Archive for the ‘Suffering’ Category

John Piper recently wrote about how “bad times are good for missions”.

His insights compelled me to share a passage from the recently released Suffering and the Goodness of God, the first volume in Crossway’s Theology in Community series, edited by Christopher Morgan and Robert Peterson.

The following excerpt is from the chapter entitled “Christ and Crocodiles: Suffering and the Goodness of God in Contemporary Perspective” by Robert Yarbrough. In this chapter, Dr. Yarbrough lays out eleven theses on suffering’s significance in a world created and ultimately redeemed by God. This is from Thesis 5: Suffering Creates Teachable Moments for Gospel Reception:

Jesus did not evade the issue of suffering and neither should we. One day as he was teaching (Luke 13:1–5), he was informed of Pilate’s murder of some Galileans who were in the very act of worshiping God. We do not know all Jesus said. But we know he leveraged the shock of the hour into an object lesson, urging listeners to make a life change. He even took it a step further by pointing to a building collapse that claimed the lives of eighteen people. The lesson he drew from this tragedy was the same: Repent, lest you too perish!

There is much more to say about suffering than “Consider your ways and turn to God!” But Jesus reminds us of that standing imperative. If we dare deepen our comprehension of suffering vis-à-vis God’s goodness—cognizant that “he who increases knowledge increases sorrow” (Eccles.1:18)—we do well to seek ways to emulate Jesus’ acknowledgment of suffering as an occasion for human affirmation of God.

We have already argued that this does not make suffering in itself a good thing (Thesis 1 above). But it does encourage us to enlarge our outlook to incorporate suffering into our view of what it means to come to Christ and then to honor and serve him. We do not trust in him so that we can evade suffering, nor do we present Christ as an assured means of escape from hard times. Rather we trust so that in good times and bad our lives will reflect fidelity to him and the courage that Jesus modeled and imparts. The same suffering that hardens some or drives them to faithless despair can be an occasion for the bold move of hope in Christ in spite of suffering’s disincentives to affirm and believe in God.

We do well to remain intent on enlarging our spiritual understanding so that we become tougher and wiser when it comes to absorbing and responding to suffering. As we do so we will become more effective messengers of the gospel to others whose sufferings may likewise be the occasion of making the right choice when faced with the question: should I let adversity drive me away from the Bible’s testimony to God’s good purposes and eternal promise, or should I believe that the message of Jesus and the cross are still adequate grounds for personal faith in him? It is often suffering that makes this anguished but fruitful outcry unavoidable and that also paves the way for the best, though usually not the easiest, response.

Here are the eleven theses Dr. Yarbrough teaches through this excellent chapter:

1. Suffering is Neither Good nor Completely Explicable
2. Suffering in Itself Is No Validation of Religious Truth
3. Accounting for Suffering Is Forced upon Us by Our Times
4. Suffering May Be a Stumbling Block to Gospel Reception
5. Suffering Creates Teachable Moments for Gospel Reception
6. Suffering Will Bring Glory to God in the Lives of Believers Subjected to It
7. Suffering Is the Price of Much Fruitful Ministry
8. Suffering Is Often the Penalty for Gospel Reception
9. Suffering Nobly Borne Testifies to God’s Goodness
10. Suffering Unites Us with Other Sinners We Seek to Serve
11. Suffering Establishes True Fellowship among Christians

Learn more about Suffering and the Goodness of God here.