Suffering Isn’t Just Useful, It’s Mandatory
A reflection on resurrection in THIS life
Hi. This is going out in the week following Easter Sunday. That means most people who will come across this have recently been meditating on the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. That’s good. Me too. Belief in a future bodily resurrection is great! It changes everything. It gives us confidence in our faith and hope for the future. But it can be hard to apply in a way that we can feel today.
This has been a hard year in the Puff house. Not bad, but hard. We’ve had unexpected but non-negotiable expenses. You know, the kinds of expenses that don’t break you one at a time but can cause some trouble when they pile up. But more to the point, the past 12 months or so have included loss, grief, and other changes that have been hard on the family. Easter speaks primarily to the salvation of souls and the resurrection to come, but what does it say about the practical troubles of this life? The resurrection is a guarantee of a future, but can it help me through the present? The answer to that question, no doubt, is yes.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. —2 Corinthians 5:17, ESV
Easter promises hope for the next life, but it also changes everything about this life. That is, the literal, physical events of death and resurrection might also be applied spiritually to the growth cycles of the inner life of the believer. Our spirits may, from time to time, mirror the experience of Christ’s physical death and resurrection, through our own suffering and subsequent recovery. Jesus died, was buried, and raised to an even greater position than the one from which he started. So, we must endure suffering that leads to the death of the present self, from which God will raise a more godly, more experienced, and more useful person. It could be said that the knowledge of our Lord and his resurrection come through our own suffering (Phil. 3:10-11). And while the death and resurrection of our physical bodies will happen once, and our spirits are “born again” once, the cycle of “suffering and redemption” will occur as often as our good Lord deems appropriate for each of us.
Death Must Come Before Resurrection
We’d like to believe our personal growth could continue to steadily move up and to the right throughout our lives. I don’t deny that is a part of our experience. It’s just not all of it. Sometimes we just have to fall a bit in order to grow some more. The “fall” could include hard events, loss, failure, suffering, and even personal sin (I mention sin as a concession, not to encourage it so that grace may abound). To put it another way: We love the idea of the new self; it’s the crucifixion of the old self that’s a little harder to accept (Rom. 6:4-6). Yet it’s clear that the renewal of the inner self must be connected to the cycle of death and resurrection, picturing the interplay of momentary affliction and eternal glory (2 Cor. 4:14-18).
The resurrection of Christ repurposes his suffering and yours. The glory of Easter could only be accomplished through the suffering of Good Friday. The empty tomb only has meaning when it follows the cross. As the crucifixion becomes the frame for the resurrection, so your pain, sadness, sin, and failure become the frame for the new man or woman God is creating of you.
If you believe God causes all things to work together for good, will you further believe He not only uses, but requires us to experience suffering to fulfill that? What past or present hardship in your life can you recast, no longer as pointless suffering, but as a vital step in the renewal of your life, for the blessing of the world, and to His glory?