In life we suffer. Because we live in a fallen world we experience pain, both physical and emotional. The hardest to deal with is the pain that arrives in relationships, pain which seems to almost never leave, but continues to abide deep in the heart. This pain may be brought on by sin in our own lives and our own failures, or it may be simply the result of deep dissappointment or lose. Such pain occurs, it is part of life in this fallen world.

Christ experienced this pain to the fullest extent. When he walked on the earth he was full of grief at the sin of the people, their lack of faith and their rejection of him who had lovingly created them! Because of this brokeness, as it were, he was a man in constant humility before his father. He was a perfect man, and yet he felt deep, deep suffering, all the way to the cross. And this suffering was allowed in his life by the sovereignty of his father, the same God and father who allows the same in our lives.

The suffering of this life is great, but this mystery is even greater: through God’s mercy, the suffering of this life can be transformed into eternal suffering. Eternal suffering? Can such a thing be good? Yes it can be good, and is good if one understands the meaning of the word eternal. As explained in the last post, eternal is the attribute of God that expresses his everythingness. He is all in all, he is eternal.

The Apostle Paul rejoices over the sufferings of the Philippians because through it they are participating in the gospel, that is, God’s revelation of himself in all righteousness and mercy through his Son Jesus. This joy is so confusing to our natural selves. But Paul knew suffering, and it was his joy. How can this be? The secret was in transforming temporal suffering into eternal suffering.

What we suffer in this temporal world comes and goes (yes, it does go, by God’s grace also), but in Christ we are given the opportunity to benefit from a richer and more fulfilling communion with the spirit of God through these temporal sufferings. We know that if one is to come before God, he must do so in all humility, for the essence of sin is pride. And nothing humbles the human spirit like suffering. When we feel the deepest pain, we don’t like it, we weep, we are weak, and yet when it is accepted in humility, in a spirit of thanksgiving to God for his goodness, it is one of the sweetest things on earth. For in the suffering we are brought low, and in lowliness Christ is found to be real. One can know Christ all one’s life, but to find him to be real in ones baseness is of a joy and peace which cannot be described.

For in our lowliness we are brought to a more acute awareness of our hope in eternal communion with God where there will be no more pain or sorrow. This hope is joy everlasting that fills our soul and causes the dificulties of this life to faid away. It does not always cause the pain to fade away, and that is the blessing! For it is by that very suffering that we are brought to such a low estate, a spirit of repentance, that lose of the self in complete dependence on the Lord, that we catch a glimpse of the communion with Christ his suffering. And in that we taste the glorious and joyous communion that is ours in him for all eternity. In this way, by faith, our pain has become an eternal suffering, one which knows the life of God.