The untidiness of life - the mess, chaos, accident or whatever label we choose to describe the lack of order which leads to pain - naturally inclines some to conclude that the universe is cold, heartless and random.
Christians believe in the God who is a maximally alive Person, full of goodness, love and power. But suffering gives rise to various questions for believers... Can I really trust God? Is God angry with me? Does God love me? Is God really good? Is God able to stop this? If the universe and life are not random, how can I understand the purpose behind it?
Belief that God is trustworthy, loving, good and powerful is made complicated by untidiness and pain.
When people are chaotic and untidy in their behaviour and relationships, then trust breaks down as their behaviour renders them unpredictable. Chaotic lives make love and goodness questionable at best, absent at worst. "If the universe is under the control of God and the universe is chaotic then, surely, God is untrustworthy!"
Based on the physical and emotional experience of chaos which results in suffering, how can we understand that everything is purposed by God and that God is good, loving, powerful and trustworthy?
I believe the Bible teaches that suffering, or affliction, is necessary and that, properly understood, the necessity of affliction is a comforting doctrine.
What if affliction is necessary?
Affliction comes in various kinds: catastrophic affliction caused by war, famine, earthquakes, floods, accidents and death; acute affliction which includes toothache, childbirth, broken bones, fights and divorce; most pernicious of all, grinding affliction - the aches and pains, tiredness, loneliness, niggles, stress, the life of never waking up totally refreshed. We cannot escape affliction. It is everywhere, everyday.
All of this must happen, said Jesus (Matthew 24v6). These things don’t just happen as an accident of history or a consequence of sin, they must happen because affliction is necessary.
I first started thinking this thought when preaching Exodus. The story of the people of Israel being liberated from slavery in Egypt sheds light on the problem of suffering and the necessity of affliction. God reveals His mercy, love and power through 10 plagues, the Passover, the parting of the Red Sea so his people could cross on dry ground before God drowned the entire Egyptian army. The Israelites followed the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night in obedience to God. This faith and obedience gives rise to the question: "Might the Israelites, with good reason, expect life to get better after God freed them from slavery?" Yes, of course it’s reasonable to expect a better life after slavery.
"We can’t know that we are satisfied unless we first experience being unsatisfied."
Why then, in chapters 16-18 of Exodus, were the people of Israel dying of thirst, dying of hunger, and were attacked by the Amalekites? They had trusted God and obediently followed the direction of God, yet life got so hard, so miserable, they longed to return to Egypt and slavery. What was God doing?
In chapter 19v1-15, God calls the people to prepare themselves. The agony of slavery, the fear of being destroyed by the Egyptian army on the banks of the Red Sea, the afflictions of the desert were all preparatory; the affliction was necessary for the people to be ready to meet with God, receive the law, and be ready to enter the Promised Land.
God prepared His people to be satisfied in Him through suffering and affliction.
Other Scriptural examples
We can read this back into the life of Joseph, whose suffering was unjust but prepared his family, who suffered the affliction of famine, to come to Egypt and so be extremely satisfied when God settled them in the lush pastures of Goshen.
Chaos, evil, and resulting affliction are permitted and purposed by the goodness and power of God as preparatory. God moulds and shapes His people to be fully satisfied in Him and with Him.
Affliction is not the cruel action of a capricious God or the consequence of a God too weak to stop it. Suffering is not caused by the devil when he outwits God. God is not taken by surprise or merely allows Satan, unwillingly, to wreak havoc, promising us to clean up after Satan. No, God instructs Satan, who delights to cause us pain, because affliction is necessary for the perfect end which God has in mind.
The pattern of the necessity of affliction can be seen in many other places in Scripture.
- Psalm 22
Psalm 22 begins with the great cry of dereliction: "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?" David was in anguish.
The first 21 verses describe harrowing, soul crushing affliction.
Verses 22-28 are filled with the hope of resurrection and praise of God in the assembly.
Verse 26 states boldly that the afflicted (or the hungry poor, the poor in spirit, those who hunger for righteousness) will be satisfied.
The affliction of Psalm 22 precedes true satisfaction. The contrast is necessary. We can’t know that we are satisfied unless we first experience being unsatisfied. - Psalm 63
Psalm 63 compares seeking God with life in a dry and parched land and contrasts the thirst with being deeply satisfied by eating the richest of foods. "You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water… I will be fully satisfied as with the richest of foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise you" (Psalm 63).
This Psalm places the experience of comfort as something to come. It is future. God will raise His people from this present evil age, from weakness to His power, from perishable to imperishable. That experience will be like walking in from a cold, wet, dank day to a roaring log fire, hot chocolate and cosy blanket or eating rich food after being in a parched desert (Psalm 63). Entering the presence of Christ will satisfy in ways which we can't imagine now. That will be comforting in the extreme. For now, in this life, there are times when we experience no comfort at all. Psalm 77: "My soul refuses to be comforted." Comfort in this present evil age can be so elusive. - Psalm 90
In Psalm 90 - at one time read at every Church of England funeral service - God’s eternal nature is contrasted with human mortality; to dust we return, like flowers of the field which flourish and wither, we pass away our days under Your wrath, You sweep us away in death and finish our days with a groan.
The Psalm turns at verse 10: "Teach us to number our days, that we might gain a heart of wisdom."
And then there is a second petition, this time for satisfaction to follow affliction: "Relent, Lord! How long will it be? Have compassion on your servants. Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days. Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us, for as many years as we have seen trouble" (Psalms 90v13-15).
This petition is focused on satisfaction in God, His love, His compassion, resulting in joy and gladness following the affliction of mortality, weakness and death. - Matthew 5
The theme of the necessity of affliction before true and perfect satisfaction is repeated by Jesus in His sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5).
The first and last beatitude give an eschatological setting. Blessing is experienced in the present, through hope, and blessing will be fully experienced when God’s people meet Him. We will give a collective sigh which will replace groaning as we say "it is so good to be here."
"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."
Mourning is necessary for God’s people to know true comfort. Hungering and thirsting for righteousness, due to a deficit of righteousness in this life, is necessary if we are to fully and finally know the righteous one with perfect righteousness. Evil behaviour which invites mercy is necessary for us to delight in being shown mercy. Persecution is necessary to be finally relieved that all enemies have been destroyed and the gates of the kingdom of heaven are left open because there is no threat of attack. - 1 Corinthians 15
This contrast between life now in this fallen, broken, evil age and then in a restored, glorious, eternal age, is seen most beautifully in 1 Corinthians 15. The seed of our mortal body is to be sown in the ground then resurrected as a different kind of body.
"The sun has one kind of splendour, the moon another and the stars another; and star differs from star in splendour. So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body" (1 Corinthians 15v42-44).
It is necessary to experience a perishable body in order to be fully satisfied with the imperishable. It is necessary to experience a dishonourable life in order to be fully satisfied with glory. It is necessary to experience a weak body in order to be fully satisfied with power. It is necessary to experience a natural body in order to be fully satisfied with a spiritual body.
Think of the satisfaction of super heroes when they discover the contrast between their ordinary mortal existence and their superpowers. When Spiderman first discovers his spidey senses, power to make webs and so on, the contrast satisfies. - Romans 8 & Hebrews 12
This understanding of the necessity of affliction helps us when reading Romans 8. Paul contrasts suffering with glory. "I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us" (Romans 8v18).
The whole creation groans in eager expectation and notice, it was God Himself who subjected the world to frustration, suffering, affliction. God subjected it thus because affliction is necessary.
Romans 8v28 assures us that God is working for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose. This verse can tie us in knots: How is God working for good through chronic or terminal illness, constant antisocial behaviour in our community, bullying, war, grinding poverty and starvation? When affliction is permanent or terminal, many conclude that God is disciplining or refining us. Sometimes that might be true, as Hebrews 12 reminds us.
But the doctrine of the necessity of affliction so that we might be fully satisfied when we meet Jesus, separates suffering from justice or desert. The affliction is simply necessary to shape us for eternity. We will delight in Him, be satisfied by Him, always ready to love Him with all our heart, think His thoughts after Him, with wills always ready to do what is good, thirst slaked, hunger satisfied, righteousness realised. Affliction is necessary for this reason alone.
We are given tastes of satisfaction now, in our worship, holy communion, fellowship, prayer, meditation and hope. Affliction is tempered by such blessings even now.
So the hope we have relies on affliction. Imagine what it will be like to remember the aches, pains and agony of mortal life and never experience them again. Imagine taking all the disappointments with governments, synods and church councils and then responding when Jesus, the King, and all the elders make perfect decisions every time. Imagine remembering the fear of war, the experience of armed conflict, the pain of genocide and then standing before the throne with a countless multitude of people from all nations, with the doors of the city wide open, united in praise and worship of the One who reigns on high. Imagine remembering longing for love, wanting to be married, being married but not fully satisfied because of niggles, nagging, disagreements and strife, the fast fading pleasure of orgasm, divorce or being widowed then finding all those longings, desires, loves being satisfied by Christ and with Christ.
Adam and Eve lacked this knowledge. They had no experience of good and evil. They didn’t desire God. They desired to be like God. Their choice to rebel was based on ignorance of suffering and misplaced desire.
We will not have the excuse of ignorance in glory. We have experienced the knowledge of good and evil. We won’t want this kind of life again.
Our afflictions will perfect our hearts, minds and wills so that if we ever contemplate acting against the will of God, we will not desire to be like God - we will desire and be satisfied in Him. God gives us freedom of choice. We will always choose the good. Unlike Adam and Eve, we will stop, with the benefit of the knowledge of affliction and say "no, don’t do that."
Consider Christ
The doctrine of the necessity of affliction is summarised in Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians. "Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal" (2 Corinthians 4v16-18 NIVUK).
Our afflictions do not seem light and momentary as we endure them. Paul is contrasting the present with the future. Afflictions achieve something. They have purpose. That purpose is eternal glory. Satisfaction in Christ and the deep, deep desire to always choose the good.
Consider Christ: Christ was afflicted for the joy and satisfaction set before him as he endured the cross, scorning its shame (Hebrews 12v2).
Jesus gives us permission to feel, recognise and lament all pain. We need not be stoic or play it down but shout: "This hurts, this sucks, this pain is real and sometimes unbearable."
Yet we can also say: "This pain comes from the good and loving hand of God who went to the cross. He is preparing me to be eternally satisfied in Him. These light and momentary afflictions will be worth it when I am fully satisfied in Christ and with Christ."
This piece was originally published by Neil Robbie: The Comforting Necessity of the Doctrine of Affliction
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