Romans 8:20–21 (NLT)
Against its will, all creation was subjected to God’s curse. But with eager hope, the creation looks forward to the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay.
There's a fascinating story about the apostle Paul in Acts chapter 14. He's on his first missionary trip in Lystra, and we see God through the apostle Paul heal a man who had been lame from birth (Acts 14:9–10). When the people of Lystra witnessed this miracle, they foolishly assumed that Paul and his traveling companion, Barnabas, were gods. Take note of how Paul and Barnabas responded. “The apostles Barnabas and Paul tore their robes when they heard this and rushed into the crowd, shouting, “People! Why are you doing these things? We are people also, just like you, and we are proclaiming good news to you, that you turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made the heaven, the earth, the sea, and everything in them” (Acts 14:14–15 CSB).
Then in verse 19, the crowd swings from trying to worship Paul to stoning him. “Some Jews came from Antioch and Iconium, and when they won over the crowds, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, thinking he was dead (Acts 14:19, CSB). Keep in mind that this is Paul’s first missionary journey. He’s living his Kingdom purpose; he’s preaching the gospel; and he's viciously attacked by a hysterical mob that aimed to kill him.
If I had been with Paul and Barnabas on this mission, I would have been perplexed about what went wrong. I would have been thinking, “This can’t be God’s will. How could a loving God allow something so horrendous to happen to someone who loves Him so much—to a person who is sacrificing their entire life to share the gospel?”
In our contemporary Christianity, we suffer from an Adam and Eve complex. We expect that if we’re seeking the Kingdom of God, everything will be perfect, just like in the Garden before the fall. Clearly, the Apostle Paul had a very different perspective on what to anticipate when seeking the Kingdom of God.
Paul sweeps off the rocks from the stoning, gets up, and the next day gets back on mission. I can see him in my mind’s eye limping down the road, no doubt in excruciating pain from where the stones had plummeted his body the day before. His body racked with pain, and his heart ablaze with the Kingdom purpose of sharing the gospel with everyone.
Here is the message Paul preached to the Christians in Lystra when he came back: “Strengthening the disciples by encouraging them to continue in the faith and by telling them, ‘It is necessary to go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God" (Acts 14:22, CSB). Obviously, Paul didn’t suffer from the Adam and Eve complex. “Many hardships?” That doesn’t fit into the health, wealth, and prosperity version of Christianity that is so prevalent in our world today.
Nor do the teachings of Jesus on the cost of discipleship “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, and even his own life—he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26–27, CSB).
Why would the Apostle Paul and Jesus preach such stern messages about how we will suffer in the world? It would take an entire book for me to attempt to thoroughly answer that question. Suffice it to say here in this limited space that when we suffer in the world, it breaks us free from our disordered loves. Suffering humbles us and tunes our hearts into the Kingdom of God.
Things are far from perfect here in this sin-broken world. But in Jesus, we have a perfect King who reigns over a perfect Kingdom, and He gives us perfect gifts from above. “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, who does not change like shifting shadows” (James 1:17, CSB).
This is why, as we seek first the Kingdom of God (Matt. 6:33), we are to pray, “Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10, CSB). In doing so, we are disconnecting our hearts from the temporary brokenness and suffering of this world and tuning them into the eternal perfection and joy that exist in the Kingdom of God.