So many of us hear the word ‘theology’ and respond with glazing eyes – or rising hackles. We think ‘theology’ is only for those religious academics who aren’t afraid to think like philosophers or that ‘theology’ is the weapon of choice for those in spiritual authority over us. As one who has not been trained in academic theology but by living out my faith around those who have, I am learning to embrace the goodness of knowing who God is and how He and His Word work in us and in our world.
I’m learning to listen, to release fear, and to hold my ideas of God before God with humility. And it is a learning process, so I try to remain teachable while holding firm to the primary tenets of our faith.
All that to say, today I invite you to join me as we explore the theology of suffering, and I hope you won’t zone out or allow your defenses to go up. Instead, it is my sincere desire that we discover what Scripture has to say about pain and trials, struggles and suffering – and how God’s grace works in the midst of it all.
Why a Theology of Suffering
My first experience with a theology of suffering occurred when I joined the leadership team of a local Bible study. I eagerly dove into our First Peter homework and showed up for our initial meeting – only to collide into a conversation that contained ideas foreign to me.
The women would read passages such as, “Since Christ suffered physical pain, you must arm yourselves with the same attitude he had, and be ready to suffer, too” (1 Peter 4:1), and they would take away the belief that if Christ followers are not suffering, then we are not really Christians.
I couldn’t wrap my mind around what was happening. And it would take years before I had the language to name that our contrasting views of these Peter-passages stemmed from our differing theologies.
But I’ll tell you what this great collision did for me. It caused me to go to God. It pushed me into prayer and a closer reading of the Bible. It launched me into conversations with trusted friends who held more experience with theology and Scripture than I did. And through all of this, Holy Spirit opened my eyes to one particular fact of living out our faith in this world – theology matters.
There’s a biblical example that brings to light the impact of theology on the way we live. One day Jesus and his disciples came across a man who had been blind since birth, and the disciples asked, “Rabbi, why was this man born blind? Was it because of his own sins or his parents’ sins?” (John 9:2 NLT).
Jesus responded, “It was not because of his sins or his parents’ sins. This happened so the power of God could be seen in him” (v.3).
Jesus’ response crashed right into a long-held belief about the defects of our bodies, about struggles in general – a theology that said suffering is a direct result of sin.1 Despite the fact that the Book of Job directly comes against this belief with the reality that suffering has many causes,2 Jews of Jesus’ day moved through the world believing that all suffering was the consequence of sin – a belief that flowed right out of their understanding of a God who only gives what is merited.
In our culture today, we often slip into similar thought patterns, especially when we keep going to God to ask what we have done wrong to deserve suffering. As I’ve pondered this common, and often faulty, response,* I’ve wondered if it’s because we’ve allowed worldly ideas of ‘karma’ – the idea that we get what’s coming to us, good or bad – to seep into our Christian worldview. Or, perhaps, it’s an adjacent belief that stems from our western value of ‘earning’ – where we carry over the mode of earning grades and promotions and respect into our Christian faith, believing that we get what’s warranted.
All of this is important to uncover within ourselves so that we understand why we believe and respond the way we do – even when it comes to suffering.
One time that I personally experienced the reality and depth of senseless suffering was when my cousin and his wife died. Our family suffered two untimely deaths within months of each other. And we were broken. We desperately wanted to understand why.
In the middle of my own grief, I heard the differentiating words from my dad as he bravely delivered the eulogy for my cousin. He helped us move out of the vicious, unending cycle of asking why into the place of looking to the Who. Dad helped us understand that only by drawing closer to God are we able to move through such pain.
Isaiah understood the truth that we will pass through waters that will threaten to sweep us under, but with God we will not drown. Isaiah wanted us to understand that we will go through the fire, but with God we will not be burned (43:2).
Jesus tried to prepare us for life in this world, and He didn’t sugar-coat it, telling His disciples that “in this world you will have trouble” (John 16:33a). We. Will. Have. Trouble. We will suffer. There will be pain.
So then, Peter asks, why are we so surprised when suffering lands on our doorstep (1 Peter 4:12)? “Fiery trials” happen to everyone, everywhere, all the time. In other words, to be human is to suffer.3 Yet it is our temptation to try to assign reason and meaning to suffering, when really our call is to draw nearer to God with all our honesty and vulnerability – to follow Jesus’ example (1 Peter 2:21). “It’s our job to pursue God” rather than reasons.4
In all of this, we get to choose our responses to suffering, and to respond well requires us to understand who God is. With a healthy theology, we can choose to hold onto our good Father and His love. We can believe that the hope we have as Jesus-followers is what sets us apart from everyone else in the world. We can “cling to God” and discover that even when we have no answer for why we suffer, we have God, and He will carry us through the waters and shield us from the flames.4
Grace for Suffering
The night Jesus prepared His disciples for the trouble they would run into, He didn’t leave them without hope. In the next breath, He offered grace: “But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33b). In other words, through Christ’s victory over the grave, there is power and grace sufficient enough to carry us through whatever we face.
In his letter to the scattered, persecuted Church, Peter wants all believers to know God as “the God of all grace;” in doing so, he encourages us that though we suffer in this life, by His grace God will restore us, making us strong, firm, and steadfast (1 Peter 5:10 NIV). By His grace, God will carry us and set us upon a firm foundation (v.10 NLT).
Peter knows the power of grace in the midst of suffering. On the night of Jesus’ arrest, Peter suffered the horror of watching his friend, the Messiah, be arrested, questioned, beaten. His suffering led him to deny Jesus – three times. He turned his back on the One he had chosen to follow. So the grief Peter felt after Jesus’ death was multiplied by the pain of his shame.
Yet Jesus didn’t leave him there! Appearing on the beach where Peter and his friends were fishing, Jesus got close enough for Peter to choose his response to his suffering (John 21:1,4). And Peter leapt from the boat and swam to his Savior (v.7). He chose Jesus – even as his heart remained heavy with guilt.
As they walked together after breakfast, Jesus asked Peter three times if he loved Him – once for each of Peter’s denials (vv.15-17). Three times Peter proclaimed his love for Christ, and by grace Jesus restored Peter. He helped Peter move through his grief and deep disappointment in himself. He not only set Peter on a firm foundation but asked him to be the rock on which His Church would be built (Matthew 16:18).
This is the Peter who ends his letter to us testifying to the “true grace of God,” exhorting us to “stand firm in this grace” (1 Peter 5:12b). This is the Peter who allowed himself, in the pit of his deepest regret and struggle, to embrace Jesus and become an example for us.
And like Peter, “we can be undone by the love of God.”3 When we pursue Christ, especially in our struggles, we will find a grace that cannot be earned. There’s nothing we can do to deserve the grace we are given to navigate suffering, yet Jesus stands there with arms full of grace, beckoning us to receive it.
From the Depths of Suffering to Deep Sanctifying Work
Grace not only gets us through our struggles but becomes the catalyst for a deep, formative work within us. It’s what Paul means when he coaches us to “rejoice in our sufferings” – because “suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope” (Romans 5:3-5). Paul is not asking us to love pain, but he is wanting us to understand that by pursuing Christ in the midst of it, the Spirit will meet us and grow us. In this paradoxical way “we can be grateful for what God has done through the suffering and still hate the suffering itself.”3
Here’s another thing Paul is not saying – that we must suffer if we’re going to be Jesus-followers. Rather, Paul is simply shaping our understanding of God when it comes to all the pain we endure in this life. He’s challenging us to embrace suffering rather than running from it or explaining it away – because there is more that God can do within us in those seasons than at any other time.
This inner, sanctifying work is part of the ‘good’ Paul alludes to when he says, “God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love” Him (Romans 8:28 NLT). So if we have the need to grasp at straws of understanding while in the midst of trials, let it be to understand who God is – “the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort” (2 Corinthians 1:3). In our suffering, God comforts us. His grace abounds in us in such a way that we will not only persevere in our pain, but on the other side of such struggles, we will have the grace and compassion to comfort others (v.4).
In fact, “when suffering is something we can take and give away to others, it redeems!” 3 And this is very good.
What we believe about God’s nature matters more than we might have ever imagined. It’s why we ask Holy Spirit to fill and lead us; it’s why we read Scripture for ourselves. The only way to know God is by His Word and Spirit – and they will shape and re-form us. They’ll help us see God for who He actually is rather than how we’ve assumed Him to be.5
And right thinking about who God is will then seep into all we believe and do while we’re here on earth. When we trust God as being good, faithful, and always for us, we will learn to look to Him when the bottom falls us out – and trust that He will pour out all the grace we need to embrace Him, to endure our suffering, and to be shaped more into Christ’s likeness than ever before.
May we pursue Christ in the midst of our pain.
May we relinquish the desire for reasons and, instead, take up the gift of knowing God.
May we embrace grace as we suffer so that we can be strengthened and shaped.
May we take all that we learn and know about God into the world, sharing the grace and comfort we’ve been given to others.
Father God, we name our suffering in this moment. We bring to You all our hurts and pain and struggles. And instead of begging You to tell us why we suffer, we choose to pursue You. We choose to learn more about who You are so that as we face troubles in this world, we can take up the grace You offer, the grace that is available because You have overcome this world through Jesus. Lord Jesus, we are grateful that You responded to your disciples’ questions so thoroughly that we can now recognize our own false ideas about who God is. We confess that too often we see God as One who will give us what we deserve. We lay down this false way of seeing God and pick up the truth of His grace and love. We cannot earn a life free of suffering. But we can depend on You to help us when troubles come our way. Holy Spirit, the more we get to know You, the more we realize our need of You. In this moment, we ask for You to come into our brokenness and pain. We invite You to do a deep, inner work in us so that we might know the powerful comfort and healing of the Father’s grace. And we offer ourselves as vessels of grace for the world. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.
(inspired by John 9:2-3, 16:33; 1 Peter 5:10,12; Romans 5:3-5; 2 Corinthians 1:3-4)
*I want to speak to an idea that if God actually handed us a reason for a horrible loss or a season of suffering, how it might not suffice. Here’s an example of what I mean: A dear friend lost her husband tragically. The grief of it all nearly undid her, but her walk with the Lord carried her and her family through. Early on, however, she wrestled with an unceasing need to know why, and after much conversation with God, she finally found peace with the fact that there was no reason in the world that would make her shrug her shoulders and say, “Oh, okay. That’s fine then. I totally understand.” Grabbing hold of this truth released her from the unhealthy thought patterns that entrapped her with the desire to have reasons for such a loss – and it catapulted her into her Father’s arms where true healing finally began.
Resources: I love sharing with you the books, podcasts, articles, and anything else that has inspired, encouraged, or taught me. These are humble offerings with no expectations.
- 1 – This article goes into more depth of John 9 and the theology of suffering as a result of sin.
- 2 – For the purposes of this post, I’m not focusing on the consequences of our sins. We certainly need to sit with God and discern what sins need to be unearthed and repented, but my vision for this post is for the suffering that stands apart from the consequences of our own choices – things like illnesses, losses, tragedies, etc. To help us see that there ARE multiple causes to suffering, I’m turning to a trusted pastor. In The Familiar Stranger podcast episode, “Redemptive Suffering,” Pete Greig offers three sources of suffering. Pete’s sources line up with similar categories that I’ve been taught over the last couple of decades and have witnessed first hand in my own life. So I offer them to you for your own consideration! Pete says, “Theologically, we can look at suffering through these lenses:”
- Some suffering is God’s Will – some pain God wants to happen (ie: Jesus on cross); He chose to give us freedom to choose evil and good because without that we would be preprogramed. “His will, while dark, has greater purpose.” [Jesus explains in John 9 that the man’s blindness was God’s will (see v.3). God had a greater good in mind.].
- Some suffering happens because of God’s World – the world is broken (ie: the fall in Genesis 3). As Christians, we’re not immune from suffering and pain and brokenness. We suffer with the best of them. But we suffer with hope. And God suffers with us, using suffering redemptively. God walks with us through the valley of the shadow of death.
- And some suffering is because of God’s War – evil in the world! God would never desire abuse, etc. But there is one who does! In other words, there is a spiritual battle going on! We are caught between two kingdoms. But eternal life is coming – and we pray that in, long for it, and do what we do in the world to help usher His kingdom in.
- 3 – Quoted from Tyler Staton’s podcast episode with Pete Greig – “Redemptive Suffering” on The Familiar Stranger.
- 4 – Quoted from Seedbed’s Seven Minute Seminary with Tammy Ma, “The Theology of Suffering.”
- 5 – There’s an incredible book by James Bryan Smith, The Good and Beautiful God,^ that helps to reframe our false narratives about who God is through scriptural examples and life experiences. Reading this book with friends shaped my understanding of God greatly! And I find myself referring back to the book regularly because of the way it points me to scriptural truths of who Jesus is – thus, showing me who God is.
- Riley Clemmons takes Romans 8:28, Isaiah 55:8-9, Jeremiah 29:11, Psalm 23:4 and shapes them into a beautiful song about clinging to Christ in the midst of our struggles. You’ll find this song, “For the Good,” on our playlist, Embracing Grace. Here’s the second verse and chorus:
- Lord, Your ways are higher
You know Your plans for me
You give purpose and a future
Even when I can’t see
So, I will pray through every heartache
I will cling to this faith
Though I’m walking through the valley
I’ll believe when You say
I’ll believe when You say
For the good, for the good
You work all things together
For the good, for the good
Your promise stands forever
You alone are my greatest hope
I trust You on the broken road
You work all things together like only You could
For the good
- Lord, Your ways are higher
- Each Wednesday I upload a “Teacup” teaching video that carries on the topic here. You can find all the videos on my Facebook Author Page, Instagram, and YouTube.
- Many of you have found me on Substack. Thank you so much! And, if you’d like to listen to (rather than read) these weekly posts, you can do so on Substack, as well. It’s easy to see and use the audio bar across the top of each post. While you’re on Substack, check out the ministry I’m blessed to be part of, the Devoted Collective.
- My monthly newsletter, The Abiding Life, goes to email inboxes the first week of each month to those who have subscribed on my website. I also post them on Substack. My most recent edition can be found there, and you can subscribe for future newsletters on Substack, here.
Rhythms: As my newsletter’s title infers, we seek to develop an abiding life in this space — a place where we can get informed but also be transformed as we learn to abide in God’s presence throughout our days. I like to think that developing rhythms is one way to aid us in our desire to become more Christlike. There’s nowhere better to know Christ than in His Word, so throughout this series, we’ll grab hold of one passage each week and embrace the rhythm of starting our day with God and His Word every morning.
- This week our passage is 1 Peter 5:10 & 12b. These verses contain promises we can carry with us through all seasons of suffering. They help us hold close the truths that the suffering we face now won’t last forever and that God will do His marvelous work in us and through us if we’ll cling to Him! Peter reiterates that everything God does for us is “the true grace of God. Stand fast in it.” Embrace it!
“In his kindness God called you to share in his eternal glory by means of Christ Jesus. So after you have suffered a little while, he will restore, support, and strengthen you, and he will place you on a firm foundation. My purpose in writing is to encourage you and assure you that what you are experiencing is truly part of God’s grace for you. Stand firm in this grace.” –1 Peter 5:10, 12b NLT - We’re all called to share the truths about the work of Jesus. One way you can do that is by sharing this site and telling others your own stories of faith experiences. Believe it or not, we worship God each time we share our stories of faith! We use our whole selves to tell about our holy God!!
Featured Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash. “All the Bits and Pieces” Photo by Arjun Kapoor on Unsplash.
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