A Search for Hope: Good News about Suffering and Evil

A Search for Hope

Romans 5: 1 – 5.

Introduction

On a typical week, I try to begin working on my Sunday morning sermon the first thing Monday morning.  Monday morning was a typical Monday morning.  I started reading through a Scripture I thought would be appropriate for the Sunday before Memorial Day.  I even looked on the Veterans’ Affairs website to read through the statistics of how many men and women have died while serving in the U.S. military.  I planned to preach about our freedom as U. S. citizens to worship Jesus and live out our faith in every area of life.  We have freedoms that Christians in other countries do not enjoy.  These freedoms have been earned and defended at a high price—over one million men and women have died in service to our country so that we can be free.

At the end of the work day on Monday, I had the beginnings of a pretty good sermon.  But something happened Monday afternoon that made me change my mind—the tornado in Moore, Oklahoma.

Monday night, I was glued to the television news as they showed pictures of the devastation and speculated on how many people died in the tornado.  It was especially difficult to imagine the nine children who died when the tornado hit the school.

If you follow the daily news, you know this has been a very difficult six months.  It all started with the Sandy Hook school shooting in December.  Then, there was the explosion in West, Texas; the Boston marathon bombing; and now the tornadoes in Oklahoma.  I say tornadoes, because the Moore, Oklahoma tornado on Monday distracted us from the tornado that hit Shawnee, Oklahoma on Sunday.  That tornado destroyed 89 homes and took two lives.  (I have four pastor friends in Oklahoma who have been affected by the tornadoes—FBC, Oklahoma City; FBC, Norman; North Haven, Norman; and University Baptist, Shawnee.  If you want to contribute to disaster relief, you can contribute to Red Cross, Southern Baptist Disaster Relief, Texas Baptist Men, or give to our church and we will send to these four churches as they help their communities recover.)

Of course, these national stories are not the only stories of suffering that affect us right now.  We are experiencing several difficult situations on a local level.  Many of us are grieving and asking questions about Lizzie Wallace’s cancer and the waitress who was struck by lightning last week.  We are asking questions and trying to make sense of all this suffering.

On Friday, I had an interesting conversation with two young men who are not members of our church.  We were talking about all the suffering in the national news—Sandy Hook; West, Texas; Boston Marathon; and now the tornadoes.  One man said, “I wish there was a TV channel for good news.  We could watch it when we get tired of all the bad news.”  Of course, you can probably guess what I said to him.  I said, “Come to church on Sunday and hear the Good News.”

That’s what I want to do today.  Given all the bad news we have heard lately, I want to share some Good News about suffering and evil today.

Romans 5: 1 – 5.

It is entirely possible that Paul is making a political statement in his reference to “peace with God.”  At the time Paul wrote the Book of Romans, most Roman citizens would acknowledge that they were living in peaceful times.  There were no civil wars going on within the Empire, and there were no external wars with other nations.  However, this peace was made possible through the presence of Roman soldiers in every corner of the Empire.  It was an enforced peace.  People lived in fear of what would happen if they disturbed the peace.

According to Paul, there is a better kind of peace.  This peace was not accomplished by soldiers’ threatening to kill other people.  This peace was accomplished when Jesus gave his own life on the cross.

Perhaps Paul has in mind the Jewish concept of Shalom.  We usually think of Shalom as the Hebrew word for “peace,” but it is much more than that.  Shalom is actually the word for “wholeness” or the state of being “complete.”  In this sense, Peace is not the absence of conflict…Peace is finally being made complete or whole…No longer lacking anything… Finally being the person God intended you to be.

It should not surprise us that Paul describes this state of Peace in theological terms.

Romans 5: 1 – 2…  1 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. 

This Scripture begins with the word “therefore.”  That tells us this passage is linked to the passage that comes before it.  Romans 5: 1 – 11 is a kind of conclusion to Romans 4.  In Romans 4, Paul uses the story of Abraham from the Old Testament to illustrate the connection between faith and righteousness. 

According to Genesis 15: 6, Abraham believed God and God credited righteousness to Abraham.  Paul uses this verse to teach us that righteousness is not something we earn for ourselves.  Paul says that righteousness does not depend on circumcision or on meticulously keeping all the commandments found in the Old Testament Law.  Instead, righteousness is something God credits to us (or gives us as a free gift of God’s Grace) when we have faith.

If you read straight through from Romans 4 to Romans 5, it is possible to think that Paul has changed the subject here, since he doesn’t use the word “righteousness.”  Actually he does use it.  “Righteousness” is a noun which means to be in a right relationship with something—either a right relationship with the Old Testament Law or a right relationship with God himself.  The word “Justify” is the verb form of the same word.  To justify something is to put it in a right relationship.

In one sense, “Justify” is a legal term from the courtroom.  A defendant stands before a judge to receive his sentence.  If the judge declares the defendant “not guilty,” he has been justified—placed in a right relationship with the law of the land and a right relationship with society at large.

I think there are several important points about Paul’s notion of “justify.”

First, it is important to note that this is written in the passive voice.  We do not work our way into a right relationship with God.  No one can be good enough, righteous enough or even religious enough to satisfy what God requires.  Instead, God does the work to make us righteous.  We do not do the work to make ourselves righteous.  Righteousness does not originate from inside—either our spiritual or intellectual life.  God does the work of righteousness for us and credits that righteousness to our lives. 

Second, we should note that the act of justification is an event in the past—“since we have been justified.”  God accomplished the work to make us righteous in the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus.

Third, it is important to note that we are justified through faith. On one hand, Paul says we are no different from Abraham.  Abraham was not justified by his ability to keep the Law, because the Law did not exist when God credited Abraham as righteous.  Abraham was not justified by circumcision, because there was no such thing as circumcision when God credited Abraham as righteous.  Abraham was made righteous by God, because Abraham believed God.  On the other hand, Paul tells us there is both an objective and subjective side to being made righteous.

Salvation is an objective and accomplished fact.  When Jesus died on the cross and rose again, he accomplished our salvation.  The crucifixion and resurrection happened one time in history.  It was a once and for all / complete act of salvation which does not have to be repeated.  In that sense, salvation is an objective fact.  However, there is a subjective side to salvation in that it must be received by individual people through faith.

The person who has been justified through faith experiences peace with God.  This is not peace as the world gives—peace that is a temporary absence of conflict.  This is the peace that only God can give us—peace which is best described as a new kind of relationship with God.  Our relationship with God is no longer defined by the sin that separates us from God and which deserves God’s full wrath.  God has given us the one thing we could not do for ourselves.  God has invited us to experience Peace and wholeness which are only possible when we are in a proper / righteous relationship with God.

Romans 5: 3 – 5…  3 Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.

According to Paul’s words in verse 3 – 5, there is a purpose in suffering.  “Suffering produces perseverance, perseverance (produces character), and character (produces) hope.”

We ought to read these words in light of what Paul says later on in Romans 8: 28, “And we know that in all things God works together for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose (NIV).”

Suffering by itself is inanimate.  It has no life of its own and cannot accomplish anything in our lives by itself.  Paul tells us to think of suffering as an instrument or tool, which can be used by God to accomplish God’s good purpose in our lives.  Through suffering, God teaches us how to persevere.  Through perseverance, God develops our character to become more like the character of Jesus.  Through character development, God instills hope in us—a hope that does not disappoint.  This is a hope that will be fulfilled when God keeps his promises.

One way to think of this is to make a very common illustration about the way our physical bodies grow and develop.  There is only one way to grow your muscles and to make them stronger.  Muscles grow when they face resistance.  Without resistance, our muscles would become weak and flabby.

In the same way, suffering is exercise for our spiritual lives.  We grow spiritually to become the men and women God wants us to become—molded into the image of Jesus our Lord—through suffering and perseverance.  This is the reason why Paul tells us to rejoice in our sufferings.  When we suffer, it means God is using the difficulties of life to make us stronger in faith and in character.  It means God isn’t finished working on us.

Of course, we should not take this to mean God is the cause of our suffering…

A couple of weeks ago, I preached about the character of God.  What are the necessary characteristics which make God God?  We could come up with a long list of God’s characteristics, but it is possible to summarize the character of God into four perfections.  God is perfect in Goodness; perfect in Love; perfect in Wisdom; and perfect in Power

If God is perfectly Good and Loving, then God only gives good and loving gifts and therefore does not cause human suffering.  If God is perfect in Wisdom and Power, then God is capable of using the worst human circumstances to accomplish Good and Loving purposes. 

Suffering does not come from God.  In fact, the Bible does teach us about a strong connection between evil and suffering.  This connection goes all the way back to the story of creation and fall in Genesis 3.

When God created the first man and woman, he placed them in a Paradise we call the Garden of Eden.  As long as Adam and Eve lived in the Garden, they experienced Paradise.  There was a perfect relationship between humanity and God.  There was a perfect relationship between human man and woman.  There was a perfect relationship between humanity and creation.  But, this only lasted until sin entered into creation.  When Adam and Eve sinned, all of these relationships were broken.

Sin is a spiritual problem.  It separates humanity from God.  But, sin also has physical consequences.  The relationship between man and woman was broken—God told the woman she would desire after her husband, and he would rule over her (no longer a perfect relationship).  The relationship between humanity and creation was broken—God told the man that the earth was cursed as a result of their sin, and Adam would have to labor and toil to eke out an existence from the land (the world was no longer a Paradise).

This is a very important part of the Christian worldview.  The culture around us may challenge us, “If God is a good God, and if God is all-powerful, then why didn’t God create a world without evil and suffering?” 

There are two answers to this question…

First, we believe that God is both Good and all-Powerful.  If God is only Good, then he is not Powerful.  He does not have the Power to direct our lives and circumstances.  If God is only Powerful, then God is not Good.  This view gives God responsibility for everything that happens—both good and evil.  But if God is both Good and Powerful, then God does not cause human suffering.  When suffering happens, God can use our suffering to bring about something good out of evil.

Second, we can say that God did create a world without evil and suffering.  Evil was not God’s creation.  Evil is the result of human freedom and the fall.  God placed the first humans in Paradise, where everything was in perfect harmony.  But this Paradise did not last very long.  It only lasted until sin entered into what God created as good.

Perhaps it would be helpful to use the definition of evil offered by Saint Augustine of Hippo.  Saint Augustine said, “Evil is the privation (or absence) of good.”  What God created to be good (human free will) was used for evil when it ceased to be good.  We might think of something as simple as a knife.  A knife is neither good nor evil.  But a person can use a knife for either good or evil purposes.  A knife can be used to make sandwiches, or a knife can be used to cause harm to another person.  Evil and suffering are the results of something good gone bad—human freedom used to serve selfish purposes.

When we speak of the fall, we acknowledge two ongoing realities.  On one hand, sin infects all of human life.  All humans have a sinful nature, which affects the choices we make on a day by day, minute by minute basis (a spiritual reality).  On the other hand, sin has changed our relationship with the entire created order (a physical reality).  Both humanity and the created order are fallen.  This explains why we deal with evil on a personal, spiritual level and why we experience natural, physical evil in things like cancer, hurricanes and tornadoes.

The Christian Gospel describes a redeemed humanity through faith in Jesus.  AND, the Gospel describes a redeemed creation—the New Heaven and New Earth—which will replace the old order of things at the Second Coming of Jesus.

Conclusion

The problem of suffering can be summarized in the question, “Why do bad things happen to good people?”  Of course, the Christian answer is that there are no good people.  We are infected by sin and live in a world affected by evil.  We needed a Savior to defeat the sin, suffering and evil common to all of us.

Our only hope in a world of evil and suffering is not a good answer.  Our only hope is the Good News.  God created a good world, a Paradise.  God’s good world fell into sin.  But, God loved humanity so much that he sent his Son to be our suffering Lord.  Ultimately, we will not be comfortable in this world without Jesus, because we were created for a different world.  We were created for Paradise.  Jesus died and rose again so we can live in a better world—the world we were created for.