The Necessity of Suffering

Suffering has always been a part of life.  We have all accepted this and have come up with cliche such as Pain is nothing more than to remind us that we are alive, or suffering allows us to appreciate life.

I agree with those statements, but why would a loving God include suffering to be a part of our lives to begin with?

Suffering has been at the bedrock of time itself.  It has been said that suffering is a direct result of man's disobedience to God, but going with that logic that means that suffering was not there before original sin occurred.  I argue that suffering has been present even before original sin but did not manifest itself until the sin has occurred.  In Genesis 3:3, "But from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of garden, God has said, 'You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.'"  This was a warning to Adam and Eve that if they ate from the tree which God commanded them not to eat then they will unleash death.  Which can be used as some form of suffering. Since God used death in the context of consequence to an action.  Secondly when Job was asking God as to why he is suffering God's response was, "Where were you when I laid the foundation of the Earth?" (Job 38:4 NASB) God is pointing out to Job that to understand why suffering exist you must understand how God created the world.

But suffering is also God's way of communicating to to us.  Through trials and tribulation we learn what God wants from us by refining us and tempering us to be stronger and more capable of handling heavier loads.  Psalm 66:10 beautifully brings this up as David compared it to silver's refining process.

In the end suffering is a necessary element so that God's people would be needing a rescuer.  Which He does by sending Jesus to be the ultimate being to carry the ultimate suffering.  And because of this God shows us how much he is willing to suffer for his Children.