THE UNFINISHED SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST

David Jeremiah once made a statement about the sundry experiences and emotions of life. At this point I have long since forgotten his exact words, but I will always remember their tenor; the jest of which bemoaned the existence of a ‘vanilla-flavored life’ and how inestimably boring that kind of life would be. 

However, I admit there have been times in my life it would have been too easy for me to respond,

“Please dump plenty of vanilla in my coffee!”

(and)

“What’s so bad about boring anyway?”

There’s a phrase which goes something like,

“If it weren’t so d_ _ _ _ _ hard, everybody would be doing it.”

Well, when it comes to living everyone alive is doing it, but perhaps not always so successfully, and not without trouble, trial, turmoil and testing. (All those ‘T’ words).

Life is replete with suffering. You simply aren’t going to live out some semblance of a life here on earth without experiencing a certain amount of pain and suffering. And admittedly, some more than others. 

There’s a wonderful old verse which speaks to a concept rarely addressed in the holy writ.

“Filling Up in My Own Body the Unfinished Sufferings of Christ.” Col. 1:24

As if we have something to add to our Lord’s suffering. The implication of the scripture is that the one thing we have to add is

…our participation

Yesterday, I came across the following passage in the first chapter of the New Testament Book of First Peter, and the words ‘spoke to me’ like they never have before.

 In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. ⁷ These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. ⁸ Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, ⁹ for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.¹⁰ Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, ¹¹ trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of the Messiah and the glories that would follow. (1^st Peter 1:6-10)

I have participated at some level in Christ' unfinished sufferings.

In recent years both my wife and I have experienced bouts with cancer, a daughter on the brink of death, a son-in-law who experienced a profound medical crisis, I have sustained two broken limbs, the death of my mother, and an episode of rejection from someone near and dear to me. As a result I have begun to understand the emotions our Lord experienced, as He dwelt on this earth, and His ultimate disillusionment when the people He came to save turned Him over to the Romans for crucifixion.
 
With the benefit of time and circumstances, I have begun to count it a privilege to embrace whatever suffering I have experienced in this life; since it has allowed me to identify with the circumstances and emotions with which our Lord contended.

I think it is imperative that believers grasp the realization that this is not all there is, and that there is a ‘great getting up morning’ when the tears will be wiped from our eyes, and we will enjoy the perfection of heaven, and the presence of our Lord forevermore. 

By William McDonald, PhD. Excerpt from "(Mc)Donald's Daily Diary" Vol. 37.

 

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