The Problem of Pain

I'm currently sitting in a classroom listening to a lecture regarding C.S. Lewis' work The Problem of Pain. After listening and thinking through the question, I've concluded that the question regarding the problem of pain is a perceptual illusion. Pain is both necessary and beneficial. God loves and cares for each of His creatures, but He is not interested in providing comfort at the expense of providing peace, and peace only comes through the knowledge of His son, Jesus Christ.

How can pain be beneficial? Why is it necessary? With just a little effort, I'm certain we can all think of some examples of necessary pain. I personally prefer showers to baths, and when I shower, I prefer the water to be extra hot! However, I do have my limits. There is such a thing as too hot. When I accidentally turn the heat up too high, the water scalds me. After voicing an expletive, some more loudly than others depending on the level of my surprise, and immediately asking God's forgiveness for voicing said expletive, I turn the heat down! What has happened in this instance? In going about my normal routine, I encounter pain, and this pain presents me with a series of choices. I can jump out of the way of what is causing me pain; I can modify the source of whatever is causing me pain, or I can continue to endure the pain. Despite whatever reaction ensues, the pain is not the problem. The pain is the warning that something greater and more terrible is coming. Let's move the illustration further. Fire is hot. We rarely think of hot water taking a person's life, but we know for a fact that fire will consume the flesh. My senses tell me how near I can stand to a fire before I am in danger. From a proper distance, fire provides warmth and light. It can provide comfort and security on a cold night and direction to those who would otherwise be unable to see. However, if I get too near to the fire, my senses tell me something different. The same fire that once provided comfort and security now poses a threat to my well-being. My body is in imminent danger. Were I unable to feel pain, I would have no warning of this danger. I might assume that the nearer I am to the fire, the more comfortable and secure I will be, and with this assumption, I would most likely dive into the fire and be consumed. So pain is neither the source of evil nor the agent of evil. Pain is not the fire, nor did it make the fire hot. It certainly did not make the fire burn me. Instead it warned me of danger. In that sense pain is both necessary and beneficial. It is a tool which preserves our existence.

Were I to leave it there, I would be doing a great disservice. Yes. Pain preserves the existence of the human race, but it is so much more. As I claimed before, pain warns us of imminent danger. This is not the same thing as simply preserving us. The first time I turned the shower up too high or reached into a glowing campfire, my response to the pain was reactionary. I did not know any better. But my initial reaction to the pain was not the end of my response to the pain. After the first time, I remembered not to turn the heat up too high and to never again reach into a fire. In that sense, pain is not merely reactionary, but it is cautionary and preventative. Pain is a gift from God.

Here is the sticky point. I am not calling pain good. Pain is the result of a fallen world. Because of man's disobedience to God, mankind is intrinsically offensive to God's nature. Before our disobedience, pain was not apart of our experience. It isn't natural. We were not made for pain. Pain was made for us. Why? It was made and presented to us as a preserver, a preventer, a warning and a reminder. It preserves our existence. It prevents us from returning to the same source of pain. It warns us to avoid other sources of pain, and it reminds us of our intrinsically offensive fallen state and the full extent of that state's consequences. God gave us pain for our protection; both from imminent danger and eternal damnation.

The question then arises, "Can we have hope apart from pain?" God doesn't seem to think so. In fact, He proved it by sending His son to experience the full extent of pain on our behalf. Pain is not evil, and it is not death. It is the necessary consequence of both. Because of Christ's suffering and death, we have hope. More specifically, we hope in Jesus. Thank God for using the consequences of our fallen state as a compass to point us to His Son. With this in mind, there really is not a problem of pain.