Suffering makes us one with Christ. Since Jesus is our model suffering is not something that we avoid, instead, we choose to take up our cross. We embrace it because it is the path to oneness with Christ and a fruitful life. Oneness with Christ includes oneness with his life, and his life included suffering; thus, we cannot be one with him unless we suffer. This includes the psychological and spiritual suffering of dying to self.
Paul said: “I want to know Christ–yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death” (Phil. 3:10, NIV). Notice that Paul wanted the good and the “bad” because both were part of knowing Christ better. He loved Christ and knew that in him “are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Col. 2:3, NIV) and that he was the source of Paul’s restoration into the image of God. Therefore, he was eager to be remade in the image of Christ’s suffering and death, knowing this was a requirement for transformation and deeper communion with Christ.
All our suffering is redeemed because Christ redeemed suffering. Our suffering produces blessing because Christ’s suffering produced blessing. This is part of what Scripture means when it repeatedly teaches that we are “in” Christ. We are incorporated into him; he is the head and we are the body. We have a oneness with him that makes his suffering our suffering and his life our life. Restoration and reunion flow from being in Christ—in his suffering and in his victory.
When it comes to suffering, Scripture directs us to “be very glad—for these trials make you partners with Christ in his suffering, so that you will have the wonderful joy of seeing his glory when it is revealed to all the world” (1 Pet. 4:13, NLT). Romans 5:3 likewise declares that “we rejoice in our sufferings” (ESV). We rejoice because “our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all” (2 Cor. 4:17, NIV). Is it not astonishing that God promises us an eternal treasure of glory just for a few years of trouble? Thus, Christians have a wondrous eternal perspective that empowers us to embrace suffering for the sake of receiving and magnifying God’s glory.
Why do we have to suffer in this age when Jesus brought the kingdom of God? The answer lies in the inauguration and fulfillment phases of the coming of the kingdom of God. The reason we do not have more external blessings under the new covenant now is because we live in the overlap of this present age and the age of the kingdom of God. This is the first (inauguration) phase of the kingdom; in the second (fulfillment) phase – the New Creation and the New Earth – we will have more external blessing. Since the new covenant of the kingdom in Christ fulfilled the old covenant, the followers of God no longer need material or political success in this world in order to fulfill the mission of God in this first phase. His mission is to make disciples of his Son and he is doing this in people’s hearts first, before he can establish a political kingdom of Christformed people. We fulfill God’s mission knowing that he has promised us a new creation that far surpasses anything in this world. Our mission now is to bring his light to the world, let God Christform us and accept the suffering that comes with this mission.
