“If God is Good” – The Cry of the Innocent

WHY DO THE INNOCENT SUFFER?

Looking around, I realize I’m not the only person suffering for the sins of someone else. Children starving and helpless. Women brutalized during warfare. The weak kidnapped and enslaved in human trafficking. Civilians caught in the crossfire of gang wars. Government-ordered mass genocides. Drunk drivers stumbling away from fatal car accidents. Domestic violence and incest. Abortion of unborn children. Normal people stricken with debilitating cancer. Foster children juggled from one home to the next. The list goes on and on.

As a child, I knew all about stranger danger, but who would have thought the danger was in someone I regularly saw. Even when God mercifully saved me at fifteen years old, the long-term repercussions of sexual abuse in my childhood would not let me rest. I could not run away from it. I could not pretend it never happened. I could not drown it out with escape mechanisms. What had I done to deserve its iron grasp?

My heart echoes the cry of all those who’ve experienced unwarranted suffering: How does God reconcile abuse? If God is just, why should one person be forced to bear the consequences of another’s sin? If God is merciful, why does it hurt so much? If God is sovereign, why did He allow it to happen at all? How could God be good?   

        

THE ANSWER TO SUFFERING

Interestingly, I find the Bible filled with story after story of men and women who also wrestled through these questions. For example, consider the story found in Luke 24:13-35.

Two people left Jerusalem traveling west after the Passover feast. Sadness consumed them as they struggled under a thousand unanswered questions. If God is just, why did an innocent Man have to bear the consequences of something He doesn’t deserve? If God is merciful, why did it hurt so much? If God is sovereign, why did He allow it to happen at all? How could God be good? Where was hope to be found now that the Redeemer was dead?

They didn’t know what to do except return home and try to move on. But as they walked toward Emmaus seven miles away, a stranger joined them, asking, “What are these words that you are exchanging with one another as you are walking?” 

Cleopas who was one of the travelers replied, “Are You the only one visiting Jerusalem and unaware of the things which have happened here in these days?”

But the Stranger didn’t miss a beat. “What things?” He asked.

The two travelers looked at one another in amazement. Was this stranger blind and deaf? Had he slept through the past thirty-six hours of city upheaval? “The things about Jesus the Nazarene," they said. "A prophet mighty in deed and word in the sight of God and all the people, and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered Him to the sentence of death, and crucified Him.” 

Tears welled up at the injustice of it all. They had followed this Man, even believed in Him. “We were hoping it was He who was going to redeem Israel,” they said brokenly. “Besides all this, it is the third day since these things happened. But also some women among us amazed us. When they were at the tomb early in the morning, and did not find His body, they came, saying that they had also seen a vision of angels who said that He was alive. Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just exactly as the women had said; but Him they did not see.”

All morning, rumors had been rampant. Some said He was alive; others said the body had been stolen. They didn’t know what to believe, especially since they hadn’t seen the risen Christ themselves (if He really had risen). No one knew what was going on; nothing made sense. Now that the Passover was finished and Jesus’s whereabouts questionable, there was nothing left to do but return home overwhelmed with grief.

The Stranger listened to their disappointment, quietly allowing them spill the wrestling of their heart. But instead of justifying their response, He rebuked them for their unbelief – then empowered their faith.

Beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Jesus in all the Scriptures (v. 27). Only after revealing God’s bigger picture did the Stranger reveal His true identity as Jesus Himself.

“Were not our hearts burning within us while He was speaking to us on the road, while He was explaining the Scriptures to us?!” the two travelers exclaimed afterwards. Their sorrow had vanished. Immediately they got up and returned to Jerusalem, proclaiming the hope which Jesus had given them. 

SLASHING THE "IF"

And so Jesus does for us.

In the midst of suffering, it is often overwhelming. Some say this, others say that. Emotions take control as we look desperately for solutions to escape the pain. But Jesus refuses to let His children wallow in disappointment and hopelessness. He answers our suffering with compassion, patiently listening to the wrestling of our hearts.

But He is unwilling to leave us there.

Like His dealings with the two travelers on the road to Emmaus, Jesus shows us the bigger picture by His Holy Spirit and the word of God. God never condones sin. As a good Judge, He must punish sin. Through Moses and the 10 commandments, He shows us our complete inability to maintain the perfect standard God requires (Rom. 3:10-12, 23). He takes us to the prophets who call sinners to turn away from their sins and be reconciled to their Creator (Rom. 9:25-26). He reveals the grace of God in the person and work of Jesus Christ who has accomplished everything necessary for the salvation of His children (Gal. 4:4-7). He shows us His power over all things – past, present, and future – and gives His Holy Spirit to those He has redeemed as a guarantor of His promises (Eph. 1:3-14).

From our perspective in the window of one lifetime, it is difficult to reconcile the pain and suffering we see around us with God’s goodness. But this is where Jesus becomes the bigger picture. He has done everything necessary to accomplish salvation of sinners. We are living in the time of God’s patience and redemption. There will come a day – a final Day of Judgment – when those who continue to reject Jesus will be held accountable for their sin, including abuse of the innocent. Until then, God has impartially given everyone a window of opportunity to repent.

Romans 2:4, Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?

I may not understand the “whys” or “how’s”. There will still be times of deep valleys and mountain-high waves. Things may go from bad to worse. But just because things don’t always happen how I want them to doesn’t mean God isn’t good. Just because people are suffering all around the world doesn’t mean God isn’t in control of all circumstances.

There is a bigger plan at work here than the finite choices of people – He has proven that time and again throughout my life. I have experienced the love of God in a deeper way because suffering has drawn me closer to Christ who suffered for me. The same God who designed every detail of creation is the same God at work in my heart and life as His new creation (Rom. 8:28). He has done – and is doing – everything necessary to redeem His beloved children. God’s plan is bigger and more beautiful than I could ever imagine.

God is so good. There is no “if”.

1 Peter 4:12-14, 19, Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you; but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that also at the revelation of His glory you may rejoice with exultation.

If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you.

Therefore, those also who suffer according to the will of God shall entrust their souls to a faithful Creator in doing what is right.

Further Resources:

Bible study – Read Hebrews 11 and 12:1-3. Notice these real-life examples and their stories of walking by faith in the midst of difficult circumstances. These people were placed in the bigger story of redemption for our benefit so that we would look to God as they did and not lose heart. 

It is also helpful to meditate on Isaiah 53, Psalm 139, and Psalm 103.

Fitzpatrick, Elyse, Because He Loves Me: How Christ Transforms Our Daily Life, Crossway, 2008.

Foxe, John, The New Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, Bridge-Logos Publishers, 1997.

Lewis, C. S., The Problem of Pain, The Macmillan Company, 1962.

Piper, John and Taylor, Justin, Suffering and the Sovereignty of God, Crossway Books, 2006.

Tada, Joni Eareckson, A Place of Healing: Wrestling with the Mysteries of Suffering, Pain, and God’s Sovereignty, David Cook, 2010.

Tozer, A. W., The Attributes of God: A Journey into the Father’s Heart, Christian Publications, 1997.