Purpose in Pain - three things to remember

Purpose in pain … three things to remember.  Romans 8.17 ff

Yes, my mom always told me that things came in threes.  A backward glance at our Romans 8 study reveals three things that groan—three things that keep us hopeful—Creation, believers, and the Holy Spirit, who prays for us. 

I am incredibly inspired by Romans 8!  Paul has so much to say to believers that we could honestly camp right here for several more weeks.  One of the areas that Paul speaks toward is suffering in this life.  Did you miss it?

Beginning in verse 17, he says, “together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory. But if we are to share his glory, we must also share his suffering.  Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later . . . Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death?”

If anyone but Paul said ‘what we suffer now is nothing compared to the coming glory,’ we might have the right to roll our eyes.   But once again, let’s get our bearings—Paul is writing to first-century Christians living in Rome, under the cruel tyranny of Nero.  The persecution of Christ-followers was unparalleled under Nero . . . Roman historian Tacitus noted that Nero was known for having Christians burned in his garden at night for a source of light!  So, Paul is trying to tell them, ‘I know things are tough, but when you are in Glory, all will be worth it…you’ll see!’ 

‘What we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later,’ Paul wrote.  ‘Sure, Man, you haven’t gone through what I am facing!’  Really?  Paul had been beaten, stoned, shipwrecked, starved, and imprisoned; he lost his family, his money, his career—everything.  And not many years after writing this to the Romans Christians, he would be martyred.  So Paul earned the right to speak to us about not losing heart in times of great personal suffering.

C.S. Lewis so poignantly wrote,   ‘God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience,  but shouts in our pains. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.’                                   How true.  It is in times of great pain when we hit our knees … when we have nowhere else to go, and no place to look, but up.  Yet, it seems we have a great need to make sense out of suffering.  We can even accept that there is pain and suffering in this life if it is for a greater good—if it is in context—if there is a purpose for it. 

Paul outlines the context for our suffering with three foundational stones:

IN THE BEGINNING- God created, man chose to rebel, God judged that sin, and ever since, the world has been broken.  A broken world yields painful relationship breakups, tsunamis, massive earthquakes, and innocent suffering.  But . . .

IN THE MEANTIME- You are not meant to ‘go it’ alone.  God gave the Holy Spirit to live within when you became a Christian.  He saved your soul, and gave you a hope that will one day be fulfilled—when all suffering will be eradicated forevermore.  ‘In this hope we were saved,’ verse 24.  We live in the meantime, but we do not flounder about on our own—aye, the gift of the Holy Spirit ensures we will never be alone again.  ‘The Spirit helps us in our weakness,’ v. 26, at times, ‘we do not know what to pray,’ but he does!  Sometimes life knocks us down so hard we do not even know how or what to pray—sometimes only a moan comes out … but God sees and hears, and listen as the Holy Spirit intercedes (goes before him on our behalf) for us.  IN THE MEANTIME, ‘I am praying for you,’ he says.   And, IN THE MEANTIME, ‘I am working all things for good for you, my child,’ v. 28.  God reminds us, ‘I am working things for good---suffering?  I can work through that; when things work out, I can work through that, and when things don’t work out like you planned, I can work through that, too!’*  And IN THE MEANTIME, ‘I am loving you—nothing has the ability to separate you from my love—not even death,’ v. 29-30.  ‘No one can take it from you, and no thing can get between us.’

But most importantly IN THE END, God will make all things right.  All things will be made new, including our bodies, which will finally be redeemed.  We who trust him know how the story ends, we know the Victor. 

“God, give us the understanding that you truly do have the whole world in your hands—in the beginning, in the meantime, and in the end.  We just need to give ourselves over to that, and trust you.  Amen.”

Christine

podcast:

*Andy Stanley, “Facing Forward”