Despite the best efforts of the proponents of the health and wealth gospel, the fact is that Christians get old and wrinkled. They contract cancer and heart disease, become deaf and blind, and eventually die. In many parts of the world, Christians have to face the blight of famine, the scourge of war, the subtle coercion of corruption.

This is not to say that God does not sometimes intervene on behalf of his people in remarkable ways. It is to say, rather, that we, too, live in a fallen world and cannot escape participation in its evil and suffering. But there are some sufferings that are peculiar to the people of God.

Discipline

Probably the most dominant form of suffering that is peculiar to God’s people, according to the Bible, is the discipline that God himself metes out. One of the most striking passages is found in Hebrews 12:5-12: “The Lord disciplines those he loves, and he chastens everyone he accepts as his child” (v. 6).

These verses are remarkable in several ways. First, the context shows that the discipline the author has in mind is designed to help Christians combat sin (v. 4).

Second, this discipline is intended as a “word of encouragement.” The Lord disciplines those he loves, and punishes those he accepts as his children. That is one of the reasons why Paul can delight in weakness and infirmity: he knows such things curtail his pride (2 Cor. 12:7-9) and are the precursor to wonderful experiences of the Lord’s grace.

Third, this discipline is for our good: “God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness” (Heb. 12:10); and “without holiness no one will see the Lord” (Heb. 12:14). The burden of much of the Epistle to the Hebrews is that it is dangerously possible to start well and to make a fine show of Christian life and strength, but that only Christian faith that perseveres to the end is genuine. That is why God lovingly exercises discipline: he is training us to persevere.

Part of learning to live as faithful children of the sovereign God is therefore tied to trusting him when he can at best be only dimly discerned behind events and circumstances that the Bible itself is quick to label evil. For instance, prolonged suffering from chronic illness is certainly not a “good” thing, yet rightly accepted it can breed patience, teach discipline of prayer, generate compassion for others who suffer, and engender some reflection and self-knowledge that knocks out cockiness and the arrogance of condescending impatience.

The author frankly acknowledges that “no discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful” (v. 11). All the correct theology in the world will not make a spanking sting less, or make a brutal round of toughening-up exercises fun. Yet it does help to know that there is light at the end of the tunnel, even if you cannot yet see it; to know that God is in control and is committed to his people’s good, even though it still does not look like that to you.

There is a certain kind of maturity that can be attained only through the discipline of suffering. “During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him” (Heb. 5:7-9, emphasis added).

Jesus was not disobedient before he suffered, but in his incarnate state, he too had to learn lessons of obedience, levels of obedience, that could only be attained through suffering. In this sense he grew to “perfection”: not that he was morally imperfect before his sufferings, but that the fullness, the perfection of his identity with the human race and of his human, temporal obedience to his heavenly Father could be attained only through the fires of suffering.

This “perfection” he achieved, not only with the result that “he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him,” but also with the result that he is able “to sympathize with our weaknesses” since he “has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin” (Heb. 4:15). If even Jesus “learned obedience from what he suffered,” what ghastly misapprehension is it—or arrogance!—that assumes we should be exempt?

Indeed, it is the set of values articulated in Romans 5 and the example of Jesus outlined in Hebrews 2 that accounts for the strong language of the apostle Paul in Philippians 3. He weighs up everything the world offers, sets it against all that he has in Christ Jesus, and concludes: “I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith” (Phil. 3:8-9).

But this is not a static attainment; Paul is committed to growth in his knowledge of Christ Jesus. So he adds: “I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead” (Phil. 3:10-11, emphasis added).

How we handle the suffering of testing and discipline therefore depends not a little on what we focus on. On a trip to Australia, I met an Anglican bishop who had been mightily used in evangelism and church planting in three African nations. He was sometimes referred to as “the apostle to Tanzania.” After he “retired” from his missionary work in Africa . . .

The rest of this article can be found in the print edition of Heartcry Journal, Spring 2009, available through Life Action Ministries, 800-321-1538.

 

Adapted from How Long, O Lord? by D. A. Carson, copyright © 1990, 2006. Used by permission of Baker Academic, a division of Baker Publishing Group. All rights to this material are reserved. Materials are not to be distributed to other web locations for retrieval, published in other media, or mirrored at other sites without written permission from Baker Publishing Group. http://www.BakerPublishingGroup.com