As Christ goes, we go. While I sit here and write, I am left breathless at the realization that at every moment of our lives, at the center and focus, we are being wrought in Jesus Christ. For each and every one of us in Christ, with every millisecond of time, we are with the finest and most direct purpose of God, being shaped into the manner, likeness, and nature of Jesus. “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren” (Rom. 8:28-29).
In your suffering, whatever it may be, you are not lost in the sight of God. I think that is the feeling for many of us, that God has forgotten us. We wonder if He does not care or is angry, throwing us into suffering until we do the right things to win His loving attention back. In the moment of despair, it feels like He is a distant God, indifferent to our plight, separated from us. Especially separated from us, like He is somewhere far beyond the stars and galaxies, not listening. Most of the time we might even believe, even though He is so distant, that He can still hear us, for He is God after all. But He is not with me. How could he be when I am deriving no benefit that should come from the presence of God? All I feel is emptiness, loneliness, weakness, and the weight of a strong man’s hands suffocating my ability to breathe, move, and live.
But He is there. God is there. As was mentioned in Part 3, Jesus has entered your situation, defeated it, is now helping you through your trials, and has given you something new so that everything you see and feel in this world is not where life is found. With your faith in Jesus, you are now a child of God. “Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God” (1 Jn. 5:1). The kingdom of God is where your life resides, with and in God and Christ, not here in this world. “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God” (Jn. 3:3). Because of this, “From now on we recognize no one according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him in this way no longer. Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come” (2 Cor. 5:16-17).
Child of God
You are a new creature in and with Jesus Christ. Your new reality is that you have been born again by the Spirit of God, because of Him. To this, Jesus said, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must be born again” (Jn. 3:6-7). And we cannot have eternal life in the kingdom of God any other way (Jn. 3:5). With all of this is the absolute fact and reality that you, we, the children of God, are being conformed to the image of the Son of God, Jesus Christ (Rom. 8:28-29).
As Christ was in the flesh, in one of these earthly bodies, so are we. As He is known in this way no longer, having come alive from the dead, so are we, even now. We are already a new creature whereas new things have come. As Jesus, by the Spirit of God, defeated the devil who had the power of death, so do we. It is no longer this flesh in this world that we are known by. We are known as a child of God in the spirit. Therefore, when we feel as if the strong man is suffocating our ability to breathe, move, and live, the reality is that he squeezes a mist, a phantom of a person. The one he used to stranglehold has transformed before his eyes, leaving him wide-eyed and powerless.
“Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory” (Col. 3:1-4). Where are we in this series on suffering? Right here, in these four verses from Paul’s letter to the Colossians. There are a few things I want to emphasize that Paul makes clear about our union with Christ in these verses. First, you have died (v.3). You are no longer known according to the flesh. You are not who you once were. Second, everything that you are, now, is tied, linked, or fixed, with Jesus. You are so much a part of Him that God can say you and we, His church, are His body (Col. 1:18). We see this in verses 3-4. “Your life is hidden with Christ,” and, “Christ, who is our life.” Christ is our life and our life (Christ) is hidden with Christ. That is essentially what is being said, strange as it sounds. The point is to show how intimate we are with the Son of God. It is why we can be called the children of God. Only in and through Jesus can we be born of God. Then, third, because of these things, we ought to fix our mind (v.2) on where we are fixed already, with Christ in heaven. All that is happening here, all the suffering, death, and temptations, along with everything else that is passing away from this world, everything contrary to God, has no attachment to where we belong. Life is not found here.
Not of this World
This is why Paul can say in Philippians 3:8-10 that he counts, “All things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him,” and in the same sentence, say, “That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.” Yes, he was speaking initially to the worldly, self-righteous things that were of previous gain to him, but then he says, “More than that, I count all things to be loss.” He says in another place, “The world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (Gal. 6:14). “For our citizenship is in heaven” (Phil. 3:20). And in another place, “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” (Rom. 8:18). What you have in heaven in Christ Jesus is so great, it is not comparable, even, with the things you suffer now.
More than anything, right now, I want us to recognize that in our conformity to Christ, since we are trying to understand suffering, we are, “Being conformed to His death” (Phil. 3:10). In all that we are being conformed to Christ, His death is half the process. It is half the process, the entirety of our time in these bodies, but incomparable to eternity conformed to His glory in heaven. I say it is half the process because it is half the gospel. We see it displayed in baptism. In baptism we are buried dead with Christ, then raised to new life with Him. That is the gospel, that Jesus removed our sins on the cross with His death, and afterwards rose from the dead to eternal life and glory in heaven. We follow, the same being applied to us through faith.
Though, for us that are still breathing the air of this world, we are in the process of living out those realities until our breath is no more. We are united with all that is Christ, by faith, through His Spirit. And those truths of the gospel and baptism, the death and life, are promises guaranteed by God if we hold to our faith to the end. The reality of death in Christ and resurrection in Him IS YOURS through faith, by His Spirit, being born anew a child of God; but now, you must walk in them. Because you are a child of God, according to the Son of God, being conformed to all that He is, this death that you feel every day of your life on this earth is the process of knowing and accomplishing what Jesus has known and accomplished; faith, obedience, killing sin, putting to death the deeds of the body, and walking by the Spirit of God rather than the likeness of Adam and Eve, who walked in faithlessness. Right now, you are living both realities, death and new life. God commands us to walk according to life until the end when death is dead and life is eternally all we know.
Death to Sin and this World
So, we are being conformed to Christ’s death. Though, what is it, exactly, in God’s words? Remember from earlier in this series that our death and suffering (not only ours but the entire creation) is the effect of Adam and Eve’s (and ours) sin, which is an absence of faith and trust in God and what He commands, especially in the face of temptation. This is also called disobedience. The death of Christ is the reversal of those last two sentences.
From the Bible, it is Romans, chapter six.
“How shall we who died to sin still live in it? Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death” (Rom. 6:2-3)?
“For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with…” (Rom. 6:5-6).
“For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 6:10-11).
Notice, “He died to sin” (v.10), and because of that, we, “Died to sin” (v.2), because we have been, “Baptized into Christ Jesus,” and, “His death” (v.3). In this we are united with Jesus in His death and will be, “In the likeness of His resurrection” (v.5). We are united with Christ and being conformed to Christ in every way. Jesus has died to sin; that is His death. In the face of death and the sufferings of this world, tempting Him to live on anything other than the word of God, He was victorious, trusting in the Lord all the way. Jesus was and is the Son of God, perfectly obedient. Through faith in Jesus, we have received His Spirit, the Holy Spirit, being born-again children of God and led in the way of our Savior, the Son of God. We are dead to sin with Christ.
“For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died” (2 Cor. 4:14).
“So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh – for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, ‘Abba! Father!’ 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. 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” (Romans 8:12-18).
From this Romans passage, we see that by the Spirit we are: 1. Led, and if led then, 2. Sons of God (children of God), and if children of God, then, 3. Heirs with Christ. Then, notice how it comes back around. We are heirs with Christ, “If indeed we suffer with Him.” How do we suffer with Him? “If by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body,” the deeds of the body being sin. What is sin? It is disobedience to the voice of God, the words and commands of God, stemming from an absence of faith or trust in God. I say that because of Hebrews 3:17-19, especially. There, we see the Israelites, after coming out of Egypt and proceeding to walk through the sufferings of the wilderness, sinned (v.17), which is equated with disobedience (v.18), which stems from a heart of unbelief (v.19).
A Future Glory and Home
From Romans 8:12-18, in all that we are led by the Spirit of God, especially to suffer with Christ by putting to death this sinful body, there is great hope. If you are putting to death the deeds of the body, “You will live.” Also, if we suffer with Jesus, we will, “Be glorified with Him.” “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” (Rom. 8:18). This, again, brings us to what Paul said in Philippians. “That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death” (3:10). Paul’s vision is the necessity of putting to death the sinful flesh, this world, and the suffering that comes with that, the suffering that Christ knew in His victory of killing sin.
Then, immediately he follows with the hope. “In order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.” And shortly after that, “For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory” (3:20-21). As mentioned above, here is the gospel and that represented by baptism. Death followed by life, both through Christ and the Spirit. Jesus will, “Transform the body of our humble state,” this perishable, dishonorable, weak, natural, earthy, sinful (1 Cor. 15:42-49) body into conformity with His imperishable, powerful, glorious, Holy Spirit made, heavenly body (1 Cor. 15:42-49).
We are being conformed to Christ in every way, at all times. In every moment of your suffering, you are not alone. God is at work in you, leading you in the way of Jesus, your savior. The original you, the one made in the likeness of Adam, is passing away with the rest of this world. The effects of sin and evil, all that has separated itself from God and life, is death. “The sting of death is sin” (1 Cor. 15:56). But from the victory of Jesus, we can shout with triumphant joy, “Death is swallowed up,” and, “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting” (1 Cor. 15:54-55)? Prophesied from long ago, “He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces” (Is. 25:8; Rev. 7:17).
In and With Christ; Not Alone
In all your suffering the effects of death in this world, whether that be physical, emotional, mental, or spiritual, from outside or within; in the depths of whatever darkness you have been, are, or will be in, it has no actual power over you because of your faith in Jesus Christ. With Christ, you will say, “I will put my trust in Him” (Heb. 2:13). With Christ, when the devil and this world are tempting you to give in to the agony, pain, suffering, exhaustion, tears, lies, and fear, trying to cause you turn from God in either a single sinful act or in full abandonment, you will say, “Not my will but Yours be done” (Mat. 26:39). This is because with Christ, you are not alone. With Christ you realize what this fallen world and the devil are trying to do to you – to destroy you completely. With Christ and because of Him, you realize the victory, that the old you, the dying part of you, is not where hope and a future reside. With Christ and because of Him, you realize amid suffering, to say, “No,” to sin means the pain might persist for a time, but when it has reached its time, it will not be comparable to the glory to be revealed to you (Rom. 8:18).
With and because of Jesus Christ, you are a child of God. One day, you will see Him face to face and along with the rest of the church, “He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away” (Rev. 21:3-4).
The next post in the series on suffering: The call for endurance and perseverance.
“He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son.” – Rev. 21:7
-Pastor Ben