Suffering

Living within a materialistic society, where no one other than the church seems to be aware of the fact that people are really experiencing great personal struggles in their lives, makes it difficult to talk about suffering. I looked at some paintings of Van Gogh, the son of a Reformed pastor in Holland. One particular painting caught my attention. The name of the painting is “Old Man in Sorrow”, and studying that painting, one can see the problems that Van Gogh experienced in his life: problems with suffering and with no hope in the future at all.
What can a man living in the 21st Century contribute to the complex idea of human suffering? What can we say to other human beings who are having bad times in their lives? The best thing we can do is to present the everlasting gospel, showing them how God can use all things in life even those little pains that seem eternal. The purpose of this paper is to present the Pauline view of suffering as seen in his epistles, demonstrating that sincerity of knowing who we are and the need of redemption in our lives and a dependence upon faith in the death and resurrection of Christ are connected in our personal search to understand the reality of suffering.
Why write about suffering in the Pauline epistles? According to the dictionary of Paul and his letters, “The questions of the inevitability and purpose of suffering in the life of Christians in general, and in the life of Paul as an apostle in particular, are recurring themes of great significance throughout Paul’s letters.”1
Paul wrote at least five of his letters while under arrest (Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Philemon and 2 Timothy)2. The letter to the Ephesians and the letter to the church in Philippi are two of the most quoted in many churches during a Sunday worship service. It is incredible to see that made use of the time to write those magnificent letters during his confinement in prison, where he endured many afflictions (2 Tim 2:14) but was also thankful (Phil 1:3).
The sufferings of a man called Paul
Paul experienced suffering from the beginning of his Christian life. The book of Acts in the Bible chapter 9 describes the conversion of Paul on the road to Damascus, including the words of the Lord about Paul: “For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name” (Acts 9:15). Jesus was sincere about the condition that Paul would experience the rest of his life, Paul would suffer because of the name of Christ. Also, before his conversion Paul was blind for a brief period of three days (Acts 9:9) Since the very beginning of his ministry, the most outstanding theologian and missionary the world has ever known would realize the cost of following Jesus as he took up his “cross” daily. Paul even noticed suffering as a mark of his ministry (2 Tim 1:11-12). It is important to notice that Paul suffered because he obeyed God. John Calvin stated that “Paul has been imprisoned not for any kind of bad behavior but because he obeyed God's call”3, obeying God’s call in the midst of persecution was a real danger that Paul needed to face. The mark of suffering would be a part of his ministry until the end of his life (2 Tim 4:5-7).
According to tradition in the early church Paul was beheaded. Paul speaks of affliction and suffering per se sixty times,4 and he uses the terms interchangeably. There is no difference between the two terms, at the end affliction is caused by suffering. The matter of suffering in the Pauline epistles is very important because the liberals and radicals would never accept Paul's teaching which taught that Jesus was a redeemer, but the liberals don’t believe in the real sufferings of Christ as being put to death and rising again. If they don’t understand that message, they would never understand the real meaning and emphasis on suffering in the message of Paul. J. Gresham Machen, arguing with the liberals in his time said that “ Jesus, according to Paul, came to earth not to say something, but to do something; He was primarily not a teacher, but a Redeemer”.5 Paul was introducing the message of a heavenly Redeemer to people who had struggles; especially to people who were suffering because of their sins. Paul offered the cure, faith in Christ.
It is not new to present Jesus as a mere teacher, for even Paul in his letter to the church of Galatia, addressed this important issue, in the first letter he wrote. The church started to have different ideas about the sufferings of Christ (Gal 3:1). It is important to notice “the apostle never valued sufferings as a desired avenue to experience moral education. He too seemed willing to dispense both suffering and education for normal apostolic ministry”. 6 Paul cared much about the real sufferings of Christ, because Jesus had a real death on the cross. That death brings us eternal life; the Incarnation was a historical fact.
But why does Paul write about that? Why does he care so much about the real sufferings of Jesus, his own sufferings, and the sufferings of the church?
Paul wrote about suffering because he knew that his sufferings had a real meaning. Jesus himself suffered unto death to give us life. Paul suffered unto death to present the real gospel of Jesus Christ and to let us know that in Christ we have salvation. We have a way of identification with Christ because he experienced everything that we experience and all that we will experience in the future. Also, he knows all the things that we will see in heaven. Paul wrote, “Now I rejoice in my suffering for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s affliction for the sake of His body that is the Church” (Col 1:24).
Paul had many problems and many privations in his life (2 Cor 11:24-27). When Paul said that his afflictions are for the sake of the believers he let his readers know that the Christian life is a real commitment and is sometimes not easy. Also that all the things that are in the past would not compare with the glory that he would receive.
He had a thorn in his flesh (2 Cor 12:7). We still don't know what kind of problem he had; it was probably physical. But that problem made him realize his dependence on his Savior. Paul also recognized that “his power” was made in weakness (2 Cor 12:9). Simon Kistemaker states: “The evidence of Christ's power in Paul's weakness demonstrates that not the false apostles, who boasted of their own prowess, but Paul, who boasted in the Lord, was a true apostle”7.
This is a mark of Paul as an apostle; he demonstrated that his sufferings were the assurance of the grace of Christ in his life. He, like King David in Psalm 51 was very honest about his condition. Because of his honesty, he was able to share his experience with one of the most liberal churches that he ever encountered, the church of Corinth. The afflictions of Paul as an apostle became a sign of his legitimacy as an apostle.8 Paul addressed in Romans 8:18 “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us”. Paul looks for the future expectation, the everlasting life in heaven. Hendricksen says, “Paul was not speaking as an armchair theologian or philosopher”.9 Paul had already suffered for the name of Christ, but he knew that his hope was in the work of Christ on the cross.
William Hendricksen states “Closeness to Christ causes Paul to write as he does”.10 Paul met personally and heard first hand the real fact that Jesus died for our sins (1 Cor 15:3). The emphasis of Paul in suffering was to show people that the suffering of Christ brings us redemption, and not only that, but that Jesus rose again on the third day (1 Cor 15:4).
Paul is talking about dependence. Our faith stands on historical facts. He believed not only because that satisfied his needs, but also because he knew that the death and resurrection of Christ was a real fact. He personally saw the resurrected Lord (Acts 26:15).
Richard Gaffin is right when he claims “The resurrection of Christ is the pivotal factor in the whole of the apostle’s soteriological teaching”.11 Paul is the master of soteriology and all his teachings are centered in the passion of Christ. Paul carefully tried to address the real fact that Jesus is in us all, and that He can make us a new creation (2 Cor 5:17). All comes from His grace alone. That is the message: a new life in Jesus Christ. The importance of Christ bringing us new life is great because we realize that all the things that happen in our lives are not meaningless, and at the end Jesus covered everything by his death on the cross. Calvin said that, “God is the new Creator of the Church by refashioning His people into His own image”.12 Paul afflicted the early church; he persecuted the church (1 Cor 15:9). One of the most beloved apostles used to be one of the most hated people within the Christian community. Paul recognizes the grace of God (1 Cor 15:10) as the means by which his condition was transformed and he was thankful for being saved. Paul knew his condition of sin and he found the solution to that problem by becoming dependent upon Christ.
The sufferings of a creature called man
So far we have seen a brief explanation of the sufferings of a man named Paul. Now we consider the suffering of what I would like to call the sufferings of the creature called man.13 All of us have experienced affliction many times in our lives: a death of a relative, a breakup with a girlfriend, etc.
Also we can see that some members in our church are suffering, that all of these are translated into sin, and “sin is the transgression of the law”(1 John 3:4).
Even the book of Genesis establishes sin as the cause of pain in human life. Our “first parents” Adam and Eve experienced suffering after the fall (Gen 3:16-17). Because of sin, women “in pain shall bring forth children” (Gen 3:16) and because of the sin of men, “the ground shall be cursed” (Gen 3:17-19). All of us came from Adam and Eve, so all of us suffer pain.
Ridderbos states “One man has given sin access into the world; he has as it were, opened the gate of the world to sin”.14 Paul wrote, “in Adam all die” (1 Cor 15:22a), and “for the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation” (Rom 5:16). Paul emphasizes the figure of the two Adams (Romans 5:12-21). Paul also preaches about our union with Christ and the victory of Jesus over sin (Rom 6:5-8). Jesus Christ is the second Adam, and in Him “shall all be made alive” (1 Cor 15:22b).
But among all Paul is very honest about the status of mankind and the afflictions that would come. In the book of Romans Paul wrote, “Provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with Him” (Rom 8:17b). We must suffer in order to have glory. I agree with Hendriksen in his commentary on Romans when he said, “We can add nothing to Christ’s redemptive suffering for us, but by means of our willingness to suffer for his sake we are drawn closer to the Savior’s heart”.15
The essence of Paul's teaching is incredible because he is not saying that we are not to suffer or that we as Christians will never have problems. Paul is here saying that our own process of sanctification and glorification is not an easy job. That process is by grace too, but we need to be aware that our sufferings will never compare to the sufferings of Christ. Also we must have hope that Jesus will use that pain in our lives for his own glory. Our sufferings bring us closer to Christ who suffered for us; Christ experienced suffering in order to communicate his message of salvation to afflicted people.
Paul in his letter to the Philippians says, “For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake, engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had and now hear that I still have” (Phil 1:29-30). A great scholar stated that these two verses “brings Christ nearer to the soul of the Christian. In his suffering for Christ’s sake the believer begins to understand the One who suffered preemptively for him and receives the sweetness of his enduring fellowship…it brings assurance of salvation, the conviction that the Spirit of glory and the Spirit of God rests upon the sufferer”.16 Suffering can bring to us the idea of our need and honesty of knowing our condition as sinners, and then to provide us with a sense of dependency on Christ. This raises a question: how can we know that God takes care of us if nothing bad happens in our lives? The answer is that pain is still there and it will be there as Paul implies in Romans 7. That passage in Romans shows us that when we start to struggle with sin, we realize that the Holy Spirit is working in us.
If we don’t have that struggle we must examine ourselves and see if we really are saved. The good news is that Jesus is going to be there, taking care of us. And not only that, but the church is there too and we know that the gates of hell shall not prevail against her (Matt 16:18b). He always keeps his promises. We need to understand that “our pain also reminds us all that as God’s people we must be about the task of participating with him in righting all that causes pain in the world”.17
We need to remember that all Christians will suffer as a result of identifying themselves with Christ.18 But this identification will bring us joy because the righteousness of Christ is transmitted to us, and we are justified in God's sight.
R.C. Sproul mentions something similar; “The divine vocation to us is not ultimately or finally to suffering, but to hope that goes far beyond suffering. It is the hope of our future inheritance with Christ”.19 We are members of the body of Christ (Eph 5:30), and if we are the body of Christ, then we must take care of other Christians. Because they are part of the same body, then if someone is within that body is suffering, we must suffer with that member. But if that member is experiencing joy, we must rejoice with him (1 Cor 12:26). There is no difference between all the members of the church, because we are one in Christ (Gal 3:28). The purpose of our suffering is that, one-day, “we may also be glorified with Him”(Rom 8:17).
If we are becoming sons of God we must be like Jesus. We will never be completely like Him because he is God, but to find glory we need to look at Him, His work on the cross, and His provision for us. This is because all those who love His appearing will receive the crown of righteousness (2 Tim 4:8). There is no better image of receiving glory from our Savior. Paul says that we need to “rejoice in our sufferings” (Rom 5:8), and he also said that we must “not be ashamed of our testimony about the Lord”. As we “share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God” (2 Tim 1:8). As we suffer together, we realize our dependence and our need to be honest about our weakness and the necessity of God in our lives. Paul showed this dependence and honesty in Philippians 1:21, when he stated that, “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain”. We will suffer in our lives because we are still living in the evil age. We have sin and we will fight against it. The good news is that to those who have found a new life in Jesus believing in His promises have hope, and that hope is sustained in the inerrant Word of God that we posses.
The sufferings of a man called the Christ
The third aspect we are looking for is the meaning of the sufferings of a man called the Christ.20 Christ was the “Man of Sorrow” (Isa 53), even the Old Testament portrayed Jesus sufferings (Psalm 22) since the Old Testament, the writers are giving an accurate picture of the sufferings of Jesus. Christ was manifested in the flesh (1 Tim 3:16); also Christ is God (Rom 9:5). Christ died for Paul. Christ died for me and for all who receive Him.
It is incredible to see how Paul is showing the orthodoxy of the early church; the primitive church believed that Jesus was God and he was the Savior. But the question remains: why did He came into this world? Why did He suffer? Robert P. Lightner says, “the question under consideration is not, did Christ suffer in life and in death? But rather, why did He suffer in life? What was the theological importance of all He endured prior to His death on the cross?”21 With this argument we can't fight against the liberals and radicals of our day because as we can see, Paul didn't care to much about looking to discover if Jesus was a great teacher, probably he already knew the work of magnificent rabbis like Hillel and Simmei, but rather Paul was looking to Jesus as the heavenly redeemer, the suffering servant of Isaiah 53, Christ was the Passover Lamb (1 Cor 5:7). J. Gresham Machen wrote a book fighting a new liberal tendency that described Jesus just as a mere teacher. The liberals were arguing that Paul almost never wrote stories of Jesus, but Machen said, “If there is something fundamental in the religion of Paul, it is his conception of Christ as a divine Redeemer”.22 The central teaching of Paul is centered in the passion of Christ and in his resurrection, and our hope as Christians must be centered in those two elements. If we don't believe in that “we are of all people most to be pitied” (1 Cor 15:19). Later on in the same chapter Paul states, “Christ has been raised from the dead” (1 Cor 15:20).
The First Adam introduced death and affliction, while the second Adam overcomes death and affliction and brings salvation. As one of the old English poets said, “As the first Adam's sweat surrounds my face, may the last Adam's blood my soul embrace”.23
William Mounce states, “Our salvation is sure because Christ's death totally defeated the effects of sin, completely”.24 The center of the New Testament preaching is salvation through the death and resurrection of Christ. Romans 5:8 reads, “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us”. It is impossible to define God's love, but it is not impossible to understand that He really loves us and that is the main thing. Ridderbos said the same thing about the preaching of the New Testament, “The basic motif of the entire New Testament kerygma is that of the fulfillment of the historical redemption which began with Christ's coming”.25 Christ became a curse for us (Gal 3:13) and by doing that he delivered us from evil. Richard Gaffin says,
“Redemption is defined expressly in terms of resurrection (with Christ) and in the final analysis consists in the state of being raised (with him)”.26 That is the important thing about Paul; his recognition of sin in his life, the honesty that he had as a sinner, and the dependence on Christ as his redeemer (1 Cor 15:3). Christ expressed a dependence on God and was sincere in showing the real message of salvation.
Christ was crucified to fulfill God’s justice, even at the cross, by bleeding and dying he was bringing more people to him (Mark 15:39) also (Luke 23:43).
Conclusion
It can be said of Paul's whole doctrine of the world and man in sin “it is only to be perceived in the light of his insight into the all-important redemptive event in Christ”.27 The coming of the Lord started a new era where everything is not lost anymore, but God in his grace is still attracting people to him, because of the work that Christ did more than 2000 years ago. But to be Christians we must recognize the sin in our lives and accept the forgiveness of God.
Augustine in his Confessions opens with these words, “because you made us for yourself and our hearts find no peace until they rest in you”.28 No matter what happens in our lives, we need to seek Jesus because without Him our lives don't make sense. Jesus is a real Redeemer and he is the only one who can overcome the sin in our lives.
George Macdonald said, “The Son of God suffered unto death, not that men might not suffer, but that His sufferings might be like His”.29 The sufferings of Christ have a great meaning because those were means to an end, the end was to fulfill God’s wrath, also by His suffering we have a new life. The prophet Isaiah portrayed that by “His stripes we are healed” (Isa 53:5) it is not just in the past but a continuous action that has relevance in our present time.
A recent journal stated, “ From many differing vantage points the biblical writers and their communities sought to interpret their suffering in light of who they were and what they were to do as God’s people”.30 We can identify who we are and what we can do as God’s people. Sooner or later we will suffer, but we don't need to be worried because Christ has come and He promised to return one day, we have the promise of being saved by faith (Eph 2:8), but we must remember always to have a radical acceptance of who we are and a radical dependence on the work of Jesus Christ, these two things are tied together just as two pieces of wood that form a cross.
1 Gerald F. Hawthorne, Ralph P. Martin and Daniel G. Reid, eds. Dictionary of Paul and His letters (Downers Grove: Intervarsity Press 1993) 919.
2 Dr. Robert Cara class notes, Pauline Epistles, Reformed Theological Seminary, Fall 2005.
3 John Calvin, Calvin's New Testaments Commentaries: The Second Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians, and the Epistles to Timothy, Titus and Philemon (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans 1964) 299.
4 Gerald, et al. “Dictionary of Paul and his letters”, 919.
5 J. Gresham Machen, The Origins of Paul Religion (Eugene: Wipf and Stock Publishers 2002) 167.
6 Ronald Russell, “Redemptive Suffering and Paul’s Thorn on the flesh” JETS 39/4 (December 1996) 569
7 Simon J. Kistemaker, New Testament Commentary: 2 Corinthians (Grand Rapids: Baker Books 2004) 420.
8 Gerald, et al, “Dictionary of Paul and his letters” , 919.
9 William Hendriksen, New Testament Commentary: Romans (Grand Rapids: Baker Books 2004) 291.
10 William Hendriksen, New Testament Commentary: Galatians (Grand Rapids: Baker Books 2004) 86.
11 Richard Gaffin, Ressurection and Redemption: A Study in Paul’s Soteriology (Phillipsburg: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company, 1987) 135.
12 Calvin, Calvin's New Testaments Commentaries: The Second Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians, and the Epistles to Timothy, Titus and Philemon, 76
13 I am trying to use the words that G.K. Chesterton already used in his famous book entitled The Everlasting Man. He used a great comparison between a creature called men and a man called the Christ.
14 Herman Ridderbos, Paul An Outline of His Theology (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1975) 96.
15 William Hendriksen, New Testament Commentary: Romans (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2004) 263
16 William Hendriksen, New Testament Commentary: Philippians (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2004) 90-91.
17 Robert Walter Wall, “The Problem of observed pain: A study of C.S. Lewis on suffering” JETS (December1983) 451.
18 Gerald, et al, “Dictionary of Paul and his letters”, 919.
19 R.C. Sporul, Surprised by Suffering (Wheaton: Tyndale, 1989) 178.
20 G.K. Chesterton, The Everlasting Man (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1993) 13
21 Robert P. Lightner, “The Savior's Sufferings in Life” Bibliotheca Sacra 127 (2005): 31.
22 Machen, The Origins of Paul's Religion, 131.
23 John Donne, Selected Poems (London: Barnes and Noble 2003) 97.
24 William Mounce, Basics of Biblical Greek (Grand Rapids: Zondervan 2003) 224.
25 Herman Ridderbos, Paul and Jesus (Philadelphia: Presbyterian and Reformed 1958) 67.
26 Gaffin Resurrection and Redemption A Study in Paul's Soteriology, 135
27 Ridderbos, Paul an Outline of His Theology, 137.
28 Saint Augustine, Confessions (London: Penguin 1961) 21.
29 C.S. Lewis, The Problem of the Pain (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco 2001) 1.
30 Wall, “The Problem of observed pain: A study of C.S. Lewis on suffering”, 444.