by Adelani Aderemi

Created on: June 25, 2009   Last Updated: July 01, 2009

Suffering is not a palatable thing to contemplate and nobody likes to look forward to it, but it incidentally has become unavoidable in the world and this side of eternity. Biblical accounts of the lives of people of God are full of sufferings. Isaiah described Jesus the son of God as despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering (Isa 53:3) In the wisdom of God, suffering here on earth has good purposes and we do well as believers to learn about these purposes so that we would not derail from God's plan.

Consequences of Adams' fall

The earth and everything God created was good and filled with bliss. When Adam fell, he incurred the curses of God upon himself and all creation. He lost the capacity to do good. Erstwhile, he was to have dominion over all creation but after the fall, the same animals he named became wild and terror to him. Everything had changed. The earth would not yield its fullness again but produce thorns and thistles. There came new vocabularies: sufferings, pains, disasters, fear, accidents, sickness, weakness, death and all other consequences of sin.

Training in righteousness

However, God did not leave man in this condition, he sent his only son Jesus Christ to atone for the sin of man. In God's unquestionable wisdom, Jesus' work of salvation was to come with a lot of suffering and culminate on the cross. Adam lost a perfect life and it was only the blood of a perfect man that could atone for the sin. This same Jesus warned that if any man would follow him, he must take his cross on daily basis and follow him. He explained further that the servant cannot be higher than his master; if the world hated him definitely they must hate his followers. This is because Satan is still at work to ensure man remain depraved. Once a man gives his life to Christ, he has automatically become devil's enemy, so, all the persecutions, disgrace, tongue-lashing and wicked treatments meted out to Jesus are also attracted to the believer. The flesh and the Spirit are always in antagonism. This brings suffering. It is painful to leave the pleasures and easy life of sin.

Combat training

God is constantly training believers in righteousness and to make them capable to help others. As the believer grows in faith, his training curriculum becomes tougher. As he comes closer to Christ, his temptations become more subtle. To whom more is given more is also expected. God begins to give allow tougher challenges and tests of faith

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