Tim Keller--continued (on pain and suffering)

Here is more from Tim Keller's book on pain and suffering. We need to know this material so when we face tough times, we are ready for them.

In Part Two of his book, Keller says there are three powerful themes of Christian teaching that can help us deal with pain and suffering. The first has to do with the doctrines of creation and fall. The second has to do with the final judgment and the renewal of the world. The third has to do with the incarnation and the atonement.

First, he tackles the doctrines of creation and fall. He reminds us the evil we see today was not part of God's original design. We were not meant for mortality, for the loss of love, for the triumph of darkness. This teaching rejects the idea that people who suffer more are always worse people. It is fair to say the suffering and death in general is a natural consequence and just judgment of God on our sin. The teaching of creation and fall remove self-pity that afflicts people with the deistic view of life. It strengthens the soul, preparing it to be unsurprised when life is hard.

Then Keller turns to the doctrine of final judgment and the renewal of the world. If there is no judgment day, what about all the evil that has been perpetrated? This doctrine gives us hope, it enables us to be gracious, to forgive, and to refrain from vengeance and violence. The resurrection of the body means we do not merely receive a consolation for the life we have lost but a restoration of it. Isn't it possible that the eventual glory and joy we will know will be infinitely greater than it would have been had there been no evil, he asks. Apart from sin and evil, we would never have seen the courage of God, or the astonishing extent of his love, or the glory of a deity who lays aside his glory and goes to the cross. Because of our fall and redemption, we will achieve a level of intimacy with God that cannot be received any other way.  I want to highlight a particularly good point he brings up--What if in the future we came to see that just as Jesus could not have displayed such glory and love any other way except through his suffering, we would not have been able to experience such transcendent glory, joy, and love any other way except by going through a world of suffering?