The Glory of Suffering

I wonder what would happen if we were to put two ads in the paper for our church, one in which we called ourselves “The Fellowship of Christ’s Suffering,” and another in which we styled ourselves “The Fellowship of Christ’s Glory.” I wonder which ad would get more response. I would guess the later. It’s human nature to want to avoid suffering and to seek glory. But what we find when we open up the New Testament, practically on every page, is that we as Christians are called to both: we are called to the fellowship of Christ’s glory, but we’re also called to the fellowship of his suffering; and, in fact, the way to our sharing in his glory in the future is through our sharing now in his suffering.

St. Paul writes to Timothy, “It is a faithful saying: For if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him; If we suffer, we shall also reign with him.” And in the book of Romans he says that through the Spirit we are “heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together [with Him].”

St. Peter preaches the same message in his letters. One of the main themes of I Peter is that of Christian suffering. And he says there, “When you do good and suffer [for it], if you take it patiently, this is commendable before God. For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow his steps.” Finally, Peter, who himself knew great suffering for the sake of Christ throughout his life, exhorts us even to rejoice “to the extent that [we] partake of Christ’s sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, [we] may also be glad with exceeding joy.” For ‘if you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you,” he says, “for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.”

The way to glory is through suffering. Why? Because our Lord’s way to glory was through suffering, and God would have us be made like unto Him.

The stark reality is: if you are a Christian, you will suffer for the gospel’s sake. And the more we are committed to the gospel, the more the gospel takes root in our hearts and the more we are conformed to Christ, the more we will suffer. Look at the list of afflictions Paul suffered for the sake of the gospel.

In chapter 11 of 2 Corinthians, Paul is really in rare form. He uses bitter sarcasm to shame the Corinthians for having received the “super-apostles,” as he calls them, because of their greatness. Oh, they’re brilliant orators; they have such power and authority and presence. They’re so good you even have to pay to hear them speak. Whereas Paul is just this weak, insignificant little man, not a great man like these others. And Paul says, “Nobody ought to think me a fool. But if you going to anyway, at least allow me to do a little fool’s boasting, seeing that you put up with fools gladly. For you put up with it if one of these great men brings you into bondage; if he devours you, if he takes from you, if he strikes you on the face. I’m so sorry I was too weak for that! But if you want me to compare credentials with them, I will. Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? So am I. Are thy ministers of Christ? I am more.” And then tallies up the score. He gives the proof of the superiority of his ministry in terms of all the things he has suffered for the sake of Christ: in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in near-death experiences often. In beatings, in stonings, in shipwreck, in every kind of peril imaginable, in toilsome labor for the sake of the church. Paul’s sufferings are his credentials. Paul says its his sufferings that prove his claim to be more of minister of Christ than any of the so-called super-apostles.

Now how could Paul’s sufferings be his credentials unless it is an established fact that the more one is faithful to Christ, the more one conforms to his image, the more one proclaims the message of Christ, the more one will suffer? Paul was the greatest evangelist the church has ever known, and so he suffered perhaps more than anyone in the history of the church. And Paul couldn’t complain that he was never told he’d have to suffer for the gospel. It was stated right up front as part in his job description as an apostle. Jesus said, “he is a chosen vessel of mine to bear my name before gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel. For I will show him how many things he must suffer for my name’s sake.” But we all have that same clause in our job description as Christians. Christ will show us how many things we must suffer for his name’s sake – if we are faithful to him.

In another passage, Paul makes a statement that might cause us to do a bit of a double-take, but it goes directly to the question of why our calling as Christians is to suffer.

In Col. 1:24 Paul says, “I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ.” – He suffers to fill up what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ. Now what does this mean? Does it mean that Christ’s sufferings were somehow insufficient, or deficient, for our redemption, and that what we need is the merit of the saints in addition to the merits of Christ to be saved? Absolutely not. But what Paul says here can best be understood when we keep in mind that pattern of Hebrew thought we see so often in the Bible, when in one moment the author seems to be speaking about a corporate entity, usually Israel, and then in the next moment he seems to shift his thought to an individual person, and the corporate entity and the individual person are therefore identified with each other. The best example is the Suffering Servant of the Lord in the book of Isaiah.

In the context of Isaiah’s prophecy, we know that the Servant of the Lord is a corporate entity; it’s Israel: “You are My Servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified,” says the Lord. But Israel as a whole proved to be an obstinate and disobedient servant, and the prophecy that the Servant would triumph through suffering to bring light to the Gentiles and salvation to the ends of the earth would therefore be fulfilled in one person – the person who would bear the sins of his people, by whose stripes they would be healed – and in that one person the perfect Israel of God would be realized. That person was Jesus Christ.

But as the Suffering Servant’s identity was narrowed to include just the one individual person of Jesus Christ, it has now broadened out again to include all who are in Him. That’s you and me. That’s the Church.

You see, as the Body of Christ we are the continued incarnation of Christ in the world. And as the continued incarnation of Christ we continue to suffer to bring salvation to the ends of the world. We continue in the mission of the Servant of the Lord for which we suffer. This is how we fill up the sufferings of Christ.

Remember that when Paul (then called Saul) persecuted the Church, Jesus came to him on the road to Damascus and demanded of him: “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” Wait a minute, I though he was persecuting the Church. Yes, in persecuting the Church he was persecuting Christ. And the Church suffering for the gospel’s sake is filling up the sufferings of Christ. So as John Calvin put it: “As, therefore, Christ has suffered once in His own Person, so He suffers daily in His members, and in this way there are filled up those sufferings which the Father has by this decree appointed for His Body.”

Now do we go out and purposefully try to find situations in which to suffer for Christ in order to fulfill our calling. No. But neither do we try to hide and avoid suffering at all costs, as if our greatest good was our own personal well-being and comfort. Rather, we seek to be faithful to Christ and to our mission to be the agents of salvation in the world, to be salt and light, and to not hide our light under a bushel, for which faithfulness we will suffer. But, you see, as Christ was glorified through suffering, so shall we be glorified. That is the promise of Scripture.

The way to glory is through suffering because God would have us glorified together with Christ.

So as we enter into the Lenten Season and would seek to know the way of Jesus Christ and to walk in that way, let us remember that it is a way of self-denial and of suffering – suffering for the sake of the salvation of the world – but its also the way to glory. See, there’s the promise of reward; there’s the appeal to desire that we heard C. S. Lewis talk about last week. We’re not called to self-denial for self-denial’s sake, but that we might have the great pleasure of knowing and loving the Lord above all things. And neither are we called to suffer as Christians for suffering’ sake, but that we might share in the glory of Christ.

May we walk the way of faithful suffering for the sake of the kingdom of Christ, that when he comes in his glory we may be glorified together with him. For as St. Paul reminds us, “our light affliction, which is but for a moment, works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.” +