Still a popular question asked today is: “Why do God’s children suffer?”
One of the factors that has added to the perplexity and complexity of the problem is the unbiblical sales pitch to the unsaved that is given in some quarters. It is claimed that if you will only trust Christ you will move into the green pastures where all is calm and the problems of life are solved. Even prosperity and healing abound as a bonus for believing. Another addition is joy without any sorrow and with no cloud to darken the sky.
Let’s understand one thing: Salvation is a redemption paid by Christ for the penalty of your sin and my sin. And the primary benefit is that a hell-doomed sinner is now going to heaven because Jesus died in his stead, and the Holy Spirit has brought conviction of sin into his heart and life while he was still “dead in trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1).
If you go back as far as Job, which would take you back probably to the time of Moses or even to Abraham, you will find that he illustrates this truth by a great law of physics:
Yet man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward. (Job 5:7)
According to the laws of aerodynamics, because of the heat being generated, sparks will fly upward. Just as that is true, man must experience troubles. We will face trouble in this world. David wrote:
Many are the afflictions of the righteous; but the LORD delivereth him out of them all. (Psalm 34:19)
And actually the Lord Jesus told His own (sometimes I think we forget Scriptures like this): These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. (John 16:33)
Paul likewise makes the dogmatic assertion:
Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. (2 Timothy 3:12)
There is no if, and, but, or perhaps about that at all. It is an axiom of Scripture that God’s children suffer. God’s child is not promised that he will escape pain, disappointment, and sorrow in this life.
Thru The Bible by Dr. J. Vernon McGee
One of the factors that has added to the perplexity and complexity of the problem is the unbiblical sales pitch to the unsaved that is given in some quarters. It is claimed that if you will only trust Christ you will move into the green pastures where all is calm and the problems of life are solved. Even prosperity and healing abound as a bonus for believing. Another addition is joy without any sorrow and with no cloud to darken the sky.
Let’s understand one thing: Salvation is a redemption paid by Christ for the penalty of your sin and my sin. And the primary benefit is that a hell-doomed sinner is now going to heaven because Jesus died in his stead, and the Holy Spirit has brought conviction of sin into his heart and life while he was still “dead in trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1).
If you go back as far as Job, which would take you back probably to the time of Moses or even to Abraham, you will find that he illustrates this truth by a great law of physics:
Yet man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward. (Job 5:7)
According to the laws of aerodynamics, because of the heat being generated, sparks will fly upward. Just as that is true, man must experience troubles. We will face trouble in this world. David wrote:
Many are the afflictions of the righteous; but the LORD delivereth him out of them all. (Psalm 34:19)
And actually the Lord Jesus told His own (sometimes I think we forget Scriptures like this): These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. (John 16:33)
Paul likewise makes the dogmatic assertion:
Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. (2 Timothy 3:12)
There is no if, and, but, or perhaps about that at all. It is an axiom of Scripture that God’s children suffer. God’s child is not promised that he will escape pain, disappointment, and sorrow in this life.
Thru The Bible by Dr. J. Vernon McGee
No comments:
Post a Comment