NECESSARY SUFFERING Gen 3 16 19 Suffering Reveals

NECESSARY SUFFERING Gen. 3: 16 -19

Suffering Reveals 1. God’s Infinite Love 2. Our Current State 3. Our Future Reward

1) GOD’S INFINITE LOVE

Genesis 1 -3 • Gen 1: 31 – Creation described as “very good. ” • Gen. 2: 15 – Man placed in the garden of Eden. • Gen 3: 8 – God, Himself, walked in the garden.

Experiencing Perfection • No pain • No sorrow • No labor/toil • Access to the tree of life • God is in their midst

Sin’s Consequence s • Death – spiritual and physical – Gen. 2: 16 -17 • God introduces suffering – Gen. 3: 16 -24

SUFFERING AS AN EXPRESSION OF GOD’S LOVE

God’s Love and Suffering plays three roles: 1)Correction/Punishment 2)Reminder 3)Revelation

Correction and Punishment • Disobedience requires correction – consequences encourage change • Punishment cannot be pleasant

Reminder • Ongoing consequences remind us of the cost of sin • Discourages relapse

Revelation • Foreshadowing of punishment to come • Demonstrates the pain caused by our disobedience

Revelation • Suffering inflicted on man was not limited to man. • God’s love was revealed

2) OUR CURRENT STATE

No Reward Exists Without Suffering • Minimally, Christ suffered for our salvation. • Christians are expected to suffer for Christ. • The reward of those who would “save their lives” is suffering.

A Spiritual Gauge • Suffering and discomfort can help us determine how far out we are stretching our necks. • Suffering can also reveal how different we look to the world.

3) OUR FUTURE REWARD

The Problem With Heaven • To what can Heaven be adequately compared? • How do you create a dream for which all of mankind would give up their very lives?

The Problem With Hell • How can man begin to grasp a total loss of spiritual well-being? • How do you create the ultimate nightmare designed to resonate at the core of all mankind?

Grasping The Reward • Most of mankind never experienced living in total peace and fellowship with God. • The world had to change when sin entered to provide adequate description and warning of the rewards to come.

Describing Heaven • Fellowship with God is described in terms of what will not exist in his presence. • This shows us just how corrupted our world is by sin – a world without God.

Describing Hell • Hell is described in hyperbolic extremes of the most intense suffering in mankind’s experience. • Hell is an eternity without God and as such includes all of the suffering that goes with such an existence.