By the end of this lesson, the student should:

(1) Recognize that not all suffering is the result of individual sin.

(2) Understand that suffering is sometimes the result of others’ choices.

(3) Realize that physical healing in this lifetime is not always God’s purpose for his people.

(4) Appreciate God’s ability to accomplish good from suffering.

► Each student should write or recite Romans 8:22–25 from memory.

► Two or three students should share the paragraphs they wrote about Job and a right theology of suffering.

Charity and her husband were church planters who had great dreams for their future ministry. The dreams ended suddenly when Charity’s husband died at the age of 31. Nine months later, her 4-year-old son was diagnosed with bone cancer. During long nights, Charity struggled with painful questions. “What have I done to deserve this? Does God care that I am hurting so deeply?”

She later wrote, “I knew in my head that the accusations of Satan weren’t true. But I had to trust God with my heart. Through prayer and scripture, I learned to fight the lies of my emotions with the truth of God’s perfect love for me.”[1]

► Have you ever asked the questions Charity asked? Have you ever been told that your suffering was the result of hidden sin or a lack of faith? Have you ever suspected that a fellow believer was suffering because of some hidden sin or a lack of faith?

Some people will say, “Everyone has sinned, so everyone deserves to suffer.” It is true that all people have sinned. But some suffering cannot be explained as punishment for individual sin. Does a newborn baby deserve to be born with a painful deformity? Does a young child deserve to lose her parents in a tsunami?

Clearly, some suffering is not caused by the sufferer’s actions. If God is good, how do we explain the suffering of innocent people? We must remember two biblical principles:

1. All suffering is ultimately the result of sin and the Fall. Sin brought suffering into our world.

2. Not all suffering is the direct result of a person’s own sin.

Both truths are important. If we forget the first, we may wrongly blame God for the suffering caused by sin. Suffering entered the world because of human rebellion in the Garden of Eden.

If we forget the second principle, we may wrongly blame innocent people for their suffering. Job’s friends accused him of sin. But God himself testified that Job was blameless and upright (Job 1:8).

Cancer and other diseases are not always punishment for specific sins. People who have smoked die of lung cancer; mothers who never used drugs give birth to babies with deformed limbs. Natural disasters destroy the homes of both drug dealers and pastors. Not all suffering is caused by personal sin. We experience some suffering just because we live in a fallen world.

► Read Genesis 4:1–8. Why did Abel suffer?

Some suffering is the result of the sinful actions of other people. The first account of suffering in scripture is the suffering of Abel, a righteous man who was killed by his brother.

Innocent soldiers died at Ai because of Achan’s sin (Joshua 7). Seventy thousand people died because of David’s census (2 Samuel 24).

Innocent people suffer the results of others’ actions because no one lives in isolation. Our choices affect other people.

When Judah went into exile, both the guilty and the faithful suffered. Those who had worshipped idols suffered. But the righteous remnant also had their homes destroyed and their families taken captive. Innocent men like Ezekiel and Daniel were carried away from their homeland. The actions of wicked people brought suffering on the innocent. This has been true throughout history.

The consequences of sin reach far beyond the person who sins. Babies are born with AIDS because of a parent’s sexual sin. Children grow up in broken homes because of a father’s unfaithfulness. A woman who abuses drugs damages the health of her unborn child. A drunk driver kills someone who has never touched alcohol. Corrupt government officials oppress the poor.

God gave humans free will. Because of this, our choices have real consequences. Our actions can hurt ourselves; they can harm other people; they can even grieve the heart of God. Jesus himself suffered because of human sin. More than anyone, he understands innocent suffering.

Suffering in Our World

In this world, believers and unbelievers alike become sick, suffer pain, and die. Jesus was sinless, yet he suffered and died. By taking on human nature, he entered a world damaged by sin. No one is immune from the effects of the Fall.

We live in the world described by Gerald Sittser:

There is beauty in this world. It is everywhere. But suffering is all around me too…. God created the world good. But something has gone terribly wrong. Human rebellion set off a chain reaction that led to brokenness, alienation, betrayal and suffering. Such is the world in which we live.[1]

What Does the Bible Teach about Healing?

Some people teach that God intends to heal every illness. Yet, we see that not everyone is healed. Some say that this is because of hidden sin or a lack of faith. But is this what the Bible teaches?

Nearly 100 years ago, Henry Frost shared some biblical principles that are helpful.[2]

Principle 1: Jesus is as concerned about our health and healing today as he was when he walked on earth.

► Read Hebrews 4:16.

Some people teach that the gift of healing is no longer available today. They say that miracles were part of Jesus’ earthly ministry and the early church but that the age of miraculous healing is past.

Frost responded that Jesus’ heart is the same today as when he walked on earth. When Jesus saw hurting people, he felt compassion.[3] Today, this same Jesus feels the same compassion when we suffer. Because of this, we should come to him boldly when we need help.

It is right to pray for healing. But there is a second principle to remember.

Principle 2: We are healed by Jesus’ wounds, but we may not be healed immediately.

► Read Isaiah 53:5.

Some people teach that God never heals people today. Others teach that God always heals if a person has enough faith. They interpret Isaiah’s words as a promise for immediate healing for every faithful believer.

But the New Testament shows faithful believers who were not healed immediately. Paul prayed for deliverance from a thorn in the flesh, but God did not remove it (2 Corinthians 12:7–10). Timothy had ongoing stomach problems (1 Timothy 5:23). Paul left Trophimus sick in Miletus (2 Timothy 4:20).

Ultimately, Jesus’ atoning death will defeat the consequences of sin, including sickness. The reversal of sin’s curse began with Jesus’ death. However, this reversal will not be complete until his return. Isaiah’s promise will be completely fulfilled in the new heaven and new earth:

He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away (Revelation 21:4).

Principle 3: God always accomplishes his good purpose for his people.

Paul prayed for healing, but God said, “No.” Did Paul lack faith? No! The great apostle healed many people (Acts 19:11–12). Through Paul, Eutychus was raised from the dead (Acts 20:9–12). When Paul was bitten by a deadly viper, God miraculously protected him (Acts 28:3, 5–6). Paul did not lack faith. God’s purpose for Paul did not include deliverance from his thorn in the flesh.

► Read Ephesians 2:10.

God has a unique purpose for each believer. We are his workmanship, created for good works he prepared in advance (Ephesians 2:10). No two lives are the same. Because of this, God’s path for each believer will be unique. Some experience healing in this life. Others do not.

True faith does not say, “God must heal me.” True faith says, “I believe God will heal me, if that is his purpose. If God heals me, I will praise him. But if God chooses not to heal me instantly, I still trust that he will accomplish his great purpose in my life. In either case, I will give him glory.”

Romans 8:28 promises that God is working in all things to accomplish his good purpose in the life of his children. Because of this, we can trust a good and sovereign God with our suffering. God will accomplish a good purpose even in the worst of situations.

► Read John 9:1–7.

Many ancient people believed that suffering was punishment for sin. When the disciples met a man who was born blind, it was logical to ask, “Who sinned, this man or his parents?” To their amazement, Jesus responded that God had allowed this man to suffer so that the works of God might be displayed in him. God received glory in the eyes of the onlookers when Jesus healed him.

The onlookers benefited from seeing evidence of Jesus’ healing power, but we must not forget that the blind man himself received eternal benefit. As a result of his healing, the blind man testified to faith in Jesus (John 9:35, 38). This was surely part of God’s good purpose for this man. Through his blindness, he was brought to faith in Jesus as the Messiah. A sovereign God had a good purpose both for the onlookers and for the man who was suffering.

Paul first preached in Galatia because of an illness (Galatians 4:13). A sovereign God accomplished eternal good through Paul’s ailment.

God does not directly cause all suffering, but he works through it to accomplish a good purpose. During the writing of this course, one of the founding members of Shepherds Global Classroom was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Dr. Stephen Gibson died just two months after the cancer was discovered. At his funeral, Tim Keep shared this testimony:

On Christmas Day, Stephen gathered his family for a talk. He told his grown children that he believed God would heal him, but they should not become bitter if God did not choose healing. Stephen said, “God is like a master chess player. When we experience a wrong move (like cancer), we should know that God did not cause this move. It is part of our fallen, sin-cursed world. But God is able to make the wrong moves of our fallen world fit into his strategy. He looks at a move of Satan and says, ‘I didn’t do that; it wasn’t my perfect will for the world. But I can use it for my own purposes. I can fit that move into my strategy. I can win even with that move.’”

We live in a world filled with broken bodies, broken lives, broken hearts, broken promises, and disappointments of every kind. But because Jesus has conquered sin and death, not a single day God has ordained for us will be stolen by the enemy. Not a single purpose of God for our lives can be thwarted. And not a single sincere prayer will be wasted. There are many mysteries hidden from you and me, but the Master Chess Player is working all things together for our good and his glory!

When we minister to those who suffer, we cannot promise healing in every instance, but we can promise that God will use the sickness for good. We cannot promise that God will fix every problem in this world, but we can trust a sovereign and good God to accomplish his perfect plan even through innocent suffering.

God’s Purpose

► Read Romans 8:28–29.

When we endure undeserved suffering, we can be tempted to become bitter and angry. When we suffer because of the wrongdoing of others, we may struggle to forgive those who caused our suffering. When we pray for healing and receive no answer, we may become angry at God.

Part of our difficulty in times of suffering is that we can see only part of the picture. Imagine that you are looking at the underside of a woven rug. You will see dark strands that do not appear very beautiful. However, from the top, the dark strands are part of the beautiful pattern.

In this life, we see only a small part of life’s tapestry. Only God can see his beautiful pattern for our life. This means that we must trust the Divine Weaver who is bringing all the threads of our life together. Romans 8:28–29 shows that God’s ultimate purpose for his people is that we will be shaped in the image of Jesus Christ. As we learn to trust God’s plan, we can grow through the difficulties we suffer.

However, this growth is not automatic. To grow in Christlikeness through our suffering, we must turn to God and call on his grace. D.A. Carson said it this way: Our suffering and pain must be “rightly received in faith.”[1] That is, we must respond to suffering with confident trust in God’s goodness and sovereignty.

How God Uses Suffering

There are several ways in which suffering can contribute to our spiritual maturity.[2]

(1) Rightly received, suffering replaces our self-sufficiency with a greater reliance on God.

In good times, our health, finances, and ministry success can become false sources of security. We become distracted from what is most important.

Suffering humbles us. It reminds us that we are not in control. Suffering pulls our attention away from secondary concerns and causes us to seek what truly matters. Suffering should draw our attention back to God.

C.S. Lewis experienced great emotional and physical pain. He lost his mother at an early age; his father was emotionally distant; he suffered respiratory illness as a teenager; he was wounded in World War I; and after only four years of a happy marriage, he lost his bride to cancer. Out of these experiences, Lewis wrote, “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our consciences, but shouts in our pains. Pain is his megaphone to [awaken] a deaf world.”[3]

Lewis recognized that God uses pain and suffering to awaken us. Suffering is designed to draw our attention from own preoccupations to the voice of God.

(2) Rightly received, suffering shapes and transforms us in the image of Christ.

► Read Romans 5:1–5. Why should believers rejoice in our suffering?

Paul taught us to rejoice in our sufferings (Romans 5:3). How is this possible? We can rejoice in suffering when we trust that God is bringing us to spiritual maturity through the things we endure.

Romans 5:1 teaches that we are justified and brought to peace with God through faith alone. In an instant, we are born again as children of God. But the new birth is not the end; God’s process of transforming us into the image of Christ continues for a lifetime. Suffering is one of God’s tools to accomplish this transformation. Because we know that our suffering will bring us to spiritual maturity, we can rejoice in our sufferings.

Several biblical metaphors point to the relationship between suffering and spiritual formation. Scripture compares God to:

• A refiner who purifies us through the fire of affliction (Isaiah 48:10).

• A potter shaping us as clay (Jeremiah 18:6).

• A gardener who prunes us to bear more fruit (John 15:1–2).

Elisabeth Elliot pointed out that pruning looks cruel. It seems harsh to cut off good branches to allow better branches to develop. But pruning increases fruitfulness.[4] The vinedresser knows that a well-pruned vine will bear the richest fruit. We can rejoice in our suffering when we know that the Divine Gardener is pruning us to increase our fruitfulness in his vineyard.

(3) Rightly received, suffering equips us to help others.

► Read 2 Corinthians 1:3–7. Underline the word comfort every time it appears. Notice how God’s comfort equipped Paul to comfort the Corinthian believers. In turn, they were being equipped to comfort other believers. How has God’s comfort of you equipped you to comfort others?

Throughout scripture, we see many examples of times when innocent suffering equipped God’s people to help others. Joseph’s suffering prepared him to save many lives during a famine. The suffering of Old Testament prophets equipped them to serve the people of Israel. John’s unjust exile allowed him to comfort persecuted believers through the writing of the book of Revelation.

Often those who have suffered the most are the most effective in ministering to others who are suffering. When Randall’s wife was diagnosed with terminal cancer, he found comfort by talking to men who had gone through a similar experience. Their stories of God’s grace encouraged him to trust that God would walk with him in this valley. If we respond with trust and obedience, God uses our suffering to equip us to help other believers.

► Two or three class members should each share a personal example of a time God accomplished good through suffering.

In Lesson 1, we saw that Genesis begins with a world that was very good. After man’s sin, a new phrase appears: “…and he died.” Death and suffering became part of human history.

But this is not the end of the biblical story. Revelation 21–22 promises that God will someday repair the damage that man’s sin brought into our world. “And he died” will no longer be man’s story. John saw an earth restored to God’s perfect plan:

• The sea, an ancient symbol of danger, will be no more (Revelation 21:1).

• Death will be no more (Revelation 21:4).

• There will be no more mourning, nor crying, nor pain (Revelation 21:4).

• There will be no need of sun or moon, because the glory of God will be the light, and there will be no more night (Revelation 21:23–25).

• There will be no more suffering because there will be no more sin. “…Nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life” (Revelation 21:27).

Revelation 21–22 reminds us that we were created to live in a world without sin or suffering. God will someday restore the world to his original plan. This truth is important for two reasons:

1. It corrects the false teaching that a believer who has sufficient faith will never suffer disease or pain. Until God restores his creation, both believers and unbelievers will suffer the effects of the Fall. Suffering will remain with us until God’s new creation.

2. It promises that our suffering will not last forever. Satan will be defeated; God will have the last word!

As a college student preparing to minister as a Christian counselor, K.J. Ramsey began suffering from unexplained pain and infection. Since then, Ramsey has suffered years of pain, but she has not abandoned her faith in God’s goodness. Instead, she has used her experience to minister to others who suffer.

When Ramsey first got sick, people asked her if there was any sin in her life that had not been confessed. Surely, some secret attitude, behavior, or habit was causing her suffering. She searched her heart, thinking that if she could find and repent of the hidden sin, maybe her suffering would cease. She wondered if there was a lesson God was trying to teach her. She thought if she could learn it, maybe she would stop hurting.[1]

Later, she wrote:

...Suffering is often not an indication of hidden sin or evidence of a lack of faith. What if the real sin is to witness suffering and immediately judge the sufferer as bad?... Sin is seeing weakness and assuming its bearer lacks faith…. Sin is forgetting that every part of creation cries out because of the curse. It’s forgetting that broken bodies, broken stories, and broken relationships are the result of ancient sin.[2]

Ramsey’s story reminds us that suffering is not always punishment for personal sin. Our role is not to judge, but to love our fellow believers. Rather than judgment, we should give fellow believers space to listen as God speaks. We are called to show compassion, not condemnation.

► Pray for class members who are suffering sickness or suffering the results of wrongdoing by another person.

(1) Study Romans 8:21–30. Read it or listen to it at least five times. Write a detailed outline for a sermon based on this passage of scripture. The theme of the sermon should be “Hope for Suffering Believers.”

(2) Memorize Romans 8:28–30. You will write or recite this scripture at the beginning of your next class.