Passion Week 2020 has passed. Palm Sunday, Holy Wednesday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Black (or Silent) Saturday, and Resurrection Sunday have come and gone. For nearly two-thousand years the Church has celebrated the events of this week. After all, the culmination of The Gospel that our faith rests upon occurred in this week. It is during this week that, after dwelling upon His earth, Christ bore the sins of men upon that old rugged cross. The Sinless One died for sinful ones. Yet, He victoriously rose to reign over sin, death, and Satan. Later, He would ascend into heaven to return to the glory He had before the world existed. What a glorious week! But before we move on too quickly, we would be wise to ponder how the experience of Jesus relates to the experience of the Christian. I am convinced that far too often we gloss over a major biblical theme that comes to its climax in the Passion of Christ. Moreover, I am concerned that a promise from Christ Himself is frequently disregarded in His Church. So, what do the experiences of Christ during the week of His death teach us about our lives now? What is this biblical theme that is brushed aside? What is this promise of Christ that is ignored?

Answer: Suffering Precedes Glory!

Before you stop reading, let me explain. I am aware that this is not a groundbreaking statement. I know Christians conceptually adhere to such terms. There is a general acceptance of the notion that life is hard and that the life to come will be great for all who are in Christ. But, does not the Bible teach more about our suffering and subsequent glory? The Word of God not only teaches that the suffering precedes glory, but also that suffering prepares for glory. If this is true, then suffering should be expected. Not only should it be, but the Christian should also expect that God is working for good through their suffering. Let us explore the biblical link between suffering and glory in two parts. First, that suffering precedes glory and then that suffering prepares us for glory. May God grant us grace to increasingly move from a conceptual understanding of suffering and His purposes for it, to a functional one.

1. Suffering Precedes Glory

The theme of hardship coming before glory permeates the Scriptures. After the Fall, it is practically on every page of the Bible. We think of Abraham’s grief before he was given a son to carry out the promise, or Moses and the Hebrews in Egypt before the Exodus, or Israel in the wilderness before entering the Promised Land, or the time of the Judges before the establishment of the Kingdom, or the shepherd boy David before the defeat of Goliath, or King Saul’s persecution of David before David officially took the throne, or the persecution of the Church before the outburst of the Church, and on and on the examples go. Perhaps the most pointed expression of suffering preceding glory is Jesus’ statement in John 16:33 when He says, “In the world you will have trouble. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” In context, Jesus was speaking to His disciples before He went to the cross hours later. He promised them trial and tribulation, but He also told them to take heart because He had overcome the world. Even before going to the cross, Jesus knew the outcome. He knew that in is death He would be victorious and that through Him others could take heart in the midst of trouble, trial, and tribulation. Unlike other examples of suffering preceding glory, Jesus would suffer and return to everlasting glory. He would also enable those who were to follow Him to do the same.

In the very next chapter of John, Jesus prays. He prays for Himself, He prays for His immediate disciples, and He prays for those who would believe in Him. Immediately after this prayer He was betrayed, arrested, and killed as a ransom for many. Therefore, the words of this prayer are especially striking. He prays as if His work on the cross was already accomplished, for He knew the will of His Father and He had set out to do it. Jesus prayed for Himself saying, “I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed” (17:4, 5). Jesus’ re-entry to glory was through the cross! His path to paradise was the cross! He looked through His certain suffering to His certain glory, so that He and His Father might glory together. However, Jesus’ return to glory was not the only thing on His heart, He also prayed for His immediate disciples, the apostles.

Jesus went on to pray for His immediate followers because He was leaving the world but they were to be “in the world” (v. 11). Jesus prayed, “I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world , just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one” (vv. 14, 15). This prayer was on the heels of Jesus promising His disciples that they would have trouble in this world (16:33). So, Jesus, knowing that the world would present problems for His disciples did not ask for them to be removed from it. Rather, He asked that the Father would keep His disciples from evil or the evil one. He then prayed those famous words, “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth” (17:17). The word sanctify means to be “set apart” or “separated”. In other words, it means to be kept as distinct from something else. In this phrase Jesus revealed the means by which His disciples were to be kept from the realm of the evil one, it is through the Word of God. Then Jesus declared that He has sent His disciples into the world in the same way that the Father sent Him into the world (v. 18). This prayer displays that Jesus expected for His immediate disciples to live a similar life as He did. Specifically, He expected them to suffer in this world, to be kept by the Father through His Word in this world, and to enter into glory after this world. Jesus expected suffering to precede glory in His life and in the lives of His immediate followers. So, what about those of us who have come to believe in Jesus many years after this account? After all, we are not His immediate followers. Does He expect us to suffer for His sake in this world before glory? Well, Jesus continued praying.

He prayed, “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word” (v. 20). Yes, if you have believed or will believe in Christ, Jesus prayed for you on this earth shortly before He went to die for you. This is astounding. Notice, that Jesus prayed for those who would believe through the Apostle’s words, which we have in Scripture. The phrase in verse 20 makes it clear that Jesus prayed the same, both for His immediate and subsequent followers. Thus, suffering precedes glory for all of us who are in Christ. We are to be in the world and not of it. We are kept by our God through His Word. We will be in glory with our Lord after faithfully suffering in this world. For He also prayed, “The glory that you have given me I have given them, that they may be one even as we are one… Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world” (vv. 22, 24).

Hopefully, the reality that suffering precedes glory is clear enough for you not to be surprised by it. It is right and good for us to accept that suffering is the plot that we have been graciously given by God. What? Suffering is a gracious gift of God? Yes, but we can only appreciate it if we know and believe that God is working in and through our experiences of suffering. That is what I hope to show you next.

2) Suffering Prepares Us for Glory

Paul writes to the church at Philippi, “For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake” (1:29). To the church at Rome he writes, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son” (8:28, 29). Receiving the truth of these two passages is paramount if we are going to welcome the reality that suffering prepares us for glory.

Philippians 1:29 shows us that both believing and suffering are for the sake of Christ. It forces us to realize that our lives are primarily not our own. As matter of fact, we have died and it is now Christ who lives in us (Galatians 2:20). So, when we ask God to glorify His name in us, we are saying, “God use me however you see fit so that you might be glorified in and through my life. For I was bought by the precious blood of your Son.” Often, God answers such prayers in our suffering, but when He leads us to, and through, suffering He also produces something in us.

Romans 8:28, 29 shows us that God uses everything in the Christian’s life, even the most intense forms of suffering, for His good purpose, which is to make us like Christ. In other words, God’s ultimate goal for your life is your Christlikeness, which brings Him glory and you good. Do you believe that? Unless you believe that God’s highest aim for your life is to be like Christ and until your highest aim is the same, then you cannot embrace suffering as you ought. I am not saying that suffering is fun, that it is enjoyable, or that it should be prayed for. I am saying that suffering is part of the blessed Christian life and that it can be faithfully embraced when we receive God’s promise of it and rest in His purposes for it. Every ounce of suffering in your Christian life is for your good, which is being conformed into the image of Christ to the glory of God the Father.

God chose to make our conformity into the likeness of Christ come to fruition through a progressive journey in this life, rather than an instantaneous flash. Yet, it is in this progression that we long to be with Christ in glory. It is in this journey that we are prepared for an eternity of glory. It is in this seemingly long haul that God begins to conform us into the image of His Son through the power of the Holy Spirit, so that when we see Him we will be like Him in the age to come. Christian, in your life, in your suffering, God is preparing you for a unique glory. A glory that is His, yet a glory that He shares with you. This is why Paul writes, “… we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us” (Romans 5:3-5). This is why he exclaims, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing the with glory that is to be revealed to us” (Romans 8:18). This is why elsewhere he proclaims, “For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.” (2 Corinthians 4:17, 18). This is why Peter says, “And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. To him be be the dominion forever and ever. Amen” (1 Peter 5:10, 11).

Conclusion

Christian, suffering precedes glory. Saint, suffering prepares for glory. As we come off of this Holy Week let us be reminded of this truth in and through the life of our Lord, Savior, and God, Jesus Christ. Many people are suffering in this world, but it is the Christian who is able to suffer to the glory of God. Many people are met with trouble in this life, but it is the Christian who knows that God is at work in and through their suffering. Some of our suffering should come as a result of faithfulness to the Lord, which the world hates. Some of our suffering comes as a result of living in a fallen world with fallen creatures. Sometimes the specific source of our suffering may be unidentifiable and confusing. Regardless of the source, or type, or intensity, of our suffering, all suffering is ordained by God so that you might be conformed into the image of His Son, Christian. May God help us to count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus our Lord. May we count everything as rubbish in order to gain and be found in Christ. May we have a deep knowledge of the lack of our own righteousness and a tight grasp on our righteousness through Him, which comes by faith. May we know Christ and the power of His resurrection, to share in His sufferings, that by any means possible we may attain the resurrection from the dead. Take Heart! He is risen and He has overcome the world!