“The cross [of Christ] does not solve the problem of suffering, but it supplies the essential perspective from which to look at it.  Since God has demonstrated his holy love and justice in a historical event (the cross), no other historical event (whether personal or global) can override or disprove it.

I could never myself believe in God, if it were not for the cross.  The only God I believe in is the One Nietzsche ridiculed as “God on the cross.”  In the real world of pain, how could one worship a God who was immune to it?…That is the God for me!  He laid aside hi immunity to pain.  He entered our world of flesh and blood, tears and death.  He suffered for us.  Our sufferings become more manageable in light of his.  There is still a question mark against human suffering, but over it we boldly stamp another mark, the cross that symbolizes divine suffering.”

John Stott, The Cross of Christ, 321, 326-27.