In all human history, who has paid the highest price for evil and suffering? Poll a hundred people on this question and only a few would come up with the right answer: God.

“This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins” (1 John 4:10). Many complaints against the Creator boil down to this: “God, you don’t ‘get it.’” Christ’s suffering says back to us, “No, actually, I do get it. It’s you who don’t get it.”

God paid the highest price on our behalf; we have no grounds for believing He doesn’t “get it.” Jesus suffered the same trials and temptations we do. God understands our worst losses and heartbreaks, even our temptations: “Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted” (Hebrews 2:18).

He knows suffering and temptation from firsthand experience. God calls us to hold firmly to our faith precisely because “we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted [tested] in every way, just as we are” (Hebrews 4:15).

God might say to us, “I have intimate understanding of what it is to be in your place. You have no clue what it is to be in my place. If you’d experienced Gethsemane and the march to Golgotha and the horrors of the Cross, you’d not question for a moment either my understanding or my love.”

And he might add, “After you’ve created a world, and seen your creatures betray you, and you’ve chosen to die for all their sins and offer them forgiveness... then come back and let’s talk about it.”

I share some more thoughts in this video:

For more related to the subject of suffering, see Randy’s book If God Is Good, as well as the devotional 90 Days of God’s Goodness and book The Goodness of God.

Photo by Tamara Menzi on Unsplash