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Our world is very imperfect. If everything was perfect, no suffering, no pain, who needs heaven—who needs God? But life on this terrestrial ball is anything but perfect. Either we suffer, ourselves, or someone we love suffers.
We may think of suffering only in physical terms, but there are many kinds of suffering, in each of life’s primary aspects: physical; mental/emotional; spiritual; social (Luke 2:52)
The need to be saved from suffering is clear to everyone . . . nobody’s life is perfect. Suffering shows us our need for something better. Is there anyone, anywhere on earth, who doesn’t realize that life could be better? When we suffer, we realize that God must have something better in mind for His favored creation than what this fallen world can offer.
Suffering helps us understand that a perfect future is in our future! The perfect future we all want can only happen as the redeeming power of Christ becomes active in our lives. Suffering proves Jesus Christ is our Redeemer. Whether our need is physical, mental/emotional, spiritual or social, Jesus is the answer. Redemption buys back what was owned before and makes it useful once again. A life that is twisted and contorted by suffering or oppression can be redeemed, made new and alive and productive once more.
Think of redemption as a place where personal property is temporarily entrusted to someone else. You leave it there, but you’re supposed to go back and redeem it—check it out—get it back again.
I had the amazing opportunity to sit in the gallery above the House of Commons in London, back in 2010, and listen to several speeches. Going into the gallery was a room where you had to give up your coat, your camera, and anything else that could be disruptive or threaten security. They gave me a small enamel disk with a number on it that corresponded to the pigeonhole where they put my camera. They instructed me to come back, turn in the disk, and redeem the articles in that same–numbered box in the wall.
If I didn’t, my camera would have sat there gathering dust for who knows how long. I suppose eventually someone would have taken the camera home—it’s a nice one.
But redemption means that what I turned over to Parliament was returned to me. And our redemption means that though sin removed us from God’s hand and placed us in Satan’s possession, Jesus Christ died on the cross to redeem us, to regain possession of us, so that we can once more fulfill His purpose, and renew our interrupted relationship with Him.
Redemption is the answer to all our problems. The world was perfect until sin entered—since then, it’s been very imperfect, and tends to get worse and worse. Only when Jesus Christ redeems us from this painful, frustrating, deteriorating existence does life turn for the better. Even here on earth we can enjoy the fruits of redemption, even as we continue to experience pain and suffering of various kinds, personally or vicariously.
The greatest reason that redemption through Christ Jesus is the answer to all our problems, is thatsomeday we’ll slip free from the bonds of this imperfect world, escaping the suffering and hardship that plague the sin–filled world, and enter a perfect world that will last forever.
Next time: Suffering reveals our dependence on God and interdependence on each other . . .