Why doesn’t God do something? Part 3
Yesterday I continued my reasoning through the reality of suffering and the existence of a good, loving, and all-powerful God. You can read Part 1 here. In Part 2, I argued from the doctrine of free will, a proper exposition of which would surely require more than a few blog posts. But please read on for an interesting perspective from C.S. Lewis.
The creation of new life through sexual intercourse between a man and a woman is a fixed “law” of nature. In his book The Problem of Pain, C. S. Lewis argues that a predictable, stable world with fixed laws is necessary for man to effectively exercise his free will. Because if God was consistently altering the natural laws to prevent evil and suffering, we would not be able to function properly. It would make it virtually impossible to freely operate in our environment. And, “such a world would be one in which wrong actions were impossible, and in which, therefore, freedom of the will would be void.” 1
This doesn’t mean that God never intervenes to prevent evil or pain. I’m certain that he does. But, “Try to exclude the possibility of suffering which the order of nature and the existence of free wills involve, and you find that you have excluded life itself.” (Italics mine) 2
So suffering is an inescapable reality of our current existence. Yet God’s justice and mercy are not thwarted as a result, because our existence in these physical bodies is temporary, but our existence as spiritual beings is eternal. And God has promised that those who suffer undeservedly in this life will receive great rewards in heaven.3 One of my favorite Bible verses contrasts the near weightlessness of our trials in this life relative to the eternal blessings awaiting us in the next: “Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” (2 Corinthians 4:16-18)
The biblical book of Job has some things to teach us about suffering, and I wrote previously here about that. One of those lessons is that God generously compensates us for innocent suffering. Imagine that you knew for a fact that those who suffer innocently in this life gain tremendous eternal rewards in the next that are far greater than those received by individuals who have not so suffered. Wouldn’t many if not all of us be willing to suffer, and even want to suffer to be guaranteed those rewards for eternity? It might be compared to enduring the pokes and needle pricks at birth in exchange for a lifetime without pain, sorrow, or want.
Finally, instead of shaking our fist at God because of our own trials and the suffering of others, we should be venting our anger and frustration at the sin in our own lives and in the nature of man, which surely is the primary reason why we suffer. We need to come out from our hostile position, lay down our arms and surrender. Paradoxically, this is the only way we can gain the victory…over sin and over suffering.
Ever since my friend told me about her niece, I’ve been wondering how I would have answered her question. I believe now I would say something like this: I don’t know exactly why God didn’t save you from your father’s abuse, but here’s what I do know…he loves you even more than I do and he hates what your father did to you more than I as well. God created us to be in a loving relationship with himself, so he gave us the freedom to choose to obey him or not, to love him or not. Because without the freedom to refuse him, we have no freedom to choose him. And only love freely given, by an act of our will, is true love.
Therefore, God cannot prevent all the sinful choices we make, even grave immoralities like what your father did to you, without overriding the free will he has given us. He will judge your father someday, and you can take comfort in knowing that he will surely bless you for all that you have had to innocently endure, in even greater measure than the sum of your suffering. In the meantime, you can show love to God by submitting to him for healing and asking him to help you forgive, choosing to allow the suffering to make you strong instead of weak, and compassionate instead of vengeful. And reaping good from the evil that was sown. Then, and only then, will you gain the victory over your father’s abuse and your own inclination to despair. God is with you and will help you. And so will I.
Beautiful series, Caroline. Your writing is a true gift.
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Thank you, Jill. I appreciate that very much. God bless you, sister!
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Thanks for broaching the topic of suffering in this series. CS Lewis is an excellent source to draw from.
If you will permit a constructive question, I wonder about your use of “innocent suffering” and it’s corresponding “reward” or compensation. I might have missed a qualifier, but does 2 Corinthians refer to any kind of suffering, or specifically suffering willfully endured for Christ’s sake?
On my theological understanding, none is righteous, not even one (Romans 1). There is nothing God owes any human person at all, but his justice can be counted on, and we know his mercy abounds through the blood of Christ. So in the broadest sense, I do not accept that any person who suffers is innocent. In the case of children who perish under the age of accountability, they benefit from God’s actualization of eternal justice, but I don’t see it as a reward, since only intentional acts are rewarded.
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Hey, Duck. Thanks for your support here. Second Corinthians 4 does refer to suffering for Christ’s sake. It says exactly that in verse 11: “For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.”
And innocent suffering is seen most clearly in the book of Job, where God himself refers to Job as “a blameless and upright man.” And God’s compensation for Job’s undeserved suffering is seen in the way he blessed Job’s “latter days more than his beginning.” (Job 42:12)
None of us is completely sinless (righteous), but not all suffering is deserved and punitive. Just as Jesus suffered innocently, we too “share in his sufferings” (2 Cor. 1:5, Phil. 3:10, 1 Peter 4:13).
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Thanks for your clarification. I guess I am coming from a place where I’d never think of assigning God’s intention to a calamity, as Jeremiah Wright and Pat Robertson have done, and so create the impression that Christians have knowledge of when, where, and why God is punishing or judging people in a temporal sense. I always try to steer clear of any such claims.
Job, on my view, is a refutation of the ancient Near Eastern cultural tendency to discern why a specific calamity befalls someone. I think of Jesus’ response to the Pharisees when they asked, “Who sinned that this man was born lame?” Or was it blind?
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He was blind, and it was Jesus’ own disciples who asked him that. I believe Jesus’ response demonstrates another instance of suffering innocently: “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.”
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Yes, it was his disciples! Thanks for fleshing that one out.
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Also, we read in the Sermon on the Mount and elsewhere of God rewarding those who are persecuted for their faith: “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” Matthew 5:11-12 They suffer, not because of any sin they have committed, but simply because they follow Christ. And he rewards them greatly because of it.
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Caroline, I don’t know what I would tell the little girl if she asked me that question. What I do know, however, is I wouldn’t give her false hope of some future justice. I don’t think such a promise based on wishful thinking attempts to even deal with the pain she may be going through.
What is not clear for me is your understanding of free will for me to even make a response to it.
I agree with you that suffering is inescapable in this life. It is part of life. In fact, looking at it, pain seems to be the positive feeling for happiness or bliss are described negatively as an absence of pain.
I think the suffering of a single child negates the existence of a loving god.
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