One thing that the Corona Virus has been particularly good at highlighting is how many people are worried about toilet paper. There was a scary moment when many of us were down to the last pack of four, not sure if the supermarket stocks would be replenished in time. But the Corona Virus hasn’t simply got us scared about toilet paper stocks, if nothing else the Corona Virus has awoken us to the fragility of human life. Fear has been one of the inevitable results. Not simply a fear of running out of toilet paper, but fear that we’ll get the virus and suffer, fear that other people will get it and suffer. More than that, it has awoken in many people a fear of death that was – up until now – lingering silently in the background. The fear of death is one that we could usually ignore with some success. Before the lockdown we could fill our lives with things to distract us from our own fragility and mortality. We could go out for meals, travel wherever we wanted, and meet who we wanted to meet. Now though, we’re stuck at home. We have had to isolate ourselves as a deadly disease spreads and we have had to face the frightening possibility of our own death and suffering. The mathematician and religious thinker, Blaise Pascal put it this way,
“…imagine a king attended with every pleasure he can feel, if he be without diversion and be left to consider and reflect on what he is, this feeble happiness will not sustain him; he will necessarily fall into forebodings of dangers, of revolutions which may happen, and, finally, of death and inevitable disease…” (Pascal, Pensees)
At such a time as this we’re all bound to ask the question: is there any hope to be had in suffering? Is there any way out? Is there any way in which all sadness and suffering might be made untrue?
The apostle Paul (one of Jesus’ early followers) claims that there is. In his letter to Christians in ancient Rome[1], he writes, “…I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.” (Rom. 8:18). Paul has a confident hope that all present sufferings will be as nothing in comparison to the glory that will be revealed. In other words, he believes in a God so powerful that he can bring good out of evil, and such a good that will render all present sufferings a distant memory.
In Dostoyevsky’s famous novel, The Brothers Karamazov, Ivan Karamazov puts it like this,
“…like a young babe, I am convinced that our sufferings will be healed and smoothed away, that the whole offensive comedy of human conflict will disappear like a pathetic mirage, like the infamous fabrication of the Euclidean human mind, as weak and undersized as an atom, and that ultimately, during the universal finale, at the moment of eternal harmony, there will occur and become manifest something so precious that it will be sufficient for all hearts…(Penguin Classics, 308).
What a hope! Now, that’s not to say that someone like Paul is dismissive of pain and suffering. Paul (v.22) talks about how creation groans as in the pains of childbirth (which my wife tells me is pretty painful). He points out too that Christian believers also groan inwardly and wait eagerly for suffering and evil to be defeated (v.23). Paul is fully aware of the harsh reality of suffering and evil. In another letter he recounts his own personal experiences of suffering. He writes,
“Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; and a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure.” (2 Cor. 11:24-27).
That’s a pretty extensive list of hardships. But none of this pain and suffering caused Paul to lose hope. While we do suffer now, Paul says that “…we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” (v.28). That’s why he talks about the pain we currently experience as ‘the pains of childbirth’. In comparison to the pain of death, the pain and suffering of childbirth is hopeful. It looks forward to new life.
So again, Paul believes in a God loving enough and powerful enough to crush evil and suffering and to bring newness of life to those who trust in him. This God will provide such a blessing to those who trust in him that all our current sufferings will seem like a bad dream. A dream that we’ve woken from and left far behind.
So why do Paul – and Christians more broadly – take this view of God, hope and suffering? How can someone like the famous Christian thinker, Cyril of Alexandria, talk about this hope as a “future certainty.”[2] Well, Christians have this hope in God because of what he’s done in history. It’s not simply that God has said that he loves us and is powerful enough to overcome evil, it’s that he’s demonstrated it in Jesus.
Take my Dad as an example. My Dad has told me on numerous occasions that he loves me and would help me if I was in trouble. But I believe him when he says this because he’s demonstrated his love and care for me in the past. For example, when I was a teenager, I was due to go on a school trip to Sri Lanka. But when I reached the airport I found that I’d lost my passport. I didn’t know where it was. I thought back to when I’d last had it and could remember having it on the bus. I had it on the bus when I threw my banana skin in the bin. And then it suddenly dawned on me that I must have thrown the passport in the bin with the banana skin! I rang my Dad. He got in the car, found the minibus and searched through the bin for the passport. He found the passport and drove to Heathrow in the early hours of the morning to pick me up. He’d clearly demonstrated to me that what he’d said about caring for me was true and that I could be certain of it.
It’s the same with God. God hasn’t made promises or claims and not backed them up. God hasn’t simply talked about loving us, he’s actually demonstrated it. You see, Jesus Christ, in his death and resurrection, demonstrates both God’s love for us and God’s power to defeat death. And this is what Paul clings to. This is where Paul grounds his hope in the awesome goodness and power of God. So, he writes, “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?” (v.32). You see, in sending Jesus to die on our behalf God gives us concrete evidence of his love. He has not abandoned us, instead he comes to rescue us in person.
So, for Paul, and Christians more broadly, it’s abundantly clear that God cares for us. If someone is willing to give up their most valuable possession for us, then we know that they love us completely. That’s why marriage is such a glorious idea. That’s why marriage is such a clear and beautiful declaration of love. When a man and a woman get married they give each other that which is most valuable, their very selves. God, in giving up his Son for us has given us his very self. It’s no surprise to find that our relationship with God in the Bible is so often compared to a marriage relationship.
But of course, human beings are limited, and we fail in our commitments and relationships. And this is where God’s love differs so radically from human love. Where human love is temporary and varies in strength, God’s love is unfailing. Because God is all powerful, his love is an everlasting love and a never-ending love. It is a relentless love that cannot be overcome. The resurrection is the greatest demonstration of this fact. So, Paul points out that Jesus not only died for us, more than that, he was raised for us, and now sits at the right hand of God, speaking to God on our behalf (v. 34). You see, not even death can stop God’s love. Paul bursts into a song of confident hope,
“Who shall separate up from the love of Christ, Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” (vv.35-37).
So, the answer to the question of whether there is hope for us in suffering is ‘yes’. But we must also be absolutely clear that this hope is only available in and through Jesus Christ (v.32). Paul has made this point repeatedly throughout. It is with him (Jesus) that we will receive this amazing glory that will infinitely outweigh all suffering. It is Jesus who works on our behalf (v.34). It is Jesus who died for us, and Jesus who rose again for us.
Now, many react to statements like this as overly exclusive. Why can’t God give us happiness apart from Jesus? To this, I think C. S. Lewis gives an insightful answer, “God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing.” You see, when we understand who God is and who Jesus is as ‘God in the flesh’, then we begin to realise why lasting happiness and glory can only come through him. The Bible tells us that God is love. The Bible tells us that God is infinitely good. The Bible tells us that God is unendingly beautiful. The Bible also tells us that we are not loving, that we reject the good and that we have defiled and disfigured ourselves in the process. The only solution is for God, the one who is perfectly loving, and good, and beautiful to do something about it. This he does in Jesus. Jesus takes our sins and puts them to death by dying in our place. Jesus puts us right with God and so our enjoyment of God can only come through him.
But if we reject God; if we reject Jesus, then we lose that. Because enjoyment of God is dependent on our relationship with God, we can’t have everlasting joy apart from him. Asking for everlasting joy apart from God is like asking to be able to taste and enjoy lemon meringue pie without having to eat it. There are no short cuts, there’s no getting around the fact that if you want to enjoy the pie, you have to eat it. But once you’ve eaten it, nothing can separate you from that.
In the same way, once you’ve put your trust in Jesus, nothing can separate you from the joy that comes as a result and the certain hope of everlasting joy that is yet to come. For this reason, Paul can say that, “I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (vv.38-39). Jesus has conquered death, he is the one who made the angels, he knows the beginning of time to its end, he has all power in himself, he is not limited by space or time. As such, nothing can separate us from the love of God in Jesus. With Jesus there is hope during suffering and he wants you to have that hope too.
The only question left is: will you trust in Jesus?
Soli Deo Gloria
[1] Specifically, Romans 8:18-39.
[2] Cyril of Alexandria, “Explanation of the Letter to the Romans,” in Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture: New Testament Volume VI, p.221.
Geometric Theology 