Under the old covenant God promised much prosperity to his faithful followers instead of suffering. But under the new covenant God promises suffering to his true followers. Why the change? Shouldn’t we have more prosperity now that the Son has died for us?
The answer is no because we live in the overlap of this present age and the age of the kingdom of God. Since the fulfillment of the old covenant by the new covenant of the kingdom the followers of God no longer need success in this world in order to fulfill the mission of God. He sends us to penetrate every culture but not with external political power, rather, with the internal power of the Spirit. All are invited to join God’s kingdom but people are also free to reject God and pursue destructive lives. This means that we still live in a destructive world that inflicts suffering on us. And we still live with a destructive old self inside us which God wants to purify from us.
In the cross and resurrection Jesus established the power of suffering to destroy the corruption in the world and give his followers victory over the work of Satan. We follow in his footsteps. As we embrace suffering we conquer the forces of Satan in the world and win victory over the corruption of our old self. In other words, the reason suffering is required is that corruption must die and this death includes experiencing suffering.
In suffering we take the place of whatever is corrupt and experience the death of corruption ourselves. This is what Jesus did. He wanted to kill sin so he became sin in order that his death would be the death of sin. As we suffer we apply Jesus’ powerful suffering to all that is not from the nature of God, whether in this world or in ourselves. Corruption dies but we feel the pain. In this way we imitate Christ and fellowship with him in suffering. In the end, we rejoice because God’s goodness has conquered evil again.
Thus, we see that King Jesus redeems the suffering of his people and uses it to win his victory which spreads the glory of the Father. As the world observes this mystifying acceptance of suffering with patience they are pointed to Someone bigger than ourselves. This willingness to suffer with meekness was one of the reasons some ancient Romans became followers of Jesus.
Let us embrace our suffering as opportunities to destroy corruption in ourselves and in the world around us. Let us do this with patience and meekness.
