That night you asked on the dining table: “Why does God allow Pastor X to have cancer?” In the same breath, I heard you asked: “Why does God allow His people to suffer?” “Why does bad things happen to the godly?” “Why does God allow me to go through such a difficult situation?”
I suggested then that we should consider Romans chapter 8 to understand more about suffering. More specifically, I was referring to Romans 8:18-30. The passage speaks about “groaning”. This word refers to one letting out a long and mournful sound that conveys deep pain and distress. The passage reveals that there three entities which are groaning in this world:
1. Creation is groaning (Rom 8:20-22)
20 For the creation was subjected to frustration (futility), not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God. 22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.
Rom 8:20-21 says that God has subjected creation to suffer decay and corruption. God's creation encompasses all created things, including botanical, animal and the human worlds. When Adam and Eve sinned (the Fall) at the Garden of Eden, creation bore the consequence of their sin. Seeing death and decay happen around us should help us to recognise that something is awfully wrong in this world, something bad has happened to it and it is sin.
Believers in Christ are also part of God's creation. This means our bodies will likewise suffer decay. We are not immune to diseases and death while on earth. Similarly, Pastor X will not be spared from this universal experience though he is faithful and godly.
Yet the good news is that creation groans with eager hope! There will be a day when God will eradicate the presence and consequence of sin in this world so that there will be no more decay and death (Rev 21:1-4). That day will arrive when Christ returns for His people.
23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies.
As believers, we experience the peaceful fruits of new life in Christ each and everyday. As we taste of God's goodness in our daily lives, we long for more and more of it. We long for His kingdom and His reign. We long for heaven.
However this foretaste of heaven is conflicted with our negative experiences of sin in and around us (e.g. bitterness, selfishness, pride, envy, murder, abuse) and also the consequence of sin being played out in this physical world (decay and death).
So believers groan for the day of resurrection when God will eradicate pain, suffering and death from this world (1 Cor 15:35-44). Believers also groan for the day whereby they will no longer have sin in them but be wholly transformed into the likeness of Christ (2 Cor 3:18).
26 And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words. 27 And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God’s own will.
Often in times of trials and testing, we are unable to behold God’s will. In our human weakness, we struggle to make sense of our pain and suffering.
However we can find comfort in the fact that the Holy Spirit who dwells in us prays for us "with groanings too deep for words" (Rom 8:26). He groans because He identifies with our pain. The Holy Spirit does not make token prayers. He prays with profound understanding of our pain and also what the will of the Father is. God’s will is clearly stated in Rom 8:29 – that we will ultimately become like His Son, Jesus Christ.
So in times when we are going through pain and suffering, let us cry out to Him with full assurance that the Holy Spirit is also interceding for us. Be comforted that we are not alone in our grief, He identifies with our pain. Let us also seek to understand God's will in helping us grow into likeness of His Son.
We are shortsighted and sinful beings who are unable to grasp the full wisdom of our sovereign God. God knows what is best for us; so let us trust in His steadfast love which is displayed at the Cross at Calvary.
What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? (Romans 8:31-32)
Hope this helps you as much as it has helped me.