Why Does God Have To Do It This Way?
“But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you” (1 Peter 5:10, NKJV)
In response to my recent article titled “The Blessedness of Tribulation,” someone said that the message was a glorification of human suffering. Coming from a critic of religion, this assessment is understandable. However, there are also some Christians who have a somewhat similar mind, believing that nothing unpleasant should happen to a believer in God.
Truly, the biblical ideal is “No evil shall befall you, Nor shall any plague come near your dwelling” (Psalm 91:10). But the reality of the present situation is that believers do experience trouble. Indeed, going by the Lord’s words, it is unavoidable (John 16:33). The situation is comparable to the biblical teaching that God is “not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). But we know that many will perish.
The seeming contradiction can be resolved by considering that there is an ideal situation that God desires for his creation, but the reality of our fallen condition has caused a deviation from it. Restoration to the divine ideal is what redemption through Christ is about, and the process will necessarily require the condemnation of those who reject this offer of “so great a salvation” (Hebrews 2:2–3).
Yet, the question remains: Why does God have to do it this way?
This is a bigger question than can be fully addressed in this short article. We will limit the present attempt to why tribulations are necessary for the refinement and spiritual formation of those who are being saved, as proposed in my previous article. Why must we “suffer a while” before the Lord “perfects, establishes, strengthens, and settles” us, to use the language of our opening Scripture reading? [Since publishing this article, five sequels have been written to form a series with the same title addressing the broader problem of evil in the world. The other five parts of the article series are also available in Christian Community Reader’s Digest and on Christian Community Online.]
Let’s consider a more familiar reality, the working of medical science. There is an old folksy saying about medicines: “If it isn’t bitter, it won’t do you any good.” Not only are medical prescriptions often bitter, medical procedures can also be painful. And humans are not only physically sick but also suffer from spiritual or emotional ailments. Malice, wickedness, rage, laziness, pride, selfishness, greediness, and hate — to mention a few human emotional issues — are all spiritual ailments.
If nature and its resources, including human wisdom, hold the cure for our physical illnesses, however far we may still be from fully exploiting them, why should we suppose that our spiritual ailments cannot be overcome? And if the present medical solutions to physical ailments are often bitter and painful, why should the prescriptions for our spiritual sicknesses be otherwise?
The trials and tribulations we experience as Christians (1 Peter 4:16) are part of the process of our spiritual healing and rebirth. Like physical birth, this spiritual rebirth can get messy (1 Peter 4:12), but it ultimately “yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it” (Hebrews 12:11). Indeed, there is a sense in which a professing Christian should be concerned if they never experience this kind of travail in one way or the other (Hebrews 12:8). As Shakespeare wrote in Henry VI, “Let me embrace thee, sour adversity, for wise men say it is the wisest course.”
Scripture teaches, “All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 45:7). Our iniquity is the root of all our ailments, spiritual and physical, and the burden of their remedy was laid upon Jesus, according to the eternal laws of redemption. While Jesus’ suffering and death were a substitutionary atonement, we unavoidably share in the grief when the spiritual cure is applied to us (see Acts 14:21–22; Philippians 1:29; Colossians 1:24).
As it was with Christ, the strength to walk this testy path of redemption comes from our hope of what awaits us at the end of the road, and by focusing on him who has gone before us. As the apostle wrote, “looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2).
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