Truth To Wonder: conversation for christ

Professor John Lennox was given the challenge as to how can a loving God allow terrible diseases affect little children? Or how can God allow a faithful servant of His to become riddled with awful conditions like Dementia? 

In his response, Professor Lennox spoke honestly and said he didn’t have a magic formula to give that would provide a clear solution to such a heavy question. Yet Professor Lennox spoke on how in the God of the Holy Bible, we have a God who is not distinct from the sufferings of humanity, but came in the flesh to experience all the deepest miseries of life. God experienced this on the cross in the form of the Son, as He endured a horrifically, torturous death. 

Professor Lennox noted that if this was where the story ended, Christians would have no better an answer to the sufferings of humanity than the atheist. In this, Professor Lennox echoed the words of the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:14-19. So Professor Lennox continued in that same line of truth that Paul spoke of, that the Christian has the hope of the fact that yes, Christ suffered on the cross, but that He also rose from the dead. In this, we have hope that though the suffering is real and truly awful, it isn’t the end of the story. 

Professor Lennox noted that Christians believe that God is a God of compensation. That there will be a day of judgment, where all things will be rightly weighed and measured. Where punishments and rewards will be correctly given to all lives ever lived, so much so that none will be able to say that He has not judged well. This is wonderful news for the believer in Christ. For we may have to endure awful situations in life, even as believers. Professor Lennox noted he watched his 22 year old niece, die from a brain tumour. Though she was a believer, she was not spared this awful experience. But Professor Lennox spoke on how in those final days, she was filled with real hope that she was going home. Not only that, but all her sufferings would pale in comparison to the reward she would soon rest in forever.

This is the hope all Christians have, a hope that is available to all in this world. It is the hope that if we are to experience tragic and truly miserable days in this life, the compensation that God has set aside, will more than cover what was lost. Indeed, the reward will be so great, that those so blessed will spend all eternity in marvellous praise of His grace and generosity of giving. 

The atheist does not have this hope, yet they still have the awful experiences of this life to deal with and explain. They are left with an empty existence that ultimately doesn’t mean anything, and will be forgotten by history in a few generations. Yet to all those who believe on the risen Lord Jesus, we have the knowledge that though the sufferings of this life can be great, they are not the end of the story. The end of the story is that we will be where our Lord is, in peace and glory forevermore, never to know any pain or sadness ever again.