Why is life often so hard to live if God is good and loving?
- Cobus Prinsloo
- Jun 29, 2025
- 12 min read
Updated: Oct 7, 2025
Quick chapter links:
1. The Great Obstacle
There appears to be an inescapable dilemma that arises whenever intelligent beings – those with consciousness, self-awareness, and God-consciousness – are given the ability to exercise free will and make moral choices. The moment this capacity is bestowed upon a creature, the threat of rebellion becomes a factor. The potential for conceit and harmful decisions is very real. This potential is inseparable from free volition; without it, free will would be a mere illusion.
Human history is filled with examples of rulers and leaders, talented artists and even televangelists (!) who, after achieving great success, power, fame and fortune, became deluded by their own greatness and spiralled down a path of self-destruction. The 19th-century theologian G.H. Pember puts it forth:
“Except by special grace, man seems incapable of bearing the slightest weight of power upon his shoulders without losing his balance". (Pember, 33)
Pride takes root, and the creature's natural tendency is to believe they can function independently of their Creator – essentially becoming their own little gods. This is summed up in one word: rebellion. Whenever free choice is entrusted to the creature, the potential for rebellion is inevitably present.
But this phenomenon is not restricted to our earthly domain. The fall of the first humans, Adam and Eve, was preceded by another, more ancient fall. It was the downfall of a mighty and glorious spiritual being – arguably the greatest being ever created by God. We’re speaking of Satan, though before pride and rebellion overtook him, he was known as Lucifer (meaning the shining one).
Before the first whisper of rebellion against God, Lucifer held a high and noble position as the governing head and viceroy of the Almighty. From the moment of his creation, he was surrounded by the insignia of royalty. He directed the worship of his subjects and enjoyed the full privilege of closeness to the very throne of God. (Pember, 55) Lucifer awoke to consciousness in the dazzling light of his Creator’s glory, discovering himself to be a mighty prince – perfect in wisdom and beauty (Ezekiel 28:12 – 15; Isaiah 14:12 – 14). Although these prophetic passages refer to earthly kings, ancient Hebrew prophecy sometimes carries a twofold meaning – one relates to a current situation or person, but this serves as a type of the spirit realm or the future. In some instances, when God addresses and pronounces judgment against a godless ruler, He indirectly refers to the satanic spiritual forces operating through that ruler. For example, when God curses the serpent in Genesis after the fall, He is in fact addressing Satan, who had worked through the serpent to deceive. This layered approach is particularly evident in the verses referenced in Ezekiel.
Pember comments, "From the beginning, Lucifer was perfect in every way. But having known no other condition, he mistakenly believed that his power and splendour originated from himself. Losing his sense of dependence on God, he fell – without hope." (Pember, 84) The weight of his own glory became too much to bear. Pride in his own superiority moved him to redirect the worship meant for God toward himself. The apostle Paul hints at this truth when he warns church overseers not to fall into pride or arrogance, which will lead to the “… same condemnation that befell the devil.” (1 Timothy 3:6)
In contrast, humanity’s story is different. God's foresight and mercy have prevented us from sharing in Lucifer's irredeemable ruin.
2. Mankind: A New Creature with a Different Destiny
Humans were given moral responsibilities, but with a different destiny. God would work with them through a process designed to prevent them from ending up like Lucifer and his fallen angels.
You may ask, “Why give humanity the same dangerous ability to make moral choices?” It all has to do with love. Could God force everyone against their will to be wise, good, and loving toward their Creator, any more than earthly parents can force their children to behave exactly as they wish? If humanity were stripped of the power of choice, they would no longer be truly human, but rather a lesser species – moral cripples, no more responsible for their actions than puppets on a string. And clearly, this is not what God wants. He desires children who will voluntarily love Him, with whom He can share His love.
Real love must come from the heart; it cannot be forced. It would hardly bring glory to God if He had created robots – beings incapable of choosing otherwise – to endlessly worship and praise Him. Being programmed to say “I love you” over and over would be meaningless.
Only beings fully capable of choice can truly love, although this inevitably opens the door to all manner of evil. It is a foregone conclusion that humans, though made in the image of God (Genesis 1:26 – 27), are less than God and will think and do things unworthy of Him.
For God to genuinely win the human heart, people must have complete freedom to reject Him and choose to worship another object or being. The alternative must also be truly compelling. Satan – being the most powerful and brilliant created being – was thus allowed to present humanity with that ultimate alternative. Such an alternative is essential in revealing where the human heart truly lies.
It would not be fair to force people into God’s presence in heaven if they do not truly want to be there. The battle for our souls is therefore not fought with brute force, for the issues at stake are not of that kind. It is a contest for the heart’s affection and loyalty. And for that purpose, Satan must be allowed the freedom to tempt humanity with every deception and strategy he can devise.
3. Why did the “Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil” even exist?
Some people ask why God placed such a temptation before humans in the first place, fully knowing the calamities it would bring about. Because God desired voluntary love from humanity, He was compelled to offer them an alternative – and that alternative came in the form of the tree.
Yet God anticipated the Fall of the first humans, as described in Genesis 3, and had already ordained the plan of human redemption from the beginning. He promised the coming of the Messiah, who would free humanity from slavery to Satan and sin (Genesis 3:15).
Thus, a plan was in place from the very beginning. God accepted the necessary reality of suffering and chose to bear the total consequences of the world’s cumulative sin Himself (2 Timothy 1:9; Ephesians 1:4). He knew that full atonement for sin could not be made without experiencing, in His own Being, the full weight of suffering that eternal justice would demand for the transgression of His universal moral law.
There was but one simple commandment: to abstain from eating from the tree. In obeying this command, the humans would pay homage to their Creator, who had given them all things. If they ate from it, they would prove themselves rebels. The tree had to be there – it was essential to give them the privilege of exercising true moral choice.
The method Satan used to deceive Eve into rebelling against God was to resort to the same lie that had deluded him – the promise of greater power, comparable to God’s. He told her that if they ate the forbidden fruit, they would become “like God” (Genesis 3:5).
Even today, we still hear the whisper of the Serpent in New Age philosophy and aspects of Eastern religions, which promote the same lie: that all of us possess a dormant divine “spark” within us, which can be developed until we reach a state of enlightenment (or divinity) by ourselves.
And alas! The first humans, too, were overcome by evil and came to know the meaning of that dreadful word: death, and the horrors of corruption. Pember writes:
“For that all-wise God knew the great obstacle to perfection in the creature, and that, until it could be removed, He was unable to show forth His love and pour out His bounty to the full.” (Pember, 83)
As a result of humanity’s rebellion, their relationship with God, the Source of life, was temporarily broken. When they rebelled, a process of decay began to operate in their bodies, making them subject to disease, deformity, and death. Having died spiritually, they would eventually die physically as well, just like all their descendants. In a sense, this can even serve – however difficult it may be – as a blessing: as we all march ceaselessly toward death, we are increasingly reminded of our creaturely weakness and shortcomings, prompting us to seek after the infinite God who offers eternal life to those who come to Him.
But to accomplish this: “… they should not be perfect from the day of their creation; but, by a painful yet salutary experience, learn their own creature weakness.” (Pember, 83)
They should be allowed to fall, but by the merciful pre-arrangement of God, not an eternally fatal, not a hopeless fall:
“And through and out of all this they should be saved by a power not their own: benighted, helpless, distraught, not knowing whither to turn, they should be led by the hand of Another. Their sin, which they would be utterly unable to expiate, should be punished in the person of a Substitute”. (Pember, 84)
Their own Creator would die in their stead! This is the Gospel message of humanity’s messiah – Jesus Christ – who would pay the penalty of our transgressions on a cross.
Conclusion
After the Fall, it was clear that God could not endow humans with great power and wisdom; He could not make them excellent in majesty and glorious in might until they had passed the danger of abusing His gifts (and so falling as Lucifer and the sinful angels that followed him). Humanity's rebellion had entrenched itself so deeply in this predicament that they became incapable of rescuing themselves. The history of the past few thousand years bears witness to this: time and again, our ingenious inventions and well-meaning programs to improve life have backfired, introducing new problems instead. (Pember, 84)
Thus, humanity would have to learn absolute dependence upon the guidance and power of its Creator. Pember summarizes it as follows:
“And if they could humble themselves under His almighty hand; if they could trust Him in their times of darkness; believe Him that all things work together for their good, and thankfully accept His way of peace and salvation – then, after a little space, the days of mourning should be ended. He would invest them with the robes of immortality, ruling with Him forever and ever. Everlasting joy would break forth without the possibility of an intervening cloud.” (Pember, 84)
4. Why was nature cursed after the Fall?
Affliction is intended to drive us to God – that is why God cursed Nature after the Fall. Life became difficult, and the futility of our post-Fall existence is intended as a constant reminder of our finiteness – and to stir a longing in our spirits for the heavenly and eternal.
Had humans continued living in bliss on Earth after the Fall, they would never have felt the need to draw closer to God. God's ultimate purpose in dealing with us is, therefore, to reconcile us to Him and to transform us into becoming more like Jesus. Any confidence in the flesh is fatal to faith in God. Before God can endow His power to meet our deepest needs, He must first bring us to the end of ourselves, a place of humbleness. We are often so full of self that there is little room left for more of God.
This is why Jesus so often taught that self-denial is a precondition for following Him (Matthew 16:24; Mark 8:34; Luke 9:23). Greatness in God’s eyes is always preceded by humility before Him (James 4:6,10).
For those who are already children of God
Because God is preparing believers for rulership in an infinite universe – one that demands character, growth in sanctification, and love — this preparation must involve trials and tribulations. Without them, we cannot be freed from self-centeredness. (Romans 5:3 – 5) Unbounded, uninterrupted prosperity always leads to self-indulgence, self-worship, and a life centered around the ego.
The humble and spiritually mature children God desires cannot be formed in heaven. The necessary conditions to develop such character do not exist there, because heaven has no tension or strain, no trials or temptations, no opposition or obstacles. Heaven is not an environment for growth through testing. Character is forged only in the crucible of hardship.
To illustrate: what happens to children when all stresses are removed and they are always given what they want? What happens when they are shielded from life’s hardships and struggles? Do they grow, or do they stagnate? We all know this is not the path to strength of character. The same principle applies to an athlete – he must strain his muscles to grow stronger. Likewise, we must be tested to have opportunities to grow emotionally and spiritually.
5. Mystifying the creature
God cannot train someone without, at times, mystifying them – without baffling them. Evidently, He has purposes in us that sometimes cannot be fulfilled apart from frustration and bewildering pain. Even Paul, the greatest of the apostles, was at times perplexed about his circumstances (2 Corinthians 4:8). Faith cannot be perfected except through apparent denial, as in the case of Job (Job 13:15). This faith is the kind of trust in God that does not rely on visible outcomes. God cannot develop this faith in a person without, at times, seeming to contradict Himself – or appearing faithless. A striking example is Abraham, when God’s promise regarding his offspring seemed to directly contradict His command to sacrifice his son, Isaac.
Another powerful example is the story of Joseph. As a teenager, God gave him dreams about a future of rulership (Genesis 37). However, not long after sharing his dreams with his brothers, they nearly killed him and sold him into slavery. As a slave in Egypt, things only got worse – he was falsely accused and thrown into prison, where he remained for more than two years (Genesis 39). Most people in similar circumstances might have concluded that God was unfaithful, untrustworthy, or not worth serving. But not Joseph. He remained faithful to God, and at the appointed time, God exalted him to become the second most powerful man in Egypt, after Pharaoh himself.
Why did Joseph have to endure all these trials before attaining greatness? In Genesis 37, there are hints that because Joseph was more loved by his father than his brothers and because of his dreams, he was somewhat cocky and self-absorbed. This stirred deep jealousy and hatred among his brothers. God allowed adversity into Joseph’s life to break his pride and to build the character necessary for rulership.
Paul Billheimer puts it like this:
“Earth, with its calamities, heartbreak, disappointments, and pain, is intended to work a fuller submission, a more utter devotion, an increasing patience, a greater beauty of spirit, and a more selfless love towards God and man.” (Billheimer, 60).
Christlike character “… can only be developed in the school of suffering”. (Billheimer, 101)
Paul endured many trials and tribulations throughout his ministry. He wrote:
“We think you ought to know, dear brothers and sisters, about the trouble we went through in the province of Asia. We were crushed and overwhelmed beyond our ability to endure, and we thought we would never live through it. In fact, we expected to die. But as a result, we stopped relying on ourselves and learned to rely only on God, who raises the dead.” (2 Cor 1:8,9)
Final Thoughts
Therefore, we have been destined to begin in darkness, far from the light and joy of His presence (the exact opposite environment in which Lucifer came into existence).
Pember describes the process succinctly:
“Yet there is a hand stretched out to lead us through the night: and if we grasp it, giving up our own ideas of the right way, it will guide us along a road, rough, toilsome and perilous indeed, but which will at length develop our characters fit for an eternity in heaven and bring us safely to the home of our Father.”
“…when, after having borne the image of the earthly, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly when we shall rest, no longer in hope, but in abundant and never-failing satisfaction after awaking in God’s likeness: then at length shall we have attained the goal of our being, the position for which He created us, nay, to which He ordained us before the foundation of the world.”
“Then, after having been led through darkness and perils, realizing our dependence upon Him, we shall not feel any wish to stray out into the night again. With such retrospect, we shall not be tempted to think that our glory and beauty are an inseparable part of ourselves.” (Pember, 85)
According to modern psychology, a strong ego is considered essential for success in an egocentric world. However, in the social order of heaven – the wave of the future – the supreme law is that of love, humility, and selflessness.
Redeemed humanity will therefore become the highest order of created beings in the universe. The proof of this is that every born-again person becomes, by nature, a member of God’s family.
“But to all who believed Him and accepted Him, He gave the right to become children of God.” (John 1:12)
Sources
Billheimer, P.E. . Destined for the throne, Bethany House Publishers. 1996
Pember, G.H. Earth’s Earliest Ages, Kregel Publications. 1999
Holy Bible, New Living Translation (NLT)
Comments