The most effective means for living Christianly in affliction is to consider Christ (Heb. 3:1)—the fountainhead of all vital Christianity. To live Christianly in any sphere or aspect of life necessitates Spirit-worked faith to look to Him, to feast on Him, to depend on Him, yes, to find both our life in Him (on Calvary’s cross) and our death in Him (as exalted Lord, to whom we belong).
Consider Christ—that’s the crux of the whole matter of affliction. But how, you ask? In what ways must I consider Him? In these six ways, (the following 3 will be posted later this week).
1. Consider the afflictions of Christ.
What greater source of strength for living through, and profiting from, affliction, can be had than to meditate often on the sufferings of the Lord Jesus? Think much on these things: If Jesus suffered so much on behalf of His people, ought not I be able to endure in His strength the daily afflictions I must bear? What are my afflictions compared to His? Besides, was He not the Sufferer par excellence while wholly innocent; I, sufferer, at best, in His footsteps while wholly guilty? Moreover (and this may be most encouraging), is there one affliction that I must endure which He has not already endured? Is He not the Breaker to go before His flock both in opening all our paths (Micah 2:13) and in being tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin (Heb. 4:15)? All paths; all points. Jesus not only knows your affliction, He has identified Himself with it. He has borne it. And He will sanctify it. “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape that ye may be able to bear it” (1 Cor. 10:13).
2. Consider the power of Christ.
Being infinite God-man, Jesus received power on earth to bear infinite sufferings on your behalf. And through the merit of these sufferings, He now receives royal power in heaven from His Father to rule and strengthen you in your sufferings (Matt. 28:18). Consequently, if He desires to weigh you down with affliction, yes, heavy, seemingly staggering, affliction, be not alarmed, but look to Him for strength. As you and I realize by grace that the bearing of heavy burdens Christianly is testimony of spiritual maturity and honors the Christ whom we love, our groaning under affliction’s “heaviness” will be happily minimized. Isn’t this the encouragement that Puritan George Downame intended to convey when he aptly penned: “The Lord does not measure out our afflictions according to our faults, but according to our strength, and looks not at what we have deserved, but at what we are able to bear”? Oh, how great it is when we may look to the strength of Jesus Christ in all our weakness and apprehend our strength in Him (2 Cor. 12:9)! Then the power of the humiliated and exalted Jesus enables us to sing at times (would to God more heartily and frequently!) in “inner prison” depths with Paul and Silas (Acts 16:25)—yes, to rejoice that we are counted worthy to suffer for the name and sake of the Lord Jesus Christ (cf. 2 Cor. 6 and 12).
3. Consider the presence of Christ.
He is at no time absent from you, even when your faith lacks active exercise to grasp Him. Even in your thickest hours of Egyptian darkness, He is close beside you. Only of Him can it be declared: “The darkness and the light are both alike to Thee” (Ps. 139:12). How comforting this is! In all your dark afflictions, your High Priest retains you in His high priestly eye, preserve you in His high priestly heart, bears you on His high priestly shoulders, removes you not from the engravings on His high priestly hands, and never ceases to remember you in His high priestly intercessions. “He ever liveth to make intercession for them” (Heb. 7:25). Oh, what tender love! You are never forgotten by Jesus Christ, despite your negligence toward Him. Your unbrotherliness to Christ never unbrothers this precious Elder Brother from you. From His perspective, He ever remains a friend that sticks “closer than a brother” (Prov. 18:24)—also when you cannot see or feel it. Even then He is whispering to you in midnight seasons: “what I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter” (John 13:7). Take heart. The Jesus who never failed you in yesterday’s afflictions (did He not rather give you extra tokens of His care!), is still present to give you today’s strength (Matt. 6:34). Like waves cut down to melodious whimpers as they reach the shore, He shall break down your waves of tomorrow’s impossibilities as (not before!) they break in on the beachheads of your life. Wait on your ever-present Savior. He shall not let you down. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Heb. 13:8).
Some of the books that may be helpful in this area are:
Night of Weeping and Morning of Joy
Crook in the Lot
Why Do I Suffer? Suffering and the Sovereignty of God
Suffering-Understanding the Love of God: Selections from John Calvin
This is a wonderful post, thank you!
Psalm 119:67 “Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep your word.”
Psalm 119:71 “It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statues.”
Psalm 119:75 “…in faithfulness you have afflicted me.”
It would seem that, in our considering Christ in our afflictions, that a big part of God’s kind and mysterious providence is that He afflicts us so that, in our affliction, we would consider Christ.
Could it be that our afflictions are designed to: (1) show us how we hadn’t been considering Christ as we should, which leads us then (2) to consider Him as we ought? To put it differently, our afflictions are to show us more of the glories of Christ and the wonderment of His grace.
I look forward to other posts.
This came at a particularly needy moment in my life. How I thank the Lord for directing me to read this article and I thank Dr. Beeke for his insight and exposition.