When man rebelled against God, God did not erase the world He had made and replace it with something evil. The sun still rose. The earth still produced food. Marriage, family, work, beauty, music, friendship, and every other good gift remained. Fallen man was permitted to go on living in the good world God had created for fellowship with Himself.
But man now attempted something creation was never made to support. He wanted God's world without God. He wanted the gifts while rejecting the Giver. He wanted to exercise dominion without submitting to the authority of the One who gave him dominion.
Creation does not cooperate peacefully with that rebellion.
The ground still produces food, but now with thorns and sweat. Our bodies still possess life, but they weaken and die. Human relationships remain precious, but selfishness distorts them. Work is still good, but it becomes burdensome. Pleasure still testifies to God's generosity, but it cannot satisfy the soul that was made for God.
This was judgment, but it was not the petty revenge of an offended deity. God did not become cruel when man sinned. Rather, He subjected creation to futility so that it would never successfully become a substitute for Himself. The world cannot give lasting rest to those who demand that it take the place of its Creator.
Paul writes that “the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now” (Romans 8:22). Creation groans because it is being made to bear a use for which it was never intended. In a real sense, the good world protests against man's effort to enjoy it apart from God.
We should therefore be careful when speaking about suffering. Not every person's particular sorrow is the direct result of that person's particular sin. Scripture does not permit us to look upon the sick, the grieving, or the afflicted and assume that they brought their suffering upon themselves. Nevertheless, human rebellion is responsible for the misery of the world as we now experience it. God is not cruel, and creation is not evil. Man's rejection of God has disordered his relationship with everything God made.
This is why the gospel offers more than improved circumstances. Christ did not come merely to make our lives within this world more pleasant. He came to reconcile us to God. Through His blood, those who were “far off are made nigh” (Ephesians 2:13).
The answer to a groaning world is not finally found in receiving more of God's gifts. It is found in being brought back to the Giver.