Thursday, October 18, 2012

10 Reasons Why God Allows Suffering


Found HERE

Jared Wilson, in Gospel Deeps, writes that “while we may not be satisfied with what God has revealed about his purposes in suffering, we cannot justifiably say he has not revealed anything about his purposes in suffering. We may not have the answer we are laboring for, but we do have a wealth of answers that lie in the same field.”
Here’s an outline of ten reasons he identifies in God’s Word:
  1. To remind us that the world is broken and groans for redemption [Rom. 8:20-23].
  2. To do justice in response to Adam’s (and our) sin.
  3. To remind us of the severity of the impact of Adam’s (and our) sin.
  4. To keep us dependent on God [Heb. 12:6-7].
  5. So that we will long more for heaven and less for the world.
  6. To make us more like Christ, the suffering servant [Rom. 8:292 Cor. 1:54:11].
  7. To awaken the lost to their need for God [Ps. 119:6771].
  8. To make the bliss of heaven more sweet [Rom. 8:181 Pet. 4:13Ps. 126:5Isa. 61:3].
  9. So that Christ will get the glory in being our strength [John 9:32 Cor. 4:7].
  10. And so that, thereby, others see that he is our treasure, and not ourselves [2 Cor. 4:8-9].
See Jared C. Wilson, Gospel Deeps: Reveling in the Excellencies of Jesus (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), pp. 114-120 for an elaboration of each point.

The comments to this post also listed the following suggestions:
That God may suffer and through it be glorified [Rev 5:12].
#2 – Gen 6:13Job 4:8
#3 – Gen 3:16
#5 – Acts 5:1-11
12. Like Job, we may not know this side of the grave. Perhaps some of us serve as God-ordained examples to the heavenly realm. I lean toward the possibility that Job is not unique in this.
Sometimes we need to be careful explaining “why” people suffer. We may not know for sure WHY a particular person is suffering at that exact moment. Yet, we can say 100% WHO suffered for us all. The one we turn to in suffering has suffered for us.


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