It has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for him. (Philippians 1:29)
It is only natural to do everything in our power to avoid pain. Only a crazy person seeks out painful experiences in life. But when we realize that God is in our pain, we understand one of the deepest biblical truths: Pain is profitable, and the cross of Christ makes that clear.
The six hours of pain that Jesus endured on the cross defies human description. Because “God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us” (2 Corinthians 5:21), Jesus endured the infinite wrath and judgment of God in our place as He hung on our cross. During the three hours of supernatural darkness that fell across the land, our Lord Jesus endured the unimaginable God-forsakenness of hell itself. And when Jesus knew that He had fully paid the penalty for our sins, satisfying completely the wrath and judgment of God, thereby securing eternal life for us, He gave out His cry of victory: “It is finished!” (John 19:30).
To be sure, we cannot comprehend the divine mystery of the pain Jesus endured on that cross, but we can comprehend this: Knowing that His pain paid the full penalty for the forgiveness of our sins — all our sins — means that there is profit in pain. When Paul tells us that those who believe in Jesus will suffer for Jesus, we can rest assured that God has a perfect plan for our profit in every painful providence we experience on this side of the grave. And this is not a specialized understanding that God gave only to Paul; more than seven centuries earlier, the prophet Isaiah declared, “Surely it was for my benefit that I suffered such anguish (Isaiah 38:17).
Regardless of the painful providences you have experienced or are experiencing in your life, every one of them is designed and delivered for your profit. The key to getting through the pain is to understand this truth and to live in the light of it each day. Painful experiences in life make far too many people bitter, not better. They wallow in self-pity, not selfless love for their Savior. Others simply see the painful experiences in life as something to endure; they “keep a stiff upper lip,” as the saying goes, and get through it as quickly as possible. In both cases, these people miss the point of the pain: Profit. Jesus told us flatly that we will have trouble in this world (John 16:33), He was preparing us for the painful experiences that will inevitably come our way and telling us to remember that because He is in it, there is profit to be gained from it.
One final point: Jesus didn’t just promise us painful providences; He promised His peace in them and through them. “Take heart!” He told His disciples. “I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). Nothing happens to us that does not first pass through His nail-scarred hands. Because of this truth, we can be assured that there is profit in our pain, conforming us more and more into the image and likeness of our Lord, who endured a pain that we cannot imagine so that we will never have to experience it in life or in death: separation from God.
This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!
Grace for the Race 