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God uses suffering to achieve the glorious
transformation of our characters to prepare us for service and joy in the next
life
BY RANDY
ALCORN
“The whole creation is on tiptoe to see
the wonderful sight of the sons of God coming into their own.” - Romans
8:19 Phillips
The weaker our concept of God and Heaven, the
stronger our doubt that Heaven will more than compensate for our present
sufferings.
If Heaven did not exist, we could never solve
the problem of evil and suffering, for we would never receive any lasting
compensation for it.
Nanci read me letters written in 1920 by her
grandmother, Ana Swanson, to her family in Sweden.
Because Ana suffered severe health problems, she
moved to Montana to be cared for by relatives.
Her husband, Edwin, remained in Oregon, day and
night working and caring for their seven children.
Ana’s letters tell how Edwin wore himself out,
became sick, and died.
Ana lacked the strength to raise her younger
children, so they, including Nanci’s mother, Adele, were placed for adoption.
Ana’s letters reflect her broken heart, her
nagging guilt… and her faith in God.
Ana and Edwin loved Jesus. Perhaps they asked a
good God why he would allow such tragedy.
That day, Nanci and I considered what God might
give this broken family on the New Earth.
Certainly, they will be healthy — Ana won’t live
with illness, fatigue, grief, anxiety, and guilt.
Edwin won’t work himself to death, pining away
for his dearest companion.
Based on what I know of God, and the promises of
Jesus about our earthly fortunes being reversed in Heaven, I believe that in
the resurrection God may give this family wonderful times together that the old
Earth denied them.
Perhaps they’ll travel together and God will
grant them indescribably rich times with one another, parents and children.
How like God that would be!
God originally planned that human beings live
unswervingly happy, fulfilled, righteous, and God-centered lives on Earth.
If our current lives present the only
opportunities for that, then God’s plan has failed. But if we know the God
revealed in Scripture, we realize his plans do not fail.
His promises to resurrect both us and the earth
itself guarantee his plan will forever succeed.
We want every chapter of our lives to feel good.
It doesn’t work that way.
The current chapter may be terribly hard, but
the story hasn’t ended.
God promises a final chapter in which he ties
together all the story’s loose ends and launches us into an eternal sequel of
incredibly grand proportions.
Make no mistake — the promise of God is that all
his children, including Ana and Edwin Swanson and each of us who know Jesus,
will live happily ever after.
In order to share Christ’s glory forever on the
New Earth, we must share his sufferings temporarily on the fallen Earth.
When the New Testament discusses suffering, it
repeatedly puts Heaven before the eyes of believers.
Sadly, many churches fail to follow this
example.
When we say nothing, or put our hope in a health
and wealth gospel, or hope only in medical advances, we rob God’s people of an
eternal perspective.
“Now if we are children, then
we are heirs — heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his
sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory” (Romans 8:17).
Paul says we will become Christ’s heirs and
share in his glory if we share in his sufferings. No suffering, no glory.
F. F. Bruce writes, “It
is not merely that the glory is a compensation for the suffering; it actually
grows out of the suffering. There is an organic relation between the two for
the believer as surely as there was for his Lord.”
Paul offers a one-word answer
to the question, “Why suffering?”
He replies, “Glory.”
Glory is a state of high honor, involving a
brilliant, radiant beauty.
Our glory is secondary, not primary. We are not
its source, God is.
He is the sun who shines upon us, bestowing an
eternal glory rooted in himself, purchased for us by his suffering on the
cross.
God will be glorified by imparting his honor to
us and sharing it with us.
Only an immeasurably greater glory can eclipse
our present suffering — and that is exactly what will happen.
Romans 8:18 says God will not create that glory,
but will reveal it. It’s already there — just not yet manifested.
The treasures we’ll enjoy won’t lie only outside
us, but, Paul says, “in us.”
God uses suffering to achieve the glorious
transformation of our characters to prepare us for service and joy in the next
life (see 2
Corinthians 4:17–18).
God will not simply wait for our deaths, then
snap his fingers to make us what he wants us to be.
He begins that process here and now, using our
suffering to help us grow in Christlikeness.
Phillips renders Romans
8:19, “The whole creation is on tiptoe to see the wonderful sight of
the sons of God coming into their own.”
As a master artist’s magnum opus awaits
unveiling at an exhibit, so our Christlikeness, forged in suffering, awaits
revealing at the Master’s perfect time.
Note
from EPM: Randy's book If God Is Good is available for purchase online, in
local bookstores, and from the Eternal Perspective Ministries website. (Check
out the If God Is Good Chapter Summaries for a preview of the book's content.)
Randy
Alcorn (@randyalcorn) is the author of
fifty-some books and the founder and director of Eternal Perspective
Ministries.
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