"The" God Who Suffers

As I was reading this John Hirschauer article from the National Review, I immediately noticed two things: (1)That the God of the Bible is not merely "A" God (as in the article title), but that He is "The" God "the Lord Himself is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other" (Deut. 4:39) and (2) the words "unfair" are twice mentioned in the article.

Because of sin and man's ability to choose (Joshua 24:14-15 - see here) and sometimes make bad choices (see here), which many times causes human suffering (in which there's value),  there's no question that life on this planet called earth is many times "unfair." But as believers in the God of heaven and earth, the apostle Paul reminds us that as children of God, we are thus heirs of God ("joint-heirs with Christ"), that as Christ suffered, we as His followers will also have to suffer in order that we might be "glorified together" with Christ (Rom. 8:17).

A careful reading of Romans 8 (NET), indicates that "our present sufferings cannot even be compared to the coming glory that will be revealed to us" (vs. 18 - cf. 2 Cor. 4:17; 1 Pet. 1:6,8 - note that our earthly sufferings are "momentary" .... "light".... and "short" in comparison to the eternal joys of heaven). There's no question in this writer's mind that God indeed suffered because of having to offer His sinless Son as a sacrifice of suffering on Calvary's cross (Heb. 5:5-9; 1 Pet. 1:22), but on the other side of the coin, He also rejoices for those faithful souls who "die in the Lord" (Rev. 14:13).

Going back to Romans 8:31-39, we see God's infinite love (see here and here) for mankind in the form of Him not sparing His sinless Son as the perfect sacrifice for sin (2 Cor. 5:14-21), but rather "gave Him up for us all" (vs. 32; cf. John 3:16-17). In Romans 8:35, the question is asked, "Who will separate us from the love of Christ?" The resounding answer is that [nothing] will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord (vs. 39); and in that heavenly realm, all pain and suffering will cease to exist (Rev. 21:4; cf. Isaiah 25:6-8).

Praise God from Whom all blessings flow! Also, see here, here, and here.

---Mike Riley, Gospel Snippets