Pastor Andrew’s Reflections on Chapters Eight and Nine
“The Suffering of Union with Christ” and “The Joy of Union with Christ”
The Inner Sanctum of Puritan Piety
Pastor Andrew’s Week Seven Reflections
Chapters Eight and Nine, “The Suffering of Union with Christ” and “The Joy of Union with Christ”
Our study in Yuille’s The Inner Sanctum of Puritan Piety has brought us down many roads and explored many principles of union with Christ. One of the most difficult of these roads is the road of suffering. Suffering is not typically something that anyone seeks out, but it is something that comes to everyone.
On the other side of that same coin, one of the most delightful realities of union with Christ is the joy that is ours in being knit to the One our souls adore. The joy of union with Christ, much like the suffering of union with Christ, is part of the definitive reality of belonging to Jesus.
These two words – suffering and joy – at first seem as though they could not be more different from one another. Suffering is variously defined as the experience of pain, loss, damage, or other negatively realities. Joy is often defined as that emotion of happiness, pleasure, delight, and even deep-rooted satisfaction. Are not these two thoughts irreconcilably dichotomous?
From a human perspective, yes, they almost always are in a position of opposing tension. But from the perspective of God’s sovereignty and the promises of his Word, we must see that these two realities are not simply unopposed to one another, but they run parallel to one another. It would even be correct to say that without experiencing suffering we can never experience real joy. After all, the greatest experience of real joy is to be in union with Christ. And if we are in union with the joy of Christ we must also be in union with the suffering of Christ.
Instead of reflecting on the central points of Yuille’s book (as has been our practice), I would like for us to all take a few minutes to steep ourselves in the truths of Scripture that confirm to us just how closely faithful suffering and true joy are related.
Read through these verses carefully and with a heart that trusts in the truthfulness and surety of the promises of God’s Word.
Psalm 34:18
“The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.”
Psalm 94:19
“When the cares of my heart are many, your consolations cheer my soul.”
Habakkuk 3:17-19
“Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. God, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer's; he makes me tread on my high places. To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments.”
Matthew 5:10-12
“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
Romans 5:3-5
“Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character 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 8:18-21
“For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.”
2 Corinthians 4:16-18
“So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. 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 12:9-10
“But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ 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.”
Philippians 3:8-11
“Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.”
Colossians 1:24
“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.”
James 1:2-4
“Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”
1 Peter 4:12-13
“Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.”
1 Peter 5:10
“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.”
Revelation 12:10-12
“And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, ‘Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death. Therefore, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!’”
Revelation 21:1-7
“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
And he who was seated on the throne said, ‘Behold, I am making all things new.’ Also he said, ‘Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.’ And he said to me, ‘It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son.’”
These are just a small sampling of how God’s Word calls us to posture ourselves toward suffering. It calls the believer to delight in the sufferings of union with Christ because in these sufferings we experience a fuller reality of the joy of union with Christ!
May your soul be at rest, for Yahweh has been good to you.
With great joy and affection,
Pastor Andrew