God, Why is There Suffering in the World?
Romans 8:18-30
"If you live long enough, you will suffer."
It's not the most cheerful way to start a conversation, but theologian D.A. Carson's observation captures an unavoidable truth: suffering is universal. Whether you're experiencing it right now, have walked through it in the past, or will face it in the future: pain, loss, and hardship touch every human life.
The question isn't if we'll suffer, but why. Why does a good God allow bad things to happen? Why do the innocent suffer while the guilty prosper? Why doesn't God just stop it all?
The Question That Changes Everything
The very act of asking "God, why is there suffering?" is actually a sign of hope. When we pose this question, we're already acknowledging that there is a God. If we lived in a purely random, materialistic universe where everything is just cosmic accident, the question becomes meaningless. Suffering would simply "just be", with no rhyme, no reason, no hope. It would be a bleak answer that offers zero comfort when you're in the midst of pain.
But when we ask God "why?," we're operating from a place of hope. We're acknowledging that there might be purpose, that someone is listening, that meaning can be found even in our darkest valleys.
The Bible doesn't answer every microscopic "why?". Why this person? Why this severity? Why now? But it does give us a big-picture understanding of suffering's place in God's eternal plan.
What's NOT True About Suffering
Before we explore what the Bible reveals about suffering, let's clear away some misconceptions that keep us from understanding God's heart.
Myth #1: God Is Not in Control
Some try to resolve the problem of suffering by suggesting God simply lacks the power to stop it. But Scripture leaves no room for this conclusion.
Jesus tells us in Matthew 10:29 that not even a sparrow falls to the ground outside the Father's care. Not one. If God is sovereign over every sparrow in every forest, desert, and city, how much more is He in control of your life and mine?
When Jesus calmed the storm in Matthew 8, the disciples marveled: "What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!" The winds and waves obeyed Jesus in the first century, and they obey Him now. This means that tsunamis, earthquakes, bushfires, and every natural disaster fall within His sovereign authority.
Every permission God gives is purposeful. Every allowance is intentional. Every event, even those God hates, fits within His wise and eternal plans.
Myth #2: God Is Evil
Perhaps God has the power but lacks the goodness? Maybe He's cruel or indifferent?
Again, Scripture thunderously declares otherwise. "God is light; in him there is no darkness at all" (1 John 1:5). Psalm 92:15 affirms, "The Lord is upright; he is my rock, and there is no wickedness in him."
No shadow corners. No cruel motives. No malicious intent. God is good, and He is good all the time. He never takes a holiday from goodness. And here's the challenging part: God is good even when we don't see His goodness, even when we don't understand it, even when His goodness looks different than what we expected.
Myth #3: You're Suffering Because You Lack Faith
This harmful idea suggests that if you just had enough faith, you wouldn't be suffering. But the Bible never supports this claim.
Suffering comes to everyone, the faithful and the faithless, the good and the bad. In John 9, when Jesus encountered a man born blind, the disciples asked whose sin caused it, the man's or his parents'? Jesus answered: "Neither. This happened so that the works of God might be displayed."
Suffering is not always punishment, but it is always a reminder of the seriousness of sin in our world.
What IS True About Suffering
Now let's explore four profound truths that transform how we understand pain.
Truth #1: God Planned Our Redemption Before Creation
2 Timothy 1:9 reveals that God's grace "was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time." Before the universe existed, before Adam and Eve's first breath, before sin entered the world, God had already planned redemption.
For Jesus to come and die, He had to enter a world where death existed. For Jesus to suffer, He had to enter a world where suffering was already present. God permitted sin not because He is sinful, but because He had something greater in mind: displaying His mercy, pouring out His grace, revealing His saving love through the cross.
Redemption wasn't Plan B. The fall didn't catch God off guard. This was the plan from the beginning.
Truth #2: Creation Reveals the Horror of Sin
Romans 8:20 tells us that "the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope." Who subjected creation to frustration? Not Adam. Not Satan. God did.
Why? Because natural suffering, pain, sickness, disease, disaster, is a picture of the moral horror of sin. We underestimate sin because it blinds us to sin. It whispers, "It's okay, it's just a little thing, no big deal."
We rarely lose sleep pondering our apathy toward God. But we do lose sleep over illness, injury, trauma, and loss. Pain is the divine trumpet blast warning humanity that sin is catastrophic. Unless we pay attention to how far we are from God and trust in Jesus who has done everything for us, the effects are devastating.
Truth #3: Even Christians Suffer
We're not immune. The Bible actually promises that following Jesus will bring its own challenges and even persecution. But it has a profound purpose: God allows Christians to suffer so we can demonstrate to the world that Jesus is more valuable than anything we might lose.
"Your love is better than life," declares Psalm 63:3. Paul writes in Philippians 3:8 that he considers everything loss "because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord."
Every loss in suffering is an opportunity to show the world that Jesus is better than anything else: comfort, health, possessions, even life itself. When Christians walk through suffering with faith (not denying pain, but trusting God's goodness), our lives shout to a comfort-obsessed world: "I have found a treasure far more valuable than anything I could ever lose."
Truth #4: Christ Suffered and Died
This is the most important truth: there is suffering in the world so that the greatest act of love in history could happen, Christ's suffering, death, and resurrection.
If there was no suffering, Jesus couldn't suffer. If there was no death, He couldn't die. The cross wasn't a tragic accident or a result of political chaos. Acts 4:27-28 tells us it happened by God's power and will, according to His plan established before time began.
Romans 5:8 declares, "God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
The reason there is suffering in this world is so God could reveal the depths of His love through the suffering of His Son.
Reframing the Question
So what do we do with all this? How does understanding the purpose of suffering help when you're in the middle of it?
First, we can reframe the question. Instead of asking "God, why am I going through this?" ask "God, what are you teaching me through this? What are you showing me? What sin might I not have seen that you're revealing? Are you asking me to trust you more?"
Second, don't suffer alone. When we're hurting, we're tempted to retreat into isolation. But that's exactly where the enemy wants us: alone and vulnerable to lies about God's character. The best place to be when suffering is with God's people.
The church is not a place that claims to fix you, but a community that loves you, cares for you, prays with you, and journeys through whatever you're facing together. Sometimes suffering happens in our midst not only for the individual who suffers, but for the good of God's people, so we learn how to respond and show God's glory through how we care for one another.
An Invitation
If you're suffering right now, don't journey through it alone. Find someone to walk with you, someone who will listen without offering cheap advice, someone who will pray and carry your burden alongside you.
And if you've reached a point where you're thinking about ending the pain by ending it all, please hear this: you will not end the suffering. You'll only transfer it, and multiply it, onto others. We are here to carry your burden with you.
God doesn't give an answer to every "why" in this life, but He has answered enough. He has given us Himself. He has given us Jesus. He has given us the cross. He has given us hope.
Trust in the God who redeems us, the one who suffers with us, the one who has suffered for us, the one who will one day end all suffering forever.
This sermon is part of our God, Why? series at Soul Revival Church in the Sutherland Shire, exploring life's biggest questions through the lens of Scripture. Watch the full message or listen to the podcast to dive deeper into this topic.
Soul Revival Church gathers across the Sutherland Shire and Ryde.