The spiritual condition of America, politics, culture, and current events, analyzed through the lens of Scripture. Welcome to the Alex McFarland Show. Why do the righteous suffer? Hi, Alex McFarland here. You know, when I spoke on the Book of Job at the Cove in the summer of 2025, that's a big part of that book is about suffering and why do godly people sometimes suffer?
Well, the Bible has a lot to say about the value. That can come from processing our pain from a biblical vantage point, and from First Peter chapter two, I'm going to talk a little bit about suffering, something that none of us desire really, and none of us really want to go through hard times. But let me read a scripture from First Peter chapter two, beginning at verse 21. The Bible says this. Regarding suffering, it goes through and it talks about that we're redeemed not with corruptible things like silver and gold, but by the precious blood of Jesus.
And Jesus, who had no sin, of course, he was nailed to the cross and he paid our debt on Calvary. But verse twenty-one regarding suffering. First Peter two twenty one, for even hereunto you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that you should follow in his steps. Verse twenty two, Jesus who did no sin, neither was there guile, or that's internal poison. No guile was found in his mouth.
He told the truth. He was hurt. Rejected, criticized, yet he showed love, and he spoke love and truth to people. First twenty-three, First Peter two twenty-three, regarding Jesus, who when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not, but committed himself to him who judges righteously, who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the cross, that we, being dead to sins, should live under righteousness. By whose stripes you were healed.
Now. Let me unpack this a little bit, and then I'm going to give you five realities. And they might seem counterintuitive, but five truths about suffering regarding the Christian life and keeping our perspective, learning even when we go through things that are hard. Because let me just say this: the Christian life is no guarantee of a pain-free journey.
Now, regarding salvation, salvation is not By works or personal merit, but it's by the work that Jesus did on the cross—the appropriate measure of God's wrath that our sins deserved—was put on Jesus. And you simply put your faith in Jesus, put your trust in Jesus, and you can be saved. But now the journey as a disciple. That definitely requires that we, as they say, put some skin in the game. Salvation is the same for everybody.
Believe in Jesus. But sanctification, Christian growth, is different for everybody because you've got your issues that you've got to bring before God and lay before the cross. You, as Hebrews twelve says, you've got besetting sins, things that commonly are kind of your spiritual Achilles' heel, and so we've all got a calling every day to take up our cross and walk with the Lord, and then things will come along. I hate to break it to you, but I'm going to. Say it as a Christian.
Things will come along, and even good, godly, church-going families. Face unemployment sometimes, financial issues. Good, well-intentioned, faithful Christians come down with illnesses sometimes. Jesus said, "In this world, you will have tribulation and trouble." You can play by the rules, do everything right, stand up for Jesus, and sometimes people will misunderstand you and do things wrong against you, perhaps. But just understand, live.
In a fallen world, that's what comes along.
So, verse twenty-one regarding suffering, it says, "You were called to it, and Christ, our example, suffered for us." And verse twenty-one, First Peter chapter two, we're to follow in His steps. And think about this: if you're going through hard times, and you say, "Yeah, but hey, I've done my part," even the best of us. We're still saved sinners in the eyes of God. We're a saint, but we're fallen sinners. We've known the right, we've done the wrong.
Jesus, the perfect, sinless Son of God, suffered. And verse twenty-two of First Peter two says, Jesus did no sin. And that's true. There was no guile in him, and that's true. He was reviled.
In other words, people spoke hatefully, talked condescendingly, rudely. He was lied about. He was slandered, and he didn't answer back. Isn't that something? Verse twenty-three.
When he suffered. He did not threaten. I mean, you think about this: if anybody in history could have, as we say, pulled rank. You know when the Pharisees were accusing him, trying to trip him up, and when even Jesus was hanging on the cross, and they said, "He saved others. Why can't he save himself?
Why doesn't he call down angels?" You know Jesus could have said, "You got no clue who you're talking to. I'll show all of you. Do you know who I am?" But he didn't do that. From the cross, he said, "Father, forgive them; they do not know what they do." But he committed himself to him who judges righteously. And remember, Christ is our example.
If Jesus, the perfect, sinless Son of God, would humbly drink the bitter cup. I mean, what about the rest of us? In John seventeen, Christ is on his way to the cross, and he says, "Father, I've finished the work you've given me to do," and he did. We need to be able to live in the same way.
Now, you have got a road map. And frankly, a job description, some assignments God has given you. I'm talking as a believer. Obviously, the most important thing in life for every single human being: put your faith in Christ and be saved. But as a believer, you have your to-do list from God.
Number one, we're called to be conformed to the image of Christ. We're to grow in the Lord. You'll never grow without prayer and Scripture. Prayer is you talking to God. The Bible is.
God talking to you, and we're to be proactive and invest in our Christian life and Christian growth. And Jesus is our example. He didn't return evil for evil. When he was done wrong, he didn't respond in kind. But it says in verse twenty-four of First Peter two, he bear our sins, not his own, because he had no sin.
But it was our sin. He felt the pain in his own body on the cross, and so us, verse twenty four, First Peter two, being dead to sins, at least we should be, should live under righteousness.
Now here is the thing: you are dead to sin. Sin should have no power over you, and certainly we should not, even when we. Unfairly are subjected to things we should not respond with sin. If we're dead to sin, and according to the Bible we are, then we ought to live like it.
Now, when we come back, we're going to talk about the five maybe surprising realities about suffering. And verse twenty-five of First Peter two, as we take this first break, says, "You were as sheep going astray, but are now returned under the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls." Fascinating title for Jesus. The only time in the Bible we ever read this. We'll explain that and much more when we come back with more on this edition of the Alex McFarland Show. Fox News and CNN call Alex McFarland a religion and culture expert.
Stay tuned for more of his teaching and commentary after this. Hey, producer Mike here for the Alex McFarland show. You know, Alex just released his twenty-first book. It just came out, "One Hundred Questions on Prophecy and the End Times," and he's here with me in the studio. Alex, tell us about it.
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He's been called trusted, truthful, and timely. Welcome back to the Alex McFarland Show. Welcome back to the program. We're talking about the power of suffering in a Christian's life, little and big. Maybe you feel like you know getting up early to go to church on Sunday morning.
That's kind of a little bit painful.
Well, we just like an athlete: no pain, no gain. We are to grow and invest in our Christian life. Let me challenge you. To take baby steps, maybe in traffic you lose your temper and under your breath when you get cut off in traffic you say some four-letter words. The next time you're tempted to do that, just say, "Lord Jesus, bless that person." It's amazing the people that get on your nerves, the people that you you know in your heart you're thinking.
Aught against them. Pray for them. You're going to be amazed at how the Holy Spirit can weave into your emotional baseline joy. Honestly, the most joyful person I've ever met. I talk about him all the time, and I interviewed him for you know we've had him on so many times.
Barry McGuire, McGuire's Car Wax, famously you know they live out on the West Coast. Barry McGuire is the most joyful person I've ever known. I mean, the guy just exudes happiness, joy in the Lord. He's always smiling. If you've ever watched his videos, ignite.
America, you know what I am saying. And I ask him. I said, Barry, you are always so happy, so joyful, so full of the Lord. I mean, Witnesses shares Jesus with every person he encounters. I said, How do you have such joy?
And he said, Well, it wasn't always that way. And he said, You know, nothing bad can ever happen to God's children. And I said, "Well, Barry, now, brother, I know bad things happen. I mean, even Christian families." Have deep valleys. He said, "Look, back in the early seventies, fifty plus years ago, he said, 'My wife and I, we were going through a hard time.
We had, you know, issues with the business, financially, family issues. We were in in a valley.' And Barry McGuire said, 'We heard a sermon on Romans eight twenty eight that for we know that all things work together for the good to those who are the called of God.'" According to His purposes, and that speaks about the sovereignty of God—a whole nother subject. How God is in control, and sovereign means that God is untouched by the problems, and yet He's able to intervene in the problems. He's above the world, and yet He's in the world, so God can impinge on and touch. The situations, but the situations don't change God, and so God is sovereign; He is in control.
So, Bear McGuire said, "We heard this sermon about Romans 8:28 that ultimately, now there's proximate and there's ultimate. Proximate means way up close, right here, now, today. But the Christian has the promise of God." And I think if we look at our own journey, and certainly the record of history, that what God does—a wise, good, loving, benevolent, all-powerful, providential Savior—he turns every proximate evil into an ultimate good. See, Satan will never out fumble God. The devil, the fallen world, the evil machinations of man will never put God in checkmate.
I mean, it is logically impossible that the finite could ever overcome the infinite, that the creation would ever outthink the Creator. It's impossible.
So Barry said that look, every bad thing and stuff comes along that, for the moment, can be stressful, painful, disappointing. We shed tears. Paul says, but not as those who have no hope. And we have this promise, and I've seen it. Perhaps you've seen it as well.
That what is really a bad thing, ultimately, when we lay it at the feet of Jesus, can turn into a good thing. And it has been said. We're talking about the power of suffering in a Christian's life. It has been said that to really know Jesus is to realize that Jesus is really all we have. You say, "Wait a minute!
I've got my family. I've got my bank account. I've got my health. You know, I've got Jesus, but I've got some other things that I've, you know, got going on." Look, Jesus is really all we have. Our bank account can be lost.
Our family members could be taken away. I think we all know our health, and by the way, your health is your first wealth. My friend, Dr. Mark Cowart says, "You know, one." Doctor visit and the health that we've taken for granted, we realize was pretty fragile, and so ultimately Jesus is all we have. And in the secular view, suffering is never seen as a meaningful part of life; it's only an interruption.
But in the Christian worldview, and only the Christian worldview can make this promise: suffering, it's not fun. It is part of a fallen, broken world, but we walk with the one who saves and restores the world, and He can also redeem your life and all the pain you might have ever gone through. Look, atheism can't make this promise. You go through hard times, injustices in a world without God. There's just stuff that happened.
The Eastern religion, Hinduism, Buddhism, New Age—they believe in something called karma. Why do we suffer in this life?
Well, according to Hinduism, and I wrote a master's thesis on this. They'll say, "Well, it's karma." See, you're suffering today for something you did in a past life. What was it?
Well, we don't know. How do I fix it?
Well, we don't know. It's just more karma accumulating, and so there's no hope in that. In the Christian life, and I want to give you five facts. First of all, there is the calling to suffering. First Peter 2:21.
For hereunto you were called. Can you believe that? Called. I thought God loved me. He does.
C.S. Lewis said that if you want a pain-free life, you're actually asking for less love from God, not more, because as Elmer Towns has said. I quote a lot of very wise people that have shaped our lives. Doctor E. L.
Towns, he said, "It's the friction of the water that lifts the boat. It's the friction of the air." That causes the lift as the airfoil splits the wind. Doctor Town said that thing that you so urgently want to be out from under may be the very vehicle God uses to take you where you want to be. You know how do we learn God's great grace and forgiveness and how precious and valuable it really is?
Well, sometimes we have to show grace, and we are reminded. How blessed we are to have been extended grace, and so we have this calling to suffer.
Now it's Christ's work that paid our sin. Your suffering is not what atones for your guilt before God. Christ suffered, but we grow, we mature. Let's just be honest. That, as Dale Moody said, he had money problems sometimes, and he said it will do me good to be hard up for a while because it will drive me to my knees.
I've quoted it many times. There's a gospel song, probably in your church's hymn book. How firm a foundation, regarding the purifying nature of suffering. It says, "The fire will not hurt thee. I only design thy dross to remove, thy gold to refine." Just like the purest gold.
The purest precious metal has been through the fire of refinement, and the dirt and the impurities are burned out.
Well, the calling to suffering, if we allow it, causes us to lean into God. Which we need. We've got to take a brief break. We're going to come back. Four more points about suffering and how we can benefit as we process it from a biblical vantage point.
Stay tuned. Alex McFarland here. We're back after this. Fox News and CNN call Alex McFarland a religion and culture expert. Stay tuned for more of his teaching and commentary after this.
Christian author and speaker Alex McFarland is an advocate for Christian apologetics, teaching in more than 2,200 churches around the world, schools, and college campuses. Alex is driven by a desire to help people grow in relationship with God. He arms his audiences with the tools they need to defend their faith, while also empowering the unchurched to find out the truth for themselves. In the midst of a culture obsessed with relativism, Alex is a sound voice who speaks timeless truths of Christianity in a timely way. It's no surprise that CNN, Fox, The Wall Street Journal, and other media outlets have described Alex as a religion and culture expert.
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Here, hope you're doing well, and may God bless you and strengthen you in your journey.
Okay, suffering—we don't like it, we don't deserve it, but Christianity promises it can benefit us. In the first segment, we talked about, or I should say, in the previous segment, the calling to suffering. For hereunto you were called. Secondly, there is our example regarding suffering. Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example.
And let's remember, Jesus said it should be enough for the disciple to be like his master. You say, "Well, I don't like the way people talk to me. I don't like the things I have to go through." Do you know? While we are not saved by good works, we're saved by Christ's work. The suffering that we go through, even if we feel like we're being handled unjustly, well, that's a little, little bit of what it must have felt like to be Jesus.
Jesus is our example, and as He walked righteously for the Father, even in the face of suffering.
So were we. There's the journey of suffering, and it says in verse twenty-one of First Peter two that we're to follow in His steps. See, suffering changes us; it really does. I've talked to a lot of people that maybe they went through cancer, or they went through a prodigal child that they spent years praying, and the journey. If we if we don't get bitter.
But we get better. I realize that's a cliche, but we take a look and let's let's be honest.
Some of our suffering is of our own making. We've made poor choices sometimes. We've known that we were in sin, and we let that go. And some of the suffering. God only does it because He loves us and He wants to draw us closer to Himself, and it's not a destination; it's a journey.
And Winston Churchill, one of my heroes, he said, "If if you're going through a bad place, he said, keep going. This too shall pass." There's the paradox of suffering.
Now you say, "Wait a minute! I thought God was good." Yes, God is good. I thought God loved me. Yes, He does love you.
So, what are some of the paradoxes? In other words, counterintuitive. People ask the question, "Why do the righteous suffer?" Well, why did Jesus suffer? I mean the perfect sinless Son of God, and yes, Jesus presented Himself to Israel on Palm Sunday. You know when He rode in, they said Hosanna.
I've had the question asked: Was that a valid offer? Had to be. God doesn't lie. God is not a deceiver.
So when Christ presented Himself to Israel to be the Messiah, they could have received Him. It was a valid offer, and yet, within hours, they were shouting, "Crucify him! Crucify him!" Read Mark fourteen sixty one through sixty four. Why was Jesus crucified? Christ was before the religious hierarchy, and they said he must die because he claims to be the Son of God.
Well, he is the Son of God.
So he was unjustly tried, accused, crucified, and he told the truth. And yet this paradox: it says Jesus did no sin; there was no guile in his mouth. He was reviled; he did not answer back. He was suffering, but he didn't threaten. But he committed himself to him who judges righteously.
And so the paradox of suffering is, you can be absolutely in God's will, walking with the Lord, playing by the rules, doing all the right things, and still X happens. And you say, "Why?" Well, just wait on God. You know, not long ago, I had a Christian friend who sent me, just frankly, a pretty hateful email. And man, my first inclination was to straighten him out, and there was a little voice in the back of my heart saying, "Alex, just wait." So you know, here I am. As you probably know, we we feel like we're.
Doing pretty good work, our staff. You know, seven days a week. I mean, we're at it, and God is blessing. And thousands and thousands of people are getting saved every year. Millions are hearing biblical truth every day of the week.
And this this friend sent me an email how I was, you know, not a good leader, and I had disappointed him, and he didn't really, you know. Believe in in what I'm doing, and yeah, it kind of hurt for the moment. And I typed up this letter that was somewhat respectful, but there was some anger in my letter. But I didn't send it. I didn't, and I'm thankful I didn't because a few days later he sent me another email and he said, "Hey, I don't know what got into me.
I've been going through a lot." He's got a child that's stressing them, and he said, "Would you please forgive me?" He said, "I don't know." He said, "I just had to vent, and I vented on you, and I'm really sorry." And I said, "Hey, no worries. Here's the thing: waiting. They say if you're hungry, angry, lonely, or tired, halt. Hungry, angry, lonely, or tired. If you are suffering, or you feel unjustly." Accused or something, just give it time.
The Holy Spirit will work. And finally, I want to talk about this as we close. We're almost out of time. The productive power of suffering. You see, only the Christian worldview can promise this, but it's it's an ironclad guarantee that your suffering, your stress, your pain, if you put it in the hands of Christ.
And you you say I want God to change things.
Well, we should equally be willing to say I want the Lord to change me. God always always works purposely and redemptively. And you know, in the New Testament, there are seven titles for Jesus: Lord, God, Messiah, Christ, Son of God, Son of Man, and Savior. But there's an eighth. And it only appears one time.
All those others—Lord God, Messiah, Christ, Son of God, Son of Man, Savior—those titles for Jesus appear dozens of times.
Son of Man appears eighty-two times. There is a title of Jesus that appears once and one time only. It's so beautiful—the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls. What does that mean?
Well, shepherd refers to the spiritual oversight. I mean, Christ is your pastor; he really is. And bishop, there is administration and organization. Jesus is the head of the church, and so in suffering, if we'll allow it, we return. It says there in verse 25.
We return to the pastor and the overseer of our life, King Jesus. Tim Keller said this: that Christianity teaches, contrary to Buddhism, suffering is real. And contrary to Eastern thought, it's not karma, and against secularism and atheism, suffering is or can be meaningful. Think about this. We're almost out of time, and I don't know what you're going through, but Christ does.
There is a purpose to our pain, and if faced rightly, it drives us like a nail deep into the love of God. And into more stability, clarity of mind, peace, and frankly, spiritual power more than we can imagine. And so, afresh and anew, this day and every day, in every situation, good or bad, we come to the cross, to the feet of Jesus, and to His arms that are open for you this day. Alex McFarland Ministries are made possible through the prayers and financial support of partners like you. For over twenty years, this ministry has been bringing individuals into a personal relationship with Christ, and has been equipping people to stand strong for truth.
Learn more and donate securely online at alexmcfarland.com. You may also reach us by calling one eight seven seven yes God and the. Number one. That's one eight seven seven. Yes, God.
One. Thanks for joining us. We'll see you again on the next edition of the Alex McFarland Show.
