Commissioning : Human Condition #2

Last week we talked about our human condition, specifically we talked about how we were created to have an intimate friendship with God but sin has broken that relationship. Sin also creates a separation from God which is eternal unless we find a solution. We discovered the solution is not an idea or a formula, it is a person, Jesus Christ.

Today we want to talk about how sin’s impact effects God’s plan for our lives. In a sense we are going to answer the question, "If God knew that sin was going to enter into His creation then why did He bother to create us—why are we here?" To answer that question, we are going back on the highway of human condition this week. Like last time, we will take some exit ramps from time to time to take a closer look at a few key points.

One of the central questions that comes up in conversations about this topic is this: "If God is all powerful and loving, how could he permit sin, suffering, or even eternal torment in hell to exist?" Charles Templeton asked that question. He was once a preacher in the 1940’s. He was a ministry partner of Billy Graham. But after a period of time, Charles Templeton decided he could not believe in God anymore. And so he became a self-professing atheist and wrote books about why he could not believe in a loving God. I have a recently-made recording of Charles Templeton explaining why he struggles to believe in a loving God.

(Play 2 minute recording of atheist author describing a baby who died of starvation and his mother in Africa)

How do we explain this woman’s situation, or for that matter, situations that we find ourselves in that are painful and unfair? What about Columbine High School and all those students and teachers who were senselessly and innocently killed? What about the relative who contracted cancer and painfully wasted away for months? Some of your non-Christian friends might say: "If Jesus is the answer to my problems and God is so loving that He wants me to have a fulfilled life like they had in the garden of Eden, then why do so many people suffer? Or for that matter, why do I suffer? Why do I have a stressful job, why is my marriage falling apart, why did someone I love get a terrible disease? How did we get to this point? Where is God in all of this? Is He loving or not? Is He able to help us or not? What role do people play in all of this and what role is God playing? Good questions. We are going to explore these questions today.

First of all, let’s pull off the highway for a moment. One of our problems today is we view pain and suffering on a relative scale. Let’s test this. If the following painful situation stirs sympathy in you give me a thumbs up, if it stirs little sympathy give me a thumbs down:

• Terminal cancer
• Broken leg while skiing on vacation
• Hang nail
• Influenza (flu)
• Starvation
• Hemorrhoids
• AIDS
• Migraine headache

You see the problem here? Sometimes people judge God on whether He is loving for not for allowing us to go through this suffering and pain based on their relative pain and suffering scale. The fact is the Bible tells we will never receive more than we can handle. In fact I think God probably holds back far more pain and suffering than we should receive based on our sinfulness. I like the way Christian songwriter Rich Mullins once said it. He said some people say it is unfair when an 18-year-old gets killed in a car accident with a drunk driver at fault. But I am shocked and amazed that God is so loving and merciful that He allows us to live as long as 18 years considering how bad we are! Back on the highway.

If you remember last week’s teaching you know the Bible defines sin is anything that denies the truth, or not doing the right thing, or denies our true identity. We found out from our memory verse (Romans 6:23) the penalty for our sin is death—eternal death. Of course we discovered the solution to our eternal death penalty problem is Jesus and His substitute death on our behalf. So, one of the useful results of pain and suffering is that it helps us recognize our badness or our sinfulness. That recognition is one of the key ingredients that drives many to saving relationship with Jesus. (It’s exactly what Nancy was talking about before communion when she mention the word repentance.) And so as a non-Christian, suffering and pain can make us aware of our desperate need for Jesus. And in fact many people’s testimonies involve a trying or difficult event that "woke them up" and made them realize their need for a Savior.

But what we also need to understand is that while sin can be dealt with and forgiven from an eternal standpoint, we still deal with the consequences of our own sin while we are living here on earth. If I commit a sin that sends me to prison and there receive the forgiveness a relationship with Jesus offers, that fact probably won’t change my prison sentence or my speeding ticket or my tax penalty. I still deal with the consequences of my sin in this life. No, life is not a curse, it was meant to bring Glory to God and to fulfill us. The very thing God created us to be is fulfilled. But the world’s fallen nature will now create a struggle for everyone.

Perhaps the verse that stands out to me as describing that struggle most clearly is Galations 5:17, "¹⁷The old sinful nature loves to do evil, which is just opposite from what the Holy Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are opposite from what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, and your choices are never free from this conflict." While on earth, you are never free from the conflict. Another revealing verse is Genesis 3:19 "¹⁹ All your life you will sweat to produce food, until your dying day." Keep in mind that work or vocation is not the curse. Once again vocation was given by God to people before sin came into the world. It’s just that sin has so affected creation that nothing is quite as reliable as it was in the garden of Eden. Dry spells will come sometimes in countries with evil and uncompassionate governments creating famine, starvation, and death. Equipment, utensils, and tools break, rust, and wear-out. Our bodies will develop injuries that make it painful to work physically.

All these factors lead to suffering, but God in His wisdom has created a plan to use even our painful wrong decisions as opportunities for us to grow. So, how does God use suffering for our growth?

For instance pain and suffering can actually unite God’s family. The church has been called Christ’s body and as you know when one part of your body hurts it can affect your whole body. An infected toenail or planter wart announces to me that my foot is important and needs attention. If you step on my sore toe, I may yell, ‘Hey, that’s me!’ My whole body feels the pain. People with illness like leprosy which destroys sensation in certain body parts wind up loosing appendages all the time because they can’t tell when they are being hurt. Pain is the very mechanism that forces me to stop what I’m doing and pay attention to the hurting member.

In the same way, we members of Christ’s body (His church) should learn to attend to the pains of the rest of the body. In so doing we become a sort of "Jesus with skin on" and as a result we individually and collectively become more like Him.

2 Corinthians 1:4-6 "⁴He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When others are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us. ⁵ You can be sure that the more we suffer for Christ, the more God will shower us with his comfort through Christ. ⁶So when we are weighed down with troubles, it is for your benefit and salvation! For when God comforts us, it is so that we, in turn, can be an encouragement to you." The experience of our sufferings gives us the opportunity to comfort others with God’s comfort He has given to us. And therefore we become more like Him which is our goal as according to Ephesians 4:15.

I want to take one final exit ramp at this point. One of your God-ordained roles in life is to help others who are experiencing pain and suffering. But how do you do that? I am no expert, but at times we tend to try and help people by not necessarily being Christ-like, but by replacing God in His role. What I mean is we tend to share our view of why this or that happened and sometimes we develop all these elaborate plans for how we are going to fix all of this. For instance, say your spouse comes home and has had a bad day because of something someone has done to him or her. My tendency is to say, well obviously this other person is in the wrong. We will fix this, you tell them this and that and if they don’t do it then they will have to answer to me. Probably a better approach to help someone who is struggling or suffering would be to:

1. Allow people to share their pain stories with you and say to them thank you for sharing your pain with me or with us if you are in a small group setting.

2. And then most times, I will say it again, most times it is best NOT to give advice or try to explain why God would allow this or that situation to happen. Simply say, ‘I grieve with you and so does God. Can I pray with you to the God of comfort to help us right now?’

And besides, when you look at some people’s situation, answers don’t come easily. Why does God allow a world of unfaithful people, sick children, no money, and no hope? We want to say, "God come down here and look at this and do something about it." Come to think of it, God did come. He came to earth in human flesh, and saw and felt for himself what this world is like, particularly when people are far from God. The fact that Jesus came and felt and suffered and died does not instantly remove pain from our lives. But it does show that God did not sit idly by and watch us suffer in isolation. How did He respond to pain and suffering? When He met a person in pain, He was deeply moved with compassion. Not once did He say, "Endure your hunger! Swallow your grief." When Jesus’ friend Lazarus died, he cried. He healed nearly every diseased person He came across. He routinely interrupted funerals to raise people back to life. He broke deeply rooted customs to set things right, because of Jesus knows our suffering. H Hebrews 4:14-16 says, "¹⁴That is why we have a great High Priest who has gone to heaven, Jesus the Son of God. Let us cling to him and never stop trusting him. ¹⁵This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same temptations we do, yet he did not sin. ¹⁶So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it." Back on the highway…

Of course, let’s be honest. When it comes right down to it, there is some pain and suffering that just doesn’t make sense. I think that is to be expected because ultimately our world’s sin is irrational. It doesn’t make sense. It really did not make sense for Satan to rebel against God in the expectation of being able to exalt himself above God. Nor did it make sense for Adam and Eve to think that there could be any gain in disobeying the words of their Creator. Let’s not make temptation and sin glamorous like Hollywood does, committing sin is really equivalent to becoming temporarily insane. It’s denying God’s plan, His best for us. That insanity creates unexplainable pain and suffering in our lives. Just ask the Apostle Paul from Romans 7 when he said, "…I really want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do the very thing I hate. ¹⁶I know perfectly well that what I am doing is wrong, and my bad conscience shows that I agree that the law is good…No matter which way I turn, I can’t make myself do right. I want to, but I can’t…Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord."

That’s where the final piece to the suffering puzzle gets filled in when you look at the end of the story. 1 Peter 5:9-11 "Remember that your Christian brothers and sisters all over the world are going through the same kind of suffering you are. ¹⁰In his kindness God called you to his eternal glory by means of Jesus Christ. After you have suffered a little while, he will restore, support, and strengthen you, and he will place you on a firm foundation. ¹¹All power is his forever and ever. Amen."

The piece to the suffering puzzle that will make the picture complete is eternity with God in heaven. It has been suggested that eternity in heaven will make a life-time of torture in a Nazi concentration camp seem like an insignificant bump in the road!

We are coming to the end of the road as far as the Highway of Human condition goes. And at the end of the road stands Jesus, just like He was standing at the beginning of the road and like He was all along the road. Even if you have turned away from Him and have chosen to sin His chief desire is to have an active love relationship with you. Don’t make this mistake. God is not like your High School principal, dressed in a gray suit, with those suspicious, stern-looking eyes that seem to say, "What are you up to?" I mean the guy can never remember your name, but he is all the time standing in the office, next to the file cabinet, leafing through your files and wondering, "Have you done anything wrong lately? Maybe I ought lower the boom, punish you just to make sure that you stay out of trouble." That's how a lot of people view God. But the Bible says you've got the wrong picture.

Don't we approach God with that same kind of suspicion. "Sure, Lord, I know You want to help me, and work in my life. But I don't know if I can trust You. I'm afraid You're going to be kind of rough in the way you handle me and you're going to make this painful for me. So, I not so sure that I want to get involved.

God is not like that at all. He is a God of grace, mercy, and peace. These words describe His attitude as well as His actions:

e.g. He is the doctor who cuts to the chase and tells you the truth. "You have leukemia He gets on the table next to you and donates His own blood and bone marrow to help you beat that terrible disease.

e.g. He is the judge that pronounces you guilty and gives you a stiff fine, but then He cashes in His own 401(k) so He can pay the fine for you and then He stands by your family over the next 18 months, paying all the bills while you work at a new job trying to get back on your own feet.

e.g. He is the gas station attendant, who sadly shakes his head when you ask " Am I close to the place I want to go?" And he very honestly tells you, "Buddy, you are way off course, on the wrong side of town, you are many, many, miles from where you ought to be." But then he wipes his hands, sits the rag down, crawls into his own pickup and begins to lead you through that maze of city streets, in the pouring rain and he takes you all the way to your destination.

That's the kind of God we have-He doesn't ignore the problem. He never hides from

Trouble. No matter how big the mess is that we have gotten ourselves into, He rolls up sleeves and says, "Here let Me help." And with eagerness and kindness He carefully puts us back on the right track. And He is willing again and again and again-as often as we need the help.

Romans 5:6-8: "⁶When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. ⁷Now, no one is likely to die for a good person, though someone might be willing to die for a person who is especially good. ⁸But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners."

How do you establish and maintain a relationship with a God like that? For the next couple of weeks we will be talking about that….