Page 57 - The Gate and the Way

would follow after Him that they must experience suffering. He has invited men and women
to “take up your cross and follow Me.” Despite the fact that Christ would lead men and
women into experiences of suffering, there are those whose “desire” is for Christ, and they
willingly submit to Him ruling over them.
We previously looked at a Scripture passage where Christ compared the sufferings of
His disciples to a woman in the pains of childbirth. This is an apt analogy. Yahweh does
everything with great design and purpose. The suffering of the woman in childbirth was
given to reveal a profound kingdom truth. Mature (perfected) sons can only be produced
through suffering.

I Peter 5:10
And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to
His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish
you.

It is appointed to you and I to “suffer for a little while.” Our sufferings may seem
terrible and unending, but in God’s sight they are but a moment. Soon they will be
forgotten. Christ will wipe away every tear from the eyes of His holy ones, and sorrow and
suffering will be no more. The apostle Paul saw these present experiences of suffering from
God’s perspective. Paul freely admitted that if this present life were all there is that Christ’s
disciples would be among all men the most to be pitied. At the same time, Paul saw beyond
these present experiences. Yahweh had given Paul visions of things to come. With the future
ages in view Paul wrote:

Romans 8:18-23
For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared
with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the anxious longing of the creation
waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to
futility, not of its own will, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the
creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of
the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and
suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. And not only this, but also we
ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within
ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body.

Paul continued the analogy of childbirth. He acknowledged the role of pain and
suffering in this process. Paul begins this passage by speaking of the “sufferings of this
present time,” and he ends by speaking of groaning and suffering.
Quite often when thinking about the “sufferings of Christ” we think only about
persecution. I have already touched on this aspect of the sufferings of Christ. In the passage
above Paul reveals that the sufferings Yahweh subjects His sons to includes suffering that
is common to the entire creation. Sickness and injury are forms of suffering we find
everywhere throughout the earth. Yahweh will use these also to bring His people to
perfection. Let us look at two verses that affirm this truth of Yahweh being the originator
of the suffering of the saints.