What does the Bible say about suffering for Christ?
1 Peter 2:21 highlights that Christians are called to follow Christ's example of suffering.
Moreover, the article explains that suffering is a means through which believers can experience communion with Christ. Every trial and tribulation that one encounters resonates with the sufferings of Christ, demonstrating His empathy and support. Through these experiences, Christians are invited into a profound relationship with their Savior, reflecting on His own journey of hardship and redemption.
This concept of suffering is crucial, as it aligns with the overarching narrative of scripture where suffering leads to glory. Just as Christ's path led to exaltation, believers can find hope in their own trials, knowing they participate in the redemptive story of Christ’s afflictions.
1 Peter 2:21, Romans 8:17, Colossians 1:24
How do we know Christ's suffering is significant?
Christ's suffering is significant as it serves as the perfect model for believers, demonstrating obedience and endurance.
Furthermore, the apostolic writings affirm that believers share in this suffering as part of their identity in Christ. 1 Peter 2:21 emphasizes that believers are called to suffer in order to follow in His footsteps. This identification with Christ not only enriches their spiritual journey but also assures them of their belonging to the family of God, enhancing their understanding of grace. The suffering of Christ becomes a focal point for understanding God's love and purpose, reinforcing the call for believers to endure hardships with faith.
Ultimately, Christ's suffering is essential for the believer's faith, reflecting the larger theological truths of grace, redemption, and the hope of resurrection that lie at the heart of the gospel.
Isaiah 53, 1 Peter 2:21, Romans 5:3-5
Why is sharing in Christ's sufferings important for Christians?
Sharing in Christ's sufferings allows Christians to grow in faith and deepen their relationship with Him.
Moreover, the believer's sufferings are viewed in light of Christ's afflictions. Paul communicates this in Colossians 1:24, noting that the hardships of believers contribute to the body of Christ in a mysterious and profound way. The struggles encountered serve to sanctify and refine the believer, aligning their experiences with that of their Savior. Each difficulty faced becomes a moment of profound encounter with the grace of God, offering opportunities for growth and deeper reliance on Him.
In essence, suffering is not a distraction from faith but rather an integral part of the Christian journey that enables believers to experience the fullness of life in Christ, preparing them for future glory.
Colossians 1:24, Romans 8:17, 2 Corinthians 1:5
“For even hereunto were you called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow his steps.”
— 1 Peter 2:21
BUT imperfectly, perhaps, beloved reader, are you aware of the high privilege to which you are admitted, and of the great glory conferred upon you, in being identified with Jesus in His life of humiliation. This is one of the numerous evidences by which your adoption into the family of God is authenticated, and by which your union with Christ is confirmed. It may be you are the subject of deep poverty—your circumstances are straitened, your resources are limited, your necessities are many and pressing. Perhaps you are the “man that has known affliction;” sorrow has been your constant and intimate companion; you have become “acquainted with grief.” The Lord has been leading you along a path of painful humiliation. You have been “emptied from vessel to vessel.” He has brought you down, and laid you low; step by step, and yet, oh, how wisely and how gently, He has been leading you deeper and yet deeper into the valley! But why all this leading about? why this emptying? why this descending? Even to bring you into a union and communion with Jesus in His life of humiliation! Is there a step in your abasement that Jesus has not trodden with you—ah! and trodden before you? Is there a sin that He has not carried, a cross that He has not borne, a sorrow that has not affected Him, and infirmity that has not touched Him? Even so will He cause you to reciprocate this sympathy, and have fellowship with Him in His sufferings. As the Head did sympathize with the body, so must the body sympathize with the Head. Yes, the very same humiliation which you are now enduring the Son of God has before endured. And that you might learn something what that love and grace and power were which enabled Him to pass through it all, He pours a little drop in your cup, places a small part of the cross upon your shoulder, and throws a slight shadow on your soul! Yes, the very sufferings you are now enduring are, in a faint and limited degree, the sufferings of Christ. “Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you,” says the apostle, “and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh, for His body’s sake, which is the Church.” There is a two-fold sense in which Jesus may be viewed as a sufferer. He suffered in His own person as the Mediator of His Church; those sufferings were vicarious and complete, and in that sense He can suffer no morel “for by one offering He has perfected forever them that are sanctified.” The other now presents Him as suffering in His members: in this sense Christ is still a sufferer; and although not suffering to the same degree, or for the same end, as He once did, nevertheless He who said, “Saul, Saul, why persecute you me?” is identified with the Church in all its sufferings; in all her afflictions, He being afflicted. The apostle therefore terms the believer’s present sufferings the “afflictions of Christ.”
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