Easter: God’s Promise That It’ll Be All Right

It doesn’t take long when thinking about God and suffering to get stumped. Even if we don’t spend time pondering it, if we live long enough the predicament will be thrust upon us. We may be able to figure out God’s purposes in some suffering, but much of it seems to make no sense, nor to admit of any easy answers. I’m not trying to give any answers with this post, but I do hope that I might be able give a bit of encouragement.

When thinking about suffering and God’s purposes, we realize the limitations of our knowledge and our powers of comprehension. God tells us that as the heavens are higher than the earth, so his thoughts are higher than ours (Is. 55:9). Paul exclaims “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!” (Rom. 11:33, ESV)

An illustration that’s helped me is that of the screaming toddler being dragged in by his mom to get his shots. The mother’s intentions for her son are entirely loving, entirely good, and entirely reasonable. Unfortunately for her son, they are also entirely beyond the mind of a 2-year old. All he can know at the moment is the pain; the workings of vaccination and its benefits both for him and those around him are beyond his comprehension. His mother can’t explain it to him; the only thing she can tell him is, “I’m here with you. Trust me. Everything’s going to be all right.”

It’s the same way with God. He does not explain his purposes in the suffering he ordains in our lives and the world around us; he only tells us that he is working all things according to plan and working in all things for our good. Paul reasoned that our present sufferings aren’t even worth comparing with the eternal glory that lies ahead of us (Rom. 8:18). Ultimately, God has told us to trust him that it will all be all right. Yet in this sinful and dying world, how can we know that’s God’s promise is really true?

Here is where the gospel comes to us as the best possible news. Through the cross, Christ took sin and the death it deserved upon himself. And through the resurrection he showed that their power had been broken once and for all. He “abolished death and brought life and immortality to life through the gospel” (2 Tim. 1:10, ESV). The resurrection was not an isolated event; it is the foretaste, the firstfruits, of everlasting life, of the resurrection of all who believe in Christ. It is the first drop of water coming through the crack in the dam, and all that is behind it will inevitably come crashing through! It is that first ray of light coming over the horizon that assures us that soon night will be but a memory!

So this Easter (and every other day), remember the promise that has come to us in the gospel and the assurance that Christ’s victory over death has given. And with the joy that comes from that, shout along with the rest of the saints, “He is risen! He is risen indeed!”

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