Christ’s Sufferings in Us

Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church. (Colossians 1:24)

Christ has prepared a love offering for the world by suffering and dying for sinners. It is a perfect sacrifice. It pays in full for all the sins of all his people. Nothing can be added to make a better gift. It is lacking in nothing — except one thing, a personal presentation by Christ himself to the nations of the world.

God’s answer to this lack is to call the people of Christ (people like Paul) to make a personal presentation of the afflictions of Christ to the world. In doing this, we “[fill] up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions.” We finish what they were designed for, namely, a personal presentation to the people who do not know about their infinite worth.

But the most amazing thing about Colossians 1:24 is how Paul fills up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions.

He says that it is his own sufferings that fill up Christ’s afflictions. This means, then, that Paul exhibits the sufferings of Christ by suffering himself for those he is trying to win to Christ. In his sufferings they are to see Christ’s sufferings.

Here is the astounding upshot: God intends for the afflictions of Christ to be presented to the world through the afflictions of his people.

God really means for the body of Christ, the church, to experience some of the suffering he experienced so that when we proclaim the cross as the way to life, people will see the marks of the cross in us and feel the love of the cross from us.

John Piper 

 

No Space for the Enemy’s Foothold

“Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” JAMES 4:7

 

PONDER THIS

Even after you repent, the devil is not going to walk out of your life. You’re going to have to run him out. If you don’t resist him, he’s not going anywhere. When you repent of the sin, Jesus cancels the debt. Then you say, “Satan, I have given you a place, but I take it back in the name and the authority of Jesus. You have no right, you have no authority, this body of mine is the temple of the Holy Spirit, you are trespassing on my Father’s property, and in the name of Jesus, whose I am and whom I serve, be gone!” And he’ll flee from you. The problem is, if you try to resist the devil with unconfessed sin in your heart and life, he will laugh in your face. He’ll say, “Who do you think you are? You gave me this piece of property, and I am not moving out.” There must be repentance, and then there can be resistance.

To be filled with the Holy Spirit means there’s not one room in your temple where He’s off bounds. There’s not one closet He doesn’t have a key to. You are filled with the Spirit, in your sex life, in your business life, in your political life, in your church life, in your social life, in the big things and the little things. Jesus has the keys to it all. When you are filled with the Spirit, there’s no more room for Satan.

What has been your experience with repentance? How have you experienced the return of temptation following repentance?

What are some places in life you have not given God access to? What needs to change?

PRACTICE THIS

Ask God to open your eyes to the areas of your life where the enemy is still in control. Repent. Resist the devil. And ask Jesus to fill those parts of your life with Himself.

 

 

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers

Bible Study

Matthew 10:16

[16] “Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.

2 Corinthians 11:3

[3] But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.

Revelation 12:9

[9] And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.

Revelation 20:2

[2] And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years,

The Seminary of Suffering

“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:9)

This is God’s universal purpose for all Christian suffering: more contentment in God and less reliance on self and the world. I have never heard anyone say, “The really deep lessons of life have come through times of ease and comfort.”

But I have heard strong saints say, “Every significant advance I have ever made in grasping the depths of God’s love and growing deep with him has come through suffering.”

The pearl of greatest price is the glory of Christ.

Thus, Paul stresses that in our sufferings the glory of Christ’s all-sufficient grace is magnified. If we rely on him in our calamity, and he sustains our “rejoicing in hope,” then he is shown to be the all-satisfying God of grace and strength that he is.

If we hold fast to him, “when all around our soul gives way,” then we show that he is more to be desired than all we have lost.

Christ said to the suffering apostle, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Paul responded to this: “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:9–10).

So suffering clearly is designed by God not only as a way to wean Christians off of self and onto grace, but also as a way to spotlight that grace and make it shine. That is precisely what faith does: it magnifies Christ’s future grace.

The deep things of life in God are discovered and magnified in suffering.

John Piper 

Guarding Your Thoughts of God

“Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, ‘Has God indeed said, “You shall not eat of every tree of the garden”?’"GENESIS 3:1

 

PONDER THIS

Satan does not deny the existence of God. Satan admits God is there, but he wants you to think of God as cruel and harsh and severe. When you think of God, Satan wants your mind to be filled with negative thoughts.

If Satan can get you to thinking negatively about God, he already has you. Can you imagine the glories of the Garden of Eden? Can you imagine how beautiful it must have been? Not so long ago, I was in Victoria, in the Butchart Gardens. They’re so indescribably beautiful. It looks like every blade of grass has been manicured. It made me wonder what the Garden of Eden must have been like. God made this beautiful, perfect place and put Adam and Eve there. With a smile on His face, He said, “Adam, I made that for you. Eve, I made that for you. Help yourself.” This is the wonderful God we have. He has invited us in and has made a way of keeping us close. It is vital that we think of Him rightly.

When you think about God, what comes to mind? Are your thoughts mostly positive or negative? Why?

When have you struggled with doubt? What were your thoughts about God in that time? Who or what helped you?

PRACTICE THIS

Encourage those who are struggling with thoughts about God. Listen to them and share how God has worked in your life.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Bible Study

Daniel 10:11-12

[11] And he said to me, “O Daniel, man greatly loved, understand the words that I speak to you, and stand upright, for now I have been sent to you.” And when he had spoken this word to me, I stood up trembling. [12] Then he said to me, “Fear not, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand and humbled yourself before your God, your words have been heard, and I have come because of your words.

Psalm 103:20

    [20] Bless the LORD, O you his angels,

        you mighty ones who do his word,

        obeying the voice of his word!

Psalm 34:7

    [7] The angel of the LORD encamps

        around those who fear him, and delivers them.

Matthew 25:34

[34] Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

The Danger of Drifting

Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. (Hebrews 2:1)

We all know people that this has happened to. There is no urgency. No vigilance. No focused listening or considering or fixing of their eyes on Jesus. And the result has not been a standing still, but a drifting away.

That is the point here: there is no standing still. The life of this world is not a lake. It is a river. And it is flowing downward to destruction. If you do not listen earnestly to Jesus and consider him daily and fix your eyes on him hourly, then you will not stand still; you will go backward. You will float away from Christ.

Drifting is a deadly thing in the Christian life. And the remedy for it, according to Hebrews 2:1, is: Pay close attention to what you have heard. That is, consider what God is saying in his Son Jesus. Fix your eyes on what God is saying and doing in the Son of God, Jesus Christ.

This is not a hard swimming stroke to learn. The only thing that keeps us from swimming against sinful culture is not the difficulty of the stroke, but our sinful desire to go with the flow.

Let’s not complain that God has given us a hard job. Listen, consider, fix the eyes — this is not what you would call a hard job description. In fact, it is not a job description. It is a solemn invitation to be satisfied in Jesus so that we do not get lured downstream by deceitful desires.

If you are drifting today, one of the signs of hope that you are born again is that you feel pricked for this, and you feel a rising desire to turn your eyes on Jesus and consider him and listen to him in the days and months and years to come.

John Piper