Suffering

Excerpt from Filling Up What Is Lacking in Christ's Afflictions by John Piper

The following is based on notes taken during the message and the manuscript of "Called to Suffer and Rejoice."

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Once I attended a pastors’ gathering with Richard Wormbrand. He asked questions like, “Will you choose to suffer?” If suffering were offered to you as a gift, would you accept it?

He told a story about an abbot. A reporter asked him about what he would say if found out at the end of his life that there was no God. He said, “Holiness, silence, and sacrifice are beautiful in themselves. I still would have used my life well.” Does that sound noble? Right?

Here’s what Paul said: “If for this life only, we have hoped in Christ, we are of all men most to be pitied.” Why did Paul say that? Because his life was a life of consciously embraced suffering. Read the list in 2 Corinthians 11:23-28. Most of us define the benefits of Christianity with how it makes our life better now: “Your best life now.”

What Does Paul Mean?

Let’s go to Colossians, chapter 1, and we’ll look at one verse: verse 24: “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I do my share on behalf of his body (which is the church) in filling up that which is lacking in Christ's afflictions.” Paul suffers, and he says that in his sufferings he fills up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions? What does that mean?

Here’s my answer in summary: What’s missing is the in-person presentation of Christ’s sufferings to the people for whom he died. The afflictions are lacking in the sense that they are not seen and known among the nations. They must be carried by ministers of the gospel. And those ministers of the gospel fill up what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ by extending them to others.

Paul sees his own suffering as the visible reenactment of the sufferings of Christ so that they will see Christ’s love for them.

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