A Good God in a World of Pain
0 comments | Posted by Steven Layson on 08 Nov 2009 in From Steve's Study ::
The problem of evil and suffering in our world is an enduring one. No one is immune to the hand of suffering, & many take this as a reason to turn their back on God. “How can God be real if he allows these things to happen (especially to me)”.
John Stott, in his book “The Cross of Christ”, eloquently describes how Jesus’ entry into our world & suffering on the cross gives him great assurance that God is real and that his love for us is undefiled, despite the presence of pain in our lives. To quote,
I could never myself believe in God, if it were not for the cross. The only God I believe in is the One Nietzche ridiculed as ‘God on the cross.’ In the real world of pain, how could one worship a God who was immune to it? I have entered many Buddhist temples in different Asian countries and stood respectfully before the statue of the Buddha, his legs crossed, arms folded, eyes closed, the ghost of a smile playing round his mouth, a remote look on his face, detached from the agonies of the world. But each time after a while I have to turn away. And in imagination I have turned to that lonely, twisted, tortured figure on the cross, nails through hands and feet, back lacerated, limbs wretched, brow bleeding from thorn-pricks, mouth dry and intolerably thirsty, plunged in God-forsaken darkness. That is the God for me! He laid aside his immunity to pain. He entered our world of flesh and blood, tears and death. He suffered for us. Our sufferings become more manageable in light of his. There is still a question mark against human suffering, but over it we boldly stamp another mark, the cross which symbolizes divine suffering. ‘The cross of Christ . . . is God’s only self-justification in such a world’ as ours.
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