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Does God Cause Human Suffering?
Who has not asked: why bad things happen... to good people, like us? It is most often in our suffering... when people imagine that the unseen God must cause life’s tragedies or undesirable predicaments. When we cannot attribute blame for unwanted events or circumstances elsewhere, our very human nature is to blame God... either for causing our suffering... or for not preventing it.
The next time you celebrate Holy Communion or the Eucharist, notice in the words of institution... where Jesus holds up the cup... and says this is My blood of the New Covenant, shed for you and for many... for the forgiveness of sins. Yes, it is this New Covenant that is often overlooked during life’s greatest challenges.[1]
God needed a New Covenant with humanity because the Old Covenant made through Moses at Mount Saini failed to keep God’s beloved people living rightly with one another... and with God. Throughout the Hebrew Scriptures... God was often quick to punish humanity’s unrighteous behavior... starting in the Garden of Eden and extending for centuries to the destruction of the southern kingdom of Judah. [2] However, the New Covenant that God promised through Jeremiah was not ratified for five more centuries... until Jesus signed it with His blood from His cross. [3]
What’s most important for us to recognize... is how all that Old Covenant punishment never achieved God’s desire for a lasting correction in mankind’s continuously unrighteous behavior.[4]
This New Covenant transfers from a frustrated God... to Jesus, the Son of God... all responsibility for teaching, judging and punishing mankind.[5] Under God’s New Covenant, Jesus has a tender touch with mankind, declaring he is not here to punish, but to save humanity... which was God’s ultimate intention all along.[6]
So, the often-overlooked BIG thing revealed to everyone through our God-inspired Scriptures... is that God will no longer judge, nor punish anyone for anything... that responsibility was transferred to Jesus 2000 years ago. And Jesus will not punish anyone until returning in His glory... to judge everyone... living and dead.[7] Until then... with grace upon grace, Jesus says... everyone one who listens to Jesus and believes in God, will pass directly from earthly death to eternal life... without judgment! [8] But those who are overly distracted by worldly interests and fail to sincerely come to Jesus... well, gnashing of teeth will be their final reward... when that day of Judgment comes.
[1] [Hebrews 8:7] For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second [New Covenant ].
[2] [Jeremiah 31:31] Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a New Covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah.
[3] [Luke 22:20] At the Last Supper with His disciples, Jesus said: This cup is the New Covenant in My blood, which is shed for you.
[4] [Genesis 6:5 & all Prophets] Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
[5] [John 5: 22] For the Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son,
[6] [John 3:17] For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world,
but that the world through Him might be saved.
[7] [Matthew 25:31 & Acts 10:42] When the Son of Man comes again in His glory... All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another...
[8] [John 5: 24] Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life..
Who has not asked: why bad things happen... to good people, like us? It is most often in our suffering... when people imagine that the unseen God must cause life’s tragedies or undesirable predicaments. When we cannot attribute blame for unwanted events or circumstances elsewhere, our very human nature is to blame God... either for causing our suffering... or for not preventing it.
The next time you celebrate Holy Communion or the Eucharist, notice in the words of institution... where Jesus holds up the cup... and says this is My blood of the New Covenant, shed for you and for many... for the forgiveness of sins. Yes, it is this New Covenant that is often overlooked during life’s greatest challenges.[1]
God needed a New Covenant with humanity because the Old Covenant made through Moses at Mount Saini failed to keep God’s beloved people living rightly with one another... and with God. Throughout the Hebrew Scriptures... God was often quick to punish humanity’s unrighteous behavior... starting in the Garden of Eden and extending for centuries to the destruction of the southern kingdom of Judah. [2] However, the New Covenant that God promised through Jeremiah was not ratified for five more centuries... until Jesus signed it with His blood from His cross. [3]
What’s most important for us to recognize... is how all that Old Covenant punishment never achieved God’s desire for a lasting correction in mankind’s continuously unrighteous behavior.[4]
This New Covenant transfers from a frustrated God... to Jesus, the Son of God... all responsibility for teaching, judging and punishing mankind.[5] Under God’s New Covenant, Jesus has a tender touch with mankind, declaring he is not here to punish, but to save humanity... which was God’s ultimate intention all along.[6]
So, the often-overlooked BIG thing revealed to everyone through our God-inspired Scriptures... is that God will no longer judge, nor punish anyone for anything... that responsibility was transferred to Jesus 2000 years ago. And Jesus will not punish anyone until returning in His glory... to judge everyone... living and dead.[7] Until then... with grace upon grace, Jesus says... everyone one who listens to Jesus and believes in God, will pass directly from earthly death to eternal life... without judgment! [8] But those who are overly distracted by worldly interests and fail to sincerely come to Jesus... well, gnashing of teeth will be their final reward... when that day of Judgment comes.
[1] [Hebrews 8:7] For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second [New Covenant ].
[2] [Jeremiah 31:31] Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a New Covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah.
[3] [Luke 22:20] At the Last Supper with His disciples, Jesus said: This cup is the New Covenant in My blood, which is shed for you.
[4] [Genesis 6:5 & all Prophets] Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
[5] [John 5: 22] For the Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son,
[6] [John 3:17] For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world,
but that the world through Him might be saved.
[7] [Matthew 25:31 & Acts 10:42] When the Son of Man comes again in His glory... All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another...
[8] [John 5: 24] Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life..