Why Good Christians Suffer: PART 18

Beginning of Series

What did Paul mean by filling up what “is lacking of the afflictions of Christ” (Colossians 1:24)?

“And now I am happy about my sufferings for you, for by means of my physical sufferings I am helping to complete what still remains of Christ’s sufferings on behalf of his body, the church,” is how the Good News Translation words Colossians 1:24. I like the clarity of this rendition but most versions are similar.

I’ll omit aspects of this matter that I have dealt with in Biblical Examples of Unanswered Prayer & the Implications for Us (a link to it is at the end of this webpage). Nevertheless, I have some additional insights to share here.

For most of my life I have put this, and similar Scriptures, in the too-hard basket and moved on. In fact, to be brutally honest with myself, I virtually rejected it as poor theology because it seemed to clash with my ‘correct’ understanding of the cross and the uniqueness of Christ. How could there be anything lacking in Christ’s magnificent sacrifice? Who could possibly add to it? That sounds like heresy! Imagine having the arrogance to think I revered God’s Word and yet inwardly supposing I understood these things better than certain New Testament Scriptures seemed to!

The dilemma I faced was similar to one I wrestled with in my early days of Christian writing. I presumed I was being admirably spiritual by wanting my writing to be all of God and none of me. Surely the greatest thing anyone could ever do would be to share with the world something that is one hundred percent of God, such as a work that has been dictated word for word, comma for comma, by God. Other than mindless typing, any written contribution of mine would inevitably detract from God’s glory by spoiling the perfection of his work. With all my heart, I wanted God to receive maximum glory and have total control of my life. So, longing not to disappoint the Love of my life, I ached for the supreme honor of having no role in writing other than being God’s typist. To my bewilderment and frustration, however, God was not responding to this intense yearning. My plea to be my Master’s mindless typing machine kept falling in deaf ears.

This precipitated months of agonizing soul-searching and seeking God; sometimes annoyed that God didn’t speak louder, sometimes beating myself up for not being better at hearing him, but never doubting that by asking to be little more than an automaton I was asking for the right thing. I kept complaining to God about his failure to deliver until finally making the shocking discovery that, as flawed as it is, the Holy One values my personality and, just as a proud father treasures his child’s best efforts even if they are pathetic by adult standards, my heavenly Father cherishes as a precious love-gift to him, the effort I exert when groping for words to express divine truths.

Given our imperfection, it had seemed to me an insult to God to think the Flawless One could love our personalities or input. The inescapable truth, however, is that God loves each of us stupendously and, no matter how flawed and quirky, our personalities and less-than-perfect abilities are a huge part of who we are.

I knew that as a proud attempt to earn salvation, human effort is spiritually abhorrent. Likewise, service as an expression of a slave-mentality grieves God. It slowly dawned, however, that as a genuine expression of love and submission to God, sweat is beautiful. For the Spirit-filled Christian in divine submission, human exertion and divine enabling are not opponents but allies. I no longer see inspiration and effort as an incompatible mix of oil and water but as bricks and mortar. They merge to build a monument of love for the glory of God – glory that his father-heart longs to share with us. And if that is true of sweat, it is true even if, like our Lord, sweat is tinged with blood and tears.

It takes my breath away that God loves us so much that he craves our input, and that the Almighty can see more flaws in my effort than I dare imagine, and yet beams with pride at my full-blooded attempt – and yours.

Is the Almighty so limited as to need my contribution? Absolutely not! Does he prize me so highly that he refuses to move without my contribution? Astonishingly, yes. And he feels the same way about you. That’s why he lets us share in even his most precious love-gift to humanity: Christ’s suffering.

The parable-speaking Lord who hid divine mysteries in earthly stories (Matthew 13:34-35), hides glorious treasure in earthen vessels (2 Corinthians 4:7). Even more surprising, the Bible emphasizes that those vessels (our bodies) are decaying so much as to make us groan.

Romans 8:23 . . . even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for adoption, the redemption of our body.

2 Corinthians 5:2, 4 For most certainly in this we groan, longing to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven . . . For indeed we who are in this tent do groan, being burdened . . .

2 Corinthians 4:11 For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus may be revealed in our mortal flesh.

My Lord’s staggering love drives him to want my writing to be, as it were, our baby – a product of his and my love for each other, and bearing both his likeness and mine.

So it is with bringing spiritual children (converts) into the kingdom of God and nurturing them to maturity. Our mindboggling Lord wants us to be more than midwives. A midwife does not suffer labor pains, nor contribute to the baby’s genes. Paul, however, spoke of suffering birth pangs for the Galatian Christians (Galatians 4:19). He (e.g. 1 Corinthians 4:14; 1 Timothy 1:2; Titus 1:4; Philemon 1:10), like others (e.g. 3 John 1:4; Isaiah 54:1), spoke of those he had led to Christ as not only being God’s children but his own children. In fact, by saying, “For though you have ten thousand tutors in Christ, yet not many fathers. For in Christ Jesus, I became your father through the Good News” (1 Corinthians 4:15) he implied there is a relationship between us and someone we lead to Christ that is so unique that no one else can duplicate it. And he said not merely “Follow Christ,” but “Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ (1 Corinthians 11:1).

Our involvement in bringing spiritual babies into the kingdom and doing all we can to mother them and bring them to spiritual maturity, is far more intimate (and spiritually costly) than most of us dare imagine.

Now let’s return to my theological dilemma.

The words “finished work of Christ” rings so loudly in my head as to almost drown out other parts of the Bible when I read them. Yes, just before Jesus died, he cried, “It is finished!” but what did he mean? Obviously, Christ’s physical suffering has ended. I have never been able to believe, however, that a God of love has ceased feeling emotional pain for all those on earth who have continued, for one reason or another, to suffer. Christ shed tears on earth for people who were hurting. Has his compassion dried up? Not a chance! In this sense, at least, Christ’s suffering continues.

Does “It is finished!” mean Christ has no more to do? Scripture says otherwise. The decisive battle has been won, but many are still in active rebellion against God’s loving ways. 1 Corinthians 15:25, for example, says Christ “must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet” (emphasis mine – note also Hebrews 2:8; 9:28). In other words, there is still work to be done.

We have already noted that when, before his conversion, Paul was physically hurting Christians, Jesus took it highly personally – so much so that he challenged Paul with the question, “Why do you persecute me?” The risen Lord followed this up by saying, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting” (Acts 9:4-5 – this is so important that it is repeated in Acts 22:7-8; 26:14-15, emphasis mine).

Over and over, the New Testament emphasizes that Christians form Christ’s body.

Romans 12:5 . . . we, who are many, are one body in Christ . . .

1 Corinthians 10:17 . . . we, who are many, are one body . . .

1 Corinthians 12:27 Now you are the body of Christ . . .

Ephesians 1:22-23 He put all things in subjection under his feet, and gave him to be head over all things for the assembly [church], which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

Ephesians 4:12, 15-16 for the perfecting of the saints, to the work of serving, to the building up of the body of Christ . . . [that] we may grow up in all things into him, who is the head, Christ; from whom all the body, being fitted and knit together through that which every joint supplies, according to the working in measure of each individual part, makes the body increase to the building up of itself in love.

Ephesians 5:23, 29-30 For the husband is the head of the wife, and Christ also is the head of the assembly [church], being himself the savior of the body. . . . For no man ever hated his own flesh; but nourishes and cherishes it, even as the Lord also does the assembly; because we are members of his body, of his flesh and bones.

Colossians 1:18 He is the head of the body, the assembly . . .

Colossians 2:19 The Head [Christ], from whom all the body, being supplied and knit together through the joints and ligaments, grows with God’s growth.

Scripture also notes that if one part of the body suffers, the entire person suffers (1 Corinthians 12:26). This is true of any suffering, not just persecution. No matter how much your suffering might be in silence or isolation, Christ is intensely aware of it (compare Psalm 139:1-12, 16-17). So Christ’s suffering continues to this day.

Evangelism and discipling new believers are critical to Christ’s mission and dear to his heart and yet he has chosen not to do this alone but in partnership with us (Matthew 28:19-20).

2 Timothy 1:8 . . . join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God (NIV – most versions say join or share ).

Note what Paul cites as proof that someone is a servant of Christ:

2 Corinthians 11:23 Are they servants of Christ? (I am out of my mind to talk like this.) I am more. I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again. (NIV)

It’s time to fulfill my promise to expound on how love, obedience and suffering are interrelated. Receiving things we like enormously but cost the giver nothing in terms of thought, effort, time or money, (Note: What moves us by someone spending money on us is that money usually takes effort, and sometimes even discomfort, to earn. Additionally, money spent on a gift could usually have been spent on something that benefitted the giver and so it involves sacrificing portion of his own pleasure for the sake of the other person) move us to love the gifts rather than the giver. As superficially happy as this might make us, loving things rather than loving a person turns out disappointingly shallow and unfulfilling.

God giving us exquisite things that cost him nothing might be appreciated but his greatest gift to us is his anguish on the cross. In fact, it is incomparably greater than anything else. It is not merely that the Son of God’s suffering achieved so much. Even if his torment had failed to achieve anything, the horrific cost to himself renders it – both for him and for us – the deepest, most moving, most meaningful expression of his love. It fills us with awe. It binds him and us together in a uniquely powerful way. The exalted Lord of perfection giving himself over to unthinkable agony for us is priceless treasure, alongside which every other happiness is as empty as a drug-induced haze.

This moves me to include an excerpt from another webpage of mine. Admittedly, it is somewhat speculative because I’m not in heaven yet:

With the divinely inspired Word of God urging us to imitate the great apostle Paul (1 Corinthians 4:16; 11:1; Philippians 3:17; 1 Thessalonians 1:6; 2 Thessalonians 3:9), we should seek to have raging within us the same passions that drove this man of God:

Philippians 3:8-10 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith – that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death. (English Standard Version, emphasis mine.)

For brevity, let’s focus on the two yearnings I’ve emphasized. Having trashed his previous fervent attempts to please God, Paul replaced them all with a burning desire to know Christ and his power and to share in Christ’s suffering.

If lovers find knowing a finite human a never-ending adventure, the wonders and depths in knowing the infinite Son of God must keep on growing this side of eternity (Ephesians 1:17; Colossians 1:10; 2 Peter 3:18). As important as it is to keep knowing our divine Lover better and better throughout our earthly lives, this thrilling quest will reach its most wondrous pinnacles in the hereafter. When contrasting our earthly knowledge of Christ with what is to come, Paul put it this way: “For now we see . . . dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully . . .” (1 Corinthians 13:12).

Paul’s other passion, however – sharing in Christ’s suffering – is different. Our awareness of how much Jesus suffered and how much his death achieved might reach new heights in the next life but if there is no suffering in heaven, our ability to share (or participate, as the NIV puts it) in his suffering (Romans 8:17; Philippians 3:10; Colossians 1:24; 1 Peter 4:13) is limited to this life. In glory, we will only be able to wistfully look back to past opportunities. When our eyes are fully opened to just how much our Lord has done for us and how wonderful he really is, we will finally grasp why the disciples rejoiced over the privilege of being flogged and humiliated for Jesus (Acts 5:40-41). What we will lament in Paradise, however, is that the opportunity to express the depth of our love by suffering for Christ will have passed us by. And we will nostalgically miss the trials. Here’s why:

Although we will have many thrilling things to do in heaven, we’ll be rather like former football champions who have retired and gone into sports administration. Life will be easier. There will be no more injuries, no more tedious, grueling training sessions, no more agonizing over mistakes made on the field, but the opportunity to gain more glory and become a greater hero will have forever passed.

So life is exciting. And the greatest thrills it offers are the pain and dangers and challenges. Forget about a soft life. Leave that to your heavenly retirement. Now’s your time for glory. You’re a champion in the making; someone increasingly bearing the likeness of God himself; someone the Almighty will forever smile upon with Fatherly pride.

We know our crucified Lord wasn’t divinely protected, and we know that we are not greater than him, but I keep falling for the notion that since he suffered for us, we should now be divinely protected from suffering. Christ died to make us, in the eyes of the Judge, as if we had never sinned. But Jesus literally never sinned, and he suffered. It is undeniable that Jesus’ suffering achieved infinitely more than anyone else could ever achieve. Nevertheless, how can I say that Christ suffered on earth so that I won’t suffer on earth, when Scripture says, “If we suffer, we shall also reign with him” (2 Timothy 2:12, KJV) Most versions say endure, rather than suffer but endure implies going through something unpleasant. The Weymouth New Testament even words it, “If we patiently endure pain . . .”

There are times when writing is painfully difficult for me. This gives me three options:

1. I can refuse to write

2. I can keep going but resent how agonizing it is

3. If after prayer the pain remains it seems God wants me to proceed, I can rejoice in the difficulty as a precious opportunity to express to God my love for him by doing something that costs me.

I am reminded of King David needing to sacrifice to the Lord and being offered land for free on which to do it. Refusing the offer, David insisted on paying the full price, saying he would not offer to the Lord something that cost him nothing (1 Chronicles 21:24).

Continued: Part 19

Link Referred to Above

(Best Left Until After Reading This Entire Series)

Biblical Examples of Unanswered Prayer & the Implications for Us