/lit/ - Literature

The suffering of this world is just preparation for the goodness of the age to come, the next world, the new heavens and the new earth, where, we're told, there will be no sorrow and no sadness and no pain anymore, but God will wipe away every tear.
So what is the point in this world? Why not just make that other world first?
Because this world was necessary in order for us to know God as redeemer, as the one who saves us from evil and from our own sin.
It's creating a "weight of glory" as Paul says.
And elsewhere, "God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us." It doesn't say God shows his love for us in that he made a perfect world of happiness. He shows his love for us by creating a world, letting it fall into sin, and saving us from it.
Someone might say, well that's stupid, and not worth it.
But you're in no position to make that call until you've seen the glory of the age to come, the glory which specifically depends on us having gone through this world first.