Boot Camp for Glory

… though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered.   (Heb 5:8)

It’s easy to understand that suffering results from disobedience.  This is a most familiar experience.  Perhaps, too, in our spiritual weakness we have some dim perception of the great distress our Lord experienced, suffering for our sins on the cross, when he cried, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me!”  But, why must the suffering continue for us after we know the Lord?  Aren’t we forgiven?  Didn’t Christ bear the torment we were due?

The answer lies in our fellowship with Christ!

Jesus Christ was always the perfect man -- from birth.  No sin hung on him at all.  Yet, as a human being he learned obedience through suffering.  Now, we are being conformed to his image.  And so we have fellowship with him in our sufferings!  Just as he was made perfect through suffering, so are we!  Just as his sufferings redound to his glory, so do ours!  Peaceable fruit and maturity of character is the result -- and the Christ-like capacity for ministry to other sufferers!  It is a mystery how and why God permitted evil.  Yet the suffering of the righteous in a fallen world brings the greatest glory! 

Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.    (Matt 5:11-12)

It is the same for the struggle within ourselves between flesh and Spirit.  The apostle Paul was given his “thorn in the flesh,” a messenger of Satan, that he might not be proud because of the special revelation that he had received.  The Lord refused to remove this “thorn” in spite of Paul’s prayers.  Instead, the Lord said, “My grace is sufficient for you.” 

Therefore I [Paul] take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Cor 12:10)

Paul's ministry depended on his suffering, and on weakness, for only then was the Lord's power seen in him!  For Paul, no "thorn" would have meant spiritual loss -- even no ministry!  But, as he suffers, he ministers.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounds through Christ. (2 Cor 1:3-5)

Do we enjoy every aspect of this “boot camp” for glory?  No.  But, as excellent soldiers and co-warriors with Christ, we have grace and comfort within it!  Christ persevered in all his tribulations because of the glory set before him.  So should we!  We have suffered with him.  We shall also be glorified with him!  We shall share this fellowship in glory forever and ever!