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TEXT: Job 14:1
SUBJECT: Why do Christians suffer?
All believers are subject to the ordinary pains of life: disappointment, illness, the loss of loved ones, and so on. But some suffer all these and more: "trials of mocking and scourging, chains and imprisonment. Some were stoned, sawn asunder, slain with the sword, and wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented".
But, of course, I don't have to prove that Christians suffer, for you know that from experience. The saint--like everyone else--"is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward".
But why does the believer suffer? It seems to me that there are only three possible answers:
1.God cannot prevent your suffering.
2.God enjoys your suffering.
3.God is loves you and wants to bless you through your suffering.
Let's look at each of them in turn. First, is it true that God cannot prevent your suffering? If He is sovereign, then of course, He can. For a while, He did "build a hedge around His servant, Job". For the Patriarchs, He thwarted the malice of kings, saying "Touch not my anointed and do my prophets no harm". And so, the suffering you endure is not due to any lack of power on God's part. He could prevent it, but does not.
But why not? That leads us to the second possibility: The Christian suffers because God enjoys it. But is that so? A couple of Scriptures would seem to deny it. Lamentations 3:33: "He does not afflict willingly or grieve the children of men". Ezekiel 18:32 is even more to the point: "I have no pleasure in the death of him who dies, says the LORD God; therefore, turn yourselves and live". Moreover, the general idea of God's character and relation to us would seem to make this answer impossible. If "God is love", then He cannot take pleasure in the agonies of His people, for surely love is the opposite of malice. Finally, if God is "Our Father", then He must "pity us" and not delight in our pain. And so, the pain your suffer is not due to any malice on God's part. He does not enjoy your suffering.
This brings us to the third--and most unlikely--answer: "The Christian suffers because God loves him and is blessing him through the pain". This view has more than a little backing from Scripture:
1.Hebrews 12:5-8: "My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when you are rebuked by Him; for whom the Lord loves He chastens and scourges every son He receives. If you endure chastening, God deals with you as sons, for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are bastards and not sons".
a.This Scripture tells us, rather plainly, that Christian suffering is a product of God's love.
2.Romans 8:28: "And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose".
a.The "all things" spoken of in this verse is explained by the context, which is suffering. "Suffering of this present time...subjected to futility...bondage of corruption...the whole creation groans and labors in birth pangs...we groan within ourselves...our infirmities...and so on".
b.Thus we find that suffering is "a blessing in disguise", a way for making us both holier and happier.
3.Psalm 119:71: "It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn Your statues".
a.Here is one man, at least, who saw the positive value of suffering--and thanked God for it".
b.Paul, of course, did much the same, going so far as to "glory in infirmities and take pleasure in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, and in distresses".
And so the Scripture supports this third possibility: the Christian suffers because God loves him and wants to bless him.
But if further proof is needed, I can do no better than remind you of the sufferings of Jesus Christ.
1.God subjected our Lord to "a contradiction of sinners". Recall His mistreatment at the hands of nearly everyone.
a.He is betrayed by the kiss of a friend.
b.He is falsely accused and illegally condemned by the Jewish court.
c.He is interrogated and scourged by Pilate.
d.Herod's men offer Him a mock worship.
e.On the cross He is assailed by those beneath Him and even alongside Him "in the same condemnation".
f.But worst of all, He is subjected to the fulness of Satan's wrath.
2.But why did He suffer? Was it because God could not prevent it? At any time He might have sent "twelve legions of angels" to the rescue. Was it because God hated Him and enjoyed seeing His anguish? Never! "This is My Beloved Son in Whom I am well pleased". For our purposes, we can say that God exposed Him to such distress because He loved Him and wanted to bless Him. And so it is written:
"Though He were a Son, yet He learned
obedience through the things which He suffered".
And so our suffering is result of God's love for us and His desire to do us good. But how can our pain be a blessing?
1.At the least, it deepens our spiritual lives. A man unaquainted with pain, with sorrow, with disappointment, may be a Christian, but he is a superficial one. For "the God of all grace, who has called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, will perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you."
2.It also enables us to help others as only another sufferer can do. "God..comforts us in all of our tribulations, that we may be able to comfort them who are in any trouble with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted of God".
3.But best of all, our suffering draws us nearer to God. It is only when other comforst fail us that we turn to "the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort".
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