Read for This Week’s Study: Luke 2:7, 22–24; Matt. 2:1–18;

John 8:58, 59; Luke 22:41–44; Matt. 27:51, 52; Rom. 6:23; Titus 1:2.

Memory Text: “And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud

voice, saying, ‘Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?’ that is, ‘My God, My

God, why have You forsaken Me?’ ” (Matthew 27:46, NKJV).

Whenever we look at the issue of suffering, the question comes:

How did sin and suffering first arise? Through divine revela­

tion we have good answers: they arose because free beings

abused the freedom God had given them. This leads to another ques-

tion: Did God know beforehand that these beings would fall? Yes, but

obviously He thought it was, as C. S. Lewis wrote, “worth the risk.”

Worth the risk? For whom? For us, while God sits in heaven on His

throne? Not exactly. The freedom of all His intelligent creatures was so

sacred that, rather than deny us freedom, God chose to bear in Himself

the brunt of the suffering caused by our abuse of that freedom. And we

see this suffering in the life and death of Jesus, who, through suffering

in our flesh, has created bonds between heaven and earth that will last

throughout eternity.

The Week at a Glance: What did Christ suffer in our behalf?

What can we learn from His suffering?