the root of anger is the belief that we know better than God what is best for us and/or the world. Yet we are finite, not all-knowing or all-powerful. Only God is infinite in all things. 

And not only so, but he is also all-loving. He not only knows what's best (all-knowing) and does what's best (all-powerful) but wants it for us also (all-loving).

But many object and say, "how can God be all-loving and continue to allow all the pain in the world?" What's our proof that He is all-loving? He became a man just like us and fully embraced our pain so that we might ultimately be free of it forever.

²This is contingent on our seeing failure as a means by which God can advance us. If we do not, it will embitter us.

Why some are disillusioned with God

When does God not hear our prayers?

Whether God answers our request to be healed or delivered from difficult circumstances depends on why we are asking. If we wish to be healed (delivered) so we can better serve him, he will say yes. If we wish to be healed so we can ¹"spend it on ourselves," he will not. 

Our challenge is knowing the difference. If we think we are asking for the right reason and are not, we assume He does not care or love us if we don't get the answer we want. Then we become disillusioned with God. But this is our shortcoming, not God's. 

We incorrectly think God is a celestial Santa Claus or our heavenly servant or butler instead of the all-wise, loving, infinitely beautiful, and powerful Creator wbo sustains all creation and ²life. Someone to be adored and honored, not someone we can control and use for our own ends. 

"You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions." Jas 4:3 

Are love and life connected? How? Click here for a further discussion.

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Footnotes: 

¹ James 4:1-10  

[1] What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? [2] You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. 

You do not have, because you do not ask. [3] You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. 

[4] You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? 

world = the systematic worldwide pursuit of humanity to find ²life in or through created things - such as wealth, fame, power, praise from others, sensual pleasures, etc. - instead of from, through, and in the Creator (Rom 1:21-23) 

Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 

Passionate pursuit of created things for ²life instead of the Creator is like a husband pursuing a woman other than his wife to fulfill his physical passions. In doing so, he is unfaithful to his wife and has made himself her antagonist. 

[5] Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”? 

What kind of spirit has God put within us?  A spirit that longs (is passionate) for infinite love. Love that can only be satisfied by the Source of love - our Creator.  He will not share in our pursuit or loyalty to any other "lover" because He knows there are no other true lovers. Everything we seek for life outside of God Himself is temporary and comes up short. GOD alone is the Source of infinite love and we're designed for infinite, eternal love. To experience His love we must give Him all our loyalty and faithfulness, or we will pursue love outside of Him. 

[6] But he gives more grace. Therefore, it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” [7] Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 

Pride causes us to seek love independent of God for love or life. This is an invitation for the evil one to get a foothold in our lives. Humility shuts the door on his foot and opens the door to grace. When we open the door to grace, we invite God in.  

[8] Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. [9] Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. [10] Humble yourselves before the Lord, and HE will exalt you." 

Want to see God move on your behalf? Humbly recognize He alone is infinite ²life and the only true satisfier of our hearts longing for love. He knows best what we need most; we don't. 

²Are love and life connected? How? Click here for a further discussion.

From Adam to Christ

Before our rebellion, it appears we were spiritually ²neutral. As image bearers we had the capacity, unlike any other creature, to fellowship with God and did i.e. we could willingly receive and return His love. But we weren't ²inclined toward or away from God. You could say we were a blank slate.

However, we were also finite. And because of our limits we had no way of verifying on our own, with ⁶absolute certainty who was truthful and trustworthy, God or the serpent. 

Ultimately, it came down to trust. Our ¹trust in God hadn't yet been tested or confirmed. We had no reason to question God prior to that conversation with the serpent. The serpent's suggestions put into Adam and Eves mind doubt about God and His love for them for the first time. 

This is also why there were 2 special trees in Eden. (And not just anywhere in the garden but at its center). 

⁴We were given two contradictory claims or "promises" from two distinct sources and had to choose which one we believed. In God's original instructions, "do not eat..." it is clear God wanted them to have a choice. 

When humanity's trust was tested, we chose (and continue to choose) to trust ourselves and not God. We believed we could - and can - decide what was (and is) best for us without God, and know ²good and evil without looking to or depending on God for input. We set ourselves up as the final arbitrator of what is good or evil. And act of rebellion towards God as the Creator of all things and also a lie which was contrary to our design. This is the present modus operandi for all humanity to this day. 

Ever since our rebellion, we are naturally inclined towards distrust of others, God first, as well as each other. 

We went from being neutral to being bent away from God, and we remain that way to this day. We (and humanity as a whole) are now broken, fragmented, and continue to come "unglued" as we seek to find life and make it work without God. 

Without God's help, all our actions are rooted in self-trust and distrust of God. Every time we make choices without looking to God for input, we are saying God is not necessary to live life at the highest level. 

The solution?

The second Adam compared to the first. 

The Spirit led Christ into the wilderness after His baptism (where the Father said He was well pleased with His Son), and thus Christ's formal ministry began. 

Christ's trust in the Father was tested 3 times in the wilderness; as was Adam's. Unlike Adam, Christ passed each time. 

Christ's trust was also tested throughout his incarnation, and culminated in Gethsemane right before his betrayal and crucifixion, when he said "...let this cup pass from me...but not my will, but yours be done..." and also on the cross "...My God, why have you forsaken me?" 

Being placed into Christ vs remaining in Adam. 

Christ's passing of these tests of trust was for us, not him. His passing them can now be assigned to us as if we passed them when we didn't and haven't. Where Adam failed, Christ succeeded!

But we are asked to trust God - like Adam - one more time to receive this offer. It is not forced on us. Yes, we can refuse to trust, but we are left to bear the consequences of our rebellious distrust (as Adam was) and the harm it causes ³God, others, and ourselves. 

For a further discussion on the initial rebellion of man - i.e. "the fall" - click here. 

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Footnotes:

¹As finite beings, we cannot operate without trust. To do so would require us to be all-knowing, all-powerful, and everywhere present. Only God is infinite and has these attributes; we do not. 

During Christ's incarnation, he was not all-knowing. This was part of his emptying himself (the kenosis). He said many times there were things he did not know in his present human form. This is also why Christ, as a man, operated by faith, like we do and must.

²knowing good and evil was basically knowing right from wrong. Apparently, in their original state and before their rebellion, they needed to confide in God when presented with a choice between right and wrong. The serpent suggested they (we) could be "free" from this seeming shackle if we ate from the forbidden tree. However, we made our choice by ignoring God's instructions to not eat of the forbidden tree and have reaped the consequences ever since, i.e., pain, suffering, and death. 

³we can not harm God personally. God needs no one or nothing outside of Himself and nothing from us. But we can bring dishonor to Him by our thoughts, words, and deeds, resulting on our hindering others from seeing Him as He truly is, ultimately leading to their harm. 

For us to speak and act as if God is not worthy of honor is leading others to do the same i.e. away from God. But He alone is worthy of all honor and glory because He is the Source of life, love, and all things. To Him all glory is deserved and should be given.

Our rejection of our dependence on God was contrary to who we are - creatures dependent on our Creator - and who is as the giver of life, love, and all things. Going contrary to this reality brings real harm and destruction to ourselves, others as well as dishonors God for who He truly is. Diminishing God in the eyes of others by our words and actions draws them away from God which leads them to harm and destruction. 

Christ honored His Father in all he said and did but was treated exactly the opposite of this. And now the Father offers to credit Christ's ⁵faithfulness to you as if this is how you now live. If we are in Christ, the Father only sees the Son's perfect faithfulness as if it was our own and He is well pleased with us, as He is with the Son.

⁴Adam and Eve represented us, not in the sense of acting on our behalf but in the sense that given the same set of circumstances we would have made the exact same choice they did. 

We prove that daily by making similar kinds of choices now i.e., we prefer being our own god and being independent of God instead of dependent on God. We are not accountable for Adam and Eves choice but our own with one exception. We have a chance to choose God again and totally reverse the legal consequences of our distrust of God - and also the practical consequences in eternity as well - because God provided a way to be restored if we accept His offer.

⁵Keep in mind that Christ's faithfulness was not a walk in the park. He was faithful in the face of all the adversity Christ endured and all the riches He set aside to become a man so he could suffer and die, that we would not have to. 

⁶though the evidence was clearly in God's favor since Adam experienced 1st hand the creation of Eve while he saw no such demonstration of power by the serpent. 

Pain, humility, and knowing God

Is there any connection between knowing God, humility, and pain? At first we may not think so. 

Let's take a closer look. 

Since humility is key to knowing, seeing, and experiencing God, we should embrace and receive, with thanks, anything that helps humble us, including and maybe especially pain and suffering.  

Instead of bristling at pain and pursuing ¹anything we can find to distract or relieve us from it, we should embrace struggles and be grateful for them. They are a vital means of drawing us nearer to God. 

Knowing God is far more significant and beneficial than short-term relief from our struggles (though it often doesn't feel that way at the moment). Seeing and knowing this enables us to receive suffering with gratitude.

In short, the reason we are to be thankful for our struggles (vs complaining about them) is they ²can be and usually are a primary means of strengthening our understanding and relationship with God who is the source of life, love, and all things i.e. pain ²can be a very unpleasant means to the greatest and most desirable and pleasant end - our increased union with God and the joy and happiness we find in Him. So while the loss of things we rely on for comfort or pleasure are painful, they become the very means by which we are drawn closer to God, the Source of life, love, and all things. 

Thankfulness is the best indicator of humility. Humility is the key to seeing and knowing God in all His infinite love and glory.

How do we discover God's love in our pain? click here

For a further discussion on the primary role of pain click here

For a further discussion of how God uses evil for our good click here...and here.

The greater the evil the greater the opportunity for healing/

grace click here.

For a discussion on the key lesson from the book of Job, click here.

For a discussion on the value of paradox, click here.

For a discussion on the necessity of humility click here

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Footnotes:

¹drugs, alcohol, and sex are some of the more obvious and most common diversions. But diversions can also be more socially acceptable pursuits, such as recreation, career, entertainment, material possessions, food, power, control, fame, or anything else pleasant that will help distract us or relieve us from pain. Boredom is also a form of low-grade pain. 

This is not because pleasure in itself or those things among creation that bring us pleasure are bad. God created us for pleasure but in, by, and through Him. But when comfort or pleasure in itself (the opposite of pain) becomes a higher pursuit than God, it is contrary to our design of finding our greatest happiness in God and what He provides. 

²Actually pain and struggle is a primary means to our increasing maturity and greater union with God when received with thanksgiving. I say "can" because it depends on us trusting that God is using our pain for our ultimate good (even the pain caused by the failures and offenses of others). Otherwise, suffering will only make us angry and embitter us. 

"See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no 'root of bitterness' springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled;" - Heb 12:15. No one likes being around a bitter and angry person - except maybe others who are the same way... "birds of a feather..." as the saying goes.  

It is worth noting that the author of Hebrews was writing to people going through intense persecution and suffering at the hands of others.

Hebrews 12:6-8 ESV

⁶For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.” ⁷It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? ⁸If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons... 

Hebrews 12:11 ESV

¹¹For the moment, all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. 

Other passages that directly or indirectly address this vital truth... 

James 1:2-4 ESV

²Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, ³for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. ⁴And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.  

Ephesians 5:20

"...giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,"  

1 Thessalonians 5:18

"Give thanks in every circumstance, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus." 

Colossians 3:17

"And whatever you do, in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him." 

Philippians 4:6

"Be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God." 

This last passage is particularly interesting because we often go to God in prayer for relief from difficulties, yet God says we should give thanks in those very kinds of prayers i.e. don't just seek God for relief, seek God himself and be grateful for everything that aids you in knowing Him better, especially difficulties. 

Romans 8:28-29 

"And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. [29] For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers."

The good that God is achieving in all things (vs 28) - both hard and comforting - is making us more like His Son (vs 29), not necessarily improved circumstances.

The knowledge of good and evil?

What is the knowledge of good and evil? It is knowing:

-> what choices lead to ¹life 

and 

-> what choices lead to ²death 

³Without God we do not (and can not) know with absolute certainty - especially in the more critical decisions - which is which (we are finite), we only think we know.  

Decisions we believe lead to life often lead to harm and destruction. And decisions that result in pain aren't always bad but can ultimately lead to life (e.g. "no pain, no gain"). Knowledge of good and evil is not as obvious or black and white as we might think. 

The serpent's promise to Eve was once you eat of the tree you would have ⁵the knowledge of good and evil i.e. you don't need God for this. The tree (creation) will give you this knowlege without your needing to depend on God. 

This was a lie. Only God alone is all-knowing and all-wise. Only He knows what is best, not us. We must look to Him to get "it" right. 

We bristle at this approach to life. But our resistance reveals the depth of our rebellion to God and distrust of Him if and when we are honest. 

Our original parents abandoned the reality of their dependence on God and sought to be their own god. All of us have continued on this same path since. The result? All the pain and suffering we see today and have throughout human history. 

It should be very clear that humanity is not capable of being their own god and making the best choices on their own - without God's input and direction. Thinking they could know good and evil without God didn't work out as the serpent suggested. He lied. But instead, as God warned i.e. it lead to death - separation from God, others, and even "separation" within ourselves - i.e. we no longer know the true direction of our hearts. They are desperately wicked. Who can know them. 

We think we can know which choices bring ¹life or death without depending on God's input, when the reality is our independent choices can, and often do, lead to death, the exact opposite of life. 

We think we are gaining life through our independent pursuits - pursuits of created things or persons over our pursuit of God (who made all things) - when we are actually choosing the opposite i.e. that which ultimately results in our harm, destruction and death (instead of leading to life, love, and all good things). 

While created things are good, necessary, and worth pursuing - not evil - they are simply not the Creator. They will never fulfill the expectations we put on them because they were not designed to. Only the Creator can meet our deepest and greatest needs and longings, not creation. To put our confidence in creation without acknowledging He is the Source of all things ultimately leads to our harm, not our good because it leads us away from God. 

Creation is only a means to life not the source. God is the Source of life, love, and all created things.

What about the tree of life? 

The reason Adam and Eve were banned from access to the tree of life is by continuing to have access in their state of rebellious distrust it would allow them to continue on with the lie that they could find life on their own in and through creation (i.e. the fruit from the tree of life) and not in or through God the only wise Creator. Believing they could find life through the creation only, was the result of them already buying into the lie that they could sustain life outside of or apart from God by eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. 

In other words to continue living without ever dying, we would only need to eat from the tree of life, thinking it was the source of life, instead of God - who alone is true and lasting life. Trees are great but they are still only trees. They are gifts from our Creator and a means - not the source - by which we receive life.

Having access to the tree of life would allow them to continue on in the lie that created things are the ⁵source of life. This would allow us to continue our life independent of God; or so we think. It would ultimately result in harm, destruction, and death, not true life, because only God is our source, not trees (i.e. not created things).

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Footnotes:

¹True and lasting life - as we were designed to experience it - is not short-term life. True life is eternal and infinite vs temporary and limited. As bearers of God's image we were created for the infinite. We must have infinite life to flourish and be all we are designed to be, not the fleeting life we gain in and through creation. 

²Death comes by the absence of God and anything that separates us from Him and His presence, which includes our chosing to separate from Him by pursuing created things as the source of life instead of God. This isn't just physical death but spiritual death first which is the absence of God's presence. 

³Before Adam and Eve ate, they didn't need to know good from evil, they only needed to trust that God knew and that should have been enough. To this day we rebel against this notion that God knows better than us. Otherwise we would be constantly in pursuit of Him instead of created things.

Knowing good and evil is good not bad. It is a quality that God himself possesses. So it can't be bad. The problem is it is not a quality we can obtain or exercise properly on our own, apart from or outside of union with God.

Trying to determine good and evil on our own instead of seeking God to reveal to us what is best comes up short and ultimately leads to death, as God warned.

So why shouldn't we also have this knowledge? We can. 

Thinking we could determine good and evil without God's aid or direction is our problem. Not having that knowledge in itself. 

Why? 

Only God is all-knowing and infinite. We are not. 

If Adam and Eve had fully trusted God and obeyed Him by not eating of the forbidden tree it would have been the first step in knowing right from wrong but under God's direction not independent of God. Trusting God would have led them ⁴to a true understanding of good and evil. 

God alone fully understands good and evil; we must always depend on Him to know what is best.

⁵The knowledge of good and evil indicates knowledge of good and evil is not bad in itself. However, having true knowledge is only possible in and through God. To have this knowledge requires dependence on God for He alone knows all things perfectly.

No shortcuts to maturity

Pain is a ¹necessary part of ²growth. We either experience it through... 

³Self-denial and submission to God's ⁴directives - necessary because of our brokenness and inclination towards ⁵rebellions distrust of God.

or 

As a result of living in a broken world among others who are also broken from their rebellion to God. 

There is no way around pain. It comes to us through the offenses of others in this broken world. There are also no shortcuts to being weaned from our own ⁶brokenness and the pain it causes.

"I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world, you will have tribulation (The meaning of tribulation in the original Greek - persecution, affliction, distress, pressure). But take heart (i.e. do not be fearful or lose hope); ⁷I have overcome the world.” - Jesus in John 16:33

The good news is God knows and understands our pain because Christ stepped into our broken world and suffered far more than we ever will - and for our benefit. 

And not only so but he also uses our pain and struggles for our good. In knowing this, we find peace - i.e. "...in me you may have peace." 

Though pain continues in this life, it no longer disturbs us in the way it did before. We now see how God uses it for a good purpose if we love and trust Him.

In Christ, we therefore live with ⁷hope in the midst of pain, not despair, anxiety or fear.

How do we discover God's love in our pain? click here

For a further discussion on the primary role of pain click here

For a further discussion of how God uses evil for our good click here...and here.

The greater the evil the greater the opportunity for healing/

grace click here.

For a discussion on the key lesson from the book of Job, click here.

For a discussion on the value of paradox, click here.

For a discussion on the necessity of humility click here

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Footnotes:

¹Pain reminds us that we were not designed to operate without God. The more we come to see and understand this the more we look to God for true life, and not to creation with all it's "creature comforts."

Coming to see and know God as the true source of life, love, and all things is at the heart of our transformation - growth. Pain often is a - if not the - primary means  by which this occurs if we receive it by faith as such, i.e. we do not become angered or embittered by our suffering, pain, or struggles but welcome them as our friends to help us grow deeper roots into God and find Him more and more as our true life and joy.

"When all kinds of trials and temptations crowd into your lives my brothers, don’t resent them as intruders, but welcome them as friends! Realise that they come to test your faith and to produce in you the quality of endurance. But let the process go on until that endurance is fully developed, and you will find you have become men of mature character with the right sort of independence..." Jas 1:2-3 JB Phillips

²We are so blinded by our selfishness we will never see how deep it runs until we are pressed beyond our ability to handle the pain it causes.

³God actually calls us to go through pain to advance us spiritually. We don't think of self-denial as a form of pain. However, self-denial is a call to turn away from those things we use to find comfort in and ease our pain, so we might pursue God as our comfort.

To expand on this, Christ says we are to take up our cross and follow him. The cross is a symbol of pain and death. Christ is calling us to take on and embrace pain in the same way He did in order to follow him. At first, we might think this is insane. Why would God call us to willingly take on and embrace pain when we spend all our lives trying to avoid it!?

When the world asks how can God be good and just, when He does not relieve all the pain and suffering in the world (including our own), it reveals the depth of our rebellion towards God. Pain is the organic fruit of our rebellious distrust and independence from God, not as deliberate punishment by some angry supernatural being. It only remains to wean us away from inappropriate dependence on the creation and turn us to dependence on the Creator for true life where it belongs and where we will flourish and experience life most. 

If we allow pain to do this, we will be saved in, by, and through our pain and suffering, i.e. It remains for the exact opposite of what we assume. God ultimately uses it to advance us spiritually, not harm us. But only if we receive it as from His hand for our advancement, not our harm. If we believe it is only for our harm we will not gain from it the good God intends.

⁴The primary directive is that we love God with all that we have and are and our neighbor as ourselves.

⁵Pursuit of something other than God for life is at the heart of our rebellion. This says these other things are more important or valuable than God i.e. they become our God. 

⁶The heart of our brokenness - selfishness - is our rebellious commitment to being our own god. We put greater trust in ourselves into gaining what is best than trusting God to do what is best for us. This is due to not believing God is who he claims to be... the Source of life, love, and all things. The result is the pursuit of creation itself and making it our god. 

How's that working for you so far? 

"For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.

For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.

For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things." - Rom1:18-23

Of course, today we do not worship birds, animals, and creeping things as they did back when Paul penned this. But these are representatives of creation. We naturally ascribe to created things - i.e. anything from our earthly existence - the value and glory that can only be ascribed to God. That is the application and underlying truth of this passage for us today, not the primitive worship of animals.

⁷How did Christ overcome the world? He embraced the world's pain and suffering (including ours) and allowed it to kill him so that we might not have to remain in pain and die. Then He overcame that pain by resurrecting so that we might also resurrect one day if we put our trust in Him.  

Pain and death do not have the final word, life does in and through Christ demonstrated and confirmed by his resurrection. Because he resurrected, we will also in him. This is our hope in our pain.

A primary role of pain:

A primary - possibly the primary role of pain:

The main question regarding pain (suffering) is not why we experience it, but what do we do with it i.e. what can we gain from it when we see it from God's vantage point - which is the only true (accurate) vantage point. 

We may not always know if the specific decisions/choices we made caused (or did not cause) our suffering, but we can always be sure that our pain can be a - maybe the - primary means by which we are drawn nearer to God. But only if we are willing to listen and learn i.e. humble ourselves. Was this not the outcome of Job's experience and lesson i.e. humility?

If we are the cause of our pain, it is good to know how, but only to help us avoid that same choice next time, so we might turn away from it if it presents itself again.

Regardless of whether we are or are not the cause, God's intended and desired outcome is the same… that we draw nearer to him. 

Our focus is not on the cause of our pain but on how we can learn from it and draw nearer to God in and through it i.e. What are those areas we can discover about ¹ourselves and ²God - in and through our pain - so we might grow in greater humility and trust in God.

Nothing occurs outside of God's good purposes, even our poor choices. Though we should always seek to make the best choices, we do not have to be fearful if we don't make the perfect choice. 

God - who loves us infinitely and enough to send his Son to restore us - is bigger than our choices and uses all of them - good and bad - to bring about His highest glory and perfect design for us.

How do we discover God's love in our pain? click here

For a further discussion of how God uses evil for our good click here...and here.

The greater the evil the greater the opportunity for healing/

grace click here.

For a discussion on the key lesson from the book of Job, click here.

For a discussion on the value of paradox, click here.

For a discussion of how big is our God click here

For a discussion on the necessity of humility click here.

_______________________________

¹ourself - how and where we don't trust him

²God - how and why he is trustworthy

Don't be surprised by suffering

If God is good, why does He allow evil (pain and suffering)? This is the age-old question and the reason many give for why they don't trust God.

But could it be that God allows and seeks to use our pain to humble us so ¹we might see that life can not and does not work without Him? Could the reason for pain and suffering be this simple and come with such loving intentions?

What most do not consider is pain and suffering are the eventual outcomes and natural consequences of ²arrogant independence i.e. the belief that ¹we can make life work without acknowledging the Creator of it; that we can extract what we need from creation that which we long for most.

But pain can also become the ³means by which God humbles us, if we let it. Evil itself is bad but humility and whatever is needed to humble ¹us and draw us closer to God is good, not bad (though often unpleasant). A seeming contradiction?

Our inability to find true and lasting life and love outside of God - a very painful and humbling realization - can direct us back to Him. But only if we turn from our arrogant and stubborn belief that we can obtain these without Him. If we persist in our unbelief, the painful consequences of this rebellious distrust of God - i.e. the evil and harm it brings on us and others - are not His fault, but our choice. 

We rarely grasp the far-reaching significance or impact of our rebellious distrust of God - i.e. how harmful and destructive it truly is to ourselves and others - until we experience the pain this distrust causes. And even then, we rarely recognize the true reason we experience it. 

The fact that we are surprised, put off, offended or upset with God by pain and suffering (evil) is proof of how little we understand the far-reaching impact and severe consequences of our distrust of God.

The suffering caused by evil should not surprise us. It is the natural outcome of believing we can make life work without God when all the pain it causes tells us otherwise. 

Believing we can make life work without God is a lie. Life only works as God intends when we are in perfect alignment and union with God our Creator - the source of life, love, and all things - in whose image we were created. If we truly understood how essential He is, we would not be surprised at all by the pain ¹we experience by not being aligned and in tune with the very Source of life.

We all have the capacity to see far more than we now see about God, ourselves, and life (such as how much pain and suffering our unbelief causes). The only thing blocking us from seeing more clearly is our lack of humility - refusing to acknowledge our need for and dependence on God for all we have and are. 

For a further discussion of how God uses evil for our good click here...and here.

The greater the evil the greater the opportunity for healing/grace click here.

For a discussion on the key lesson from the book of Job, click here.

For a discussion on the value of paradox, click here.

For a discussion of how big God is click here

For a discussion on the necessity of humility, click here.

_________________________________

Footnotes:

¹I'm not saying that our individual pain and suffering is necessarily because of anything specific we haven't or have done. I'm referring to the pain and suffering the world experiences in general. Certainly, there often are negative consequences for our individual poor choices, but humanity in general suffers from being in a broken world because of the world's collective rebellion toward God. And even if our suffering is a direct result of individual poor choices, the remedy is not guilt and shame but humility i.e. increased recognition of our dependence on God. That we can't get from life what we ultimately need apart from Him. 

There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ. All things work for the good of those who love God. 

 

²Even suicide is an act of arrogant distrust of God. Someone ends their life because they believe it is not worth living. Yet they don't consider the foundational reason they are in despair is the absence of God i.e. their lack of trust in God and His wisdom and love in allowing pain (the organic and rightful consequences of unbelief) to continue.

³God is so wise, powerful, and good, that he even uses evil for good - even though evil is still bad. Only He can. But we will never see or understand this if we do not trust Him. 

"Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! 

“For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?” “Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?” For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen." Rom.11.33-36

For a more in-depth look at Rom 11:33-36, click here.