by Tim Maurice | Download PDF | Purchase Hardcopy

Introduction

Suffering is one of those easily avoided subjects. None of us likes suffering; most of us would minimize it if we could. The purpose of this booklet is not to look at the causes of pain and suffering or even how to cope with them when they come. Our aim is to see what the Scriptures say about our attitude to suffering.

By way of summary, we will see that all suffering belongs to Christ. The afflictions of our own lives are the raw material for obedience and maturity. In drinking the cup, or portion, of the circumstances that beset us, Christ enables us to share in the redemptive work of the cross.

In this way we become participants in his redemptive work in ourselves and in the lives of other people.

1. The Problem of Evil.

The problem of evil is the question of why evil exists in a world created by a perfect God. In other words, if God created the world, and if he is a loving God, why does he allow people to suffer?

Has anyone ever put that question to you? And have you had an answer? Most of us have probably asked the same question.Who has never felt the sheer frustration caused by illness, or the resentment in the degeneration in one's physical and mental powers, a despising of cruelty (why did that man abuse me?), the sense of wasted time spent in traffic jams, disgust at some people's treatment of others? Not to mention the really terrible things that happen every day: wars, death, corruption and so on. It all seems unnecessary and futile.

Solomon sums it up eloquently in Ecclesiastes – all is vanity! Cruelty, oppression and death never cease and they render the meager attempts at achieving something in this life utterly meaningless. We are born and endowed with a vigour and zest for life which, no matter how long we may sustain it, is never able to overcome the weight of futility, suffering and mortality that bears down upon until we are destroyed and scattered to the four winds.

At least, that's how life can seem if we are without hope. But God does not want us to surrender to such morbidity. He has something else in mind.

2. We are bound over to futility and suffering by God. He does this in the hope that we will turn to him.

The apostle Paul gives us an excellent introduction to our subject: For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. Romans 8:18-21

Here Paul explains to us that the futility we feel is actually an expression of God's hope for humanity, that whatever we suffer in this life pales compared to the glory of the next life wherein we will be liberated from the bondage and scourge of mortality.

So, perhaps our best approach would be to bear our suffering as cheerfully as possible, knowing that something better awaits us when we die. Not quite. Paul directs us to think otherwise in the two preceding verses: The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.

These Scriptures give us an unequivocal message: that we find purpose in suffering by entering into the sufferings of Christ. Our task, then, is to understand what this means.

3. Jesus says this to us: 'You will indeed drink my cup.'

Let's now connect some key ideas in the Scriptures. In Matthew 20:23 Jesus said to the sons of Zebedee You will indeed drink my cup. Later, in the extremity of his pre-cross trauma, Jesus says to the Father: If it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Yet not my will but yours be done. Matthew 26:39. The cup, as used in Jesus' context, was the full portion of suffering for mankind. He took it all upon himself. Every last touch of human pain, sorrow, regret and suffering he embraced completely. He drew it all into the cross. And from the power of that life-giving event he now ministers everlasting consolation to all who will receive it.

So what then is our cup? What was the cup of the sons of Zebedee? Clearly, we cannot do what Christ did. But as we have read before, we must share in Christ's sufferings. And this is our first point of understanding. All suffering is his. None of it belongs to us. He gives us back a portion of his sufferings – a cup that is measured to us with the necessary ingredients for our sonship.

Just as Jesus said to James and John, we will surely drink the cup. Suffering is guaranteed. The question is: will we allow the work of the cross to liberate our suffering from the yoke of futility? Paul accepted the beatings, persecution and the thorn in his flesh because they afforded him the privilege to suffer for Christ. As such the power of God was active in his life. This was also Paul's guarantee of sharing in Christ's glory.

Participation, then, is something we must understand. Let's consider 1 Corinthians 10:16. The Scriptures here tell us drinking the cup in communion is an act of participation. The bread we eat is also an act of participation. We are identifying with Christ and participating with him in his blood and his body. What this means is made explicit in the next chapter (1 Cor 11:26): in eating the bread and drinking from the cup we proclaim the Lord's death. Now, we know that this does not simply mean that we commemorate the Lord's death or only declare that the Lord died. There is something more at stake here.

Paul is actually saying that our participation in what the cup represents is a living proclamation of the Lord's death. We proclaim the reality of his death in the way we die daily to ourselves, to sin and to the world. To drink the cup is, therefore, another way of saying that we take up our cross daily. In this we participate not in the dead work of mortifiying our own flesh, but in the living work of sharing in his death so that his life may be demonstrated in us. If we are in any doubt that it is his, not our death, we should recall Paul's vital statement: For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died. 2 Cor 5:14.

4. Faith brings us into the fellowship of the cross, which is the wisdom of God.

This is our fellowship in the mystery – that we are included fully in the cross to our salvation. Why? Because of faith. It is faith that joins us to Christ and causes us to be saved. By faith we accept the cup; by faith we acknowledge that we are saved, not to gaze at Christ on the cross, but to join him.

Christ's death at Calvary included the whole of humanity. It opened the way for eternal life or eternal separation from God. To those who do not believe, the cross is foolish and weak. They will only ever know the judgment of the cross. Our example here is the thief dying with Christ who could not accept his own guilt. For those who believe the cross is wisdom, salvation and life. But belief, as James says, is always manifested in action. There is no such thing as faith without active obedience.

That is why the cup is so important. Like the cross it is a total statement. It produces either life or judgment. We cannot claim to have salvation but refuse to participate. We must go all the way. If we attempt to find a middle ground we engage in a form of idolatry. We cannot claim a right to the life of Christ without, as Paul says, partaking in his sufferings.

We must, therefore, offer ourselves: Present yourselves as a living sacrifice is the command of Scripture Rom 12:1.

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Rom 12:1-2

Otherwise we will be onlookers and not participants – not yet in the game. We get into the game by offering ourselves. As Paul puts it: Consider the people of Israel: Do not those who eat the sacrifices participate in the altar? We are either willing to suffer and die with him or we are practising vain religion. That is why many among you are weak and sick and a number of you have fallen asleep. 1 Cor 11:30.

5. When we choose to suffer with Christ we are able to offer the consolation of Christ to others.

Let's look at this from a different angle. In the first chapter of his letter to the Philippians Paul begins by expressing his joy because of the Philippians' 'partnership' with him in the gospel. This partnership meant that whether Paul was in prison or defending the gospel they shared in God's grace with him. They were, in every sense, joined to him. He extends this point later in the chapter when he says: For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for him, since you are going through the same struggle you saw I had, and now hear that I still have. Phil 1:29-30.

In being joined with Paul in his sufferings they are also suffering with and for Christ. But the real point is to follow. The result of this willingness to suffer with Christ is the consolation in 2:1-2: Therefore if there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion, make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on the one purpose.

Here is evidence of the life of God. Having suffered with Christ, the Philippians now have a genuine word to offer others. Moreover, they are able to be unified by the Holy Spirit to the point of being joined completely in thought, action and love. What a picture of the church!

It is a picture put more succinctly by the apostle John: we know we have passed from death to life because we love the brethren. 1 Jn 3:14. The life of Christ is made manifest by love. This love compels us to offer ourselves back to the one who gave us life and to one another. It is at this point that the cup is offered to us – right at the moment we choose to live in the one will of God.

Paul expresses the extent of such purposeful surrender in this way: that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Phil 3:10-11.

Note that he wishes to become like him in his death, and now remember what he said to the Corinthians about proclaiming the Lord's death. In sharing in the sufferings of Christ Paul proclaims the death of the Lord until His coming. Having drunk his portion of the sufferings of Christ, Paul now has the strength to run his race all the way to the end.

And Paul, more than most people, was afflicted by the corrupt behaviour of others. The threat of death hung over him daily. Yet he could see some way off the hope of his own resurrection, even through the choking clouds of the present suffering. The suffering threatened to drag him down; but the hope of the resurrection could lift his heart high above the turmoil of ordinary life. Paul clearly recognised that by acknowledging Christ in the times of trouble he was also entering into the glorious destiny that awaited him in the new heavens and new earth.

Author: Tim Maurice | Highlands Christian Fellowship HCF
Published by Vision One at Toowoomba Christian Fellowship TCF
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