To conclude, then…

Many streams of the church today are looking for and preaching an easy “gospel”. Prosperity, comfort, freedom from pain and suffering, a faith that demands and gets what it wants…these are all on the agenda of many modern preachers. Notice how this kind of preaching panders to the fleshly appetites and desires we are to put to death.

However, God is far more concerned about our holiness than about our ease and comfort. In fact, if it pleased the Lord to cause Jesus to suffer…

Isaiah 53:10 NIV
[10] “Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.”

…and, since we are to be like Him in this world…

1 John 4:17 NIV
[17]”This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus.”

…it also pleases the Lord when we suffer with Jesus because, although everyone suffers in this life, suffering as Jesus suffered, resisting the temptation to pay back, is His way of restoring the image of Jesus in His children.

Hebrews 12:7 NLT
[7] “As you endure this divine discipline, remember that God is treating you as his own children. Who ever heard of a child who is never disciplined by its father?”

So serious is the Father that we are to be like His Son that suffering may even cost some of us our lives.

Hebrews 12:4 NIV
[4]”In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.”

Didn’t Jesus say that we can only be His disciples if we take up our “cross” daily and follow Him? So serious is God about our holiness that Paul warned…

Romans 8:13 NIV
[13] “For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.”

Living according to the flesh is just as much about reacting to unjust suffering by becoming angry, resentful, and vengeful and retaliating as it is about indulging the sinful desires that drag us into wicked behaviour.

Indulging in sinful attitudes rather than in the way Jesus dealt with injustices will also cost us a role in God’s kingdom. Again, Paul warned, (and he was writing to believers)…

Galatians 5:19-21 NIV
[19] “The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; [20] idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions [21] and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.”

Among the evil deeds of the flesh, Paul included evil attitudes and responses such as anger, dissention, hatred, envy, jealousy, etc.

It seems that those believers who have never gained victory over their wicked responses to suffering will lose everything but their salvation.

1 Corinthians 3:11-15 NLT
[11] “For no one can lay any foundation other than the one we already have—Jesus Christ.

[12] Anyone who builds on that foundation may use a variety of materials—gold, silver, jewels, wood, hay, or straw. [13] But on the judgment day, fire will reveal what kind of work each builder has done. The fire will show if a person’s work has any value. [14] If the work survives, that builder will receive a reward. [15] But if the work is burned up, the builder will suffer great loss. The builder will be saved, but like someone barely escaping through a wall of flames.”

To suffer as Jesus did, God has given us all the equipment we need.

Romans 5:17 NIV
[17]”For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ!”

2 Peter 1:3-4 NIV
[3] “His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. [4] Through these he has given us his VERY GREAT AND PRECIOUS PROMISES, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.”

Peter…yes, the Peter who denied that he knew Jesus, AFTER years of learning to walk in the Spirit, discovered the way to escape the corruption caused by evil desires.

2 Peter 1:5-11 NLT
[5] “In view of all this, (all the equipment God has given us to escape corruption) make every effort to respond to God’s promises. Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, [6] and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, [7] and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone. [8] The more you grow like this, the more productive and useful you will be in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. [9] But those who fail to develop in this way are shortsighted or blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their old sins. [10] So, dear brothers and sisters, work hard to prove that you really are among those God has called and chosen. Do these things, and you will never fall away. [11] Then God will give you a grand entrance into the eternal Kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”

Every word in this quote is a signpost to guide us towards our destiny in Christ.

Grace, righteousness, precious promises…what more can God give us to overcome the demands of our flesh.? To crown it all, His Spirit in us calls attention to His provision and gives us His power to apply every part of His equipment so that…

Romans 8:37 NLT
[37]”… Despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.”

We began this topic by calling attention to the one condition that allows us to share in Christ’s glory.

Romans 8:17 NLT
[17] “And since we are his children, we are his heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory. But IF WE ARE TO SHARE HIS GLORY, WE MUST ALSO SHARE HIS SUFFERING.”

We have gathered as much information about the “what” and the “how” of Jesus’ suffering as we can. We have measured our own responses by the way He responded to unjust treatment. We have discovered the way to overwhelming victory when the flesh threatens to overpower us.

Let’s take this warning, this instruction, this process seriously so that we, too, will learn to suffer with Jesus as He did, so that we will…

2 Peter 1:10-11 NLT
[10] “…never fall away. [11] Then God will give you a grand entrance into the eternal Kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”