If you’ve trusted in Christ as the Savior and Lord of your life, you can rest in the truth that your afflictions and sufferings come to you for your ultimate good and his ultimate glory. For contempt and disgrace was one thing he was to suffer. Dr. Witherington says that since God is more compassionate than he is, and he would never plan such suffering for Joseph, therefore God would never plan such suffering for Joseph. Under the pressure of the sins of the world, Jesus seemed to waver. Maybe you’re in the throes of affliction, or maybe you’re trying to minister to someone who is. This second reality asserts something remarkable: when God allowed sin to enter this world, even he was affected. The effect is seen, therefore, in how one responds to suffering, as a sort of “test.” Flavel understands suffering to clear out the corruptions of the heart so as to leave it more faithful and sincere unto God. But none of these texts demonstrate that all sinful choices are ordained by God, or get anywhere near doing so. Though the suffering itself isn’t evil, it illuminates the evil residing within me. In doing so, though, we are freed to refocus our primary love on him alone. Jesus told the rich young ruler to sell all he had and give it to the poor. He does this either by imputing the sin of his people to his Son or by punishing the unregenerate in hell forever. One of the greatest Puritan expositors of a theology of suffering was John Flavel (c.1630-1691) of Dartmouth. God uses the suffering of his people to display his grace in securing their salvation. King David saw a woman bathing, sent for her, slept with her, then had her husband killed. God also uses suffering is to refine us, as fire refines gold by burning away the impurities (Jer. Second, suffering is addressed by our saving God in the cross and empty tomb of Jesus. 8:28). Suffering is the ground from which God brings forth fruit from his people. Eph 1:11). As we have seen, God is both completely good and completely sovereign over all things, all events, and all suff ering. God is a just and holy God and will punish all evil. God applies his Word to the believer’s soul in affliction so as to “sanctify,” thus making them “sanctified afflictions.”[16] Suffering also “awakens” the believer to “pray more frequently, spiritually, and fervently.”[17] Flavel understood prayer to be the “best way” for the Christian “to ease his heart when surcharged with sorrow.”[18] He adds, “I am sure the sweetest melody of prayer is upon the deep waters of affliction.”[19] God also ordains suffering so as to encourage the believer in Christ to cultivate greater fellowship with himself through the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. 2 … In our pain, we long to know why God allows grief and hardship into our lives. Yes, God can bring glory to himself and good for the suffering person–but according to Arminian theology God does not design or ordain all suffering. In the seventh reason that God ordains suffering—to bear witness to a watching world—Flavel understands a two-fold interrelated witness. To Kill Sin and Grow Godliness. Shalom There is coming a time when all sorrow, tears, pain and death will pass away (Rev 21:4). Not only does Christ know and understand the affliction of the elect, the elect can—in a mystical sense—commune with Christ because he suffered for them. He explains, “The power of godliness did never thrive better than in affliction.”[7]. How does God “ordain” the good events without “ordaining” the evil ones that must occur in advance? 9:7; Zech. How does the knowledge of God-ordained suffering bring us, His children, comfort? However, for this present time, we must face the undeniable fact that people, including Believers in the Messiah, do suffer. 2. [4] John Flavel, A Token for Mourners in The Works of John Flavel, 6 Vols. [20] Flavel, The Touchstone of Sincerity, 5:583. [22] Flavel, The Touchstone of Sincerity, 5:583. . The FAQs: Are Fetal Cells Being Used in COVID-19 Vaccines and Treatments? So much the opposite in fact. The young man went away sorrowful. [15] Flavel, Navigation Spiritualized, 5:252. We cannot handle the harsh reality of suffering, so we hide behind the virtual walls of social media, where we pretend our hearts are safe from rejection, grief, and the evil “out there.” Yet all the while you and I know it’s there, it’s real, and it’s painful. God uses suffering to expose the sin that clings so closely to our hearts. 2:11; Heb. Over the next two days, we’ll look at other reasons God may allow painful seasons in our life. Under the rod of affliction we’re given unique opportunity to bear witness to the gospel’s power in our lives—which effectively calls others to repent and believe. Are Rewards a Valid Motivation for Sanctification? 1. [1] Some of this material is adapted from Brian Cosby, “Why Does God Ordain Suffering? God doesn’t just help mortify our sin, though; he also cultivates godliness whereby we’re conformed increasingly into Christ’s image. First, there is a witness to the reality of the gospel in the believer’s life and its call to an unbelieving world to repent and believe in Christ for salvation. [2] Flavel experienced severe suffering within his own lifetime with the loss of three wives, children, his parents, ejection from the church in England, and the continual persecution from state officials. [19] God also ordains suffering so as to encourage the believer in Christ to cultivate greater fellowship with himself through the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. Don’t Outsource It. God reacts to our suffering but never causes it. No. Someone Will Catechize Your Kids in 2021. The Church today needs a robust and refreshingly biblical theology of suffering and it would behoove us to consider the voices of the past—in particular, the Puritans. When we suddenly bear an affliction, our pride, impatience, and unbelief will often surface. They not only tasted some of the most bitter afflictions to befall humanity, but also carefully applied the balm of gospel promise to those who would receive it by faith.[1]. [23] Flavel, The Touchstone of Sincerity, 5:583. The Bible affirms that God is sovereign over the storms of this life and that he has good in store for his people in their suffering. Timing is the Creator’s business. Furthermore, God ordains, or appoints genuine believers to suffering, with the explicit purpose of bringing us to final glorification. Suffering serves as a cleanser, revealing and killing our present sin, and deterring us from greater sin. 27:17). He's drawing us closer and teaching us things about himself. Flavel understood that one of the reasons that God ordains suffering is to reveal his own attributes and character, not objectively, but experientially to the suffering believer. We need to understand this so our feet land on the solid foundation of God’s Word and the God of that Word—and there find understanding and hope. God also uses suffering to wean us from a love of this world and redirect our thoughts and affections toward that which is eternal: “Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth” (Col. 3:2). God is growing our faith in the midst of our trials. Yes, he ordains and allows it, but he does not enjoy it. And when the Holy Spirit comes… It is designed to build our trust in the Almighty, but suffering requires the right response if it is to be successful in accomplishing God’s purposes. [2] See Brian H. Cosby, John Flavel: Puritan Life and Thoughts in Stuart England (Lanham, UK: Lexington Books, 2014). It is His privilege as Almighty God to do so. To her, the Calvinist view that God has ordained all our suffering is inhumane. We’ve lost an understanding of the reality of suffering as a consequence of the fall and neglected to see how God overrules evil for his greater purposes. God ordains suffering to loosen the believer’s grip on temporal and earthly things: “Be careful to…mortify your inordinate affections to earthly things.” Rather, “Exercise heavenly mindedness, and keep your hearts upon things eternal, under all the providences with which the Lord exercises you in this world.”[10], God has “blessed crosses to mortify corruption…and to wean us from the world!”[11] Similarly, “Sanctified afflictions discover the emptiness and vanity of the creature.”[12] Or, to put it another way, “Thy affliction is a fair class to discover [the creature’s vanity]; for the vanity of the creature is never so effectually and sensibly discovered, as in our own experience of it.”[13], God ordains suffering to produce a sincere faith in the believer, devoid of hypocrisy. Are there areas of dishonesty or insincerity in your heart? Flavel writes, “The frequent trials of grace…prove beyond all words or argument that religion is no fancy, but the greatest reality in the world.”[20] In a section entitled, “The Design of God in the Trial of His People,”[21] Flavel explains the correlation between the suffering of God’s people and their witness in that suffering to the watching world: “But behold the wisdom and goodness of God exhibiting to the world the undeniable testimonies of the truth of religion, as often as the sincere professors thereof are brought to the test by afflictions from the hand of God.”[22] Second, it also bears witness against those who remain in their unbelief. STH’s Steven Sandage studies religious “myths” that justify abuse of women. 5:29). But he causes the bringing to pass of those deeds by the free and responsible choices of personal beings. As those “frequent trials of grace” proved that the Christian faith is “the greatest reality in the world,” so also do they “exhibit a full and living testimony against the atheism of the world.”[23] By this, Flavel understands that judgment remains upon the unbeliever. “In all your afflictions he is afflicted; tender sympathy cannot but flow from such intimate union.”[25]. 1:3–5). He does not tempt the men to sin; he does not influence them to sin. When God causes the bringing to pass of the evil actions of men, he does that in still a different way. [18] Flavel, Preparation for Sufferings, 6:64. This world is not our home, and the afflictions we experience along the way serve as arrows directing us to release what’s fading and grasp what’s unending. In the latter case, God has ordained evil in order to show forth his wrath and power. No, God inserted evil into the very beginning of mankind on purpose - knowing the pain, the death, the suffering that would ensue. 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