SUFFERING: Are you a suffering saint? Get hope from guest writer Joshua Waulk of Baylight Counseling, whose article appeared first here on his counseling website. This is part two of two parts. Used with permission. Read part one here.
What follows is part two a two-part series on an admittedly difficult topic. As a biblical counseling ministry, we regularly work with those who suffer in some of the most profound ways. Sometimes, we’re pressed to give unfiltered, theological answers to life’s hardest questions. We don’t resolve the problem of evil with this post, but we attempt to provide a faithful witness to the hope of the Gospel in the form of a letter. We pray it blesses and extends hope, even as it speaks frankly to the issue of suffering.
God Is Love in Suffering
By now, you may be feeling the trajectory of what I’m suggesting. I’ve just asserted that your suffering is, somehow and in some way, a matter of God’s will for you. This is a hard thing. Perhaps, the hardest of all. Haven’t we been taught that God is love (1 Jn. 4:8)? If you’re now suffering, and that at the hand of God, do we then conclude that the Bible is in error because God has been shown to be less than love? In the words of Paul, “By no means!” (Rom. 6:2).
What I share next will not tidy up all the loose ends of your good questions. Still, I want to encourage you by an appeal to what great theologians of church history said about our loving Father and His providence, according to their study of His word. Now, I know that you’re a Presbyterian and I’m a Baptist, but nevertheless, I’m going to make a direct reference to what the authors of the 1689 London Baptist Confession concluded, in agreement with the earlier Westminster Confession of Faith.
While these confessions are not “inspired Scripture,” they are great documents that summarize God’s word and what the Protestant church has historically believed. You’ll surely be faced with new questions as you read, but I hope you’ll be equally encouraged in your faith that God is with you, and that He’ll not allow you, as His adopted child, to be “cast headlong” (Ps. 37:24).
The Will of God in Suffering
Read for yourself then the words of the 1689 LBC 5.4, which correspond with the WCF 5.4:
The almighty power, unsearchable wisdom, and infinite goodness of God, so far manifest themselves in His providence, that His determinate counsel extends itself even to the first fall, and all other sinful actions both of angels and men; and that not by a bare permission, which also He most wisely and powerfully bounds, and otherwise orders and governs, in a manifold dispensation to His most holy ends; yet so, as the sinfulness of their acts proceeds only from the creatures, and not from God, who, being most holy and righteous, neither is nor can be the author or approver of sin.
These are humbling words about the will of our God who is indeed love and declares about Himself clearly and without hesitation, “I form light and create darkness; I make well-being and create calamity; I am the LORD, who does all these things” (Is. 45:7). I’m compelled to sit quietly after reading them myself. It’s hard to not feel the weight of God’s glory, yet Jesus calls us to Himself for the spiritual rest we desperately need, telling us that His “burden is light” (Matt. 11:28-30).
God is good and He’s good to us, even when our hearts tempt us to believe otherwise.
My friend, you’ve asked hard questions. Some in the church have provided you with answers that are contrary to the great tradition of our faith. In attempting to inoculate God from the appearance of sin, they’ve inadvertently obscured the fact that God, as the first cause of all things, does not sin (1689 LBC 5.2). Not now. Not ever. Fallen angels and evil men, as the secondary causes of suffering, corrupt (but do not finally thwart) the good purposes of God.
They are, indeed we all are, the progenitors of sinfulness in God’s creation.
Joy in Sorrow
For these and other reasons, I consider that God’s character is offended when men assert that He, with a “bare permission,” passively allows His children to suffer. Our God is too high, too wise, too holy, and too powerful for this to be the case. It doesn’t follow that He would simply permit Job to suffer while at the same time sanctify Job through that same suffering. Satan and his wicked schemes were tools in the hand of God for His glory and Job’s ultimate joy.
In the same way, these deep truths were what allowed Joseph to say with certainty to his brothers, “You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good” (Gen. 50:20). These weighty matters of doctrine were what allowed Paul to write, “We know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose” (Rom. 8:28). Ours is not a fatalistic faith, but one in which the God of the universe is actively involved in all things, even if those ways are not perceptible to our finite senses (1689 LBC 5.2).
Do you love God? Are you called according to His purpose?
Yes, I know you are, and therefore I have it on good authority that God will somehow work out your current trial for your good and His glory. The agents of evil in this world do not have the luxury of the last word or even the final act. Your trial is designed for you by our Creator God, who is in many ways more gloriously sovereign and providential than we dare imagine. The source of your pain intended it for your harm, but God has super-intended it for your sanctification (Phil.1:6).
These things express in part why I’m hopeful for you in this difficult time.
Friend, although I don’t know specific details of what’s ahead, I’m trusting in Him for your healing and restoration, whether here or in eternity. I’m interceding for you, praying in earnest to the God who “works everything according to the counsel of His will” (Eph. 1:11). Nothing can separate you from His love, not even the powers of hell (Rom. 8:38).
Your brother in Christ,
Josh