Introduction: The Problem of Pain is Life
The problem of pain is that it must exist! Pain is an unfortunate necessity, for without her this life would be much too agreeable. Most would question, why would an agreeable life pose as a problem? The problem does not lie with ones desire or yearning to live a pain-free life; away from the pain and the suffering that she causes. The problem lies within this existence that we call life. To identify the problem of pain, and therefore solve the problems inherently emanating from her, one must ask himself, “is this present experience that I am going through truly representative of life?”
I can personally identify with C.S. Lewis’ conceptions of pain described in his book, “The Problem of Pain”. I will state unequivocally, “I, too am a great coward 2, I do not consider myself a hero or a man of mythical strength who wishes to seek or endure great pain.” Furthermore, I do not wish to minimize the suffering that pain may cause and thereby weaken the position of this thesis about the problem that pain may cause in one’s life.
The purpose of this paper is to examine the intellectual problem raised by pain. Let me state for the record that I do not believe this thesis- (the problem is not pain, it is this thing we call life) will comfort anyone who is experiencing pain or dealing with unimaginable great suffering. For example, the thesis would be useless for the person dealing with pain caused from the loss of a loved one or the untimely death of a child. It is understandable that either of these situations may render my thoughts about life and its pain useless and impractical. I believe considerable knowledge can be gained from simple statements about pain such as, “for when pain is borne, a little courage helps more than knowledge, a little human sympathy more than much courage, and the least tincture of the love of God is more powerful than them all)”2
This paradox of pain in this life or experience that we like to call life is where I focus on the problems of pain. Pain has conformed the world into a pattern of fear. This pattern of fear has robbed many of us from understanding the importance that pain plays in this existence (I refer to it as life). The intent of the remainder of this paper is to introduce two key concepts about pain that I believe will establish a base for understanding the problem of pain as well as ways to solve the intellectual problem that arises from the sin and pain paradigm.
Concept I: Pain is Part of a Divine Scheme“Creatures cause pain by being born; they live by inflicting pain; and in pain they mostly die.” C. S. Lewis’s book, “The problem of Pain” supports this notion by calling attention to the thoughts of God that were stated in Genesis “…with pain you will give birth to Children.” God further states that “…through painful toil will you eat of it all the days of your life.” And finally he states, “By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground.” This narrative gives us just enough evidence to see a pattern that suggests that pain is part of a divine scheme. In essence, from the moment that man enters the world, according to Lewis and confirmed by God, pain is with us.
One may be tempted to simply read statements like this and try to judge God or question why He would allow pain-- if He loves us. These are acts of futility. We must go deeper if we are to answer the problem of pain. One might look at this literary depiction and derive that God is the source and therefore the creator of pain. However, if we are diligent and responsible in our pursuit of truth, we would clearly see that this simply is not to the case. The source of pain could never be from God because pain is evil and God is good. The two cannot co-exist, for where there is good, there can be no evil and where there is evil, there can be no good. This assumption, along with the previous assumption can be derived from the text in Genesis, when God states that pain will be a part of Adam, Eve and the Serpents’ experience. He also states that they can no longer stay in His direct presence in the Garden of Eden. To recap the story of the fall of man, these declarations are made when Adam and Eve are no longer like God. This means that they chose to move outside of His Will by eating from the “Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.” The choice to no longer live inside the will of God had consequences. It first moved Adam and Eve out of God’s definition of Life and moved them into a sub-standard experience that they would now call life. Secondly, Adam and Eve’s personal choices left them vulnerable to the knowledge that they had gained from eating the Fruit of Good and Evil—leaving them to be ultimately responsible for their own existence.
The conclusion then becomes clear; the source of pain is man and his sin. Because of our disobedience, pain is birthed through sin leaving us to experience the consequences of suffering in this unintended existence. God is no longer with us as he was in the Garden, not because He chose not to be, but because we chose not to be with him. Pain, therefore, is a by-product of this choice. I know this statement will not win any popularity contest and I am fully aware that some will argue that there are many pains and sufferings that they did not willfully choose. However, when humanity chose to separate from the Will of God, we chose to accept sin and with that choice we accepted the attributes of sin—pain and death. This premise is very uneasy to digest, the subject matter does not make a way for discussions leaving us both inept and impotent to understand pain and it’s relevance in this experience of sub-standard living. Herein, lies the problem with pain, we do not understand the divine scheme and the role of pain within that scheme. We simply conclude, if pain and suffering are not from God, then what good could possibly come from pain. We forget that God allowed pain to exist, just as he allowed sin, choice, and man to exist. He very easily could have wiped away with us all and started all over, and therefore rectified this absurdity of disobedience, sin and death that results in so much pain with the blink of his proverbial eye. However, it is through salvation that God has chosen to right this wrong of mankind. This is where we must shift our thinking and focus on what the true problem is, the problem is not one of pain; it is one of sin and this existence we call life. If pain is merely a by-product of sin, and sin is the reason for our sub standard living, it would seem prudent to investigate sin and this existence that we have fallen into; life as we call it. Let’s take a deeper look at this life and the sin that runs so rampant within this world.
The Sin and Pain Paradigm: Reconciliation with GodSin is an inward inclination that is born from the motives of our heart. It is an inner disposition pushing us toward wrongful acts that displace God. When we grasp this concept of sin, we realize our motives are as important as our actions. The fact that sin displaces God from being Lord of our life leads me to believe that this is an attempt to replace Him with someone else. The doctrine of Genesis suggests that we do so with ourselves. This implies that we set ourselves in the place of God. Imagine, doing a task you are ill equipped to do—the pain and turmoil of trying to complete the task would cause you to cry out, it would be enough to make you ask for help. Think about it for a second; it is not the task that makes you cry out, it’s the pain of trying to complete the task that you were unprepared to handle that makes you cry out for a savior. Pain is allowed because it leads us back to where we were intended to be, in the presence of God in paradise, free from sin, pain and death. The purpose of pain and suffering is that it leads to repentance. It leads to man placing God where he rightfully belongs in the position as Lord. That is not to say that God was ever removed from His throne, it suggests that we have acknowledged him as being there and having complete Rule. Lee Strobel states in his book, “The Case for Faith, “that pain is a megaphone that shouts, I exist to help the fallen to witness the precision of God’s love and salvation.” Simply put, suffering is compatible with God’s love. This idea boggles the mind of most people, even Christians; the problem of pain is that it must exist to present opportunities for people to seek God. Do not confuse this thought of pain and suffering for God to move towards us, he needs to make no such gesture; he has always been there. Pain is unto us and God allows it simply to exist to reconcile us back to Him through our choices.
Some might say that this argument is ludicrous and that pain and suffering is not needed to reconcile us back to life. They may also say that if God is omnipotent, then He would just do away with pain. In response to those comments, I would argue that to prevent pain, you must remove all choice and reduce people to the status of puppets, which means that they would then lack the ability to freely make choices. They would not even be free to choose love. As Mr. Strobel says, “you may end up creating a world of precision that an engineer might like—maybe. But one thing’s for sure: you’ll lose the kind of world that a Father would want.” 4
Christianity demands that we set right this misdirection that started in Genesis and live a life not avoiding pain but sharing the glory of Christ as we suffer. I am not suggesting that suffering is good in itself, I am merely stating that suffering lies chiefly in its tendency to reduce the rebel will that cast us out of the Garden of Eden. Sin distorted and perverted the very image we were made in—Gods’, therefore it distorted Creation and ruined life as God intended. Romans says that “Creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed,” meaning that the life that was intended for man is waiting eagerly for man to realize he has fallen from his rightful place. The passage goes on to say further that “creation was subjected to frustration (pain)*, not by it’s own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from it’s bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.” You see based on this scripture we must conclude that God’s will cannot accept sin and therefore cannot accept pain, which implies he did not create sin or pain. God never intended for man or creation to suffer however it was our will to accept sin and therefore tolerate pain which results in a frustrated creation. Again I do not suggest that God chose to separate from us but in light of our very choice to sin, His very nature demands that separation occurs. Therefore that is why pain exists; it is the “complex good” that comes from sin and evil. What was meant to destroy us can eventually be the vehicle that restores us. Pain is necessary therefore as a means to an end. C.S. Lewis said that “Tribulation does its work in a world where human beings are ordinarily seeking, by lawful means, to avoid their own natural evil and to attain their natural good, and presupposes such a world.” In order to submit to the will of God and allow pain to perpetuate its “complex good” we must have a will, and that will must have objects that point to the glory of Christ. The object that comes to mind first and foremost must be the Cross. The Cross exemplifies the importance of one’s suffering to be reconciled to his rightful place. It displays a readiness to prefer God to inferior ends, which is themselves and this fallen existence. Pain reminds us that sin was never intended to posses our hearts, that our true good is in another world and that our only real life is with Christ. Allow me to digress for one moment, before I become so heavenly minded that I am no earthly good, I am not arguing that pain is not painful. Pain hurts. That is what the word means. Just as C.S. Lewis, Lee Strobel, Ravi Zecharias and a host of others before me, I am only trying to articulate the Christian doctrine of being made perfect through suffering. Pain is apart of the divine scheme, it is both a must and a necessity. I believe Paul stated it best in his second epistle to the Corinthian church, when he summarized God’s power works best in our pain, he states: “My power works best in your weakness. So now I am glad to boast about my weakness, so that the power of Christ may work through me. Since I know it is all for Christ’s good, I am quite content with my weakness and with insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” There is nothing more beautiful than the great beauty of Spirit in someone who is a great sufferer. We must never make pain and the suffering she causes worse than it is by wallowing in her with no hope. We must realize that nothing that has been given is a waste, if we look to do what God has determined us to—our pain can be used to reconcile us back unto Him, giving us the opportunity to repent for our choice to accept Sin and the existence which it brought forth. In light of this thought, pain should pose no problem, pain should be considered joy if Christ is to receive glory and we are to be reconciled unto Him. In other words when pain is over, it is over, and the natural sequel is joy, we have been instructed through suffering to receive the life that was intended from the beginning. Pain has no tendency to proliferate, unlike sin. Let me quote C.S. Lewis but again to depict my point: “After an error you need not only to remove the causes (the fatigue or bad writing) but also correct the error itself: after sin you must not only, if possible remove the temptation, you must also go back and repent the sin itself. In each case and “undoing” is required. Pain requires no such undoing. You may need to heal the disease which caused it, but pain, once over, is sterile—whereas every uncorrected error and unrepentant sin is, in its own right, a fountain of fresh error and fresh sin flowing on to the end of time.” Therefore Sin must be accounted for and dealt with because it was the mother that bore all pain and life as we know him to be. This premise then shows the problem not to be with pain but one of sin.
Conclusion: Pain is necessary
In summary, the simplicity of my two concepts is almost baffling. We are told simply to do God's will and then truth will be revealed to us. But remember this for instructional purposes, there were times in Christ's life, as in the Garden of Gethsemane, when He wrestled with Himself to overcome the pain to do God's will. There were moments when His human flesh quailed before the prospect which opened up before Him. He therefore knew the difficulty of this simple rule, that the problem of pain…is that she is needed to instruct, dependency of the Father! Therefore let us have no further qualm with the problem of pain and realize her to be necessary for us to deal with the problem of sin, by repenting and reconciling with the Father!
