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July 1996
Part of the big picture that God made a long, long time ago
is the glorious inheritance that God determined before time that
believers should have. But that inheritance is not the whole drama
anymore than the verdict of "innocent" or "guilty"
at the end of a trial is the whole trial. The means God uses to
get us to that inheritance, to that goal, is just as much part
of God's plan as is the end result. The means God chooses to use
is also part of the big picture. What Christ did on the cross
earned for believers that inheritance which God had determined
believers should have. Christ's sinless life (which qualified
him to be the spotless sacrifice) and in his death satisfied the
conditions of God's holiness. Because of what Christ did believers
are, in the language of scripture, "citizens of heaven"
(Philippians 3:20). And as such believers are entitled to the
benefits that come with that citizenship. The inheritance that
believers are heirs to does not depend upon believers
being model citizens. That condition was fulfilled by Jesus Christ.
Perfect obedience to God's every command was the condition that
Christ filled. (And Christ's death satisfied the penalty we had
incurred by our disobedience).
But it has also been God's purpose (from the beginning) that we
believers become worthy citizens; that, in the words
of Scripture, we be "conformed to the likeness of
God's Son." (Romans 8:29)This
requires that we be transformed. Bringing about this transformation
of believers is where pain and suffering come into the picture.
God who knows the big picture and who knows our frailty and frame
mercifully provides specific information on the matter of pain
and suffering.
It was to Christians who were going through trying times that
the apostle Peter wrote his letters. He explains how what was
going on in their lives was (and is) not outside of God's design,
but rather, that it is the means through which God is accomplishing
his purpose of purifying them: "Do not be surprised,"
the apostle wrote, "at the painful trial you are
suffering, as though something strange were happening to you."(1
Pe.4:12) "These [trials]," he explains have come for a purpose.
They "have come so that your faith--of greater
worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire--may
be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honour when
Jesus Christ is revealed." (1 Peter
1:7)
If I am overwhelmed by scenes (or experiences) of pain and suffering
it is because I am not remembering the "big picture"--the
one the God of the Bible knows...and made. The
Bible records examples of saints who did not forget the
"big" picture. Job did not forget. Though he lost all
his wealth, though all his sons and daughters were killed suddenly
by evil men or in "natural disasters," though his body
was covered with boils, though his friends deserted him still
he did not forget God, or, to express it in other words, he did
not lose his faith--in God and the reality of God's purposes for
him. When Job was in the midst of the ordeals he was going through
he witnessed to his faith in God, saying, "He knows
the way that I take; when he has tested me, I shall come forth
as gold." (Job 23:10) After
Job had persevered through the most agonizing and continuous trials
he saw God in a way he had never seen him before: "My
ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you.
Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes."
(Job 42:5-6) What the apostle
Paul saw around him and the sufferings he experienced did not
make him forget God or God's plan for him. " I consider
that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory
that will be revealed in us." (Romans
8:18) "What is more, I consider everything
a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ
Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider
them rubbish, that I may gain Christ" (Philippians
3:8) "For our light and momentary troubles
are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them
all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen.
For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."
(2 Corinthians 4:17-18)
Pain and suffering are part of a process much as playing scales
on a musical instrument is a process that brings about change
in the student of music. But the trials or testings which God
brings into the lives of believers have a much "higher"
purpose than practicing scales does for a music student. They
are designed to bring about an actual condition of holiness. The
bible says to believers, "Endure hardship as discipline;
God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by
his father?" And again, "Our fathers
disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God
disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness."(Heb.12:10) God says, "See, I have
refined you, though not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace
of affliction."
(Isaiah 48:10)
"When we are judged by the Lord, we are being
disciplined so that we will not be condemned with the world." (1 Corinthians 11:32)
As gold ore in its natural state goes through a process to cleanse
it of its impurities so it is with us believers. The "impurities"
of the "old man" or "old nature" still cling
to us. So to bring us believers forth as gold God must purify
us. As a drill sergent in the army disciplines the raw recruits
under him or a mother disciplines her child or a rancher "breaks"
a wild horse so God is doing to bring about his objective: that
I (like every believer) should be "holy and blameless",
"conformed to the likeness of God's own son." God did not choose to accomplish this transformation
by waving a magic wand or by saturating our bodies with an irresistible
potion but instead through discipline. The means God chooses to
use are as much part of God's purpose and plan as is the glorious
destiny which lies at the "end" of
the "big picture."
God has told us about the way he works---with the people known
by his name. The way our God treated the people in the wilderness
(after HE had rescued them out of Egypt) is an example:"Remember
how the LORD your God led you all the way in the desert these
forty years, to humble you and to test you in order to know what
was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands." (Deuteronomy 8:2) "Those whom
I love," the Lord says,
"I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent." (Revelation 3:19) Suffering is not new. In
the early church the apostles exhorted believers "to
continue in the faith," saying, "we
must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God."
(Acts 14:22) It is to finish the "good
work" which God "began
in us" that the trials come. (Philippians 1:6)
The Bible states explicitly that even Jesus Christ-our Lord and
our example learned through suffering: "Although
he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered." (Hebrews 5:8)"It was fitting that
God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make
the author of their salvation (that is, Christ) perfect
through suffering."
(Hebrews 2:10)
Because the trials believers are going through are part of the
process that brings about God's worthwhile objective of holiness
we should not let our natural aversion to grief or pain drive
us to doubt the truth of God's statements about his power and
his ways. In the book of James we read God's view of what we consider
ordeals or trials: "Consider it pure joy, my brothers,
whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that
the testing of your faith develops perseverance..." (James 1:2-3) In the life of Job God recorded
not only how a saint perseveres and becomes purer by going through
testing but also an earthly example of how God works. In the beginning
Job was a rich man. Then the evils of men and "natural disasters"
took it all away. (Job 1:11-19,2:7) But
after Job persevered through the terrible testing "the
Lord blessed the latter part of Job's life more than the first." (Job 42:12) How glorious are the benefits which
God has purposed from the beginning to bestow on believers "in
the latter part" of their life is more than can be imagined:
"No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived
what God has prepared for those who love him." (1 Corinthians 2:9) It is a fact: "Blessed
is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood
the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has
promised to those who love him."
(James 1:12)
Painful trials, suffering, troubles, hardship, affliction. These are the terms God uses to describe the circumstances that God uses to purify his children. But death has not been mentioned. They do not speak about death because death is not part of God's purifying process but is that transition out of this world into an existence beyond time, a transition into that part of God's reality which is beyond death. For believers death has been overcome (by Christ) in that it has become not the end of the joys (and other feelings) of earthly existence but instead a transition to a better stage of life--the eternal state of blessedness. While the facing of death (that time of transition) may present the greatest challenge to the faith of the "believer," while the facing of the transition may be the place where the "rubber meets the road" death is not the end of life any more than it was the end of life for Jesus Christ. That is the message of Christianity. "We have testified about God," the apostle said, "--- that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins." (1 Corinthians 15:15-17)
Do "bad" things happen? That depends upon whose standards you use to determine what is "bad." I must remember that whatever is happening now, as horrible, as painful, as devastating, as soul-wrenching as it is to me it is not the whole story. It is part of a long drama. Whatever is happening now belongs in perspective--the perspective of all past history and the perspective that any remaining history will create. For believers happenings of the present time take on new character when seen in that perspective.
When God said "in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose" it was not a fiction to make us feel good. God's declarations are not lies as Satan insinuated at the very start. (Genesis 3:1-4) When God said "in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose" he had the "long run", the "end" in view. Who has the nerve to doubt God's intention and power? "He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all--how will he not also, along with him [Christ], graciously give us all things." (Romans 8:32) And that includes whatever means God chooses to use to transform us so that we will be holy. God commands us, saying, "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus." (Philippians 4:6-7) The apostle Paul who did not forget the big picture said: "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? ... For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:35,38-39)
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