Fractured Bones In A Fractured World
Bodie Hodge, M.Sc., B.Sc., PEI
Biblical Authority Ministries, December 15, 2025 (Donate)
So…. my son fell on his left hand several weeks ago and it just
hasn’t healed up. As a high-level baseball player, it affects his swing and so
we decided to take him to a sports medical professional to get a medical examination.
Sure enough, it was fractured.
The good thing is that it is healing but it should take about another month and there are some things we can and need to do to help but really time is what heals this minor bone hiccup.
The Theology Of Fractured Bones
Though medical knowledge is great and God is the Great Physician,
it’s nice to step back and look at things like this from a biblical worldview
perspective.
Starting in Genesis, death and suffering were not original
parts of God’s perfect creation but are intrusions that entered the world as a
result of man’s sin. The Bible teaches that when God finished creating the
world (Genesis 1), He said that it was indeed “very good” (Genesis 1:31). This
is what we expected from a perfect God (Deuteronomy 32:4).
Death, disease, or broken bones did not exist originally.
Death entered the world through Adam’s disobedience (i.e., sin) when he
rebelled and committed high treason against God. God commanded man not to eat from
a particular fruit and they (Adam and Eve) ate in disobedience (Genesis 2:17;
3:6).
Romans 5:12 explains that “through one man sin entered the
world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men.” Adam was the responsible
party for his wife—where she was deceived (1 Timothy 2:14)—he willing ate. Those
who had dominion fell and the whole dominion of man fell with them. God cursed
the ground, the animals, and sentenced man die and return to dust (Genesis 3).
Suffering, like bone fractures, exists because the entire
creation was subjected to the consequences of sin (Genesis 3:17–19; Romans
8:20–22). This is why we see pain, decay, disasters, disease, and death today.
These things are not acts of cruelty from God but results of man’s rejection of
His authority.
God warned Adam clearly, and He kept His word. God basically
gave man a taste of what life was like without Him upholding everything
in a perfect state. We now taste death and suffering in a very real way.
We live daily in God’s fractured world.
However, God is not indifferent to suffering. From the before
the moment sin entered the world, God revealed His plan of redemption (Genesis
3:15). Throughout Scripture, God, in His infinite power and wisdom, even uses suffering
for His good purpose. Our brokenness from sin shows the seriousness
of sin.
God uses suffering to humble man’s pride and slow the spread
of sin. God also uses suffering
and death to be an obvious reminded of how we need a Savior—Jesus Christ.
Without death and suffering, the gospel itself would be meaningless, because
Christ came to defeat death through His suffering, death and
resurrection. His infinite and eternal sacrifice (which due to His eternality
can be paid in just a moment) satisfied God’s eternal and infinite wrath on sin
to make salvation possible.
Jesus Christ entered a fallen world and took on the likeness
of sinful flesh (Romans 8:3) and suffered and died in our place, though He was
without sin (1 John 3:5). Through His death and resurrection, He conquered death—that
punishment we deserve—and made salvation possible (1 Corinthians 15:21–22,
54–57).
Christ’s work on the Cross dealt with both God’s justice
against sin and His grace and mercy toward sinners who receive Jesus Christ.
This is why believers in Christ are seen as spotless before God on Judgment Day—we
have been given Christ’s pure righteousness (called “imputation”).
No More Fractured Bones
The Bible does not promise a suffering-free life while we
tread in this sin-cursed and broken world—and my son knows that through many examples
and this fractured bone is one more example. God, though, does promise a time
when there will be no more death or suffering or broken bones in heaven (technically,
“a new heaven and new earth” commonly denoted simply as “heaven”).
God will one day remove death, pain, and sorrow entirely
(Revelation 21:3–5) and the curse will be removed (Revelation 22:3) for those
who are saved. Until then, suffering reminds us that this world is broken and
temporary, and that our hope rests in God, not in man-made ideals and solutions.
Death and suffering exist because sin is real, God’s Word is true, but take
heart, God has provided a way of salvation in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Bodie Hodge, Ken
Ham's son in law, has been an apologist since 1998 helping out in various
churches and running an apologetics website. He spent 21 years working at Answers
in Genesis as a speaker, writer, and researcher as well as a founding
news anchor for Answers News. He was also head of the Oversight
Council.
Bodie
launched Biblical Authority Ministries in 2015 as a personal
website and it was organized officially in 2025 as a 501(c)(3). He has spoken
on multiple continents and hosts of US states in churches, colleges, and
universities. He is married with four children.
