Suffering in the Life of a Christian
The following article is an excerpt from "A Book of Bible Study"
by Joseph F. Harwood.
The book may be downloaded in PDF format by clicking on the “Download” button below.
One of the most difficult things for believers to understand and to come to terms with is why our sovereign and all-powerful God would allow suffering to affect our lives, when surely He could prevent it from happening. When things are going well for us, we may not have much interest in what the Bible has to say about suffering affecting our lives. However, when suffering does come upon us, we will bring our troubles to our God and Father in prayer, asking Him why He has allowed these hard and painful things to touch our lives, bringing sorrow and grief. There are insights given to us in the Bible as to why such things are allowed to happen.
In the light of many Old Testament passages, we can see that God promises His blessings for obedience to His commands and punishment for disobedience. Also in the light of numerous New Testament passages, believers are warned that disobedience to God’s commands will bring His discipline into our lives, which as the writer of Hebrews said, is sorrowful (Hebrews 12:11). With these things in mind, it is easy for us to understand that disobedience to God’s commands will bring suffering upon us.
However, as we will see from our study of the Scriptures, the matter of suffering touching the lives of believers is more complex than the simple notion that suffering and trouble come only into the lives of those who have sinned. There are times when God allows various sufferings and hardships to affect our lives, and we will not be able to see any connection between these difficulties and some sin in our lives. And in fact, there may be no connection at all.
John 12:24-26, Romans 8:17-8, Mark 10:35-40, Luke 9:23-24, Luke 14:27, and Luke 14:33 all teach us about the principle of spiritual fruit bearing that will be at work in the life of every believer. These Scriptures reveal that we must, and we will, as God will bring to pass in each of our lives, endure a share in the sufferings of His Son Jesus Christ, becoming in some measure as He was: one who knew sorrows and was acquainted with grief (Isaiah 53:3). This share in Christ’s sufferings is the necessary path that God has ordained for His people whereby we will bear spiritual fruit and thereby share in the glory of His Beloved Son for eternity.
For now, we will not like the fact that this principle is at work in our life. We might ask: why does it have to be this way, and why can’t my life be filled with “good things”, things that bring happiness and gratification? When we find ourselves asking these questions, we should realize that the reasons for the way that God has ordered His creation are not always within man’s ability to comprehend. When we find ourselves questioning God’s ways, let us call to mind once again Isaiah 55:8-9 where we learned that God’s ways and His thoughts are not like ours, but they are above the ways and thoughts of man.
Paul also taught us about the ways of God when he exclaimed: “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways!” (Romans 11:33). God’s ways and His thoughts are beyond the understanding of man. We cannot understand why God our Father has ordained that we must share in Christ’s sufferings in order to share in His eternal glory. However, it has been revealed to us through the Scriptures that indeed God has willed it to be so, and that this process will be at work in the life of every believer.
The writer of Hebrews taught us that God the Father ordained that His only begotten Son Jesus Christ, the first born among many brethren, the Author and Finisher of our salvation, would Himself be made perfect through sufferings. In Hebrews 2 we read: “For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the author of their salvation through sufferings.” (Hebrews 2:10).
These are God’s ways, and they are above our ways. God is working in the life of every believer to conform us to the image of His Son, as Paul taught in Romans 8:29. And as He does so, we will all in some measure drink from the cup that Jesus drank; we will all in some measure be baptized with the baptism of His sufferings. Knowing that God’s ways and thoughts are above ours, let us not question them. Rather let us be thankful that He has called us to be one of the many sons and daughters who will be brought to glory through the blood of Jesus Christ shed on Calvary’s cross for the remission of our sins.
Paul encouraged us again when he wrote: “For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ.” (2 Corinthians 1:5). Things are hard for now, but the time is coming when our days of sorrow will end (Revelation 7:17, Isaiah 65:17-19). So, let us look forward to the day when God will wipe away every tear from our eyes that came about as we shared in the sufferings of the Man of Sorrows (Revelation 21:4). Until that day comes, we can take comfort in knowing that Jesus’ grace and His strength will be given to us in a measure that is sufficient for every weakness and need, as Paul learned through his own affliction (2 Corinthians 12:9).
Jesus said: “Are not two sparrows sold for a cent? And yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So do not fear; you are more valuable than many sparrows.” (Matthew 10:29-31).
God is intimately familiar with everything that happens on earth and with every detail of our lives. Nothing in His creation, not even an event as seemingly insignificant as the death of one sparrow, happens apart from His sovereign will. The things that happen to us happen as part of God’s sovereign will for our lives, and the Bible teaches us that through all of these things God is working for our good and for our eternal glory together with His Son.
Consistent with His teaching in Luke 6:20-26, Jesus taught us in John 16:20 that during this present time of our lives on earth, we as His people will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. This will be our experience as we share in His sufferings. But with these sufferings we have the promise that our Heavenly Father, the “Father of mercies and God of all comfort” will provide His comfort to us (2 Corinthians 1:3).
We can take comfort as believers, knowing that every wrong we have suffered, God will avenge, and that every affliction, difficulty, hardship, and loss that God has allowed to touch our lives has eternal value. God is at work in our lives doing exactly what He said He would do in His word: He is conforming each of us to the image of His Son Jesus Christ as He brings about in each of our lives a share in His sufferings. As we experience our share in Christ’s sufferings, we can be certain based on the authority of the Scriptures that these present sufferings will bring about for us eternal glory and reward.
Understanding this spiritual principle will not take away the pain that we are enduring. However, it will provide for us some understanding as to why undeserved sufferings come into our lives as God’s people.
When we have suffered a great loss in life, and we feel ourselves doubting the love and the goodness of God, becoming angry and disillusioned over the suffering that has come upon us, let us realize that through the sufferings that our sovereign God has allowed to affect our lives, we have been brought into the company and fellowship of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ Himself. It has been granted to us not only to believe in Him, but also to experience “the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death” (Philippians 1:29, 3:10).
Through our sufferings we have also been brought into the company of the saints whose lives and experiences are recorded in the Bible. Their lives and what God chose to accomplish through their sufferings demonstrate the timeless and universal principle of spiritual fruit bearing that Jesus taught in John 12:24-26. Just as God brought forth life and good through the “death” that their sufferings wrought in their lives, so He will also do the same through the sufferings that we endure in our lives.
When we have suffered a great loss, let us run to the throne of grace, and let us avail ourselves of the mercy and help that are ours in Christ Jesus. The author of Hebrews encouraged us when he wrote: “For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” (Hebrews 4:15-16).
God did not spare His own Son from sufferings, and we can see from this passage of Hebrews that our faithful High Priest endured every form of temptation that we would endure. Jesus was “tempted in all things as we are”. This means that Jesus also endured the temptation to become angry and disillusioned with God His Father over suffering that He could have prevented in His life, but did not, according to His will, plan, and purpose (Mark 14:33-36, Matthew 27:46).
God loves His people with an unfailing, unconditional, and everlasting love, and He will never let go of any of us, regardless of our failings during some time of great trial in our lives. We will demonstrate this conclusively from the Scriptures in chapters to come.
Only those who have been called to faith in Jesus Christ will one day realize a share in His glory, and the necessary path to this glory, as God has ordained it to be so, is for us to share in the sufferings of the Man of Sorrows, who was Himself familiar with grief. Until that day comes for each of us, let us rely fully upon the promises of God’s help, comfort, deliverance, provision, and sustaining grace, as they are given to us in His word.