A Pastoral Word

In closing, it is obvious that you, the reader, have not struggled through this because you have intellectual curiosities. You have done so because you have existential pain. You have suffered.  You have lost. People close to you have died. You’ve watched loved ones shipwrecked on the reefs of a world that cares not a whit for your heart. You have been sick.  Your children have been sick. Your parents have died. You’ve not had the resources required to meet the needs of your life. The list goes on. 

You are hurting. 

In light of your reality, all of the reasoning of the last several pages comes back hollow. The question that began this article still haunts you: 

Why would a loving God just stand by and watch this happen? 

Perhaps it’s true that God’s attributes restrain the freedom of His will to right all wrongs instantaneously.  If that is true, perhaps that infuriates you rather than soothes you. Perhaps that makes you less apt to worship Him rather than more. Why worship a God that binds His omnipotence by His perfection? What good is that God to you in your pain? 

Grant, for a moment, that what has been said is true.  There is a morally perfect God. He can accomplish all that He purposes, and He has purposed to eliminate evil because He is good.  However, He has purposed to do it in a unique and particular way to best reveal Himself and display His glory in the process. In the meantime, you suffer. 

This God could seem heartless, seeking His maximal glory while you writhe on the hook of evil, only a small fraction of which is your own fault. 

If he left you to writhe alone while He was glorified, you would be right, but that isn’t what He has done.  He, enthroned in ageless glory and splendor, unable to suffer because of His divine nature, looked upon mankind that He created and loved and saw their pain.  He looked through time and saw your pain. 

He didn’t have to do anything about it, but He did. 

He didn’t have to step into it, but He did.

As God, He could not feel cold, pain, hunger, loss, deprivation, want, shame, guilt, curse, or remorse. Divine perfection cannot encounter these things.  So, he added to His divinity humanity.  He took on flesh. He became human, like you. 

Like you, he knew cold, pain, hunger, loss, deprivation, and want.  Because of you, he knew guilt, shame, curse, and remorse. 

If God had only gained glory while we suffered, you might be justified in being angry and withholding your worship.  But that isn’t the God that exists.  The God of the heavens saw your pain and loved you enough to share in it. He is not intellectually able to comprehend your suffering. He has felt it firsthand.  He weeps as you do, alongside you--within you, if you will permit Him to be there. The glory of God revealed in suffering is not spectacle but solidarity — the glory of a God who bleeds.

A friend sits with you in pain. A father works to end it. God does both—and more.  The ultimate solution to the evil in your life has been accomplished through the work of Jesus, God in the flesh.  God on the cross.  That solution is sure and is coming.  

In the meantime, He delights to be with you as you suffer.  He desires to be in your pain with you, in your life and heart, while you wait for the redemption of this world. 

Will you let Him? Even if you cannot yet say yes, He will sit beside you until you can. 

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A One-Page Summary of the "Glory of God Theodicy" and a simple text version of this article are available below. 

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