Bad Genetics?

Our culture tells us that we simply have bad genes…. Why does one suffer from blindness at the peak of his age? Why does a young woman suffer from a crippling disease causing her to leave her dreams? Why does a young man deal with cancer? Or why does a wife of two young boys die unexpectedly from epilepsy?

Our cultural response is to give a purely naturalistic one, bad genes I guess. I propose we return to a more biblical response. God is the one who witholds rain, not the clouds. Yes, bad genetics are part of the problem, but those who put their trust in a sovereign and caring God recognize the good of suffering and pain. For those who have been recipients of God’s eternal acceptance and love, suffering ought not surprise us. Why?

Simply because Christ suffered. The eternal Son of God entered into the human mess and suffered along with it. He lost his friends to illness. He was rejected by his own family. He was mocked for loving. He was humiliated. He was lonely a lot! He had no place to lay his head at nights. He was beaten for no reason. He was separated from His Father for a while. He was killed in complete agony. He tasted hell for a time. Why? To save many who would call upon this suffering savior for life. Not only this but to glorify His Father in heaven. By willingly suffering and dying He glorified the Father, he demonstrated the love of the Father. What great lengths and at such a cost God went to save a lost people. Jesus brought glory to the Father by demonstrating His wrath and hatred of sin. We are told in Isaiah 53, that it pleased the Father to crush His Son instead of those He set His love upon.

We are called to a suffering savior. We are to suffer to the glory of God. By our suffering we comprehend the great lengths God went to bring us to Himself, because we enter into it – we feel its agony. Yet as a follower of Christ see your rejection in light of the rejection of Jesus. As you suffer also recognize what glory you share with your savior. We are called to suffer to bring Him glory. Crazy at first, but when comprehended in view of the ultimate death we understand suffering at the hands of God to be a form of His love.

As a follower of Christ we actually begin to consider it pure joy when we suffer trials. Why? Because we share in the life of Christ thus glorifying our Father. We also grow stronger through our weakness. By the trial do you run to God? To consider it pure joy is to run to God in suffering and seeing it as the love of God resting upon you for a time. The trial is causing you to neglect your self dependence and to trust Him with the outcome of your circumstances. We consider it pure joy because suffering is not a mark of weakness, but a mark of God’s special care over you. For we are heirs with Christ and share His marks, but ultimately share His eternal life. The Spirit bears witness with our spirit of adoption as sons (and daughters), by himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs – heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with Him. (Romans 8:16-17) So it is not bad genes really, it is the marks of Jesus Christ being lived out in your life! What a hope! If we share His marks, then we share His glorified life in heaven.