Suffering
-- An Eternal
Perspective
by David A. DePra
Suffering
-- An Eternal
Perspective
|
by David A. DePra |
| Anyone who is in a trial naturally wants to know the reasons |
| WHY they must suffer. But if you have lived long enough, you |
| will find that one of the chief characteristics of suffering is that it |
| is unreasonable. That is, if we use our natural mind, we cannot |
| come up with reasons why we must suffer. Suffering, by |
| definition, always seems to carry with it the tormenting sense that |
| it is unfair, needless, and all for naught. |
| Our entire perspective about trials, tragedy, and suffering is |
| supposed to change once we become a child of God. But |
| unfortunately, the view some Christians have of suffering doesn't |
| differ much from that of non-Christians. Indeed, today there are |
| those who teach and believe that suffering is never the will of |
| God. They teach that because Jesus Christ suffered, we don't |
| have to. Anything which causes suffering is said to be of the |
| Devil, or due to a lack of faith on our part. |
| This is error. It is, in fact, about the worst kind of heresy we |
| could embrace. Why? Because, as Christians, we are actually |
| called to suffer. (see I Peter 2:21) So if we deny suffering as a |
| part of God's calling and will for our lives, then we will never be |
| able to interpret what God is doing with us. We may even live in |
| conflict with God's calling, and could end up resisting His real |
| purpose for us. |
| God's uses trials and suffering in our lives for a purpose. This |
| is a Truth which is all through the Bible. That purpose is not a |
| minor part of our calling and relationship with Jesus Christ. It is |
| central to everything God is doing with us in this age. And what |
| is that purpose? Trials and suffering are unto this end: To |
| prepare us for the next age. |
| Living In Our Inheritance |
| Tradition has taught most of us that the purpose for life |
| here, for a Christian, is to get saved and witness to others by |
| preaching the gospel. Then, we are told, we will go to heaven |
| and spend all eternity enjoying our reward. But while all of |
| that is partly true -- we must be saved, and we should |
| become a witness unto Christ -- it doesn't really approach |
| God's real purpose. |
| God is preparing us, not to simply sit back and enjoy a reward |
| for all eternity, but to live and fellowship with Him in the next age. |
| Notice Paul's words to that effect to the Ephesians: |
| And He has raised us up together, and made us sit |
| together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in |
| the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches |
| of His grace in His kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. |
| (Eph. 2:6-7) |
| We are recipients of a great, eternal inheritance through God's |
| grace in Jesus Christ. We are going to be spending the eternal |
| ages experiencing God. But presently, we are not able to truly |
| value Him, embrace Him, or understand Him. And we are |
| certainly not spiritually adjusted for life with Him. That requires |
| growth, and a process through which God can establish in us the |
| necessary spiritual elements which will make it possible for us to |
| live and fellowship with Him forever. This is what God is doing in |
| those He calls unto salvation. He has freely given us all things |
| in Christ. But now He is molding us into individuals through whom |
| all of these things can be released and experienced. |
| Don't confuse our need to grow in the likeness of Christ with |
| the fact that we have been saved. Salvation is merely the birth; |
| the essential beginning. Through a saving faith in Jesus Christ |
| we do receive all things by the grace of God. At that point there |
| is nothing we lack, and no victory we need to win. It really IS |
| finished! But we still have no liveable possession of it. We |
| still need to be set free by the Truth about what God has done. |
| God compares the eternal life we possess in Christ to the |
| natural life we possess in Adam. When we are born into this |
| world as a human being, we aren't born "partly alive," or alive in |
| only one aspect. We are alive! Period. There is no life yet to |
| add. But this does not mean we have the slightest idea what to |
| do with life. Indeed, a newborn baby doesn't even know |
| anything about himself, let alone his environment. All of that |
| must be learned. A baby must learn how to live in the realm into |
| which he is born. So must those born into the kingdom of God. |
| We are born into the kingdom all at once, and do receive ALL |
| which Jesus has won. But we have to go on to learn and grow. |
| We have to become fitted to live with God forever! |
| God uses trials and suffering to build into us the necessary |
| eternal elements which will enable us to reign and rule with Him |
| in His kingdom -- not just during this age, but especially for the |
| next. He is establishing in us only the bare seed, or elementary |
| foundation. He has given us names for these: Faith, hope, love, |
| and all of what we term "Christian character." But it is over there, |
| in the eternal ages, that the seeds He plants in us now will be |
| released to their full potential in Jesus Christ. |
| Thus we see why God tells us we are called to suffer. Trials |
| and suffering are unto a great, eternal purpose. They are |
| preparing us for our inheritance in Christ, and adjusting us for life |
| in the eternal ages. |
| Take faith. Faith is the evidence of things not seen, and the |
| substance of things hoped for. (see Heb. 11:1) Can we possibly |
| grasp what this means? It means that there are realities and |
| possessions which belong to us in Jesus Christ that we cannot |
| fully know or experience in this life, but which are |
| nevertheless part of our eternal inheritance. Faith is the |
| evidence that we do possess them now, even if only in a |
| unseen, barely developed form. Faith is the "substance" of |
| them, a deposit which carries the full potential of our |
| inheritance in Christ Jesus. The trial of faith is God's means |
| of adjusting us to our inheritance, so that in the eternal ages we |
| might be able to live with Him, and experience all He has given |
| us. |
| The Eternal Ages |
| Think about it. If all God wanted to accomplish in our lives |
| was the fact of our salvation, there would be no purpose for our |
| living. In fact, the moment we received Christ, it would, in that |
| case, be best if He simply took our life. We'd go right to heaven, |
| and we would avoid all of the trials and suffering we otherwise |
| must endure. |
| This also applies to Jesus Christ. If all Jesus came to do was |
| die and be raised, then God could have seen to it that He died as |
| a baby. He could have, for instance, allowed Herod to kill |
| Jesus when he ordered the murder of all the children who were |
| two and under. God could have then raised him. God would |
| have had the death He needed for sin, and through the |
| resurrection He would have had Jesus back. The |
| thirty-three plus years Jesus actually lived, and the untold |
| suffering it entailed, would have been unnecessary. |
| Yet it WAS necessary. Why? Because God needed more |
| from Jesus than just a death. He needed a perfect Son of Man; |
| a Lamb without blemish. This meant Jesus had to be faced |
| with all of the things we are faced with -- trials and suffering. As |
| He overcame them by faith, He grew in God's grace. And He |
| also became progressively qualified to bear the sin of the |
| world as the sinless Lamb of God. |
| As Christians, we are also qualifying. But don't misunderstand. |
| We are not earning our inheritance. Neither are we qualifying |
| so that we can receive it. No. We have already received it. |
| We are qualifying to be able to live and experience it. We are |
| like ignorant children who have received an inheritance far |
| beyond our capacity to grasp. Therefore, God is doing a work |
| in us -- a moral and spiritual work -- which is intended, not to earn |
| us our inheritance, but to make us able to fully possess and use |
| it unto God's glory. |
| We are actually learning how to be joint-heirs with Christ. That |
| is awesome. We will actually inherit and reign with Him. |
| This purpose for our suffering is all through scripture. |
| The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we |
| are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs |
| of God, and joint heirs with Christ, provided we suffer |
| with Him, in order that we may also be glorified with |
| Him. (Rom. 8:16-17) |
| If we suffer, we shall also reign with Him. (II Tim. 2:12) |
| If suffering were an end unto itself, meant only for this life, |
| then it would be a dismal thing indeed. If spiritual growth, |
| freedom in Christ, and all the things God wants to develope in us |
| are merely for our life here, only to be wiped away at death, then |
| why should we bother? Why would God care? The fact is, if we |
| are suffering for this life only, then as Paul says, "If in this life only |
| we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable." (I |
| Cor. 15:19) Only a fool would suffering if it avails nothing. |
| The message of the Bible, over and over, is that this life is |
| nothing. It is only UNTO the next. God is absolutely committed |
| to treating it like that. This doesn't mean He takes any part of our |
| life lightly. Certainly not our suffering. In fact, it really makes it all |
| that more important in His eyes. But God always works with us |
| in this life from the perspective of the eternal ages. He beckons |
| us to begin seeing our life from that perspective as well. |
| For I reckon that the sufferings of this persent time are |
| not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be |
| revealed in us. (Rom. 8:18) |