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Children are cruelly beaten. Men, women, and children all suffer from a variety of devastating diseases. People are tortured, ridiculed, and picked on. All of this sadness begs the question: “WHY?”

To understand why our good God would allow suffering, we must go to His Word, the Holy Scriptures (the Bible). To a person who is truly open to hearing God’s Word and considering it, a whole lot of logic and sense comes pouring out when we start to read what it is that He wants us to know (Romans 10:17).

In order to answer the question, we must understand the human condition.

God is good and we are not. Due to the sin that we choose to commit, mankind has been separated from God. Because of our failure, everyone and everything in the universe is decaying and dying.

The Human Condition

(Sinfully Depraved and Condemned)

God is Love (John 4:8,16), but God is also Holy (Matthew 5:48; Psalm 18:30; Hab. 1:13; 2 Thessalonians 1:6; Deuteronomy 32:4; Isaiah 45:21). The biggest problem mankind has had with God throughout history is that God is good and we are bad!

Being good, God is not a dictator. He could force everyone to do what is right, but then He’s made a race of robots. If you created a bunch of robots, you might enjoy them for a time, but after a while you would get tired of them. After all, they aren’t even capable of loving you. He wants us to love Him … to love what is right. But He doesn’t force us to. He wants us to CHOOSE to love Him.

Whether you care to admit it or not, you do things that you know in your heart are wrong. Some will realize that and accept it as unchangeable, without a problem. Others, while they also realize it is unchangeable, will desire to be better … to desire what is right and to feel convicted of their wrong-doings.

However, we are all sinners and sin has effects. Where there is hate (sin) there is murder. Where there are lies (sin) there is deception and error. These are two of many examples.

Consider this: you know you have told lies. You may have told one (or more) TODAY. (Have you?) You know that one way or another, whether intentionally or unintentionally, you will tell more lies in the future. That is one of many sins that we have all committed (Romans 3:23). And those lies that you have told, in many cases, have hurt others.

Just ONE sin is all it takes for us to be guilty before our Holy God. That sin, which every one of us commits, has brought on death (Genesis 2:17; Romans 6:23). Because of our sin, we are already condemned (John 3:18). But this is not only physical death, it is also spiritual death.

In the Bible, death never denotes non-existence. Never. Our souls are eternal. And our sin makes us criminals to our Holy God. It brings on both physical death and spiritual death, because if there were no punishment for sin, God would not be Holy and would deserve punishment Himself.

It is the spiritual death, specifically, that answers the question at hand. People suffer because people sin. It is because all of creation is ruined from sin (Isaiah 6:5). Since God is Holy, all who die in their sin must be punished. This punishment is eternal separation from God in Hell forever.

God’s Free Gift to Sinful Man

But what is truly amazing is what God did for us, so that we (criminal sinners) can escape His righteous judgment. You see, about 2,000 years ago God Himself became flesh (John 1:14) as Jesus of Nazareth. He lived a perfect, sinless life and then willingly died on a cross for the world (John 3:16).

Jesus Christ died on that cross, taking the righteous punishment that we all deserve, as our substitute! Since the Lord Jesus died on that cross, sinners may be saved. God doesn’t forgive sins by laying aside His righteousness, but by satisfying it with the death of His Only Begotten Son so sinners like you and me may be saved!

The Righteous Judge stepped down from the seat of judgment, took off His robe, and by His unbelievable Grace, paid the penalty for all who would turn from their sin and trust alone in Jesus Christ as their Savior (John 3:16; Romans 5:8).

Now, though suffering is a result of sin, God uses the suffering of the world in many ways to awaken people and cause them to think eternal thoughts and not temporary thoughts!

No matter what anyone is going through right now, whether it’s good or bad, it is temporary! Our lives on this earth … our health (or lack thereof) … our money (or lack thereof) … our knowledge (or lack thereof) … our belongings (or lack thereof)—it is all temporary! But our souls are eternal (2 Corinthians 4:17-18).

In many ways, suffering reveals the heart. It will either cause you to love and embrace the temporary world, the very source of the suffering, or it will force you to look further and desire to know those eternal things, which are revealed by God, in His Word, to those who desire them (Acts 17:27).

Will you rethink your sin and turn from it, trusting alone in Jesus Christ today?

If you do, you can rest assured that any suffering you may be dealing with will one day be gone forever!

Revelation 21:4 – “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.”

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