June 23, 2020 – Click here to listen
Recently a couple of people I know have attacked God because of human suffering. I’ve heard this argument many times and have done my best to explain it and not long ago came across a C.S. Lewis’s book (The Problem of Pain,) that addressed this subject, and I thought he addressed the core problem very well.
He began his explanation by pointing out that the problem of reconciling human suffering with the existence of God who loves “is only unsolvable so long as we attach a trivial meaning to the word ‘love’ and look on things as if man were the center of them. Man is not the center. God does not exist for the sake of man. Man does not exist for his own sake. ‘Thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created’ [Revelation 4:11]
We along with the rest of creation exist solely for God’s pleasure.
Lewis went on to say, “We were made not primarily that we may love God (though we were made for that too) but that God may love us, that we may become objects in which the Divine love may rest ‘well pleased’. To ask that God’s love should be content with us as we are is to ask that God should cease to be God: because He is what He is, His love must, in the nature of things, be impeded and repelled, by certain stains in our present character, and because He already loves us He must labor to make us lovable. We cannot even wish, in our better moments, that He could reconcile Himself to our present impurities.”
In the absence of the redemption provided by Jesus for our sins there can be no ‘good’ people according to God’s standards and it is His standards that we must live by. Lewis compared it to a beggar maid that would insist that the King should be content with her rags and dirt. It’s not going to happen, and we must reconcile ourselves to the idea that we are the created and God is the Creator. We must become more like God because it is a sure bet that God is not going to change and become more like us.
Lewis concluded this thought by adding the idea of happiness to the mix. “And what we would here and now call our happiness is not the end God chiefly has in view: but when we are such as He can love without impediment, we shall in fact be happy.” That only can happen in totality when sin is completely removed from our life and we become like Him.
We cannot do this on our own. The Bible states that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Only Jesus lived a life in total compliance with God’s law. He became the blameless and perfect sacrifice that took the punishment for our sins and reconciled us to God whereby “He will remember our sins no more.” That is the only way we will find Divine happiness that will be absent the pain and suffering of this sinful world. The metaphor of the beggar maid in the filthy rags desiring God to accept her as is will only be complete when she exchanges them for the beautiful white robe of purity that God will shower upon her upon her acceptance of Jesus Christ as her LORD and Savior . . .
Life is short and the human suffering of this present world will soon be replaced by a new world devoid of it. Don’t miss out on your opportunity to find peace, joy, and the love of God . . .
Hebrews 8:12
For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”