why all this suffering?

Genesis 3 records the moment when the first human couple chose to act against God’s direct instruction, deciding for themselves what was right and wrong rather than trusting their Creator’s guidance, and that single act of rebellion did not just affect them personally but set in motion consequences that would ripple through every generation that followed.

Inherited Sin and Imperfection

The Apostle Paul explains this plainly in Romans 5:12, teaching that ‘sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned.’ This is what theologians call ‘inherited sin’ or ‘original sin’… the idea that we are not born into a neutral condition but into a nature already bent toward imperfection, weakness and moral failure, which is why even people of sincere goodwill find themselves struggling, falling short and causing harm to themselves and others without always intending to.

A World Groaning Under the Weight

Romans 8:22 deepens this further, describing how ‘the whole creation has been groaning’ under the effects of that original rupture, meaning that not just human behaviour but the entire natural order… disease, decay, death… reflects a world no longer functioning as God originally designed it.

The Good News Within the Bad

Crucially, the Bible never leaves the story there, because Romans 5 goes on to present Jesus Christ as the ‘second Adam’ whose obedience directly undoes what the first disobedience set in motion, offering restoration, reconciliation and ultimately the reversal of everything that sin introduced into the human story.