How the Gospel Transforms Suffering

I don't know about you, but these past two years have been pretty tough overall for us.

I think in part, whatever we may have going on in our own lives, it feels like I feel

these days like I am simply bracing myself for the next announcement of some massive

global event that we're going to be learning about in history class for the next five generations.

It just feels like every so often, it's just like another thing and another thing and another

thing.

It's been a tough couple of years, and I know personally, not only for us, but for many

of you, you have lots of things going on in your own lives that sort of add to that kind

of personal suffering.

And that's part of the reason why we've been in this series looking at 2 Corinthians, which

is all about how the gospel transforms power and weakness and how the gospel addresses suffering,

transforms the way we think about suffering.

In this passage that we're going to look at this morning, look at what Paul says in chapter

4 verse 16 about his own suffering.

He says this,

Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.

I read that several times and I thought, how in the world is something like that possible?

How is it possible to, on the one hand, be wasting away?

I feel like over the last couple of years I've aged at least 10 years.

How can you be wasting away, decaying, breaking down, entropy, and at the same time being renewed?

New life, new vigor.

How is that possible in anybody's life?

And I think this is something that probably every single person in this room would love

to be able to say is true about their own life.

You know, I'm wasting away by all appearances, everything's breaking down, but I'm actually

experiencing new life.

I feel more alive than ever.

I would love to be able to say that.

How is such a thing possible?

And that's what we're going to focus on this morning.

The answer is quite simply this, that the gospel has actually transformed the role of suffering

in Paul's life.

It hasn't taken it away.

It has transformed Paul's relationship with suffering and weakness.

And specifically, what we're going to see is that the gospel has given Paul three things.

It's given Paul a new paradigm for suffering, an entirely new paradigm.

It's given Paul a new pattern for suffering.

And then finally, it's given Paul a new promise for suffering.

All of this he finds in the gospel.

So let's pray, and then we're going to look at 2 Corinthians chapter 4 together.

2 Corinthians 4 · chapter mention

Lord, we thank you for your word, and we thank you that, oh Lord, if these were merely words,

or if we were merely here to hear human wisdom, then woe be unto us.

Lord, but our great hope is that you're a living God, and that you're here, and that you speak,

and that your Holy Spirit is already at work in us.

Lord, your Spirit is here.

And we pray we all need your word to be not simply a written word, but a living word, a word become flesh.

Lord, we need the word become flesh this morning.

And we pray that in your Son's holy name.

Amen.

So first of all, a new paradigm for suffering.

The default paradigm for most people when it comes to suffering and how to make sense of suffering and weakness

is to assume that suffering is a kind of indication of failure in life.

Something has gone wrong.

You have messed up somehow.

Even irreligious people tend to think when things are really bad, what have I done to deserve this?

Is God angry with me?

Has God abandoned me?

And so what we typically think is that life is about climbing a ladder towards success.

If you do the right thing, if you work hard, if you live a good life, good things will happen to you,

and God will bless you, and you will be prosperous and successful.

And this was the paradigm of the first century leaders in the church in Corinth that came in after Paul left.

And this is why they are so critical of the Apostle Paul.

They're essentially saying this about Paul.

They're saying, don't listen to anything that guy says, because it is very obvious that God is not with him.

People would say, how do you know God is not with him?

And they would say, well, look how much he suffers.

Look how much he suffers.

Look at how weak he is.

How could God possibly be with and love and bless somebody like that?

Here's Paul's own description in chapter 11.

He says, five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one.

Three times I was beaten with rods.

Once I was stoned.

Three times I was shipwrecked.

A night and a day I was adrift at sea.

It just goes on and on and on.

We're going to preach on it, so I'll just leave off there.

So you can imagine these leaders, you know, first they point to Paul and they say, no wife, no kids.

He spent time in prison.

All kinds of horrible things have happened to him.

And then over here you got Ted.

Look at Ted.

Right?

Ted is 6'3".

Ted's got a full head of lustrous hair.

Ted lives in a nice house with a harbor view.

Ted has a lovely wife.

Ted has eight adorable children.

They all play musical instruments and speak multiple languages.

Right?

Ted's never been beaten with rods.

Ted's never been shipwrecked.

Ted owns a 50-foot pleasure yacht.

Ted's never been shipwrecked.

Ted's never been shipwrecked.

And since Ted started preaching, attendance at the church has doubled.

And you can imagine these people saying, which one of these guys do you think is blessed by God?

Which one of these guys do you think God is with?

Right?

And people say, oh yeah, well it's pretty obvious.

Right?

So this is their paradigm.

If you suffer, it means you are a failure.

It means God is angry at you or that He has abandoned you.

Successful people are the opposite.

Successful people have obviously done something right.

That's why God is blessing them.

And this is essentially what we call the karma paradigm of suffering.

The karma paradigm.

Now most religions and worldviews assume a kind of karmic structure to the world.

Right?

They say that ultimately good things are going to happen to good people.

Bad things are going to happen to bad people.

Even the kind of new age movement that talks about manifesting.

Right?

It's very popular these days to hear about if you want a good life, manifest it.

Send out those vibes into the universe and the universe will return unto you those good vibes

which have become reality.

Right?

This is just another version of the same old story of karma.

Right?

Whatever you put out into the world will eventually come back to you.

And so what they're assuming based on this paradigm is they're assuming that when they make all these accusations toward Paul,

what Paul's going to do is he's going to respond the way probably I would respond.

Probably many of us in this room would respond.

Paul is going to respond by doing a number of things.

He's going to minimize his failures.

He's going to justify himself.

He's going to explain why actually all of this and that and the other wasn't his fault.

That it was stuff outside of his control.

And then he's going to try to draw their attention to all of the successes in his life.

Well, look, I actually did this and that and the other.

And look, I'm not that bad of a guy.

I haven't failed that much.

In fact, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Right?

That's what we would do.

Defend, justify, minimize all of the things.

But that's not what Paul does.

Essentially, Paul says this, your whole paradigm, your whole paradigm is wrong.

Your whole paradigm is wrong.

And then he probably would have said, you know, I used to have the same paradigm because he did.

Paul used to operate with the very same set of assumptions that these guys are operating with.

He used to be, you know, back when he was a Pharisee, he used to be very successful, very ambitious.

He had all of the trappings, the kind of outward symbols of success.

Back in the day, in Paul's young life, people would have looked at him and said, you know, that guy, God is with him.

God is blessing him.

Right?

He would have been more like a Ted in many people's eyes.

And then one day, this successful, ambitious, just kind of impressive young man is on his way.

He's on the road to Damascus.

And he encounters the risen Jesus Christ on the road.

And everything changes.

Because on the one hand, Jesus is the full embodiment of God's glory.

That's what this passage means in verse 4 when it says that he's the image of God.

He's the image of God.

He's all of God's character in the flesh.

Jesus is so blindingly glorious that Paul falls to his face and is struck temporarily blind because of the glory.

But on the other hand, Jesus, Paul knows, has suffered more than anybody.

Jesus has been humiliated.

He's been mocked.

He's been tortured.

He was executed like a common criminal.

And this completely turns everything upside down for Paul's paradigm of suffering and success, of blessing and curses.

Because the default paradigm that said if you suffer, it means you're a failure and God has abandoned you, can't be right.

That can't be true.

Because Jesus is God in the flesh and yet Jesus endured suffering and death.

God in the flesh who fails and is weak and suffers.

How can those things coexist?

And so a new paradigm begins to emerge for Paul.

This new paradigm says suffering is not evidence that God is far away from us.

In fact, suffering is a place where we can actually draw very, very close to God.

In fact, suffering may be the times in our lives when we are able to experience the most intimacy with God.

More than any other time in life.

Why?

Because our God is a suffering God.

He knows what it's like to suffer.

So a new paradigm begins to emerge.

This is why, by the way, Paul is able to say, starting in verse 8,

we are afflicted in every way but not crushed.

Perplexed but not driven to despair.

Persecuted but not forsaken.

Struck down but not destroyed.

If your paradigm of suffering,

if you look at something horrible going on in your life or the lives of others,

and your paradigm says, well, this must be evidence that either God is angry at me

or punishing me or has abandoned me or there is no God.

If that's your paradigm, some version of that,

then when you are afflicted, it's going to crush you.

When you're perplexed, it's going to drive you to utter despair.

When you're persecuted, you're going to believe that you've been forsaken.

When you're struck down, when daily life strikes you down, it might destroy you.

Because not only do you have the suffering that you're dealing with,

but you have this cosmic paradigm of meaning that says,

not only are you struggling this day in this particular situation,

but also it means God has abandoned you.

That's going to crush you.

But Paul is able to endure all of these things

because he recognizes them as opportunities to draw close to Jesus.

So however bad it might get, he has Christ with him.

And then Paul begins to see a new pattern emerge in his life

as he tries to make sense of his suffering.

Here's the new pattern.

The gospel says this.

The gospel says that the reason that there is suffering in the world,

the reason that we are all, as he says, wasting away

is ultimately because of evil.

It's because of human sin.

It's because of our rebellion.

And he says the God of this world, which is his reference to Satan,

has blinded us to the glory of God.

So we've sinned, we've turned against God.

That has given power to the God of this world

who has now spiritually blinded us.

We cannot see what is true, what is real, what is glorious.

We're blinded to it.

And here's the thing.

Often the God of this world uses the trappings of success.

Right?

Right?

Things like wealth or money or status or all of the things.

Uses those things to blind us to the truth of the gospel.

But then the gospel says that the true God sent his son, Jesus Christ,

into the world in order to suffer and die,

not just for the sake of suffering,

but in order to atone for sin and set free

those of us who are enslaved to sin.

Right?

To open our eyes,

to make it possible for us to see the glory of God.

Right?

And then after three days after he dies,

Jesus then rises again to life in all of his glory.

So Jesus comes to set the world free through his death and resurrection.

That's what the gospel says.

And then Jesus says,

everyone who comes to me in faith and repentance needs to be baptized.

Paul himself was actually baptized after his conversion.

And what baptism does is to actually spiritually join us to Jesus.

Paul often describes baptism as a death and resurrection.

We're baptized into Jesus' death and resurrection.

So when we are baptized,

it is though we die with Jesus and are raised to new life in him.

So this is essentially what the gospel says.

Now here's the thing.

Here's what Paul realized.

Since we are spiritually joined to Jesus,

even though death and resurrection were one-time events in Jesus' life,

because of that spiritual union,

the death and resurrection of Jesus

are relived again and again and again in our lives.

Right?

So even though there were one-time things in Jesus' life,

the death and resurrection of Jesus

become a pattern that are relived again and again and again

in the lives of Christians.

It becomes a pattern that we cycle through again and again and again.

This is what Paul means when he says in verse 10,

we are always carrying in the body the death of Jesus,

so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.

For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake,

so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.

In other words, the normal Christian life repeatedly reenacts

the death and the resurrection of Jesus,

again and again and again.

There's a guy who's written a great book on this named Paul Miller.

Actually, Jeff Simpson gave me this book,

and he said, you know,

this is one of the best books I've ever read on sanctification.

I finally got around to reading it,

and I have to agree, it's phenomenal,

and it's all built around this idea.

What Paul Miller calls this cycle of death and resurrection

in the Christian life is the J-curve.

It's the J-curve.

And he says essentially this,

this, you know,

Jesus dies and rises from death.

That was Jesus' J-curve.

And then when we're baptized,

we die with Jesus and rise to new life in Him.

Most people think it stops there.

But he says, no,

actually what Paul is saying is,

for the rest of our lives,

we continue in this pattern of death and resurrection.

That's how we experience union with Christ,

and it's how we become more like Christ.

And this can play out in many different ways,

but according to Paul Miller,

it always includes three things.

Number one,

we enter into some kind of suffering.

Some kind of suffering where evil,

the flesh,

sin is weakened in us

or killed in us.

And then number two,

by grace,

sinful parts of us are put to death.

And then number three,

we emerge from that experience

with new life,

with deeper faith,

with a little more maturity,

a little more conformed

into the image of Christ.

And by the way,

this can happen with different kinds of suffering,

because not all suffering is the same.

I can just illustrate with a few examples

of the ways I've experienced this

in my own life.

First example,

sometimes we suffer

because we are trying to address evil

somewhere in the world.

Right?

That's a kind of suffering.

Years ago,

I was in graduate school,

and I was working

at a residential treatment facility

for victims of abuse,

and I became completely burned out.

And I had a massive crisis of faith.

And it was largely because

I was spending so much time

in the face of just such

tremendous, overwhelming evil.

And it just sort of began

to break everything apart in me.

And I felt a huge disconnect.

And eventually,

I came through it,

but what I realized after the fact

is that that was a kind of

a mini death and resurrection

that I went through.

It was a death and resurrection.

And what I can tell you now

is that that experience

put to death

some of my spiritual pride.

And it put to death

a more simplistic faith.

And I think it greatly expanded

my understanding

of God's sovereignty

and God's love and mercy.

And it actually gave me

a little more compassion

for other people

who struggle with doubt

in their own faith.

Because I'd been there.

So it was a kind of a death

and a resurrection.

Now, sometimes we suffer,

not because we're trying

to address evil out in the world,

but because evil is done to us.

Years ago,

I was talking to a colleague.

I was sharing some ideas

with that colleague.

And then that colleague

went and wrote an article

that was widely circulated

and didn't credit me.

And I was furious

that I didn't get the credit

that I believed I deserved.

And I resented it.

And I wanted the credit.

And I was going into

that death and resurrection cycle

once more.

Right?

And then over time

and prayer,

I began to kind of wonder,

why am I really doing

any of this?

Am I doing this

for God's glory

or am I just doing this

for a little glory myself?

Am I doing it

for God's kingdom

or am I doing it

to get some recognition?

And I spent a lot of time

looking at Paul's words

in Colossians 3

that we should do

all of our work

as though we are working

for Jesus alone,

not to get recognition

from the people around us.

And it kind of set me free

from that resentment.

Again, a death and resurrection.

And I give you one final example.

Sometimes we suffer

not because we're trying

to address evil in the world

or even evil is done to us.

Sometimes,

if you're anything like me,

most of the time

we suffer because of evil in us.

That's the real cause

of most of the suffering

in my life.

I'll give you one example

from early in our marriage.

I had a problem

with sarcasm.

Grew up in a very sarcastic family.

I mean,

I still have a problem

with sarcasm,

but by God's grace,

I think it is decreasing.

But it was really bad

in the early years

of our marriage.

And so what I would do

is when I would get angry

or upset,

instead of just directly stating

my feelings or my needs,

which happens in healthy marriages,

I would use sarcasm.

And my wife did not grow up

in a sarcastic family.

She's not used to sarcasm

used in an angry way.

And so when I would have

angry sarcasm

as my unhealthy way

of expressing negative emotions,

it would really hurt her.

And then I would be

in this situation

where I would actually

feel better

because I had kind of

released some of that anger.

And then she would be

deeply hurt

because the sarcasm

cut like razor blades.

And then I would

begin to realize

this is going into the death

and resurrection cycle again.

I began to realize,

oh,

so here I am

using sarcasm

and expressing myself

in ways that make me feel better,

but I'm actually hurting

the person that I love

so that I can feel better.

And I realized

that's a profoundly

unloving thing to do.

It's in fact the opposite,

I think.

It's the polar opposite

of love.

And so I had to begin

to repent of those things.

And I had to ask Laura

to forgive me

for those patterns

that I was reliving

in our marriage.

And then I had to ask

the Lord to forgive me

for hurting the person

that I love.

And over time,

those death

and resurrection experiences

have begun to alter

and shift the patterns

of how we handle conflicts.

And now we can handle them

in more direct,

healthy ways.

Right?

So the implication is this.

Different kinds of suffering,

different kinds of J-curves,

to use Paul Miller's language,

nevertheless,

this cycle is playing out

again and again and again.

And practically speaking,

this can become

a kind of pattern

for life.

It's like a road map

that gives meaning

to much of the suffering

that we experience

from day to day.

So you can look

at past suffering

in your life.

Maybe some of you

are doing that right now.

Or you can look

at present suffering

in your life.

Stuff that's happening

right now.

And it could be

something major

like a crisis of faith

that I shared about.

Or it could be

something as minor

as being stuck in traffic

15 minutes late

to where you're going

and furious

at the person

in front of you.

It could be anything.

But what we do

is we look at the suffering

and then we think

about the death

and resurrection

of Jesus,

carrying around

the death

and resurrection

of Jesus

in our bodies

as Paul says,

and we begin

to ask ourselves

diagnostic questions.

What inside me

is being spotlighted

by this particular suffering?

Is it my need

to be in control?

Is it my need

for recognition?

Is it my need

to be right?

Is it my need

to be comfortable?

What is blocking me

from greater trust

or greater faith

in the Lord?

What is the thing

that is keeping me

from getting there?

What needs to be

put to death

in me right now?

What do I need

to let go of?

What do I need

to turn away from?

What truth

do I need

to embrace

about God?

In the midst

of this suffering,

right?

These are the questions

that we can begin

to ask ourselves

in the midst

of the struggle.

So just to summarize

where we are so far,

the gospel has given us

so far two things.

It's given us

a new paradigm

for suffering.

Suffering doesn't mean

that God is angry at you

or that God

has abandoned you.

In fact,

suffering,

within suffering,

there is an invitation

to draw close

to the God

who suffers with us

and for us.

And then number two,

the gospel has given us

a new pattern

for suffering.

Suffering is part

of the cycle

of death

and resurrection

that plays out

again and again

and again

in the lives

of Christians

to conform us

more and more

into the image

of God's Son.

Now there's one more

piece to this

that we can't

overlook.

the promise.

If we stop here,

if we stop here

and I say,

Amen,

go follow Jesus,

here's the problem.

We might make

the mistake

of thinking

that this is

some form

of stoicism

or masochism

that says

suffering is good.

We should embrace

suffering.

It's going to make

you stronger.

But that's not

what we're saying.

Scripture is very clear

that suffering

is not good.

Suffering is evil.

Suffering is part

of a fallen world.

So what we're saying

is that God

has the power

to redeem

and repurpose

evil things

toward His good ends,

which is a very

different thing

to say.

And even as we

recognize this,

we also need to

hold on to God's

promise that one day

all suffering

is going to come

to an end

and all tears

will be wiped

away.

The thing

that sustains

Paul through

all of his

suffering is not

simply the knowledge

that it's making

him a better person.

That's a good

thing to know.

And in all ways

he's seeking

to be conformed

more and more

into the image

of Christ.

But the thing

that sustains

Paul

is the concrete

hope

of what he says

in verse 14.

He who raised

the Lord Jesus

will raise

us also

with Jesus

and bring us

with you

into His presence.

That changes

everything.

What this means

for Paul

and for us

is that all

of the struggle

and wasting away

we experience

is not meaningless.

All the pain

and stress

and frustration

are not happening

in vain.

We're not all

vanishing

into a black hole

of pointless

suffering.

Instead

all of this

affliction

as Paul says

is producing

for us

an eternal

weight of glory

beyond all

comparison.

One day

all of the

suffering in this

world is going

to fade away

and it will be

like waking up

from a dream.

Have you ever

had a really

bad nightmare

and in the

midst of the

nightmare

it feels

so real?

and in the

midst of that

dream

you cannot

imagine

any other

reality.

You are

convinced

that the

nightmare

is true

and then

you wake

up

and even

within minutes

of waking

up

even the

memory

of that

nightmare

is starting

to fade

and you have

that moment

of thinking

I can't

believe

I thought

that was

real.

I can't

believe

I thought

that was

true.

I can't

even hardly

remember it

now because

you are

surrounded

by the

weightier

reality of

your bedroom

and compared

to the

dream

your sheets

and your

pillow

and your

room

feel so

substantial

and that

dream

that fading

memory

feels so

ephemeral

like smoke

clearing in

a light

breeze.

That's what

Paul is

saying here

even the

worst suffering

right now

it feels

so real

this is

all there

is

it's

all we

know

there

can't

be

anything

more

real

than

this

but

he's

saying

one day

we're

going to

enter

into a

world

the new

heavens

and the

new

earth

and it's

going to

be so

much

more

real

that this

is going

to seem

like smoke

it's going

to seem

like vapor

it's going

to seem

like a

dream

that even

as we

blink

our eyes

in the

light

of God's

glory

fades

from

memory

and we'll

say

what

was I

so

upset

about

what

was the

thing

that I

was running

from

what

was that

and it's

going to fade

away

and somehow

what we

encounter

at that

moment

will in

some way

that goes

way above

my job

description

to explain

it will

somehow

make sense

of it

and we'll

say

oh that's

what all

this was

for

that's

the

eternal

weight

of

glory

right

so this

is how

the gospel

begins

to transform

suffering

it gives

us a new

paradigm

it says

listen

the suffering

in your

life

is an

invitation

don't

give

into that

lie

from the

false

God

of this

world

that God

has abandoned

you

God

is drawing

near

draw

close

to him

it gives

you a new

pattern

to see

suffering

as a part

of this

cycle

of death

and resurrection

opening our

eyes

liberating

our hearts

reorienting

our affections

as we prayed

earlier

in the

collect

and then

finally

a new

promise

to see

suffering

is

finite

finite

there's a

cap

there's a

limit

to embrace

the hope

that one

day there's

going to be

no more

suffering

and all

things

will be

made

new

so if

we want

to be

like

Paul

if we

want

to begin

to experience

inner renewal

in the midst

of suffering

we need

to see

our suffering

through the

lens

of the

gospel

this is

where the

gospel

ceases to

be something

that we

simply

intellectually

assent to

and then

move on

with our

lives

and it

begins

to be

something

that we

work

into

our

daily

lives

the lens

through

which

we see

everything

mapped

on to

the death

and resurrection

of Jesus

in us

let's pray

Lord we

thank you

for your

word

and these

are weighty

spiritual

topics

that need

more than

simply

discussion

and slides

we need

your Holy

Spirit

in us

applying

these things

making them

real in us

Lord I pray

as we confess

our faith

and as we

pray to you

as we sing

as we come

around your

table

that you

would

make us

help us

experience

the gospel

in stereo

that we

would not

only hear

it

but that

we would

taste it

Lord

that we

would

take it

into us

that we

would receive

the death

and resurrection

of Jesus

through this

meal

into our

hearts

and lives

Lord

and I

pray that

this would

make us

a community

that glorifies

you

Lord

that you

would transform

our relationship

with suffering

that we

would be

people who

point to

you

and bring

glory to

your name

we pray

this in

your son's

holy name

amen