THE PROBLEM OF PAIN
Is it God’s fault that life hurts?
Well, No, and Yes.
In the begining man was placed in a perfect environment, with a perfect body, enjoying perfect fellowship with God. There was no pain and no necessity for it. There was no sin in the world or in the life of the first Man and Woman.
However the first temptation brought about the first opportunity for Man to decide to choose to serve self rather than love God. Seizing that opportunity Man allowed sin to enter his life and the world. Thus man fell and brought a curse upon himself the world and all his offspring. This curse was a bondage to sin.
What does that have to do with the pain in my life?
Well when sin came into the world so did a lot of other stuff; death, disease, deterioration, and dissapointment.
Nature including mans body lost its state of perfection, open now to disease and deterioration leading to death. Man lost his perfect fellowship with God now every avenue he pursues in life is frought with dissapointment. We no longer live in a perfect world so in essence things just don’t go right. If it weren’t for the fall of man there would be no “Murphy’s Law”.
When we consider the answer to our original question in this light, the problem of pain cannot truly be blamed on God.
But lets look further into the pain in our lives and see what we come up with.
God’s mercy is abundant and the fact that we departed from him and allowed sin in our lives and the world didn’t stop Him from taking the greatest consequence upon Himself:
“the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world…”
“not imputing their trespasses against them…”
“made him who knew no sin to be sin for us….”
Life hurts…does God have an answer?
Jesus Christ, bores our sins on the cross and bearing our sins He also bore the penalty, which is death and the wrath of God.
The ultimate pain in the universe was tasted by God Himself on our behalf.
So now what?
…and He died so that those who live should no longer live for themselve but for Him who died for them and rose again…
Even though Christ died on the cross for our sins we still experience the consequences of sin in the world: disease, dissapointment, deterioration, and death.
However our pain is not without a purpose. When we experience physical pain we immediately know that something is wrong.
We are alerted to the fact that part of our body needs attention.
In the same way pain in our life should wake us up to the fact that all is not well. The world is not perfect and neither are we.
We need to turn to God.
Christian aurthor C.S. Lewis once wrote: “God whispers to us in our pleasures… but shouts to us in our pains. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”
Hag 2:15 The LORD says, “Can’t you see what has happened to you? Before you started to rebuild the Temple,
Hag 2:16 you would go to a pile of grain expecting to find twenty bushels, but there would be only ten. You would go to draw fifty gallons of wine from a vat, but find only twenty.
Hag 2:17 I sent scorching winds and hail to ruin everything you tried to grow, but still you did not repent.
If you have experienced pain in your life and there is no doubt that you have, then you have an opportunity to realize that God is awakening you from a life lived without Him to a life of fellowship with Him where instead of your pain just leading to sorrow and death it leads to repentance, spiritual growth and everlasting life.
2Co 7:9 Now I rejoice, not because you were made sorry, but because your sorrow led to repentance; for you were made sorry in a godly manner, that you might suffer loss from us in nothing.
2Co 7:10 For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, without regret; but worldly sorrow produces death.
The problem with pain in the world starts as a consequence to our sin, but God doesn’t leave it there. He uses the pain in this world to grab ahold of our attention and once we have repented and put our faith in Christ He uses pain to grow us to be more like Him.
THE PROBLEM OF PAIN
Is it God’s fault that life hurts?
Well, No, and Yes.
In the begining man was placed in a perfect environment, with a perfect body, enjoying perfect fellowship with God. There was no pain and no necessity for it. There was no sin in the world or in the life of the first Man and Woman.
However the first temptation brought about the first opportunity for Man to decide to choose to serve self rather than love God. Seizing that opportunity Man allowed sin to enter his life and the world. Thus man fell and brought a curse upon himself the world and all his offspring. This curse was a bondage to sin.
What does that have to do with the pain in my life?
Well when sin came into the world so did a lot of other stuff; death, disease, deterioration, and dissapointment.
Nature including mans body lost its state of perfection, open now to disease and deterioration leading to death. Man lost his perfect fellowship with God now every avenue he pursues in life is frought with dissapointment. We no longer live in a perfect world so in essence things just don’t go right. If it weren’t for the fall of man there would be no “Murphy’s Law”.
When we consider the answer to our original question in this light, the problem of pain cannot truly be blamed on God.
But lets look further into the pain in our lives and see what we come up with.
God’s mercy is abundant and the fact that we departed from him and allowed sin in our lives and the world didn’t stop Him from taking the greatest consequence upon Himself:
“the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world…”
“not imputing their trespasses against them…”
“made him who knew no sin to be sin for us….”
Life hurts…does God have an answer?
Jesus Christ, bores our sins on the cross and bearing our sins He also bore the penalty, which is death and the wrath of God.
The ultimate pain in the universe was tasted by God Himself on our behalf.
So now what?
…and He died so that those who live should no longer live for themselve but for Him who died for them and rose again…
Even though Christ died on the cross for our sins we still experience the consequences of sin in the world: disease, dissapointment, deterioration, and death.
However our pain is not without a purpose. When we experience physical pain we immediately know that something is wrong.
We are alerted to the fact that part of our body needs attention.
In the same way pain in our life should wake us up to the fact that all is not well. The world is not perfect and neither are we.
We need to turn to God.
Christian aurthor C.S. Lewis once wrote: “God whispers to us in our pleasures… but shouts to us in our pains. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”
Hag 2:15 The LORD says, “Can’t you see what has happened to you? Before you started to rebuild the Temple,
Hag 2:16 you would go to a pile of grain expecting to find twenty bushels, but there would be only ten. You would go to draw fifty gallons of wine from a vat, but find only twenty.
Hag 2:17 I sent scorching winds and hail to ruin everything you tried to grow, but still you did not repent.
If you have experienced pain in your life and there is no doubt that you have, then you have an opportunity to realize that God is awakening you from a life lived without Him to a life of fellowship with Him where instead of your pain just leading to sorrow and death it leads to repentance, spiritual growth and everlasting life.
2Co 7:9 Now I rejoice, not because you were made sorry, but because your sorrow led to repentance; for you were made sorry in a godly manner, that you might suffer loss from us in nothing.
2Co 7:10 For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, without regret; but worldly sorrow produces death.
The problem with pain in the world starts as a consequence to our sin, but God doesn’t leave it there. He uses the pain in this world to grab ahold of our attention and once we have repented and put our faith in Christ He uses pain to grow us to be more like Him.
