Q&A - Suffering and Death
July 25, 2021 Sunday Evening Study

It seems as though each day brings new tragedy to the world. A small and innocent child is diagnosed with leukemia and undergoes extensive medical treatment only to die in his mother’s arms. A newlywed couple is killed by a drunk driver as they leave for their honeymoon. A faithful missionary family is attacked and killed by the very people they were ministering to. Thousands are killed in a terrorist attack. Hundreds drown in a tsunami, while scores of others fall in earthquakes and tornados.

Why are these things possible if God really loves and cares for us? Is he a God of suffering? Man’s usual response to tragedy is to blame God, as Charles Darwin did after the death of his daughter Annie. Darwin stated that “Annie’s death destroyed the tatters of beliefs that he still had in a moral and just universe. This period chimed the final death bell for his Christianity - causing him to take a stand as an unbeliever.”

Question: Why does the God of Love Allow Suffering and Death? Why do bad things happen to good people?

What do you think? Let’s go beyond just the “we live in a fallen world” answer - how do you answer this for someone in the midst of their suffering?

As we have studied, in the beginning God’s creation was good, and when He created man, He called it all “very good.” That designation means that creation must have been without blemish, defect, disease, suffering, or death. There was no survival of the fittest then - animals did not prey on each other and the first humans did not kill animals for food.

Unfortunately for people like me, in God’s perfect creation, people and animals were herbivores - vegetarians. Genesis 1:29-30 the Lord says: “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. 30 And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so.”

Clearly this shows that animals did not eat each other, so there was no animal death either. Remember that it is not until after the flood - 1600 years later - that man is granted permission to eat meat as per Genesis 9:3 - “Everything that lives and moves about will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything.”

So creation was designed without death - why do we die now? As we know, death entered the equation when Adam sinned of his own choice. If you recall, at the time of the sin, Adam and Eve tried to hide in their shame, for the first time recognizing their nakedness and vulnerability. As the shedding of blood is required for the remission of sin (Hebrews 9:22) God killed an animal and made them coverings from its skin. We do not know what type of animal, only that they were no longer naked, yet had to wear the reminders of the consequences of their sin - literally draped in death.

Genesis 3 also tells us that as a result of the sin, the ground itself was cursed - thorns and thistles grew, and the animals were cursed, the serpent more than any other. 

Question: Why are we paying for the sins of Adam? It wasn’t me.

Why do we suffer the punishment for another’s sin? After Adam and Eve sinned they were removed from the garden and then began to have children, each of them born with the sinful nature that Adam had adopted through sin. As a result, each child rebelled against His creator, as has happened since that time, as we are all descendents of Adam and Eve.

Let’s take a moment to be honest with ourselves - Adam is a pretty perfect representation of mankind. If a perfect person in a perfect place chose to disobey God, there is little chance any of us would have done better.

When Adam sinned, this impacted all of creation. Romans 8:22 states “We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.” Sin has infected all of creation. The sad and tragic things that happen - death of a loved one or tsunamis that kill thousands, homelessness or cancer - they are reminders that sin has consequences and that we need to be saved. If we do not understand consequence, we will never understand the need for grace.

Where is the hope? We know that answer - Jesus paid the price for our consequences for eternity - meaning that we will not be apart from Him. But for now, we still live in a world suffering the consequences of the sins of all people. Some suggest that God really loved us, He would place us in a perfect place without pain and death - yet, He already did that, and Adam rebelled. Given the opportunity, we would do the same thing.

Yet, compared to eternity, the time we spend in a sin-broken world is insignificant. God will complete His demonstration of love by placing those who receive His salvation in a perfect place forever.

Question: What about personal suffering? How do I deal with life that isn’t fair?

Jesus deals with the issue of personal suffering in many places. In John 9 when discussing the man born blind, Jesus states “Neither this man nor his parents sinned (to cause the blindness) but that the works of God should be revealed in Him.” Jesus did not consider the man’s suffering to be wasted because the man’s life served to glorify God - as ours are meant to.

The book of Job tells the history of of a righteous man who pleased God but nevertheless suffered the loss of his ten children, his wealth, and his health.His friends were sure that the sufferings were due to some secret sin in Job’s life - that he had somehow brought it upon himself, yet even God denied this accusation.

Jesus showed us, as we studied today, that His love is not incompatible with personal suffering when Lazarus was sick, to which He replied “This sickness will not end in death, but that the Son of God may be glorified in it.” Jesus loved Mary and Martha and Lazarus, and He grieved with them, but He could also see a purpose to suffering that they could not see. He used this instance of showing His power over death to give them the strength to endure His own suffering - to strengthen their faith in Him even as He died.

In Luke 13, Jesus even comments on the purpose of tragedy after the tower of Siloam collapses killing 18 people. He uses it as an object lesson when the prevailing attitude was that they had earned it through their own secret sin - Jesus says “...those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them—do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.”

These examples make it clear that it is not necessarily a person’s own sin that leads to suffering, but that all sin and general has already led us there. That isn’t to say that we cannot cause ourselves to suffer through our sin, but it is not the only cause. Often we need the reminder that our sin has consequences - sometimes for someone we love instead of for us - and sometimes that suffering serves a purpose that we may not ever understand as we are. Yet it is clear that the presence of suffering does not mean that God does not love us - quite the opposite - Christ came and suffered with us and took our ultimate punishment when He did not have to.

Question: So how should we handle suffering and death?

Obviously this answer falls under “easier said than done” but here goes. In times of suffering, Christians honor the Lord by trusting Him and remembering his love and purpose for our lives. The presence of suffering and death in the world should remind us all that we are sinners living in a sin-cursed world and prompt us to tell others about the salvation available in Christ - the only cure. That would be the loving thing to do that we are called to - telling people the truth of how they, too, can be saved from this world and live eternally with a perfect and good God.

2 Corinthians 4:17-18 - 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, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.