Shaped by Suffering: Finding God's Purpose in Pain

By Dr. Brandon Steenbock, Family Minister

Romans 5:3-4 - We also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. 

I see a lot of human suffering. All my social media is a never-ending stream of people posting about the most recent atrocity. Arguments all over the place about who is the victim and who is the abuser. In grocery stores or coffee shops, I see the haunted eyes of people who are just trying to keep it all together. In my office, I sit with wearied faces, tired of the hurts they carry.

It seems like easing human suffering is the greatest good anyone could do. And it is good, let’s not debate that. But Scripture like this always challenges my perspective. “Glory in sufferings.” Is this suggesting that my knee pain, my seasonal depression, my persistent back aches, the ache in my heart over loved ones I’ve lost… that these things are a source of glory? That somehow I am closer to God because of these?

You might say that Paul is only talking about “suffering for the name of Jesus.” That if I am mistreated, abused, insulted, or harmed because of the Gospel, then I can take glory. But none of that is present in this context. Paul says “suffering” without qualification. But am I going to tell the person whose family is ripped apart by immigration enforcement that their suffering is something to rejoice in? Am I going to tell the mother who lost a child that she should find God’s glory in this moment? Am I going to tell the victim of a violent crime to thank God?

Paul’s words are challenging. They really are. But if we can take them in the context of his whole message, it starts to make sense. 

“We have been justified by faith,” (v.1); “we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,” (v.1); “we have access by faith into this grace in which we now stand,” (v.2); “suffering produces perseverance” (v. 3); “God’s love has been poured into our hearts,” (v. 5). 

How does suffering lead to glory? When it starts with God’s declaration that you are holy in his sight, and continues with God’s grace pulling you into his presence where you stand freely loved before a holy God, and ends with the love of God poured directly into your heart through the working of the Holy Spirit who lives in you… Suffering takes on new meaning. 

It can’t be a result of God’s anger toward you, or his abandonment of you, or his indifference to your hurt. That would make no sense. The God who became flesh to bleed and die for his own, who cries out from the cross, “Father, forgive them!” is not one who then turns his anger on his people, or abandons them, or is indifferent to their suffering. 

It can only be that God is working through the suffering, probably in a way you will never understand this side of eternity, to lead you to the hope he has in store for you.