Suffering with Christ

My wife Jane and I were at the oncology center at Mercy hospital yesterday from 8am to 1:45pm.  I had one of the chemicals infused into me for 2.5 hours of that time.  I am carrying a small IV pump in a fanny pack which is infusing the second chemical for 46 hours.  I will have it removed tomorrow around noon.  I have expereienced a few weird side effects which are not difficult to manage.  Mostly today I feel weak.  Thank you for your prayers on my behalf.  I have been so encouraged by the many expressions of concern and care from so many different people.  I thank God for the love of his people towards us.

One thing was very clear as we spent the day at the cancer center.  There was a steady stream of people coming and going all of them receiving various treatments for the various kinds of cancer.  People of all ages and walks of life and gender.  Cancer is no respector of persons.  As we observed this common form of suffering that is in the world I was reminded of another passage that has been so important in our lives as we have lived with our brain injured son these past 10 years and now go through my battle with cancer.  The eighth chapter of Paul's letter to the Romans is full of help for suffering Christians.  It is a climactic chapter in Paul's explanation of the gloroius good news of our Lord Jesus Christ.  The first verse is one of the great summary statements in the Bible of what Christ has accomplished for his people.  Paul states, "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." 

In spite of the fact that we are sinners who justly deserve God's condemnation for our rebellion against him, yet, once we have been placed in Christ by the work of the Holy Spirit on the basis of our faith in Christ, God no longer condemns us.  We have been justifed on the basis of Christ's life and death on our behalf.  God has pardoned all of our sins because he poured out his just anger against our sins upon the perfect Son of God upon that cross and he has counted us righteous in his sight by crediting the actual righteousness of Christ to us.  The just and holy God is satisfied with Christ's work on our behalf and so no longer condemns every person who is in Christ by faith.

 In vv. 2-13 Paul describes how the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives causes us resist sin and to grow in actual obedience to God.  In v. 13 he says that now we are people who, by the work of the Holy Spirit put to death the misdeeds that arise from the sin that still dwells within us.  In v. 14 he says that as we follow the Holy Spirit's lead in fighting our sins we show that we are indeed God's chidlren.  Having identified us as God's children he tells us of how God confirms our status as his children by the work of the Holy Spirit. 

He writes (vv.15-17a): "For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, "Abba! Father!"  The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs--heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ..."  It is by the work of the Holy Spirit that we no longer fear God as our judge and executioner but we love him as our Father.  The Holy Spirit assures us that God has indeed adopted us as his dearly loved children.  If we are God's children then we are his heirs.  We know that one day we will inherit the entire earth.  There is a day coming when all the misery of sin and God's curse upon sin will be undone and we will live as God's heirs.  We will enjoy this status because we are fellow heirs with Christ.  We are in Christ and thus everything that Jesus deserves by his obedient life and willing death will be ours as well.  We live in the confident expecation that this is indeed our futre.

However, Paul finishes verse 17 with a very strange and perplexing comment.  He says that another evdience that we are fellow heirs with Christ and will obtain all of God's riches with him in the future is this: "provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him."  God by his apostle tells us that what marks all those who are heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ is that every single one of them suffers with Christ.  All the true children of God, who will enjoy the glory of Christ suffer with Christ in this life.  If you do not suffer with Christ then you will not be glorified with him; you are not one of God's children.

What sufferings is Paul referring to?  Why must all of God's children suffer with Christ in order to be glorified with him?  What exactly does that mean that we suffer "with" Christ?  In vv. 18-23 Paul identifies the sufferings about which he is speaking.  In v. 18 he says it is the "sufferings of this present age."  In v. 20-22 he says it is all the sufferings that have come upon the created order by the will of God as his curse upon human sin.  The creation does not currently function the way that God orginally created it.  It is full of futility and decay.  He decribes the whole creation as groaning right now like a pregnant woman who is in the midst of labor.  In other words, the sufferings which must be endured with Christ are all the sufferings that make up this world.  Disease and accidents and broken realationshiops and hurricanes and floods and earthquakes and plagues and the acts of violent and wicked men and wars and everything that makes this world  a place of pain.

The reason that Paul makes this point is because many people arrive at the mistaken conclusion that if we are God's children, if the Holy Spirit lives in us and we are heirs of God, then we will not experience any of these sufferings.  Many false teachers in the Christian church have said through the centuries that if we are God's children then God will keep us from all suffering.  Paul directly contradicts this false teaching.  He says that just as Christ experienced all this misery so all of those who are his fellow heirs will also experience these sufferings.  However we will experience them "with Christ".  That is, these sufferings are not evidence of God's condmenation but evidence of God's love.  We experience these sufferings as Paul says in vv. 23-24 like a woman in labor experiences the pains of childbirth.  The woman is not in despair over labor pains, even while she groans in pain, but she experiences them as the harbinger of the birth of her child.  In the same way we groan in the pain of this fallen world but not in despair but in hope of what is coming.  As Pauls says in v. 18 we consider these present sufferings as not even worth comparing to the glory that is going to be revealed to us.

Tomorrow we will look further at what Paul says about how we "suffer with Christ" the pains of this fallen world.  But for today we recognize that the experience of suffering in this world is not a sign of God's displeasure with us but the mark that we belong to Christ.  Our present sufferings are necessary for the "birth" that is coming to the creation and to us when Christ returns and makes all things new.