Photo Credit: Photo by Stijn Dijkstra

Just recently I had this exchange with @savvytester encouraging me to post content that I like and which I am already good at. I told him that I will try it again and will use ListNerds to test if his observation is correct. I also thanked him for his encouragement. It reminds me of @jimmy.adames's motivation a few months ago when I hesitated to publish an article about CENT.

The kind of content I am familiar with is primarily related to Christian spirituality based on the Bible simply because I am a theological educator. However, during my early months on Hive, searching for an appropriate community for my content, I observed that those communities are no longer active. I only find ecoTrain as the most active community relevant to my primary interest.

Writing about economics is more of a personal hobby on my part. I didn't have any academic training in this field. The Eurodollar market, blockchain, and crypto are the most recent and challenging interests for me. I already published three articles on the Eurodollar, one on the blockchain, and though many on crypto, they are mostly related to NFT blockchain-based games like Splinterlands.

And so this time I am thinking to give Christian spirituality-related content a second chance and that is why I am re-sharing a post I published five months ago.

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I usually end my personal and official letters and blog posts with “Grace and Peace!” blessings. This is because I understand all of life as a matter of grace in the way, I look at the world, read the Word, and even the way I face personal sufferings.

In theological studies, particularly among Reformed thinkers, they usually classify grace into two: general or common and particular or special. Common grace is a teaching based on the Bible that affirms that God is sovereign both in the creation of the world and in providence. He did not abandon this world.

The Problem of Evil and Suffering

I accept that it is not easy to explain the existence of evil and suffering if one will affirm that God is continually maintaining and governing this world. For many, belief in the existence of an all-good and an all-powerful God cannot be maintained at the same time. They see these teachings as contradictory. So better to live in a world without such a God.

The problem of evil and suffering does not go away even when someone rejects the biblical concept of God. This is a common problem for all men and women living on planet earth. And not only that it doesn’t solve the problem, but it also makes the problem more complicated for only in a theistic worldview that the ideas of a “just” and “unjust” suffering make sense.

An idea of justice that emerged from a pure naturalist world still has to explain how one arrives at such a conclusion. If someone would say that this conclusion has been deduced from the observation of what is going on in the world and is an outcome of either a collective or individual consciousness, still this explanation is not enough for the basis of such observation remains unanswered. If then, those who deny the existence of an all-powerful God cannot provide the rational basis for their concept of justice, how can they throw such an objection of unjust suffering against the theist?

Tim Keller, the pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City gave a more elaborate response to this question expanding on C. S. Lewis’s insights in his book The Reason for God:

But the evolutionary mechanism of natural selection depends on death, destruction, and violence of the strong against the weak —these things are all perfectly natural. On what basis, then, does the atheist judge the natural world to be wrong, unfair, and unjust? The nonbeliever in God doesn’t have a good basis for being outraged at injustice, which, as Lewis points out, was the reason for objecting to God in the first place. If you are sure that this natural world is unjust and filled with evil, you are assuming the reality of some extra-natural (or supernatural) standard by which to make your judgment” (p. 31).

What is Common Grace?

Except for the fact that common grace affirms the sovereignty of God both in the creation of the world and providence, this doctrine also teaches that it is independent of particular grace as displayed in the Christian concept of redemption. Moreover, common grace restrains the influence of sin both in the individual and in human society. I could not imagine a world without such grace.

Furthermore, common grace teaches that God bestows general gifts on all people, regardless of whether they accept His existence or not.

Finally, common grace makes human society and culture possible for all despite differences in religion, race, socioeconomic background, political ideas, and nationalities.

Particular Grace

Particular grace is salvific. It is redemptive. It is received by way of the gospel. It is the grace that birthed new life in Christ and also the grace that sustains a man of God in his Christian walk throughout his lifetime here on earth.

This time, I want to share the experience of a New Testament apostle about the sufficiency of such grace even in the time of his weakness. Our insights here are taken from Arthur W. Pink, a Bible teacher from England who kindled a renewed interest in Reformed theology during the early 20th century. Pink wrote a book, The Prayers of the Apostle Paul. One chapter in this book talks about “Prayer in Affliction” based on a New Testament text, 2 Corinthians 12:7-10.

Bible readers are very familiar with this passage. Pink explains why the Lord does not answer our prayers as we expect.

My Grace is Sufficient for You

The text speaks about the experience of the apostle Paul. He was praying for his thorn in the flesh to be taken away from him. The Lord did not answer his prayer. But Jesus gave him a better answer: “My grace is sufficient for you.”

Bible commentators disagree as to the exact nature of the apostle’s thorn. I won’t elaborate here on the different interpretations given by those commentators. The important thing to bear in mind is that as far as the apostle is concerned, that thorn was both a gift from the Lord and a messenger of Satan.

With the existence of such a thorn, Satan perhaps aimed to disqualify Paul from the ministry. But the Lord overruled Satan’s intention. He made Paul more effective in the ministry.

The Lord sent this “gift” to prevent Paul from conceit due to his many extraordinary experiences. The thorn was intended for his good. Through his thorn, Paul learned to delight in his weaknesses. He also experienced Christ’s power resting upon him. Through his thorn, God was glorified in his life.

The Relevance of the Apostle's Thorn

As already mentioned, Bible scholars give different interpretations as to the exact nature of Paul’s thorn in the flesh. It is safe to say that we have no idea of the precise nature of this thorn. Concerning the relevance of Paul’s thorn to contemporary believers, Pink says,

Whatever in our persons or our circumstances serves to mortify our pride may be regarded as our ‘thorn in the flesh.’

Now, reflect on your situation. Are you praying for the pain to be taken away from you but the Lord appears to be not responding? Maybe the Lord has already answered you but you failed to see his answer for you expect something else.

In Luke 14:25-33, Jesus himself said that a person can never be his disciple if that person will not love him above all, will not carry his cross, and will not give up his all. Commenting on this cross, John Calvin, the 16th-century reformer affirms that its form may vary. It can be in a form of “disgrace, poverty, bereavement, disease or other afflictions.”

Martin Luther, a German reformer earlier than Calvin, said three things make a powerful preacher: supplication, meditation, and affliction.

King David learned the same way. He said, “It was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn your decrees” (Psalm 119:71).

The apostle Paul championed the message of the sufficiency of God’s grace in Christ. He knew it both in theory and experience. He knew the sufficiency of grace in Christ both in his Damascus conversion and through his thorn.

Conclusion

God did not abandon this world. The problem of evil and suffering became more complicated in a non-theist world. God’s grace in Christ is sufficient for His children even in times of affliction.

Grace and peace!

Note:

A portion of this article has been published 11 years ago under a different title. It has been rewritten and updated combining three sources, my notes on theology, apologetics, and Bible meditation.