Chapter 12
The Pain of God
“ . . that I may know him and the power of His resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death” (Philippians 3:10). The primary manifestation of Christ’s presence in any given place is going to be through the suffering and pain He experiences in His people, i.e., a people who are allowing Him to carry on His work through them. “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church. You yourselves know that this is to be our lot.” The way for all Christians, at all times, therefore, is already prepared and determined, and it is the way of sharing His sufferings, His pain. None are excluded. This is the lot of every true believer in every age, in every place. We share His sufferings, thereby entering into true ministry, by “becoming like him in his death.”
The church, for the most part, has rejected this truth, choosing instead to spurn biblical reality and devote themselves to a Christianity that benefits them instead of benefiting Christ. The Christianity of today has become an anthropocentric religion whose greatest sin is sucking the life out of Christ instead of drawing strength from Him to complete His sufferings. Christ is no longer the center of Christianity; man is now the center, the one who is served by Christ instead of the one who serves Him. Christianity has become “man’s absorption with himself, instead of with God, His purpose, His service, and His glory. It is a greater anxiety to have God on our side than to be upon His.” (P.T. Forsyth)
The Intercessor The Pain Of God
We avoid pain at all costs. We may, at times, go out of our way to help people, but seldom will we undergo great suffering, silently, to satisfy God’s heart. The way of Gethsemane is known by few because there is no visible glory in it, none are watching us or listening to us save God. The way of the cross is avoided because it is hidden, and hence unappealing. In this day and age too many Christians want recognition, but instead of being recognized as a criminal, as was their Lord, they want all to recognize them as the ones in the white hats, as those who stick in their thumb and always pull out a plumb and say, “See what a good Christian am I.”
We must recover the way of hiddenness, the way of the cross, the way of being satisfied by pleasing God alone whether men recognize it or not. We must learn to live more faithfully in private, not wishing for public recognition and acclamation. This is the way of the cross, and the only way to minister to Christ in His sufferings and in His pain over the condition of His people.
Less Than The Least
We are to become the least, not the greatest. Paul referred to himself as “less than the least of all saints.” It was not that he chose to be less than the least, it was that God saw to it that he literally became such. We can never choose to be less than the least, for we love ourselves too much. Only God can make this choice for us by putting us into humiliating situations in which others’ judgments of us are harsh and belittling. Such judgments bring us into the abject reality of being less than the least, in truth. Every child of God who truly longs only for His glory will become an aroma of death in the nostrils of those in the church whose desire it is to become somebody, to be looked up to, to have a recognized ministry. It is God’s will that all of His children become less than the least so that Christ might become everything to us.
Paul said of Himself that he was “the least of all the apostles, not fit to be called an apostle.” He was not making this judgment of himself based upon his own information. He could say this only because he was treated in this fashion and came to see by others’ treatment of him and by God’s treatment of him that this was true. He was the least of all the apostles! This was not a statement of pride by Paul that he was the least, it was a confession of shame, a recognition that he was not at all what he had hoped to be and that the treatment he received, the judgment passed upon him by those less godly than himself, was deserved!
It was for this very reason that God recognized Paul above all other apostles. It was for this very reason Paul’s work was not recognized by men but recognized by God! This is a mystery—God’s children rejecting what God accepts! Brothers and sisters in Christ despising what God holds precious. Churches rejecting God’s very choices, and thus being rejected by God, because they could not see beyond their own distorted idea of reality. This is what causes God so much pain and anguish. His very own reject what He accepts, and they do so thinking they are doing Him a favor!
It is not so much that we are to grow up into the power of His resurrection, as much as we are to descend into the reality of His death; this is what is meant by being changed into His likeness. Everything Christ did was accomplished through “the suffering of death.” “Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil” (Hebrews 2:14). Sin, death, the old nature, and the power of the devil were dealt with by Christ’s death, not by His resurrection. It is through the power of His death that all spiritual victories are gained. His resurrection was the confirmation and establishment of the victory that was eternally secured through His death. The pain of His death was His joy!
A SufferingChurchof Suffering Servants
Though we suffer, in actuality it is Christ in us who suffers. It is not we who suffer (though we do suffer), but Christ who continues His suffering in and through us. We, therefore, need no longer consider what we have to go through or endure, looking upon it rather as what Christ is suffering and having to endure. Therefore, we are not to understand our calling in the sense that we are here to bring Christ, but that we are here as Christ, or, that He is the one who has come in His servants. He is present in us. “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” If we are truly in the Spirit, what we do and feel and see is what He is doing and feeling and seeing. It isn’t us at all, it is Him, and we are to become like Him in His death and sufferings. To live in such a way is a far cry from the frivolity that goes on in His Name in the church today.
“For one is approved if, mindful of God, he endures pain while suffering unjustly. . . . For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps” (1 Peter 2:19, 21). There is no other way for Christ to be present than through His suffering servants, those who take upon themselves His sufferings. He is The Suffering Servant. Anyone who is in the will of God is going to suffer unjust pain, and it is the pain of Christ. It is the pain of seeing lost souls going to hell. It is the pain of seeing Christians living worldly lives. It is the pain of seeing the results of sin and rebellion among men. It is the pain of seeing God’s people accept what He rejects and reject what and who He accepts and recognizes. Peter says we are approved if we endure this pain, this unjust pain. Our “approval” lies in entering into Christ’s suffering and agony. It is His heart that continues to be broken. It is His pain.
We have God’s approval because of the simple fact of being in His will, and suffering unjustly for it. The church does not yet seem to understand, in this age when being a Christian is touted as “fun” and “exciting,” and Christ is described as “neat,” that suffering and being in the will of God are synonymous, and as long as we walk with Him, however weak and sinful we may be, God will not remove that approval from us. The issue is not how righteous we are, for we will never be righteous enough. The issue is whether Christ is in us, truly. We are His choice, first and foremost. He is not our choice. “You did not choose me, but I chose you.” We are not, therefore, to consider our suffering, nor are we to consider our sinfulness. Paul said, “I don’t even judge myself.” What others may think of us is their business, but we are free from that judgment when we are in Christ, and any judgment God wants to bring upon us He will bring upon us through His hand and we will bow to that.
We are called to the same thing Christ was called to, and that is to be suffering servants. His church is to be a suffering church. We are not called to any other thing than to enter, as Christ, into the awfulness of this world. This is the ministry, and it will only become more painful as Christ becomes greater in us and as we see more and more as He sees, feel more and more as He feels and enter more and more into His suffering, His pain, His broken heart, into Christ—the Suffering Servant.
“Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same thought, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer by human passions but by the will of God” (1 Peter 4:1-2). Peter is not saying we stop sinning because we suffer in the flesh, but he is saying that entering into Christ’s sufferings means sin is no longer the issue in our lives. We cannot help but sin, because we are sinners, but it is not the overpowering issue anymore. We have come out from under the power that sin wants to manifest over us because we have entered into the way of Christ for us, not the way of trying to become righteous, which is the way of the law. When we commit sin, we know what to do. We know the power of His blood to cleanse. But we are not fighting against sin to become better people. We have entered into the sin of the community in which we live, of the people who live there and are bound by the cords of death and rebellion and sorrow. We have entered into the grief of this world and all the hopelessness, despair and hatred toward God and one another so that we know the suffering, to a very limited degree, Christ knows.
Christ sees all of this and through us weeps, and through us He would suffer a broken heart. He desires to have the right of way in the hearts of His disciples to manifest His broken heart. If He is not given that right by His very own they are a hindrance to Him, no matter how much they say they love Him. His disciples are called to be one with His heart as He looks upon this world, and in doing so it is an inbred desire on our part to relieve His sufferings through relieving the sufferings of those trapped in this dark age in which we live. There is only one way, and that is to enter into His sufferings.
Isaiah 42, 49 and 53 describe this suffering servant. The impression is given as you read these three passages that in one case the nation of Israel is being referred to, in another it is referring to a remnant within the nation of Israel, and in the last instance it is the individual, The Suffering Servant. We can understand this by applying it to the church in this threefold sense. We are individual servants, gathered together into a corporate servant, which is a part of a larger group of servants in any given locale.
Each one of us as individuals, wherever we are, whatever we are doing, do it as Christ, not just someone representing Christ, but as Christ. We are not trying to bear witness to others about Christ. In us we hope and pray they will meet Christ, even though they may not recognize Him. Our main concern is not that others will see Christ in us but that we will be faithful to Christ in bringing Him to them! In our action Christ is acting upon them. In our words Christ is speaking to them. In maintaining this Christ-consciousness it quite effectively eliminates us. We are not going to say some of the things we would normally say if we stop and think of what Christ would want to say. We are not trying to get people to see who Jesus is, as though it is them and us and Him. It is them and Him and we are to be out of the picture as much as possible, all the while knowing that we cannot get out of the way enough. This is part of the suffering, knowing we still hinder Him, knowing that we are still a problem because we are so human, fleshy and sinful. This is part of the suffering, and we will never be free of this.
The cross has not eliminated sin from our life, but the power of sin over us has been broken, if we so choose. Our being buried with him by baptism into death does not mean that we went down into the waters in death and rose up in newness of life in the sense we so often think of it. Rising up to newness of life means that we choose, through our having been raised up, to remain under, with Him, in His death. It is seeking to become like Him in his death that the resurrection is realized. This is where joy and peace is known, not by trying to get out of the suffering caused by remaining in the death of Christ, but by embracing it—embracing the suffering of death instead of cursing it, embracing the suffering which death brings into towns and villages and valleys. The disciple of Christ is not a happy person. How can he be if He looks at things with the eyes of Christ, if He feels things with the heart of Christ, if he listens with the ears of Christ?
The Gospel and God’s “Very Severe Pain”
The Gospel of Jesus Christ is entering into the pain of God, and the pain of God is that which He feels when those He loves and died for hate Him and reject Him. It is the pain He knows when those who say they love Him behave in ways that break His heart. The Incarnation is the first example, God entering into this world through His Son and knowing, as man, the hatred of those He created and soon was to die for. This is the Gospel. On the cross, “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not counting their trespasses against them.” The pain which the Father entered into in giving up His Son and then in turning away from Him and then in seeing, even after the very sacrifice of Himself, the world continuing to turn away from Him—this is the only context in which the gospel can be preached in all its truth. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes on him should not perish but have eternal life.” This is not a Sunday School verse. There is more anguish and pain behind these words than has ever been realized. If only we would get over our romantic idea of John 3:16 perhaps we could plumb the depths of Christ’s death more truthfully and realistically.
It is this pain the disciple is called to take upon himself as he shares the sufferings of Christ. This is an entirely different gospel than the “gospel” that appeals to people’s selfish needs. This gospel is the gospel of Jesus Christ, and nothing less, for it leads to the fulfillment and satisfaction of God’s heart, not man’s. It leads to the justification of God! This is the gospel the church in this age knows little, if anything, about. This gospel of the kingdom calls for the total annihilation of the disciples’ needs and a total and unequivocal descent into satisfying the heart of God.
“Is Ephraim my dear son? Is he my darling child? For as often as I speak against him, I do remember him still. Therefore my heart yearns for him; I will surely have mercy on him, says the Lord” (Jeremiah 31:20). “My heart yearns for him” is a very tame translation, and should be translated with much more realism. Luther translates it as God saying, “I feel a very severe pain.”
Calvin comments on this phrase by saying, “In this passage, God is grieving over the Israel on whom his great mercy had no effect, for they had been adopted as his sons by his grace. By their ingratitude, however, they wasted God’s grace. God asks himself what kind of people Israel had been. Ephraim had been unworthy of any respect and could never be an object of God’s love. They were also unworthy of any mercy because of their intended disregard of their adoption. These sons were not precious, worthy of respect, or lovable. God was unable to love them because of their wicked character. They were evil-minded sons, disobedient sons, and sons who tortured their father, hurt his feelings, and filled him with sorrows. Because their wickedness and corruption were so great, we wonder whether God can still endure them. We are drawn back to the fountain of God’s great mercy in that he can even forgive them because he first chose them.”