"There will be suffering and pain for those who do evil, of the Jew first and also of the Gentile." Romans 2:9

Since all have sinned, all have suffered and many in the world continue to suffer. Suffering is a consequence of sin. God did not kill the first humans for eating the forbidden fruit, He warned them that if they did they would die. If a man jumps off a rooftop he falls as a consequence of gravity, not because God is punishing him. When we fall we do not like gravity much, but without it there would be utter chaos. Those who judge God for allowing suffering neglect the fact that God did not spare Himself.

In Jesus, God became a man and suffered more than all of us, even giving Himself to be crucified. He did this in order to restore man and creation from its fallen condition, but presently man continues to choose to sin. The only way God could have prevented suffering, pain and death would have been to create a world where people were slaves to His will.

Freedom of choice is what gives every human the ability to choose good or bad, blessing or curse. What would it be like to live without choice? Perhaps in a world where we are all like automated robots which cannot operate outside the commands of our programming? Without choice there is no freedom. And without freedom of choice man would cease to be human. But man was created with a free will - God gave him the right to choose.

The truth is, God did create a perfect world without suffering, pain and death, and where the first humans had freedom. Sadly, they chose to not obey God and follow His wisdom. All of us have followed that same pattern of disobedience and the result is this present state. God did not cause the suffering, we did, but in His love and mercy He chose to share in it in order that all who would repent could share in the glory when He establishes His Kingdom upon the earth.

The Bible prophesies of a time when God will dry every eye and death will cease. Even the painful memories of the past will be forgotten. We will live in His presence where we will experience the fullness of joy forevermore. God did not cause the suffering but stepped into it as Jesus and suffered more than any man even subjecting Himself to death on the cross. Jesus became a man to pay our penalty of our sins and will come again to chase away the pain and death.