SUFFERING & THE PROVIDENCE OF GOD (2)

“And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.”
—Genesis 3:15

RIGHT FROM THE beginning, God declared that the Messiah would indeed suffer in bringing many sons to glory. Jesus said in Luke 24:25-26, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?” Acts 2:23 tells us that Christ was delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God. We also read in Isaiah 53, concerning the coming Messiah, “He is despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief … Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed … He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth. He was led as a lamb to the slaughter … for the transgressions of my people He was stricken.” Everything in the life of Jesus, including His suffering, happened in order that all the Scriptures of the Old Testament would be fulfilled in Him. Christ is the centerpiece of all Scripture. “You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life, and these are they which testify of Me” (John 5:39). 

ORCHESTRATING EVERY EVENT in the life of Christ could only happen because the God of Scripture is providentially controlling all things that come to pass, which fact is clearly taught in Scripture. Concerning the providence of God, the Heidelberg Catechism, Q&A 27 reads, “What do you understand by the providence of God? The almighty, everywhere-present power of God, whereby, as it were by His hand, He still upholds heaven and earth with all creatures, and so governs them that herbs and grass, rain and drought, fruitful and barren years, meat and drink, health and sickness, riches and poverty, indeed, all things come not by chance, but by His Fatherly hand.” The catechism is stating clearly that there is no such thing as an accident, an unfortunate event, or things happening by chance or luck in any part of life. God controls whatsoever comes to pass in every area of life, even down to the number of hairs that grow on our head, or the sparrow that falls in the forest (Matt. 10:29-30). The Lord directs every aspect of life for His glory and the good of His covenant people. Thus, there is no such thing as a tragedy or an untimely event for those who follow the Lord Jesus Christ. All that happens in this world is the unfolding of the divine purpose and plan of Almighty God, which also includes the suffering of His saints. 

THE PURITAN THEOLOGIAN, Thomas Case, wrote, “One way or another, God works His children into a sweet, obediential frame by their sufferings. By suffering God’s will, we learn to do God’s will.” He also wrote in another place, “God has no obedient children like those whom He nurtures in the school of affliction. At length, God brings all His children to subscribe, “What God will, when God will, how God will: Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven; A blessed lesson!’” May it be our desire to faithfully submit to the will of God as easily as we pray the words of the Lord’s Prayer every Sunday, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” 

Friday Devotional: April 4, 2025
In Christ,
Pastor S. Henry