THE FELLOWSHIP OF HIS SUFFERINGS
"But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for Whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, and be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: that I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death" (Philippians 3:7-10).
The
cry of the Apostle Paul's heart was to know Christ in all His fullness. Like the other apostles and disciples of the
Lord who came before him, Paul was willing to forsake everything and spend the
rest of his life following Jesus and learning Who He really is. All the things that he once counted as
treasures and great accomplishments in his life - his position in the religious
community, his intellect, his wealth, and his supposed knowledge of the
scriptures - he now saw as waste and loss.
He had come to realize after his encounter with the Lord on the road to
Damascus that he had spent his whole life trying to establish HIS
righteousness. He had missed out
completely on the righteousness that comes from God by faith in Jesus
Christ. For all Paul's familiarity with
the Old Testament, He had missed altogether the many pictures, types, and
shadows that revealed the true nature of the Son of God as well as the
sufferings that He would endure in order to secure mankind's salvation. Like most of the Jews of his time, Paul expected
Christ to appear as the conquering hero Who would deliver them from the
oppression of their enemies. Messiah was
a romantic figure to the Jews, and they looked for Him to return in great
strength and power. The revelation of
Christ that Paul had on the road to Damascus shattered all of those
notions.
The
prophet Isaiah gave a description of Christ that should have raised some
questions about just what kind of man the Messiah would be. In fact, God spoke through Isaiah and asked
how many would even believe the things that would be spoken of the Son
of God. "Who hath believed our
report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed? For He [Christ] shall grow up before
Him [God] as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: He
hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see Him, there is
no beauty that we should desire Him.
He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and
acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from Him; He
was despised, and we esteemed Him not." (Isaiah 53:1-3). Rather than coming in strength and might,
Isaiah prophesied that Christ would appear as a tender, fragile shoot trying to
survive in a dry patch of ground. He
would be born lowly and without "advantages" of any kind. There would be no natural beauty or majesty
in His bearing that would attract people to Him. Instead, He would be despised and rejected by
men. They would turn their faces from
Him, and He would suffer at their hands.
It was not a life of popularity and prosperity that Christ exemplified,
but a life of poverty and self-denial.
This is not the example that most of us would care to follow. This does not fit with the beautiful pictures
of Christ that artists have portrayed.
We want a Savior Who stops by at a convenient time, forgives our sins,
and then leaves us alone. Oh, He can
leave His number, though, in case there's anything else we may require!
The
image of Jesus Christ that we have is very important because it determines what
kind of life we will lead and the effectiveness of our labors for
Him. Jesus said, "If any man
will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and
follow Me." (Luke 9:23). Our
knowledge of the Lord comes by degrees.
One day we may see that He is love and that we must love our friends and
family in a more sacrificial way. The
next day, however, we may see that He loves His enemies, and we must go a very
large step further in our understanding of His love. Step by step we learn that, in order to
embrace Christ and Who He is, we must lose a portion of our own natural
tendencies. If we want our innermost,
spiritual man to live, then our outward man must die. Jesus went on to say, "For whosoever
will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for My sake,
the same shall save it" (Luke 9:24).
Just
as Christ was like a lamb led to the slaughter, so also are we. "As it is written, For Thy sake we
are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter"
(Romans 8:36). We Christians are called to die daily. Yet, we find that as our outward man perishes
along with all his worldly attitudes, traditions, and pride, our inward man is
daily being renewed and strengthened (2 Corinthians 4:16). We find that we are no longer content to conform
ourselves to the way that the rest of the world thinks and feels. Instead, we find we are gradually being
transformed and renewed into the image of Jesus as we seek to see Him as He
really is. This walk is not for
sissies. It involves bearing crosses,
forgiving injustices, enduring persecution, and giving yourself away. Dying involves some suffering. "For even hereunto were ye
called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye
should follow His steps: Who did no sin, neither was guile found in His
mouth" (1 Peter 2:21).
The
trade-off in all of this (besides eternal life and bliss) is the inner joy and
peace that we experience as a result of yielding ourselves to the Lord. He shows us that the battles and struggles
that we encounter in life are no longer our battles, but His. He gives us light in every dark place, and
tranquility in every violent storm. And,
of course, He has promised us a place in His everlasting kingdom. The Israelite king, David, invited all men
to, "Taste and see that the Lord is good:” because “blessed is
the man that trusteth in Him." (Psalm 34:8).
The
apostle Paul realized that to know Christ meant to know death. His words were, "That I may know Him,
and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings,
being made conformable unto His death." These other things were connected in
Paul's understanding to the knowledge of Christ. The power of the Lord's resurrection is a
mighty force that He invites us to experience, but He is not just referring to
the day when our physical bodies will be raised up from the dead on the last
day, He is also referring to the quickening that we feel as we die to
self. "And you hath He
quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins" (Ephesians 2:1). "This is my comfort in my affliction:
for Thy word hath quickened me" (Psalm 119:50). We cannot know the resurrection life of Jesus
Christ without knowing death to self.
This is what Paul means by entering into the fellowship of His
sufferings. As we lay down our lives for
God and for others, we enter into a special type of communion with our
Lord. We become conformed to Jesus'
death. As we allow this to take place,
we find that we become instruments through which the Lord can save others. As Paul so aptly puts it, "And
whether we be afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is
effectual in the enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer: or
whether we be comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation" (1
Corinthians 1:6). John the Baptist
perhaps said it the simplest, “He [Christ] must increase,
but I must decrease.” (John 3:30).
It
is a serious matter to get to know the Lord.
He expects that we follow Him, and not that He follow us into whatever
we choose to do with our lives. We are,
after all, called to be servants and not lords.
What happened to "not my will, but Thine be done" anyway? It is a very strait gate and narrow way that
leads to eternal life. Jesus said that
few would find it. The wide gate and the
broad way is much more appealing to folks.
"I want to claim Christ as my King, but I don't want any demands
made on my personal life" seems to be the way too many of us think. It is time to really get to know the Lord for
Who He is. Isaiah asked, "Who
has believed our message?" I
want to be one who responds, "I do!”
“When You said, ‘Seek My face,’ my heart said to You, ‘Your face,
LORD, I will seek.’” (Psalm 27:8).
I
love good photography. Some of the best
pictures I have seen are the ones where the subject is in sharp focus in the
foreground, but the background is blurred so that it just appears like a splash
of colors. This effect works great in
photographs, but it isn't a good technique to apply to real life. We humans have a tendency to do just that,
though. We focus very sharply on what's
in front of us, or what we are experiencing at the moment, and lose sight
altogether of the big picture. The
apostle Paul said, "All things work together for good to them that love
God, to them who are the called according to His purpose" (Romans
8:28). By this verse we know: 1) God has a purpose for our lives, and
therefore has called us to Himself to fulfill that purpose, and, 2) all of the
pieces and circumstances of our life when added together, will equal something
very good because God will use them to fulfill His purpose in us. It's much like assembling a jigsaw
puzzle. You can't tell what the finished
work will be by just looking at a single piece or two. You have to fit them together one by one
until the puzzle is complete, and then you can clearly see what the artist or
photographer had in mind. It's keeping
the overall goal in mind that gives us patience and hope to continue working on
the puzzle one small piece at a time. It
isn't even necessary, or always possible, to know the details of God's purpose
for our lives. It is enough to know that
HE knows what He's doing, and that He means everything for our ultimate
good. One day, when we know even as we
are known, God’s plan will be quite clear.
Until then, we must trust in Him and walk by faith and hope.
Each
trial of life that we go through may not be good in and of itself, but when we
add up the sum of our life experiences, they will all have worked together to
create something good which only God could have engineered. The key to achieving that purpose is hidden in
the phrase "...to them that love God, to them who are the
called..." Those who only pay
lip service to God but do not love and cherish Him more than their life are
like ships without rudders. Their trials
won't add up to anything that will endure because they are not looking to Him
to guide and direct their lives, or to correct and chasten them when they get
off course. They are lost without a
compass, and are therefore unable to navigate the storms and difficulties that
they encounter in life. It will be
impossible for them to stay headed toward their desired destination.
The
apostle Paul desired to know Christ as He really is and not just what his
imagination would like Him to be.
Jesus' words and ministry broke with so much of the conventional and
traditional wisdom of His day - He simply wasn't what the religious leaders
were looking for or wanted. Paul,
however, came to understand that to know Christ was to embrace "the
power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings" and
to be "made conformable to His death" (Philippians 3:10). He realized that we are being refined, and
that we are being transformed. Like a
refiner applying intense heat to the crucible, God allows our trials to melt
us, and release the impurities that are trapped inside our carnal natures. He can bring them to the surface, and then
remove them. Like a potter, God is
kneading and prodding us in order to transform us from a formless lump of clay
into a vessel of honor for His glory and His use. Like a blacksmith, God places us in the
intense fire; and then, when we are pliable, He hammers us until we are bent to
His perfect will. As Christ endured much
suffering in order to set aside His own will, so must we follow in His
footsteps and set aside our own wills.
The
apostle Peter understood this principle.
He said, "Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery
trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: but
rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when His
glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy" (1
Peter 4:12,13). Why is it that we are so
easily ready to fall apart when things don't go our way, or when real tragedy
touches us in some way? We think it is
some mistake! After all, God loves us,
and He surely wouldn't let anything bad touch our lives! Oh, how spoiled we have become in Western
societies. There are Christians
suffering, and even dying, every day for their faith in Muslim, Communist, and
many third world countries; and yet we think it strange that we should ever be
allowed to suffer anything. Jesus said
that it is our spirit that is quickened (brought to life) by the gospel
message, but that our flesh profits nothing by it (John 6:63). We modern Christians want our ears to be
tickled, and our flesh to be coddled.
How can we say that we abide in Christ if we are so ready to deny His teachings? Jesus taught, "If any man will come
after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow
Me. For whosoever will save his life
shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for My sake, the same shall
save it. For what is a man advantaged,
if he gain the whole world, and lose himself, or be cast away?" (Luke 9:23-25). "He that saith he abideth in Him [Christ]
ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked" (1 John
2:6).
Please
understand that God does not cause our difficulties in life, He allows
them and He uses them to perfect us.
God will not tempt any man. Our
circumstances are brought on by a variety of things. It may be by some person who wishes us
evil. It may be a natural disaster. It may be (and often is) the product of our
own bad choices, or the lusts of our sinful flesh. Regardless, God is able to take all of these
things and weave them together into something good if we will learn to yield
our lives to Him in true obedience.
The
story of Joseph in the book of Genesis is one of the best examples of the
fellowship of Christ's sufferings.
Joseph, in fact, is a type and shadow of Christ. In his story we find so many parallels to the
life of our Lord. For instance:
· they were both dearly loved by their
father;
· their father gave special gifts to
them which set them apart from their brethren;
· they both were destined for greatness,
but were humbled by circumstance for a time;
· they were both sent by their heavenly
Father to minister to their brethren;
· those to whom they were sent hated
them and conspired against them;
· they were both betrayed for money;
· they both took on themselves the form
of a servant;
· they were both highly exalted and
placed at the right hand of power;
· all the wealth of the kingdom was
placed into their hands;
· by their sacrifice, not only were
their brethren saved, but so also was the whole world (Genesis 41:54-57).
During
all his years of suffering as a slave, and then in prison, Joseph was being
molded into one of the most important figures in the history of the world. Consider how many souls would have starved to
death during the great seven year famine if Joseph had not been in the right
place at the right time in order to warn Pharaoh of the impending
disaster. There were many bad things
that befell Joseph; but in the end, they worked together, not just for good,
but for the salvation of the whole world.
This is the fellowship of Christ's sufferings - this is the pattern that
God wishes our lives to follow. Though
we may not have the opportunity to save the world as Joseph and Jesus did, our
lives, with all of the struggles and blessings, can be the very witness that
those around us need to see in order to be saved. Our lives are not without purpose! God has plans for you and me! "For I know the thoughts that I think
toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you
an expected end. Then shall ye call
upon Me, and ye shall go and pray unto Me, and I will hearken unto you. And ye shall seek Me, and find Me, when ye
shall search for Me with all your heart.
And I will be found of you, saith the LORD." (Jeremiah
29:11-14). Joseph's name means "may
Jehovah add or give increase." This
is just what the Lord is willing to do in our lives: to add to, or enhance and
enrich our lives, and give us increase - increase of joy, increase of peace,
increase of security, and life that is much more abundant.
The
most wondrous picture that we see of Joseph is in the end, after he has made
himself known and his brothers are standing before him. It is in that moment when all God's plan is
fulfilled in him. Because he was
transformed by all of the things that he went through, he was able to say to
his brothers from a pure heart of faith and love, "But as for you, ye
thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is
this day, to save much people alive" (Genesis 50:20). This is always the proof that we have been
refined and purified by God: when we have let go of all bitterness, resentment,
anger, and blame. It isn't that Joseph
excused what his brothers did to him, nor was he saying that God initiated
their actions to set the stage for him to save the world from hunger. He was saying that God had freed him
to forgive them and not let their actions destroy him. He was declaring that God had turned his life
into something good and meaningful.
Joseph had overcome the things that were meant to destroy him, and he
was able to turn them into victory.
When
Corrie Ten Boom would visit people who were in the hospital or going through
some trial, she would pull an embroidered picture of a crown out of her purse
and show it to them. She would say that
our lives often appear like the underside of the embroidery, with what seems
like random threads going this way and that with very little order. It can look very ugly when viewing it from
that perspective, and that is the only view that we have of our lives most of
the time. God, however, sees the work on
top that He is making. There He is
creating beauty, symmetry, and order.
Some day we will see the finished work, but for now we must trust what
God is doing and submit ourselves to Him in love and devotion.
"Though
He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. And having been perfected, He became the
author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him."
(Hebrews 5:8,9).
"For
it became Him, for Whom are all things, and by Whom are all things, in bringing
many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through
sufferings." (Hebrews 2:10).
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