Meaning in Suffering

 

One thing I'd like to start implementing in my outreach conversations is that our suffering has meaning.  I struggle with how to bring in the gospel when I'm talking to people on outreach, especially if they don't bring up religion first.

But suffering is a perfect "in."  The concept of suffering gets brought up all the time, the idea that it's better to kill a baby before they know what's going on (except that doesn't apply to newborns for some reason), rather than bring them into a world where they'll suffer tremendously.

Without denying that fact, I can say, "yes, that child will undoubtedly suffer - we all do, as a result of the Fall.  But the beautiful thing about Christianity is that, because of Christ's sacrifice for us, our suffering has meaning."

Now, for non-Christians, their suffering is essentially meaningless, for them.  It's not meaningless in that God uses even their suffering for His good purposes, and I think He can even use their suffering to teach them good things in this life even if they never come to know Him, so in those ways, unbelievers' suffering has meaning.

But if they never come to Christ, their suffering is meaningless in that it ultimately does nothing for them.  And that's where I can share the wonderful HOPE of the gospel!  In Christ, we know that our suffering has meaning, not only in that God uses it for His good purposes, but also in that He uses it for our good.

And there's that famous verse, Romans 8:28.

"And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose."

Context: he's talking about suffering!  Because Christ died for us, taking our punishment for sin and bringing us faultless before God, we now have:

a) a new destination towards which we are headed when we die
b) a reason to live for God while we're still on earth!

If you don't know God and you're headed for hell and determined to get there too, there is every reason for you to live just as you please, because this life is the best you got - better not waste it.  Any suffering that comes your way is of no use to you because you're living for yourself.

But in Christ, we no longer live for ourselves, but for another, who is all-perfect, all-knowing, all-faithful, so we can have all the confidence in the world that if He ordains suffering in our lives, it must be for a good reason!  He's already given us the best gift ever in His Son Jesus; do we think He will fail us now?

He is our anchor, and He is trustworthy because He is perfect.  But without Him, we are our own anchor, and that's no good at all!  If we're on;y anchored to ourselves, we're not secured to anything strong, and we're left to be tossed about by the world, sin, and the devil, and for no purpose but to lead us to eternal destruction!  (That's pretty lame.)

Jesus is truly the only place of true hope.  You can't understand this unless you understand your need, though.  Our need is great because we are great sinners, totally wicked (not utterly wicked which would mean that every bit of every part of us is as wicked as it could be, but totally wicked in that every part of us is wicked.  The only reason we're not utterly wicked - as bad as we could be - is that God's grace holds us back from greater depths of wickedness), and God is infinitely good, and He must not tolerate wickedness, and so our sin must be dealt with, and that would be on us, to pay for our sin ourselves by spending eternity in hell, but God in His GREAT love, made a way for guilty sinners to be made righteous and to spend eternity with HIM instead of hell where we deserve to be!

But the way God provided wasn't cheap (which makes His love that much more poignant); He paid the price for our sin, yes, and He went all out, He paid the ultimate sacrifice: His very own Son, Jesus Christ.  Jesus, the second person of the Godhead, became man, human (can you imagine?!), so that He could pay for our sin, because only a man could pay for the sins of mankind; and yet He was still God all along!  Mind-boggling.

And He had to be God to be able to take on the sins of all those who would come to Him, and be able to pay the price effectively and completely, and then to rise again.

I mean, we would have to spend eternity in hell just to pay for our own sins, but He paid for the sins of all the elect AND THEN HE ROSE AGAIN!  HOW EVEN?!

I don't understand how that's possible, except, I know He's God.  He literally conquered death.  Best news ever.  That thing everyone's afraid of?  He conquered it.

We who believe in Him and His work for us now have no reason to fear death.  Only God could think up such a crazy, amazing story. What in the world.