P129_041425 Rom 8:17 Suffering With Christ. What’s That All About?

SPEAKER 01 : 0:05

So back to our study in Romans. Thanks for your patience in letting me fundraise all last week in regard to the book publishing. And thank you for your anticipated responses. And now we get back then to Romans chapter 8. And remember, we’re in this chapter describing life in the kingdom of grace. In fact, chapters 5, 6, 7, and 8 are all describing life in the kingdom of grace. Freedom from God’s wrath and judgment, chapter 5. Freedom from the identity and judgment of sin, chapter 6. Freedom from the judgment and condemnation of the law, chapter 7. And freedom from the power of death in chapter 8. And by faith, we attempt to live as if we were already in that kingdom. We’re not deluding ourselves, of course. We know we’re in the fallen kingdom of Adam, which is sin and death. And that will take our human bodies out of the picture finally. But we anticipate, we live by the anticipation of Christ’s resurrection. We are living with the knowledge that we are heirs of the universe. This is an astonishing idea, astonishing truth, just impossible to fully comprehend, to comprehend at all, I suppose. It says, “…for you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, Daddy, Father.” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. And if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. If indeed we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified with him. And so, you know, there are some people who look forward to their inheritance of their parents’ home or their parents’ income or wealth. But we Christians, whether we’re poor or rich or rich or poor, we look forward to the inheritance that Christ receives as God gives the kingdom to His Son. And as a matter of fact, in a sort of mixed way that we can’t fully understand, God, the Son, gives the kingdom back to the Father, as it says in 1 Corinthians 15. But we are co-inheritors with Christ. And what this means, ultimately, as sons and daughters of God, is just beyond the pale, beyond what we can comprehend. But we know we have an inheritance. But then you might say, well, yes, but it says, if indeed we suffer with him, that’s an awful condition. I don’t really think it’s a condition. I think Paul is describing what the fellowship with Christ means. It says, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if we suffer with him, we are an heir of Christ, we’re a joint heir with him. Why should we suffer with him that we may also be glorified together? Well, we’ve talked about this, and so it’s a kind of review that I’m doing because of the pause we made last week. But we have to understand that all the suffering we go through in this world is in fellowship with Jesus Christ, who came into this world and suffered with us, and we therefore suffer with him. Now, there are many Christians who find when suffering comes upon them, their faith is tested to such an extent that they believe that God has forsaken them and that God doesn’t care. And it’s not easy to talk about this subject when, of course, our friends and our loved ones are suffering. It sounds too callous to say what we are about to say. But our faith teaches us that we must suffer with Jesus. Now, look, you don’t have a choice, do you, as to whether you will suffer or not. Some people do, and this Western world tries to protect us from suffering by all the wealth and the comforts that society and the government gives us. But the fact is there’s no protection from suffering. And the real question is, all right, we suffer, but how do we suffer? Do we suffer alone, as if God has forsaken us, as if God is callous, as if God does not care? Or do we suffer with him, because we know that he suffered with us? And of course, really, it’s all about, well, that word love, isn’t it? God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son. And in that sentence is God’s enveloping himself in all the suffering that the world goes through. He suffers with us. He dies upon the cross with us and for us. And that generates love in us. We are so moved by the fact that God would sacrifice himself for us, take our judgment upon himself, take our place upon the cross. That generates our love for him. And our love for him wants to identify with him and realize that when he suffers, that when he loves us, He’s suffering for us and with us. When God is love, and if God is love, he surely suffers with the human race, and so we by faith in him suffer with him. Now you say, yeah, but what kind of suffering? Are you talking about suffering that other people bring upon us, persecution? Or are you talking about those sufferings that just come upon us like sickness or loss of a job or bankruptcy or the loss of a friend? We’re talking about all of it. Sometimes we fail to believe that we’re suffering with God because the suffering was caused by ourself, our own sins. If you, for instance, have a sin habit or addiction that you regularly get into and it causes you great suffering because you perhaps lose all your money in the addiction or or you suffer public shame, then you think, well, I can’t call that God’s sufferings for me, and so I can’t enter into God’s sufferings over it. Well, why not? Yes, you can. When you are struggling with an addiction and failing and going into darkness, you have the freedom. to acknowledge, dear God, you came into my darkness, you came into the darkness of my sin, you were willing to suffer for it, and so I want to affirm that I am suffering with you when I go through this, that you and I are suffering together until you find the way for me to come out of this And so you see, you have a companionship. It is hard to imagine that you have a companionship of sin, with sin, a companion with you in sin. That is almost blasphemous to many Christians. They feel totally isolated and abandoned when they sin. Well, God can’t love me while I’m sinning, so I’d better get out of this sinning, and once I can get out of it, then I know he’ll love me and I’ll be able to love him. Oh, my dear friend, that is utterly a mistake. You will never get out of your situation of sin or addiction until you believe that God suffers it with you and comes into it with you and walks with you in it. Yes, he goes through great pain, but so also does a parent who suffers with his child who is going through an addiction, say, of alcohol or drugs. We suffer. The parent suffers also. And if the parent didn’t suffer, what would it mean? Well, it would mean that the parent had sort of disconnected from the child and just didn’t want to feel anything anymore and just let the child go on his way. But we do suffer, and thus, as we suffer, we know that God suffers with us, and therefore we suffer with him. And so when you’re in your darkness and you’re in your struggle, don’t feel isolated. Allow yourself to say, Oh, dear God, I’m so sorry I sin and fail you. And I thank you so much for coming into my failure and into my sin and suffering it with me. It is not a joy for me to know that you do this, but it is such a comfort to me and a strength that it enables me often to say, no, I won’t let God suffer any more with this with me. And so we have a companionship. And in that companionship, we are training ourselves or being trained to, what does the next part say? That we may also be glorified together. You see, somehow we are going to share in the glory of Christ. You remember when Jesus was transfigured on this earth. He was with some of his disciples, and his garment, his clothing turned to pure white, and his face shone like the sun, and the disciples just couldn’t look at it. It was so awesome. Jesus was revealing his glorified state. Now, in some way, we are going to share in that glorified state. But it’s not simply some physical glory. It is a glorified state in which Jesus has fully entered into our pain and struggle, and we, to the degree that God allows it because we are not able, enter into his struggle. And so that’s why there’s this union with him that ultimately leads to our transfiguration, when this mortal at the coming of Jesus will put on immortality, and this corruptible shall put on incorruption. Think of it, you and I are going to glorify God throughout eternity. What a bore! No, not so. It would be a bore if we had not identified with him in his suffering and if he had not identified with us. This identification of God with our sufferings and us with his sufferings is what leads or what produces intimacy, the greatest intimacy that anyone will ever be able to know, intimacy with God, sharing, partaking in the divine nature. I’m scared to even talk about these things. I mean, are we going to overdo it? Are we stating somewhat that we’ll become like God? I dare not say too much about that, but the Old Testament refers us to being as gods, to human beings, as being as gods. And so there will be some kind of identification that is so intimate, so profound, that it will lead to our praising God and feeling joy in him forever and ever. It will never end. In his presence, there is fullness of joy. Can you imagine fullness of joy? Why, we experience maybe moments of joy just occasionally in our lives, don’t we? But to have fullness of joy all the time, my goodness, we need new bodies for that, don’t we, to be able to handle it. So think of it then and allow yourself by faith to enter into God’s sufferings while you are going through the sufferings on earth and say, Lord, I’m with you in this. You haven’t abandoned me. You’re with me and I’m with you. Thanks so much, dear God. Thank you for joining me today. And if you would kindly think of a donation to keep the broadcast going, I’d appreciate it. Thank you. Send your donation to FaithQuest, P.O. Box 366, Littleton, Colorado, 80160, or online at faithquestradio.com. Thanks. I’ll see you next time. Cheerio and God bless.