Sincerus Blog

What is sincerus, and why did I title this blog after it? Sincērus - from Latin, means: clean, pure, sound, and is the derivative of the English word sincere. Sincerity is the virtue of communicating in a genuine, honest, candid, and transparent manner. It means to write with no alterior motives; to earnestly convey a message, and that is my intent for this blog.

Something that struck me this morning is the unique sincerity displayed by the Bible. It does not shy away from highlighting the flaws and shortcomings of its protagonists, sometimes even to the detriment of its own authors. This is a quality that speaks to the sincerity of its message.

Verses to explore this topic are:

Genesis 38:12-26: The hypocrisy of Judah
Numbers 20:7-12: The disobedience of Moses
2 Sam 11-12 The sin and hypocrisy of David
Jonah: The disobedience of Jonah
Peter's denial
Mark 14:50 - The apostles cowardice

I continually witness people asking why a loving and omnipotent God would allow His creation to suffer. This is a question I also ask, and it is by no means a new difficulty. People have been struggling to understand suffering in the world for all of recorded history. From the story of Job in the Old Testament, to Epicurus' paradox, and C.S. Lewis' Problem of Pain, many have grappled with this troubling dilemna.

I have noticed that we often ask why God allows us to suffer, but we rarely ask why God allows Himself to suffer. The issue of pain and suffering is usually presented as one in which Man suffers on earth while God looks down with indifference or even malice, but this is not the situation described by the Bible; the Bible does not describe God as indifferent or malevolent towards the suffering of mankind. This is first shown in Genesis chapter 6, "And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. ⁵ And it repented the LORD that He had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.⁶" (KJV)

The Hebrew word used for grieved (עָצַב, ‘atsav) in verse 6 implies deep sorrow - an inner wounding. God is not disconnected from this situation, He directly feels the brokenness of the world and mourns it. The decision to destroy life on earth (Gen 6:7) is not a decision that is being made joyfully or indifferently, but is one that is made sorrowfully.

God's suffering does not end with the Genesis flood. It continues throughout His relationship with the Hebrews and their continued disobedience to him. This is lamented by the Psalmist in Psalm 78:40, "How oft did they provoke him in the wilderness, and grieve him in the desert!" (KJV). His ultimate answer for dealing with evil in the world comes again in the form of His suffering and sacrifice. This is prophesied in the book of Isaiah, "Surely He took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. ⁴ But He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. ⁵" (Isa 53:4-5 NIV). This prophesy was fullfilled in the person of Jesus Christ; Christ suffered with us, and for us. He experienced every type of pain a human is capable of: emotional (Jhn 11:33-36), physical (Luk 23:33-46), and spiritual (Mar 15:34, Luk 22:42-44).

The physical pain suffered by Christ is readily apparent. Cruxifiction is one of the cruelest punishments ever devised by man, and its ruthless practice under Roman rule is well documented, but It has been my experience in life that the anxiety and anticipation of future pain is often more painful than the event itself. With this in mind, it is worth noting that the other men crucified with Christ had perhaps several days or weeks to contemplate their future suffering. Jesus had 30 years.

I don't want to speak too concretely on the spiritual suffering of Christ without Biblical foundations, but I believe that its intensity dwarfed his physical suffering to an extent that it surpasses our human comprehension. Listening to his prayer in the garden of Geth the gospel of Luke describes his prayer, "'Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.' ⁴² ... And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.⁴⁴ " (Luk 22:42,44 NIV)

Even if God is pained by our disobedience and subsequent suffering, this still does not address the question of why He chose to create a universe where such pain possible. If God is omnipotent, surely He could have created a world where everyone is perfectly happy? I could speculate as to why, but I believe we lack the perspective to fully understand the reasons for God's choices. But the concepts of omnipotence and perspective are two topics that I will address in future entries.

If we look back to chapters 2 and 3, we see that God forbade Man from eating from the the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen 2:17), but He has also allowed for their choices to do so (Gen 3:6). Why did God allow for Man's sinful choices? Why does He now destroy His creation? Couldn't he choose not to? I believe the Bible also offers insight into Biblical Omnipotence, that help provide answers to these questions, but I would like to stay focused on how God dealt with the issue of evil, rather than speculating as to why.