Frustration and Hope

Is there anyone who has been frustrated last one week? I will tell you the bad news: your frustration will not be over and you will see no end of it in sight. But I will tell you the good news, too: frustration will not be the end of your life in Christ.

Romans 8:20 – “For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it.” – tells us that the whole creation was subjected to frustration or futility (NASB). What is the definition of frustration? It is the state of being prevented from accomplishing a purpose or fulfilling a desire, or that of being made all efforts vain or ineffectual or futile, no matter how vigorous or persistent they may be. When you have tried to get an A but you get a C, you get frustrated. Or when you built a nice house but next day it was destroyed by a tornado, you get frustrated. Here Paul is saying that the whole creation is under frustration. When man sinned, God cursed the nature as the part of his punishment on him:

To Adam he said, "Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, 'You must not eat of it,'
    "Cursed is the ground because of you;
    through painful toil you will eat of it
    all the days of your life.

    It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
    and you will eat the plants of the field.

    By the sweat of your brow
    you will eat your food
    until you return to the ground,
    since from it you were taken;
    for dust you are
    and to dust you will return." (Genesis 3:17-19)

The whole creation was created for God’s glory. Since man’s fall, however, its fate was indissolubly and inextricably linked with that of man. Because of man’s sin, it was under God’s curse. Instead of fulfilling the function for which it was originally intended, it has not measured up to God’s original purpose in them. So it was frustrated, and it is being frustrated, and it will be frustrated until Jesus comes again. Is it very hard to picture how the nature – animals, plants, rivers, mountains, or celestial bodies – is frustrated? But if you look at verse 21 (“the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God”), you will understand what it means that the nature is frustrated. “Its bondage to decay.” The creation cannot get rid of this element of decay and of corruption that is in it, and that element in it renders it ultimately vain and utterly futile. Women love to receive roses as a Valentine gift. However even beautiful flowers of rose will wither several days after. There is a famous saying, “Every man who lives is born to die.” Whenever a life is born, there is already the element of death in it. It commences to live but also to die. Since we human beings live under the circumstances of the nature, we, too, share in its frustration. Living on this earth is a frustrating business. Since the nature has the element of decay and corruption, we have to constantly struggle against that element in it. Your houses or cars need regular maintenance; otherwise, they will break down. Every summer I have to constantly weed out my garden. Otherwise, weeds will be spread everywhere. The nature will not give farmers easy harvest. They worry about drought, flood, storms, or pests. In order to survive, we have to sweat in toil. 

Living is not only stressful, but also also frustrating. They say that in America, divorce rate is above 50%. Human relationship is not easy. There is much possibility that you meet mean or obnoxious people every day at work or at school. No matter how small the chance may be, there is a possibility that you may have a child with some kind of disability, psychological or physical. Many parents experience nightmare when they raise teens. Sometimes they wish they had not had them.

How about human society? Every four or eight years we elect a new president. We all think that the new president will solve all our problems. So we are crazy about the new faces, such as Barak Obama or Donald Trump, thinking that they would bring changes. But when initial excitement for the new presidency subsides, the realization that the new president alone cannot solve all our ills. Then frustration over political system caves in. We brag about the best health care system. However, there is much frustration in Washington since politicians do not know how or where to fix. How about economy? We are living in a generation of global economy. We Americans enjoy cheap exports from China and the Third World countries. However, they are cheap because they are manufactured by cheap labor, including child labor. There is a dilemma. If we refuse to buy them, the living conditions of many of the Third World countries people will be worse. But if we buy them, injustice and exploitation of capitalists will increase more and more. More frustration.

There is a frustration between the old people and the young people. Young people everywhere feel that their elders made a mess of society. However, when youth does get a chance, it mostly does no better than the aged because the system was produced by people who were young themselves once.

And because we have human bodies, there is much frustration. One student whom I know wants to get a good grade. So he set up his alarm clock 5:00am. But his body does not allow him to get up and finish homework. So he is very frustrated. Bodily life is a frustrating business, and we all know this too well. In a nutshell, living on this earth is a frustrating business.

How do people try to get it over? Since they do not believe in God, they do not know why they are frustrated. They don’t know why they struggle so hard to study or work. At least when they are young and high-minded, they have some purpose of life such as for the good of human mankind or the eradication of human ills. But when their ideals are met with harsh reality, they, too, get frustrated, and the question, “What’s the point of all my struggle,” inevitably arises. There seems to be no answer to it, for they cannot find the meaning in their pointless struggles. And if there is no answer to the first question, another question arises, “Will what I do matter?” When people do not have answers to the two questions, they cannot overcome the burden and stress and frustration of life. To avoid them, eventually they seek escape through pleasure, alcohol, sex, entertainment, or leisure.

However, what’s the Christian answer to life’s frustration? How do we Christians react to it? Let’s look at verse 18: “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.” First, the Bible does not say that we Christians will be immune from life’s suffering. It says that we will suffer, too, because we are not taken out of the world but we live in it, too. It does not even promise that our present sufferings will be over soon, and that things are going to be better, and that they will find relief before long. Because of some superficial type of evangelism, some Christians have the idea that, since they believed in Jesus, they would never have any problems, and that their lives would be continuous of sunshine and happiness. Then when they encounter sufferings, they are bewildered. They tend to say, “Well now, if the gospel that we have heard and in which we have believed is true, why are all these troubles happening to us?” They are shaken and even begin to doubt the truth of the gospel, or doubt God’s love, or feel a sense of grudge against God. Such quandary happens because they misunderstood God’s salvation plan. God never promised to we Christians that our present sufferings would be gone. Instead, our sufferings actually will be no less than those of non-believers. In fact, if not greater, they will be equal. Christians and non-Christians suffer together in this frustrated world. But we Christians add more sufferings to the commonly shared sufferings, for we will voluntarily share the remaining sufferings of Christ. Committed Christians will always rub the world the wrong way at some point, and friction is inevitable. Paul told the early Christians in the Minor Asia, “We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God,”(Acts 14:22) and told Timothy, “In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.” (2 Tim 3:12) In a sense, we Christians are more frustrated while living in this world. We volunteered to live as a minority. Not only that we are called to live a holy life. To live a holy life is not an easy task because we have a mortal body. Look at verse 23: “Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.” Once the Spirit, with his demand for holiness, enters our lives, we sense heart-rending inner battle inside that we never experienced before. As a result, the Spirit increases our frustration at not meeting God’s standard and at our yearning to be what he wants us to be. Paul describes the frustration in Romans 7: "I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do." (15) "What a wretched man I am!" (24)

Second, however, the Bible says that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. It means that, no matter how heavy and great the weight of our present frustrations and suffering may be, it cannot compare the weight of our future glory. Our present sufferings sometimes are intense. We feel that we see no end in sight. But our present sufferings are not worthy to be compared with the future glory revealed in us. We don’t know fully about the future glory, but only taste its glimpse. Even if so, it makes us regard all the sufferings we go through cannot be compared with it, because the coming glory is not only certain but also greatly vast in magnitude.

See verse 19. “The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed.” Here the phrase “in eager expectation” conveys the vivid picture of creation stretching up its neck, lifting its head, to have a peep of something. The whole creation which was subjected to frustration is eagerly anticipating the coming glory with this eagerness and waiting and craning its neck. It, too, hopes the day that it itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. It, too, bears all the frustration in the hope of sharing in the glory which the children of God will receive.

So, the biblical answer to our present sufferings is hope in future glory. The gospel does not promise it will lessen our sufferings or remove them out of our lives. But the hope in our future glory will make us overcome our sufferings and make us more than conquerors because this hope is so certain and sure and glorious.

Is that your way of overcoming your frustration and sufferings? How do you react to suffering? Our earthly hope for marriage or graduation or getting a job may help us lessen the stings of life’s suffering. Up to some point these things may work. But they will not work against real sufferings and frustrations you have to go through. Unless you do know the glorious hope the gospel gives you, or unless the hope is brightly burning in your heart, you cannot win over the sweet whisper of the devil. The devil will say to you, “Why suffer? It does not matter whether you live for God or not.” But when this hope is brightly shining in your heart, you suddenly realize that what you are suffering in this world has little significance in the light of eternal glory, and that your labor in this Lord will not be in vain.

Once we lived without hope. But Jesus Christ shed his precious blood on the cross so that we may have a living hope, and that we may live as the people who have this hope in this land of suffering and frustration. Do you exercise this privilege as the people who have this hope? Or do you live as if you do not have this hope?

Finally, warning to those who do not believe in Jesus Christ as your personal Lord. Your future is nothing but darkness, for the suffering you are experiencing in this world is nothing but a foretaste of God’s wrath you will experience in eternity. My only advice to you is to flee from God’s coming wrath through repentance to God and faith in Jesus Christ.