Due
to the very real threat of harm, many will opt to not continue to suffer for
the Gospel. They will not persevere. The visions to John in the Apocalypse to
the seven churches are replete with the exhortation to persevere. Regardless,
many will apostatize and fall away. The apostasy is not accidental, it is
choice. It is an unwillingness to do what? Persevere through the suffering and
pain for Jesus’ namesake. The Bible is clear…
2 Timothy 2:8-13 ~ “Remember Jesus
Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel, for
which I am suffering, bound with chains as a criminal. But the word of God is
not bound! Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they
also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. The
saying is trustworthy, for: If we have died with him, we will also live with
him; if we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he also will
deny us; if we are faithless, he remains faithful—for he cannot deny himself.
Unless
a Christians is ready to renounce the easy path to pursue Jesus, they very well
may not have the conviction to actually be true Christians. We must be willing
to denounce and cut relationships if they will jeopardize the relationship with
the Lord. We must be willing to lose property, dignity, or even our lives. Not
just for ourselves but for others also. Specifically, others in the faith. We
cannot serve two masters.
To
truly be in the faith we must not only accept suffering and discomfort in this
life, we must be able to embrace the suffering. Why? Because we are to be like
Christ and Christ suffered. Sorry folks. No wiggle room here. We must embrace
the word of God especially when it tells us that pain and discomfort in this
life are necessary and there are many places in the Scripture were this
principle is clearly spelled out.
The
preaching of the word of God incites hearts. Sometimes in a positive manner,
sometimes negatively. We need to deal with both outcomes. When we preach or
explain the Gospel which is our responsibly as Christians (Matthew 28:19-20),
the principles and demands of Scripture place demands or restraints on fallen
sinful people. These people (even believers) are naturally wicked and
rebellious. We should expect that it will have an antagonistic effect on people…even
believers, even family members, even ourselves. This is why even we as
individuals must measure ourselves against the standard of Scripture…or even we
will go astray and walk wide of God.
Because
of the difference between the way man was originally created (pre-Genesis 3)
and the way we are now (post-Genesis 3), humanity puts the diss in dysfunctional.
Broken is the name of the game. Evil and evildoers will slander, malign and
even attack. Even our own sinful worldy mind will attack or ignore our
conscience. The Satanic of this world will take special pleasure in derailing
God’s plans but any detours will only be temporary because God is sovereign.
The fact of this temporary derailing or detour must be firmly understood. Why?
Because if God controls all as sovereign and He will eventually right the wrong
as just judge…suffering for a believer will only be temporary in this life. It
will end at some point based on the sovereign control and providential plans of
a loving God. This inevitably should be tremendous reassurance for those now in
pain or in the pits of despair. If God did not spare his Son the Cross but
exalted Him in glory in the Resurrection…we can only stand to benefit from the
suffering in the eternal scale of things.
Additionally,
the εὐαγγέλιον or the proclamation of the Gospel that is intended to express the
awesome and amazing grace of God will be scorned and blasphemed by those that
are pitted against it or don’t understand it. Most will not “get it” or grasp
the Gospel…including many in the church that claim Christianity as their own
but show no signs of it. When only a handful of congregants in a church family
truly get it there will be backlash from those in the church that don’t and
there will be division. Division is not of God so one side of the debate will
always be wrong. Unity in the Spirit prevents division. Sadly, this division is
often glossed over to the detriment of the entire Body because in our modern
society no one wants to be viewed as confrontational or divisive. No one wants
to be viewed as intolerant. Sometimes the suffering required in the Christian
life….is that conflict to purge the satanic element from the Body. It is often
like the painful excising of a malignant demonic cancer infecting a body.
Jesus
is in our suffering. How? Simple actually. We need to read Isaiah and the
suffering servant of Isaiah 50.
Isaiah 50:5-8 ~ “The Lord God has
opened my ear, and I was not rebellious; I turned not backward. I gave my
back to those who strike, and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard; I hid
not my face from disgrace and spitting. But the Lord God helps
me; therefore I have not been disgraced; therefore I have set my face like
a flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame. He who vindicates me is
near. Who will contend with me? Let us stand up together. Who is my adversary? Let
him come near to me. Behold, the Lord God helps me; who will declare
me guilty?
The
words about Christ here written down by Isaiah under the inspiration of God are
remarkable. How is it that Jesus while being appallingly sinned against can he
say that He won’t be disgraced or shamed? The answer is simple to state but
extraordinarily difficult to understand in our cloistered comfortable American
lives. Jesus is focusing on something that keeps him grounded in his identity
and purpose. He looks beyond the immediate to the long-range. He looks from
temporal circumstance to the eternal zenith. The ends justifies the means…or
more specifically, the magnitude of the eternal reward justifies (or explains) the
suffering. Jesus’ confidence is in the will and purposes of the Father. He
knows (as should we) that God will vindicate Him in the end because God is
perfectly just and is a perfect Judge.
Jesus’
suffering and ours will not be in vain. In our suffering, we will accomplish
God’s will and fulfill His plans for us. If there was no justice in the end or
if the suffering was meaningless, it would be intolerable. If sin has the last laugh
and sin wins the victory…our suffering becomes unbearable. We should be
thankful that Jesus overcame the sin on the Cross…otherwise there is no justice
and evil wins out. Evil does not win and that is what the Bible tells us. That
is why Jesus (nor we) will be disgraced no matter how badly we suffer or are
abused in this life. For Jesus to bear His suffering and humiliation in silence
proved his confidence in God wasn't for nothing. As we all know God vindicated Christ
and accomplished His good purpose: The salvation of His chosen people.
Our
lives or recovery after suffering is much more beautiful than the original life before the suffering. There is a much greater appreciation for something we
have toiled for rather than something easily acquired or handed to us. The
repaired or restored person is much more beautiful than the old not because of
the new creation's appearance is better but rather because the suffering has
instilled a much greater appreciation for it…even if the repaired is less than
the original. What do I mean? Let us look at the rebuilding of the Temple in
the time of the return from Babylonian exile.
Israel’s
relationship with God was so bad that Israel (Northern Kingdom) was destroyed
and Judah was conquered and sent into exile. Jerusalem was conquered, summarily destroyed
and the Temple was leveled. After seventy years of Babylonian exile God allowed
a return from captivity and provided the means to rebuild his temple. Despite the
best human efforts, the new temple paled in comparison with the first. The
people had lost hope and wondered if there was any way to get back to former glory
before their suffering. It is at this nexus that we see the purpose of the
suffering and the reason that the second temple will be just as glorious as the first. We
see the shadow that the first and second temple both are and what they portend
or signify.
Haggai 2:3-9 ~ Who is left among
you who saw this house in its former glory? How do you see it now? Is
it not as nothing in your eyes? Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel,
declares the Lord. Be strong, O Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the
high priest. Be strong, all you people of the land, declares the Lord. Work,
for I am with you, declares the Lord of hosts, according to
the covenant that I made with you when you came out of Egypt. My Spirit
remains in your midst. Fear not. For thus says the Lord of
hosts: Yet once more, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and
the earth and the sea and the dry land. And I will shake all nations, so
that the treasures of all nations shall come in, and I will fill this
house with glory, says the Lord of hosts. The silver is mine,
and the gold is mine, declares the Lord of hosts. The latter glory of
this house shall be greater than the former, says the Lord of hosts.
And in this place I will give peace, declares the Lord of
hosts.’
God
tells His people (and us): “Work, for I
am with you…” The passage reaches its zenith with,
“I will fill this house
with glory…” and
later, “the latter [or second] glory
of this house shall be greater than the former…” The second temple will be
greater because God’s glory will be in it after the suffering of the people in exile.
It is God that gives the significance to the temple and the believer
themselves. It is not we that give ourselves significance, it is He. Both Temples
inevitably shadowed and pointed to Jesus who would usher in the new covenant through
His suffering. A new covenant where God would dwell in man...the new temple for
the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19). All individual believers would then be
more glorious temples then the first two physical stone temples in Jerusalem
combined.
A
believer’s suffering will never be in vain. Why? Because God is the glory in
the Temple. God is the glory in the suffering. In suffering the people in exile
(and us now) learned repentance and turned to God…therefore bringing glory to
God and themselves. It required that they learned repentance through their
suffering. They learned their repentance which led to obedience through the
things they suffered…just as Jesus had (Hebrews 5:8). Just as we must also.
[Concluded
in Next Post]
[Synopsis
for Part III: How all this applies to the Christian today.]
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