Suffering and the Love of God

To many people, the love of God is incompatible with present suffering, but the Scriptures answer fully this baffling problem.

The existing evils of mankind are the result of sin, which is defined as the 'transgression of the (divine) law'. (1 John 3.4). Sin commenced in Eden, when Adam and Eve disobeyed God's law. Disease and death were the inevitable consequences. The perpetuation of immortal sinners is a situation that would be too disastrous to contemplate. In love to man, God limited the duration of his mortal existence.

But it is the purpose of God that the earth shall be filled with His glory, and the contrite in heart of mankind shall be reconciled to him. The love of God moved Him to arrange a wonderful plan of human redemption. That plan is crystallised in those very well-known words, 'God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life'. (John 3.16).

This passage focuses our attention on Jesus Christ as the very centre of the plan to give men and women everlasting life.