Category Archives: The Bible + Life

Why Does God Allow Pain & Suffering?

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“Pain Is God’s Megaphone” – C. S. Lewis (1898-1963)

An author of more than thirty books, C. S. Lewis taught English literature at both Oxford and Cambridge Universities during his life. As a World War I veteran teaching at Oxford during World War II, Lewis addressed the hard questions brought on by war—specifically the problem of evil. In his book, The Problem of Pain, Lewis understands pain as one kind of evil, which God superintends for the good of mankind—as a megaphone to wake up the sleeping sinner, alerting him to his need.

The human spirit will not even begin to try to surrender self-will as long as all seems to be well with it. Now error and sin both have this property, that the deeper they are the less their victim suspects their existence; they are masked evil. Pain is unmasked, unmistakable evil; every man knows that something is wrong when he is being hurt. . . .[i]

And pain is not only immediately recognisable evil, but evil impossible to ignore. We can rest contentedly in our sins and in our stupidities; and anyone who has watched gluttons shoveling down the most exquisite foods as if they did not know what they were eating, will admit that we can ignore even pleasure. But pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world. A bad man, happy, is a man without the least inkling that his actions do not ‘answer’, that they are not in accord with the laws of the universe. . . .[ii]

Until the evil man finds evil unmistakably present within his existence, in the form of pain, he is enclosed in illusion. Once pain has roused him, he knows that he is in some way or other ‘up against’ the real universe: he either rebels (with possibility of a clearer issue and deeper repentance at some later stage) or else makes some attempt at an adjustment, which if pursued, will lead him to religion. . . .[iii]

No doubt Pain as God’s megaphone is a terrible instrument; it may lead to final and unrepented rebellion. But it gives the only opportunity the bad man can have for atonement. It removes the veil; it plants the flag of truth within the fortress of a rebel soul.[iv]


[i] C. S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain (New York: HarperCollins, 2001), 90.

[ii] Ibid., 90-91.

[iii] Ibid., 93.

[iv] Ibid., 93-94.

Why Should We Celebrate Ascension?

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Easter is over, and many of us (especially those of us in the Free Church tradition) won’t celebrate another holiday marking a biblical event until Christmas. But this year we should not overlook Ascension Day, or Holy Thursday, which is celebrated 40 days after Easter and commemorates the day Jesus was taken up to heaven following His resurrection. This year it falls on May 9 for the Western Church. The ascension has been marked by a Christian holiday since at least the fourth century and is still an important day on the liturgical calendar for Roman Catholics, Anglicans, and Orthodox Christians.

Though both the cross and the resurrection are more prominent in Scripture, the ascension is recounted in two of the four Gospels and Acts. And the Epistles are sprinkled with references to it, as when Paul says Jesus was “taken up in glory” (1 Timothy 3:16) and when Peter says Jesus “has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God” (1 Peter 3:22). Since Scripture has so much to say about the ascension, we should pause to note why it’s important.

First, the ascension was an essential part of Christ’s work as the great high priest. In the Old Testament, Israel’s high priest would sacrifice an animal on the Day of Atonement on behalf of the people. Then he would carry the blood into the holy of holies and sprinkle it on the mercy seat. Only then did God accept the sacrifice and cover the sins of His people. According to Hebrews, what the high priest did in the earthly Temple, the great high priest did in the heavenly temple. At the ascension, Christ presented to the Father the blood of His sacrifice on the cross “to put away sin” (Hebrews 9:26). Though Jesus’ payment for sin was completed on the cross, His priestly work reached its culmination when He ascended.

Second, the ascension inaugurated Christ’s supreme rule over the universe and the Church. As the second person of the Trinity, Jesus was always omnipotent. But when He came to earth in human form, He laid aside some of His divine privilege and became a suffering servant (Philippians 2:6-8). When He ascended, the Father gave back to Him the authority to govern all of creation from His heavenly throne, especially the Church. At the ascension, the Father “seated [Christ] at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion” (Ephesians 1:20-21).

On a related note, at the ascension Christ received authority to pour out the Holy Spirit on the Church, empowering it for righteous living and gospel witness. Jesus predicted this when He told His disciples, “It is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you” (John 16:7). At Pentecost Peter announced the fulfillment of that promise: “Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he [Jesus] has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing” (Acts 2:33).

Finally, because believers are united with Christ, His ascension allows us to share in a measure of His authority. Since God regards us as “seated . . . with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:6), we enjoy the authority to prevail against sin, Satan, and death. If you’ve never celebrated Ascension Day, all this is cause to consider adding another Christian holiday to your calendar this year.



Is There Ever a Time We Are Permitted to Test God?

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Malachi 3:10 stands among the most unique verses in the Bible, for in it God grants His people permission to test Him. Through the prophet, He tells the Israelites to donate a tenth of their incomes (a tithe) to His work at the Temple. Then He issues a remarkable challenge: “And thereby put me to the test … if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need” (Malachi 3:10).

The phrase “put me to the test” translates the Hebrew verb bachan, which also can be rendered “examine” or “try.” Most of its uses in the Bible refer to God testing humans. For example, Psalms 11:5 says that “the LORD tests the righteous,” and in Job 23:10, Job says of God, “When he has tried me, I shall come out as gold.” Similarly, God told Jeremiah, “I the LORD search the heart and test the mind” (Jeremiah 17:10), and Proverbs 17:3 declares that “the LORD tests hearts.” In other instances, bachan references humans examining ideas or testing one another, as when Joseph tested the truthfulness of his brothers (Genesis 42:15-16).

But the word’s usage in Malachi 3:10 is one of only three instances in the Bible where it refers to man testing God. And in the other two, the testing under consideration is portrayed as sinful and arrogant (Psalms 95:9; Malachi 3:15). Indeed, only here does God invite man to test (bachan) Him legitimately.

By its uniqueness, this test emphasizes God’s seriousness about His people’s giving their resources to advance His kingdom—a principle that holds true in the New Testament as well as the Old. Though it takes faith to let go of hard-earned money, the Lord commands His people to give through their local churches and other worthy ministries. He incentivizes such giving by allowing them to test Him in this wonderful way. Of course, the blessing God returns to generous believers is not always material. Still, no giving Christian will ever lack concrete reminders of God’s favor and friendship.

(Note:  This article is presented within The Biblical Story Course as an Insight under Books of the Bible, Malachi – “Testing God”). 


Why Is Christ’s Resurrection Important?

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Too often Christians downplay the resurrection unintentionally. Our gospel presentations jump from Christ’s death to the need for faith in Him. Our Easter celebrations focus more on eggs and family meals than the risen Lord. And when was the last time Christ’s resurrection came up in your prayer life? In contrast to all this, time and again the New Testament reminds us how important the resurrection of Jesus is. Here are ten reasons to make it the focus of your Easter celebration this year.

  1. The resurrection makes salvation possible. First Peter 1:3 says that God “caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” We are given new spiritual life because God treats those who believe in Christ as united to Him in His resurrection—we share in His life.
  2. Belief in the resurrection is required for salvation (Romans 10:9). It’s not just an afterthought to the cross.
  3. The resurrection confirms the reliability of the New Testament. If it didn’t happen, the apostles are unreliable and the entire New Testament should be questioned (1 Corinthians 15:14-15). Why should we believe the moral or religious teachings of a book if its authors were either lying or mistaken about one of their central claims? But the empty tomb and the risen Christ give us confidence that everything else written by the apostles in Scripture is true as well.
  4. The resurrection gives us hope of eternal life (1 Corinthians 15:21-23). Like Adam’s sin caused all humans united with him to become sinners, Jesus’ resurrection caused all humans united with Him to gain eternal life. Because of the resurrection, death isn’t the last word for believers.
  5. The resurrection of Jesus previews what our heavenly bodies will be like (1 Corinthians 15:49). When Paul referred to Christ as the “firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep” (1 Corinthians 15:20), he used a farming metaphor. Like the first taste of the ripening harvest indicates what the rest of the harvest will taste like, Jesus’ resurrection body indicates what the bodies of His followers will be like in the new heavens and new earth.
  6. The resurrection demonstrates that God the Father accepted Christ’s suffering as a full payment for sin (Romans 4:25). He didn’t remain dead because no more payment for sin was necessary. On the cross, Jesus satisfied fully the wrath of God toward the sins of His people.
  7. The resurrection displays the magnitude of power available to Christians in their struggle against sin (Romans 8:11). We have in us the same Holy Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead, and He offers His power to help us “put to death the deeds of the body” (Romans 8:13).
  8. The resurrection motivates us to turn away from sin (Colossians 3:1). Because God regards Christians as united with Christ in His resurrection, we should act like people who are spiritually alive and “put to death therefore what is earthly in [us]: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness” (Colossians 3:5).
  9. The resurrection proves the reliability of Old Testament prophecy. As Peter said after quoting a prophecy of David, “He foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ” (Acts 2:31).
  10. The resurrection confirms that Jesus was the Son of God (Romans 1:4). Who else could have risen from the dead, never to die again?

This Easter, don’t overlook the resurrection. It makes all the difference in your life. He arose! He arose! Hallelujah, Christ arose!



Another Reason to Learn the Bible’s Overarching Story

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It’s a common scenario. Someone objects to the Bible’s teaching on a point of ethics or morality (often homosexuality, promiscuity, or divorce), so he cites a couple of Old Testament commandments and says something like, “Well, the Bible also says not to wear a garment made of wool and linen mixed together (Deuteronomy 22:11) and not to eat pork products or shrimp (Leviticus 11:7-12).” The implication is either that the person upholding biblical standards of sexuality is a hypocrite because he’s wearing a linen/wool blend sport coat and ate a hotdog for lunch, or that the Bible’s commandments are inconsistent and therefore not credible. And it’s not just a hypothetical scenario. A recent New York Times op-ed article argued against a biblical position on homosexuality by suggesting that the Bible shouldn’t be taken literally because it also says to “refrain from planting multiple kinds of seed in one field” and not to charge “interest to the poor.”

Such arguments seem convincing at first. But their problem is a failure to recognize the Bible’s overarching storyline. They assume that Scripture is largely a list of doctrines and rules. Since some of the rules seem outdated or impractical, the critics reason, all of them should be taken with a grain of salt. The problem with such reasoning is that the Bible isn’t merely a list of rules and doctrines. It’s a story about how God relates to the world He created. And with a little study it becomes obvious that God gives slightly different instructions to His people in different parts of the story.

In the Old Testament the Jews were God’s chosen people. He gave certain ritual and judicial laws to set them apart from the pagan, Gentile nations around them. The commands mentioned in the Times op-ed are perfect examples. Leviticus 19:19 told the Israelites not to sow a field with two different kinds of seed. The idea was to set Israelite fields apart from Gentile fields, marking the Jews as God’s set-apart people. Similarly, Deuteronomy 23:19-20 forbade Jews from charging interest on loans to their countrymen, particularly the poor, though they were free to charge interest on loans to foreigners. Again, the command was intended to set Israelites apart from all other nations as God’s chosen people—with whom He had made a covenant and on whom He had set His love. Similar explanations apply to the commandments not to mix wool and linen and to refrain from eating certain types of meat.

After the coming of Christ, however, there was no longer a spiritual divide between Jews and Gentiles. All who placed their faith in Jesus could become God’s people, regardless of their nationality (Ephesians 2:11-22). Accordingly, God abolished the ritual and judicial laws that set Jews apart from non-Jews (Acts 10:9-48; Hebrews 8:13-9:28)—laws like those about sowing seed and charging interest. At the same time, God kept in force moral standards that promote holiness and general well-being, as in the Sermon on the Mount and Paul’s teaching on marriage and sexuality. That’s why Christians are neither hypocritical nor inconsistent when, for example, they insist on keeping sex within monogamous, heterosexual marriage but do not keep Old Testament ceremonial laws.

When believers understand this storyline, they gain a powerful weapon in the battle to uphold biblical morality. Most importantly, of course, knowing the overarching story of Scripture helps us to know Christ and see a hint of the gospel in every passage. That alone is reason enough to study the narrative of Scripture. But in addition, knowledge of biblical theology makes us less vulnerable in those all-too-common circumstances when a critic begins, “Well, the Bible also says . . .”