How Big Is Your God?

What do you envision when you read these words?

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth... And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. (Gen 1:1,3)

Here is a small piece of what happened when God spoke. This tower of gas and dust measures 9.5 light years from top to bottom, twice the distance between our sun and the nearest star. To put it in more familiar terms, that is 57 trillion miles.

These incredible distances are difficult for us to wrap our minds around but it represents a single speck in the overall scope of God's universe; the universe that he brought into existence by his Word.

Few men have made significant progress in the understanding of God's creation. Albert Einstein was one of them. Charles Misner, a specialist in relativity theory, had this to say about Einstein's skepticism of the church:

The design of the universe... is very magnificent and shouldn't be taken for granted. In fact, I believe that is why Einstein had so little use for organized religion, although he strikes me as a basically very religious man. He must have looked at what the preachers said about God and felt that they were blaspheming. He had seen much more majesty than they had ever imagined, and they were just not talking about the real thing. My guess is that he simply felt that religions he'd run across did not have proper respect... for the author of the universe. (as cited in Piper, 2010, p. 36)

Is the God that you have in mind big enough to explain the incredible majesty of the universe we live it? Here is what the prophet Isiah said:

To whom then will you compare me,
that I should be like him? says the Holy One.
Lift up your eyes on high and see:
who created these [stars]?
He who brings out their host by number,
calling them all by name,
by the greatness of his might,
and because he is strong in power
not one is missing. (Isa 40:25-26)

Piper, J. (2010). Let the nations be glad!: The supremacy of God in missions. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House.

But Why do Christians Suffer?

So if a person turns from sin and follows Christ and has all of his transgressions fully paid for why does he still suffer? Doesn't God care about his children? If he is a loving Father why doesn't he protect his followers from harm?

Paul writes about this subject in Romans 8:25-39. Verses 38 and 39, the last two verses of this passage, say this:

I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

But the really encouraging verse is verse 28 which says, "we know that for those who love God all things work together for good." The good that Paul refers to is not the absence of tough situations or hardships in life because we know from reading the Bible and from looking at the world around us that Christians are not immune to suffering. Instead, the good that God brings out in us through these things that we suffer is revealed in verse 29; it is, "to be conformed to the image of his Son." God allows suffering in our lives in order to make us more like Jesus Christ! This world is our training ground where we learn and grow and have our character shaped to bring God glory.

Why does suffering exist?

The question of suffering has often been considered to be the bane of those defending a Christian viewpoint. The problem is that we are asking the wrong question. Instead of asking, "Why would a good God allow people to suffer?" We should be asking, "Why would a fair and just God allow any of us to live?" The fact is that every person has sinned--failed to measure up to God's perfect standard (Rom3:23)--and deserves to be punished (Rom 6:23). We perceive suffering to be unjust when we deem those who suffer to be innocent. No one is innocent before God, therefore everyone deserves to suffer. It is God's patience and love that cause him to allow the world to continue to exist. When an instance of undeserved suffering was brought to the attention of Jesus he replied that those who died were not worse sinners than everyone else but that this event should serve as a warning that unless we turn away from our sin we will perish as well (Luk 13.1-5). The idea that this is a good world in which suffering is an unfortunate occurrence is a false one. God's word tells us that this is a world in rebellion to him who is loving and good, and that it will pay the penalty of eternal death. But Jesus Christ offered a way to cancel all of our shortcomings and be perfect before God (Rom 4:24-25). We need only to turn from our sin and believe in him (Rom 10:9).