All of us go through some level of pain at different times in our lives. At times, it comes when we lose a loved one. At times when we fail a certain pursuit. At other times, it may be because we have lost a friend, or have experienced some betrayal of some sort. Whatever it is, our pain is real, and it needs healing.
This is something that God knows and has addressed long before we were born. God loves us enough to let us know that He understands our pain, and has actually borne it for us on the cross, in the person of our beloved Lord Jesus Christ.
Isaiah 53:4-6 beautifully describes what the Lord Jesus has done for us.
"Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was pierced for our transgressions; He was crushed for our iniquities; upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with His wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to His own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all."
The pain that we feel
Friend, God isn't the author of pain. Pain came in by way of sin. After Adam and Eve disobeyed God in the Garden of Eden, death and decay started to take hold of lives. In the same way, the pain and suffering that we all go through isn't caused by our loving God who heals us. Instead, it is caused by the sin that has rampaged and destroyed the lives of men.
The loss of your loved one is a product of sin. The hurt that you feel when a friend betrays you is a product of sin. Your failures and regrets are products of sin. All of these things are caused by sin, but you can take heart, because Christ has overcome.
Victory over sin's effects
Colossians 2:13-15 says, "You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for He forgave all our sins. He cancelled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross. In this way, He disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by His victory over them on the cross."
The Lord Jesus carried upon His body our griefs, our sorrows, our pain, our sicknesses, our sins and our iniquities and nailed them to the cross, claiming victory over which no man can ever win for himself. Best of all, He paid the price once for all so that we can claim the victory for free through Him who loved us! Such grace!
Friend, Christ experienced so much pain so that you can be free from yours. No, you can't expect the Christian life to be free of problems or challenges, but you can expect that whenever you are in pain for Christ's glory, God is there to be with you to comfort you and heal you, because He loves you so much.
