Suffering (I)
What is suffering? Does it play a role in the reality of the new creation? If so, what is that role, and how are Christians called to be a part of it? If Christ suffered once for all (1 Peter 3:18), why is suffering still a reality in our world?
As Christ-ones, we are called to share in the sufferings of the Messiah, who paradoxically submitted Himself to the world’s antagonistic spiritual forces in order to achieve victory over them (Colossians 2:15). Christ is our model and our pattern, an archetype of the new creation humanity. His submission to the will of the Father, even to the point of death (Philippians 2:8) is the difficult path, the narrow way, that we are called to follow. His wounds foreshadowed the sufferings that the Body of Christ can expect to experience as the Holy Spirit works through us to heal the creation order.
Suffering works hand in hand with love as God’s agent of healing. We are the Body of Christ on earth. As our fellow man sins against us, we are given the opportunity to respond in love, to “turn the other cheek.” This cancels the possible negative repercussions of our neighbors’ sin and reveals the character and nature of Christ to humanity. To suffer for the gospel is to manifest the power of the gospel. Obedience in suffering at the hands of enemies allows God to work powerfully within us and through us, regardless of whether or not we can perceive Him working. The Holy Spirit enacts this change in the unseen. Jesus said, “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me” (Matthew 5:11). Blessed is the operative word.
Seated in heavenly places with Christ, the children of God are called to suffer alongside Him as He works to heal humanity from all sin, pain, and death. Manifest glory is the spiritual byproduct of our and His suffering.
Romans 8:17 (NIV) “Now if we are children, then we are heirs - heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.”
2 Timothy 2:12a (NIV) “if we endure, we will also reign with him…”
Suffering prepares us for a “better resurrection” (Hebrews 11:35). As we participate in the sufferings of Christ, not only is the world invited to repentance from the reality of our loving act, but our spirits also gain a greater ability to bear the Lord’s presence, power, and glory. It is our eternal spirit that will inhabit a glorified body on the Last Day, the time of the resurrection, when unity has been achieved between all things on heaven and on earth (Ephesians 1:10). During our time on earth, we “work out” the dimensions of our future glorified body (Philippians 2:12).
Philippians 3:10-11 (NIV) “I want to know Christ - yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.”
2 Corinthians 4:16-18 (NIV) “Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”
Our sufferings heal and comfort others. We are able to dispense the glory that suffering produces to others in times of need.
2 Corinthians 1:5 (NIV) “For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ. If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort.”
Our call to share in the afflictions of Christ does not mean we merely keel over and accept what is given to us. We are called to put on the full armor of God to stand in the day of evil (Ephesians 6:10-18). Our ability to stand and emerge victoriously is made possible through the Holy Spirit, who allows us to participate in the divine nature of Christ (2 Peter 1:4). It is our ability to remain fixed in love despite what may be happening around us that will allow God’s glory to manifest in suffering. His promise is that all things will work towards His good (Romans 8:28).
What does all this mean in relation to the future? Christ is present on earth through His Body, the Church. By participating in the sufferings of Christ at the hands of the old creation order, we realize and manifest Christ’s victory over evil on the Cross. It is not that anything else needs to be accomplished, for on the cross Jesus said: “It is finished.” But the victory of Christ over evil must be realized on earth, that is, brought to full and evident manifestation. Suffering, and the glory that this suffering will manifest, will usher in the fullness of the new creation order. This reality prompted Paul to write:
Romans 8:18-21 (NIV) “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us [both the individual and the corporate Body of Christ]. For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.”
