Why do Christians suffer? Part 2
By Gerry Straker, 08 May 2020
In our first article, we began to see why Christians suffer...
- Why do Christians get the coronavirus?
- Why do Christians struggle with mental health?
- Why do Christians have hard things happen to them?
Wonderfully, Christians don’t suffer punishment for sins. If we trust Christ Jesus we have been forgiven all of our sins and made righteous. God is just and sin is not paid for twice!
No, Christians suffer precisely because we are Christians. And as Christians, all our suffering is suffering for being a Christian. All our suffering has purpose.
All of us will suffer in some way, most likely in many ways. Knowing why won't take away the pain, but knowing some of the possible reasons will, I pray, reassure you that God loves you and is in charge over your suffering. I hope that thinking this through will change how we pray for our suffering brothers and sisters. By the way, in each suffering situation I would think it would be a combination of the reasons over these two emails.
6. HOPE
People around us are ‘amusing themselves to death’ – to borrow the name of Neil Postman’s 1985 prophetic book. We live in a frantic world, chasing entertainment, amusement and distraction. People try and create heaven now: eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die. And what do working people dream of? A healthy retirement.
But, suffering loosens our grip on earthly treasure. When you are really suffering, don’t you find that you care very little about your stuff and that entertainment does not distract you from the pain!
Puritan Thomas Watson wrote: 'When you dig away the earth from the root of a tree, it is to loosen the tree from the earth; so God digs away our earthly comforts to loosen our hearts from the earth.'[1] When God sends some suffering, he is helping us long for the future and stopping us from making our home here. [2]
'More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. (Romans 5:3-5). And later in the same letter: ' For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved.' (Romans 8:22-24).
7. DELIGHT
Closely related to hope is our delight. Our suffering is to help us delight in God Himself. Job’s desire is for the Lord even through his suffering: ' For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me!' (Job 19:25-27).
At the end of Job, Job says this: ' I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you.' (Job 42:5). Job knew God better through His suffering. 'Job had been a godly and upright man, pleasing to God, but the difference between what he knew of God in prosperity and what he knew of him through adversity was the difference between hearing about and seeing.'[3]
I love this bit at the end of C S Lewis' 'The Voyage of the Dawn Treader' when Lucy and Edmund are about to return from Narnia back to this world: '"Please, Aslan," said Lucy. "Before we go, will you tell us when we can come back to Narnia again? Please. And oh, do, do, do make it soon." "Dearest," said Aslan very gently, "you and your brother will never come back to Narnia." "Oh, Aslan!!" said Edmund and Lucy both together in despairing voices. "You are too old, children," said Aslan, "and you must begin to come close to your own world now." "It isn't Narnia, you know," sobbed Lucy. "It's you. We shan't meet you there. And how can we live, never meeting you?"'[4] Lucy’s desire and delight is not Narnia, but Aslan. Our desire for God; knowing Him and delighting in Him is what we were created and saved for, and for Christians, our suffering draws us closer to God Himself.
Charles Spurgeon: 'I have learned to kiss the wave that throws me against the Rock of Ages.' There’s a sense in which we are to be grateful for suffering, because it throws us against Christ Jesus for protection, safety and welcome. Horatius Bonar describing his own book said this: 'It is written by one who is seeking himself to profit by trial, and trembles lest it should pass by as the wind over the rock, leaving it as hard as ever; by one who would in every sorrow draw near to God that he may know Him more, and who is not unwilling to confess that as yet he knows but little.' [5]
8. MISSION
Christ’s work is finished. Now, the church shares the sufferings of Christ (2 Timothy 2:3; Philippians 3:10; 2 Timothy 2:10). 'Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church.' (Colossians 1:24).
Christians, like Paul, suffer for the sake of the Church - not to save the Church but to demonstrate the gospel. As we are persecuted, like Jesus (2 Timothy 3:12) and as we stand firm, gospel work will happen (2 Timothy 4:5). Indeed, as we suffer, we are suitable vessels – jars of clay - for the weak-looking message that we carry (2 Corinthians 4:7). Christ triumphed at the weak looking cross, so we jars of clay bring glory to God and are part of Christ’s triumphal procession as we bring the gospel to people.
Our ongoing godliness in the face of suffering for godliness will bring people to glorify God: 'Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.(1 Peter 2:12).
9. STORY
Sometimes when you’re reading a book, you find that you put yourself into the story. Well, we get to be in the real story God is writing. Christ is the hero - all praise and glory to Him. And through the Spirit’s work in us, and for Christ’s glory, there’s a sense in which we get to be heroes too: as we share in sufferings we will share in glory (Romans 8:30). As Andrew Peterson sings:
'In the end…
We’ll see how the tears that have fallen
Were caught in the palms of the Giver of love and the Lover of all.
And we’ll look back on these tears as old tales.'[6]
When Jesus takes us home our memories won’t be wiped! And we’ll tell each other the stories of the old earth. We’ll tell all the battle stories, so that all the glory can go to Jesus. We’ll tell of the Battle won at the cross, and we’ll tell of the stories of Christ’s victory in the Church and through the Church, when His Church suffered.
As Sam says in 'The Lord of the Rings': ‘I wonder if we shall ever be put into songs or tales. We're in one, or course; but I mean: put into words, you know, told by the fireside, or read out of a great big book with red and black letters, years and years afterwards. And people will say: "Let's hear about Frodo and the Ring! " And they'll say: "Yes, that's one of my favourite stories. Frodo was very brave. wasn't he, dad?" "Yes, my boy, the famousest of the hobbits, and that's saying a lot."'
`It's saying a lot too much,' said Frodo, and he laughed, a long clear laugh from his heart…'Why, Sam,' he said, 'to hear you somehow makes me as merry as if the story was already written. But you've left out one of the chief characters: Samwise the stouthearted. "I want to hear more about Sam, dad. Why didn't they put in more of his talk, dad? That's what I like, it makes me laugh. And Frodo wouldn't have got far without Sam, would he, dad? " '
`Now, Mr. Frodo,' said Sam, 'you shouldn't make fun. I was serious. '
`So was I,' said Frodo, 'and so I am. We're going on a bit too fast. You and I, Sam, are still stuck in the worst places of the story, and it is all too likely that some will say at this point: "Shut the book now, dad; we don't want to read any more." '
`Maybe,' said Sam, 'but I wouldn't be one to say that. Things done and over and made into part of the great tales are different."' [7]
Sufferers might feel like they are stuck in the worst place in the story. But you can be sure that as one of Christ’s people, what is happening is part of the story. It will be done and over and made into part of the greatest tale ever, that we will tell and sing about in the new creation.
We’re not the hero of the story, but because, through and for Jesus, we have a part in the story that brings him glory; and reamarkably he shares that glory with us.
Conclusion
So there are some reasons why Christians suffer. We need to hear these reasons all the more, because when we suffer these things we don’t believe them, or we feel we can’t believe them. But we need to have driven down into our hearts.
Let me finish with this: all suffering for Christians happens not because God is letting things play out from a distance or because God can’t handle what’s going on. In fact, the exact opposite - all suffering happens because God is in charge. [8] And, all suffering for Christians happens not because God doesn’t love you. In fact, the exact opposite - all suffering happens because God loves you.[9] We really are loved - loved like Jesus. God had purposes for Jesus’ suffering and God has purposes for our suffering. Praise him!
[1] Thomas Watson, All things for Good, 29.
[2] See for example Psalms 49 and 90.
[3] John Piper https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/preparing-to-know-christ-deeply-through-suffering Cited 5/5/2020.
[4] C S Lewis, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, (1955; Repr., London: Harper Collins, 1999), 188.
[5] Quoted by John Piper here: https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/preparing-to-know-christ-deeply-through-suffering Cited 5/5/2020.
[6] Quoted by Scott Hubbard here:https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/what-god-says-to-your-tears Cited 5/5/2020.
[7] Two Towers, book IV, chapter 8, The stairs of Cirith Ungol:http://ae-lib.org.ua/texts-c/tolkien__the_lord_of_the_rings_2__en.htm#4-08 Cited 5/5/2020.
[8] Genesis 3:14-19; Isaiah 45:7; Amos 3:6; Lamentations 3:38; Job 1-2. See Grimmond, Suffering Well, 40-41.
[9] 1 John 3:1; Ephesians 3:17-19; John 17:23.
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