05 Big questions · God
If God is good, why is there so much suffering?
Christianity doesn’t say suffering is good, or that it doesn’t matter. It says the world isn’t yet as it should be, that some suffering comes from human choices, and that God hasn’t abandoned a suffering world — He has entered it in Jesus.
A little deeper
This is probably one of the hardest questions Christianity faces.
Christianity doesn’t ask us to pretend suffering isn’t terrible.
Some suffering clearly comes from human beings. War, violence, exploitation, cruelty, environmental damage and countless everyday choices hurt other people. One influential Christian explanation points to genuine moral freedom: the freedom that makes love, courage and generosity possible also makes hatred, selfishness and violence possible. Christians don’t all understand freedom in exactly the same way, but most see human choices as part of the picture.
But that doesn’t explain everything. A child becoming seriously ill isn’t adequately explained by saying “free will.” Neither is an earthquake. Free will only accounts for some of the suffering in the world, not all of it — and Christianity doesn’t pretend otherwise.
Christianity describes something bigger: the world itself is not presently as it was meant to be. The Bible describes creation as damaged and awaiting restoration.
That doesn’t mean Christians know why God allows every individual tragedy. We don’t.
Instead, Christianity makes an extraordinary claim about what God does in response to suffering. He enters it. Jesus experiences grief, rejection, injustice, betrayal, physical suffering and death. The Christian picture isn’t of a God safely watching human suffering from a distance. It’s of a God who steps into it.
Christianity therefore doesn’t promise an explanation for every tragedy. It promises that suffering isn’t meaningless to God, that He can bring good even from terrible circumstances, and ultimately that suffering and death will not have the final word.
What Christians agree on
- Suffering is real and shouldn’t be minimised or explained away.
- Human free will accounts for some suffering, but not all of it.
- The world is not currently as God intends it to be.
- God has entered human suffering in Jesus, rather than staying distant from it.
- Suffering and death will not have the final word.
Read it for yourself
- Romans 8:18–25A first-century letter describing the whole creation as damaged and waiting to be restored.
- John 11:32–36Jesus, face to face with a friend’s death, weeps. God is not portrayed as unmoved.
- Revelation 21:1–5The Bible’s closing picture: suffering and death do not have the final word.
Each Bible reference links to the passage on Bible Gateway (NIV UK), so you can read it yourself rather than take our word for it. Short quotations elsewhere are marked with their translation.