why do we suffer?

When we experience pain or suffer loss, the usual response is to ask *why. Even though we may never know the specific reason or whether there even is one -- or what circumstantial good we might gain from it - if any - we can understand the general reasons for it. There are, in fact, several potential intangible gains.

Why do we suffer?

• To get more of God -- the source of life, love, and all things -- or more precisely for God to get more of us so we might more fully partake of all He is. Suffering is humbling. Humility is key to seeing and knowing God. 
• To better grasp and appreciate the suffering of Christ and the sacrifices he made to restore us to the Father, revealing His infinite love for us and increasing our love and trust in Him. 
• To increase our compassion toward others in their struggles-suffering. 
• To increase our capacity to reflect His glory, thereby bringing Him greater honor and us deeper joy.

In short, to make us more like Christ. This is the ultimate good spoken of in Romans:

Rom 8:28  And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
Rom 8:29  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.

This, however, is not automatic but contingent on whether we trust God in our suffering. If Christ, who was perfect, was called to **trust his Father in his suffering, how much more are we? The more we do, the more we gain both now but possibly more so in eternity.

We are told that "eye has not yet seen or ear yet heard..." what exactly that gain will look like. We are also told in 2Co 4:17, "... this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison..." Hope for " ...an eternal weight of glory..." is the primary hope given ***for our suffering. It is our future reward. When we truly trust God, it alone is enough.

The challenge is we must accept this eternal benefit by faith. To use an analogy from Tim Keller, the promises of God are not a video explanation of why we suffer but an audio one. It is one we have heard and must believe but have not actually seen yet with our own eyes or fully experienced firsthand. Through promises -- audio -- we are given an idea as to why we suffer and what our gain is but not the complete experience - video - i.e. not yet by first-hand observation or participation. Why? Because God is seeking to stretch our faith now so we might experience more of Him later.

Once we are in eternity with God, faith will no longer be necessary as it is now. Love will be primary. Until then, faith is essential. "The just shall live by faith." To gain from the struggles of this life we must believe God is good and in control when it appears He is not and we see no present gain. For now, it is our believing when not seeing that God is looking to increase in us.

Jesus said to him, "Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed." - John 20:29 It is more blessed to believe when we do not see than to be blessed because we do.

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*In a very significant way this is a curious response in a post-modern era. Asking this question suggests there is meaning and purpose behind our suffering when there are no grounds for asking in postmodern thinking. The fact that we even ask, illustrates how mankind cannot get away from being in God's image experientially even though he may deny this intellectually i.e. we must have meaning. We were designed for it.

** Heb 5:8  "Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered." Christ went from untested to tested obedience. Suffering is not necessarily caused by something we did wrong - though that is often the case. Christ did nothing wrong but suffered and gained by it never the less.

***We don't appreciate what someone else goes through until we go through something similar. The more we comprehend the full extent of Christ's suffering through our own, the more we see what Christ went through for us and the more our love for Him and trust in Him grows.

the history and necessity of religious liberty

Attorney General Barr offers insightful and lucid comments on the history behind religious liberty and why it is vital to the continuation of America as founded, it's liberties and a civil society. Given Oct 11, 2019

https://www.justice.gov/opa/speech/attorney-general-william-p-barr-delivers-remarks-law-school-and-de-nicola-center-ethics

bad vs good choices

There are willful (deliberate) and unwilling bad choices - i.e. there are deliberate bad choices and unintentional poor choices. The first is due to known, willful disobedience; the second is due to our limitations - i.e. being both broken and finite.

As limited finite beings, making the best choice based only on what we know may not even be possible on our own and therefore may not be the best choice - i.e. it will not be according to all there is to know. Since we aren't all-knowing but finite, we must seek God's guidance to make the best choice. We assess what we ¹know the best we can, but must ultimately entrust ourselves to God's direction and care. But we must also believe God truly has our best interest at heart before we will trust Him. The only evidence we have of this is God sending His Son to restore us back into His loving arms. 

The beauty about choice is God uses all choices -- good and bad -- for our good if we love Him. He lets us reap the ²consequences of our deliberate bad choices so we might turn from them and back to Him -- repent. But He also redeems the unintentional poor choices so we might learn to seek Him more in everything we do. At the 30,000-foot view, there are no bad choices, even though at the ground level there are.

If we are willfully disobedient, it is because we do not yet believe the direction-commands God gives is truly best for us. But even when we're not willfully disobedient, if we trust the one giving the direction, we will pursue it - i.e. we trust his understanding is perfect, complete, even though ours is not.

We will want to go in the right direction because we are convinced through first-hand experience, it is the right course or because we trust the one giving direction, even when we don't know firsthand it is the right course. The beauty is we no longer have to know everything to do the right thing because we know the one who does.

Distrust in another can be due to our not believing the other either knows the right course, has the ability or resources to pull it off, or because we don't believe the other wants the right and best course for us. In the case of God, He knows all things, has unlimited power and resources, and only acts out of love, so all these issues are addressed regarding the direction He gives us.

 For a further discussion on the dilemma of being finite click here

 For a further discussion on God using all things for our good click here

  For a further discussion on mankind being finite vs sinful click here.

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FOOTNOTES:

¹The value of having greater knowledge is it helps ensure we make the best choices. The more we know, the better chance of choosing the best course of action -- in making an informed choice.

However better still is knowing that the one who knows everything is committed to our highest good. The issue now is whether we trust that person.

²As we experience more of God's presence in our walk, the more significant for us that becomes. Therefore the greatest consequence of willful rebellion may be the loss of experiencing His presence. We are told to not grieve or quench the Spirit. What would do that if not a willful pursuit of something other than God?

Crowned with glory and honor

Does God actually value us?  If so, why? After all, aren't we all a broken mess? Yes, we are! Yet he values us never the less. 

"For God so loved (valued) the world - i.e. His creation full of His creatures who bear His image - he gave..." something. 

And what did he give? That which is of infinite worth… His only begotten Son.

Is this not a very clear message of our infinite worth as well?

So how does this work? Why does He value us this much? 

Because He values Himself first. 

But what exactly does this have to do with us? 

He made us like Himself, with the capacity to appreciate and enjoy who He is. Not ¹unlike how the Father and Son - in, by, and through the Spirit - enjoy each other. 

Because we are like Him - in His image - this enables and gives us the capacity to value Him - i.e. to recognize His infinite worth in the same ¹way He does. He values that we are able to value Him; that we can participate and share in His infinite glory and the delight it brings Him as well as us. He values Himself imaged forth in us.

In ²addition, He delights in multiplying and spreading His glory/value to others through us. 

How is this possible?

Next to Him (and His Son) we too have the capacity - as His image bearers - to display his glory in a way no other being or thing can.

In ³Psalm 8:3-5 we are told...

3 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,

    the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,

4 what is man that you are mindful of him,

    and the son of man that you care for him? 

5 Yet you have made him a little lower than the

¹heavenly beings (Elohim) and crowned him with glory and honor.

Throughout scripture, we are told God is crowned with glory and honor, yet in this Psalm, we are told we too are crowned with glory and honor. The word here for heavenly beings is Elohim in the original Hebrew. This is a name used for God that is always plural (i.e. God is a community of love and relationship as Father, Son, and Spirit). It is the same word used in Gen 1:27  "So God (Elohim) created man in his own image, in the image of (Elohim) he created him; male and female he created them."  

Of all creation, only we have these characteristics -- glory and honor -- in common with God and are like him in this way. Nothing else, no other created being does.

Because God values Himself, he values His image in us and our being able to value him and display His value (glory) to others. This not only brings joy to more image bearers but also greater joy and glory to Him. 

Because he is glorious, He designed us to experience,  appreciate and share His glory.

For more on how we are hard-wired for glory, click here. 

For a further discussion on being created for glory, click here. 

For a discussion on how value and love are connected, click here.

For more on what God is like and how we are like him click here and here. 

For more on how God's glory is our highest good click here. 

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¹Qualitatively if not quantitatively.

²This also makes us valuable. This is the functional or practical part to our value. 

Being His image bearer is the basis of our intrinsic value. This is true simply because of who we are i.e. who God made us to be, not because of what we do. This has nothing to do with our actions but with our capacity to be filled with and pour forth God to others. This is a capacity created by God and given to us by Him - our Creator.

When we understand this it changes our view of every human being on the planet. Each of us is in God's image with the capacity to show forth God in a way that no other image bearer or anything else in creation can.

What we are able to do is because of who we are. We have this capacity to do, because of our intrinic value as a bearer of God's image.

To actually live according to this design is the basis of our existential or functional value. This is to live out who we are and were created by God to be. Living this out is our realized value, possible only because of our intrinsic value of being like God.

³Psalm 8:5

(ASV)  For thou hast made him but little lower than God, And crownest him with glory and honor.

(CEV)  You made us a little lower than you yourself, and you have crowned us with glory and honor.

(ERV)  But you made them almost like gods and crowned them with glory and honor.

(GNB)  Yet you made them inferior only to yourself; you crowned them with glory and honor.

(ISV)  You made him a little less than divine, but you crowned him with glory and honor.

faith vs feelings

To live by faith is to do as God directs regardless of whether you ¹feel like it or not. So how does this work? If feelings aren't involved what moves us?

Living by faith comes from ²knowing our faithful pursuit of God -- our obedience -- honors Him, as well as ¹stretches our faith, strengthening our union and communion with Him.

Our increased union with God is the primary reward of our faithfulness; honoring God out of love for Him is the primary motivation. In a word it is God himself; who He is and what He promises, that moves us to action/obedience.

Our desire to honor God comes from ²knowing his great love for us -- love demonstrated to us by his sending Christ to fully restore us back to Himself. Once we taste of this sacrificial love we want more. Faithful pursuit of Him enables us to partake in more of who God is as infinite love and increases our hope of fully participating in it in eternity without limit or interruption.

²Knowing and believing these things to be true is all we need to obey God i.e. to believe these things to be true and acting accordingly, regardless of what we ¹feel -- though acting by faith can and often does leads to a greater sense of his love and presence in the moment.

For "...without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him." Hebrews 11:6 ESV

https://bible.com/bible/59/heb.11.6.ESV

Faith says God is who he claims to be. To not believe His claims -- promises -- not only dishonors him but ³harms us and is therefore not pleasing to him. What genuinely loving parent is happy when their child doesn't trust in or listen to them i.e. when the child doesn't believe the parent seeks that child's best interest through the direction they give. So it is with God our perfect heavenly parent.

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¹faithful pursuit of God usually feels more like death than life. This is what Christ meant when he said, "...to find your life you must lose it."

²knowing and believing are interchangeable.

³we miss the reward of knowing God, who is the source of life, love, and all things.

Deep longings

Deep longings - desiring what this life cannot provide - indicate something vital is ¹missing. 

Even as God's child, with perfect  access to God and perfectly loved by him, we do not ²yet fully "have" Him (or does he have all of us, our total heart). Without being fully "glorified" (unlimited) we cannot withstand his unfettered presence. We now see him through a glass darkly - by faith, not by sight. One day we will see him face-to-face. When we do we will be like him; fully glorified, fully alive, fully ³able to behold and experience firsthand his infinite majesty, fully freed from all pain and sorrow as we were originally designed, but not until then.

1Pe 1:8  Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory,

Joh 20:29  Jesus said to him, "Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."

For a further discussion on longings click here

On longing for perfect love (a poem) click here

For a further discussion on how a key part of hell is unfulfilled longings click here.

________________________________________Footnotes:

¹Even those who can gain all they desire find something is still missing. Suicide and death by reckless living, such as substance abuse, are just as prevalent among the rich and famous, if not more so. Getting what you think you need and want can be more maddening than hoping for it but not yet having it. People who reach the top of the economic and/or social ladder get there because their desire for something missing - and their ability to get it - is greater than others. Once you have what you thought would fulfill you and it doesn't, where do you go now that you are "at the top?"

²But, because of Christ's resurrection - this is our proof and evidence we will too one day.

³The greatness of God is such that to behold him in our present limited ("unglorified") state would literally kill us. Imagine, if you can, how great God must be that it requires we be in a state or form so different -- yet still us - that we would die otherwise. Truly eye has not seen nor ear heard what God has in store for those who love him. 

Recall those times things were so good you felt you would pop if they got any better? That will be us with God in eternity but many times over. Our capacity for infinite love will be greatly expanded and forever increasing without interruption. It is hard to comprehend, but this is the picture painted for us. 

Why forever increasing? Because we are finite and God is infinite. We will never reach the full height, width, length, or depth of God in all his glory and love because there is no end to Him... He is endless. We will forever increasingly discover the depth and richness of God.

Grace in the Old Testament?

Some may be surprised to know that those in the Old Testament - as well as us on this side of Christ - lived according to the gospel, the good news of grace.

Abraham trusted God and believed God's promise and was thereby justified simply by believing vs doing anything righteous -- any good and right deeds. That is grace and good news aka the gospel. In fact, he was often unfaithful, unrighteous, and regularly acted out of fear instead of trust, yet God remained faithful to the promise he made because Abraham believed in/trusted God who made it.

Gal 3:8  And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham (before Christ's crucifixion actually occurred), saying, "In you shall (in the future) all the nations be blessed." 

And what is that blessing? That salvation - justification - by faith will be available to all nations, Jews and Gentiles alike. It is the good news that righteousness is a gift received by faith, not something we must earn.

Gen 15:6  And he (Abraham) believed the LORD (what the Lord promised), and he counted it (his belief/trust) to him as righteousness. 

Gen 12:2-3, 13:16, Gen 15:5, Gen 17:5-6, Gen 18:18, Gen 22:17-18, Gen 24:35, Gen 26:4,Gen 27:29, Gen 28:3,  Gen 28:14; Gen 35:11, Gen 46:3

The life of Joseph would also be an example of this good news. God was committed to and brought about Joseph's best even in spite of his poor choices -- as well as his father's and brothers' poor choices -- and in the midst of all the subsequent difficulties. Why? Because Joseph trusted God. Even in the midst of all Joseph's weaknesses and flaws, God was faithful to him and Joseph remained true to God i.e. full of faith/faithfulness. God's working in his life was not deserved i.e. not the result of Joseph being perfect in all his conduct. God's working was because of the kindness and wisdom of God i.e. by grace.


We are told in both the Old and New Testament that "the just shall live by faith" Habakkuk 2:4; Romans 1:17; Galatians 3:11; Hebrews 10:38

So what's the difference between the Old Testament (Covenant) and the New Testament (Covenant)?

The justification promised in the OT was accomplished and fulfilled in and by Christ. For us this is no longer a future promise but a past reality. Therefore we are not only justified by faith but also now have His Spirit of perfect love living in us -- the Spirit no longer just comes upon us but indwells us. Because of the work of Christ, when we accept his gift of perfect standing (righteousness) before God, we are declared clean vessels, fit for God to dwell in. Believers no longer look to the promise of a future event that will someday make them clean but to a past event that has already provided that cleansing once accepted.

As a result, His law is now written on our hearts and in our minds (Heb 8:10-12; 10:16-18). This was a promise made through the prophets and fulfilled in and by Christ. In other words because of the work of Christ for us -- he remembers our sins no more -- his Spirit is now living within us, reveals to us the significance and extent of that work, stirring in our hearts a love and trust for God and his word(s) we did not have before. His Spirit is now constantly revealing more and more of Christ to us in all His beauty, love, and glory (2 Corinthians 3:17-18) which causes us to trust him more and more, creating within us an increasing desire to obey him. It is God (by his Spirit) who now works from within us (not just on us as He did in the OT) both to will (desire) and do (empower to obey) of his good pleasure (Phil 2:12-13). To say it concisely, the things we are commanded to do we now want to do because we love and trust the one who commands us. This is now true of all believers. If it is not, we have not yet truly seen His love for us.

For a further discussion on the difference between religion and the gospel click here. 

For a discussion on the difference between cultural "Christians" and grace-driven believers click here.