Skip to main content

The Revelation of the Cross - The Suffering

The Revelation of the Cross post series
«  intro    the suffering    the hell    the joy    the love    the forgiveness    the total surrender    the fellowship  »
A facet of the revelation of the cross is the suffering of Christ (The revelation of His suffering). Every other facet of the revelation of the cross flows from the suffering of Christ; for instance, the cross reveals fellowship (the fellowship of His suffering), the cross reveals/teaches forgiveness (forgiveness in His suffering), and so on.

So, what is the suffering and its significance?

To Jesus on the cross, the suffering was the pain and weight of our sins, the suffering was what He experienced on the cross. Since, Jesus lived a life of sacrifice – even by His coming to the world, the suffering began prior to the physical cross – through His self-denial. To Jesus, the cross was a daily experience, Luke 9:23.

To us the suffering is the experience of Christ. And that phrase “the experience of Christ” sums it all up. It means the suffering is not a seasonal experience, but daily experience – Luke 9:23. The suffering – the experience of Christ, is self-denial. Sometimes, the experience calls for bearing the marks. The revelations we receive come to us either as reality or knowledge (which we subsequently experience). To Paul it was both, so Galatians 6:17 was a reality – Paul bore in His own body the experiences of Jesus.

We experience Christ by revelation – revelation through worship, revelation through study of the word. When this revelation comes: *it opens our minds to the person of Jesus – His love, and gentleness, and holiness… *and breaks us to know that a perfect God chose to be a sacrificial lamb for an imperfect world, *and we often respond in awe of Him and the revelation – this is what stirs up true commitment to and love for God – the revelation of His sufferings/the experience of Christ.

The revelation of His suffering is the experience of Him.

Jesus makes it clear that a revelation is an experience in Matthew 16:23 – where He uses the Greek word: phroneō, meaning exercise of the mind – living by revelation. Notice that, in Matthew 16:16-17, Peter had just gotten a revelation of who Jesus was, why then did Jesus say to him ‘you lack phroneō’? – This is because this revelation had to be experienced, it had to be imprinted on Peter.

The revelation of His suffering has an immense impact on one’s prayer life.

This truth is also seen in the life of Peter. After the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in Acts 2, the disciples/early church began to experience Jesus by revelation of the Spirit; which had an effect on their prayer lives. For instance, with Peter in Matthew 26:40, he was not bothered about prayer, but now living in the revelation – the 1 Peter 5:7 Peter would not take prayer for granted. (Here he taught an uncommon kind of prayer – Casting cares; which in fact reflects the Gethsemane prayer of Jesus, also James taught Persisting in prayer in 5:16 of his epistle.)

This revelation is God’s act of love.

The revelation of Christ’s suffering reveals the life of Jesus in us by depositing/imprinting his marks and his fragrance on us – we call this, the experience of Christ. Now we know the revelation of His suffering is the experience of Christ, we also need to know that it is part of God’s act of love. In Acts 9:16, Jesus speaks to Ananias to go minister to Paul, because He (Jesus) would reveal His suffering to Paul. Scriptural quote:
“For I will shew him how great things he must suffer for my name's sake.”
In that verse, God is not implying to punish Saul/Paul for his acts, no. Paul is already saved, Christian suffering is not in any way unto condemnation, Christian suffering – the experience of Christ is rather unto perfection. So what Jesus is saying is – I will leave my imprint on Paul, he will experience me in fullness. Remember Paul was working in ignorance – Acts 9:4-5 – as a sinner, but God was about to transform him to work in revelational knowledge. This revelation is the foundation of intimacy with God. Galatians 2:20.

I pray that we work in the revelation of the suffering of Christ as God reveals it daily to us and that as we experience Jesus we enjoy the depths of intimacy with Him. Amen.

God bless you.
Labels:

Popular posts from this blog

Accompanied by unfailing love

Ruth 1:1-22 NIV. I hope you had an enjoyable Christmas break. Happy New Year! The Book of Ruth has been called the most beautiful short story ever written because of its simple narrative. A narrative that shows how God’s provision for our needs or challenges is often woven into the simple acts of human kindness. Chapter 1 shows the kindness of a daughter-in-law, Ruth, to her mother-in-law, Naomi (v8, 16, 22), and we’ll see God at work through that. But first, the passage sets the context by introducing us to Naomi’s loss… Naomi lost her family… When Naomi (which means pleasant) is first introduced, we are told of her loss. A woman in a foreign land who lost her family (v1-5). She feels bitter, empty and afflicted by the Lord (v21). Why so? …Because Naomi knows Israel’s God to be the Almighty—Sovereign. He can bring famine to a disobedient Israel (v1) a...
Read more

Redeemed into a new life

Ruth 4:1-22 NIV. In today’s passage, Boaz follows up on his promise to Ruth (in 3:12-13) to redeem her. From Boaz’s redemption of Ruth, we get a peek into the pattern of God’s redemption through Jesus. So what does this redemption look like? It is selfless—a costly act, no other redeemer could pay, v1-12 When Boaz met with the closer guardian-redeemer, whom we called Bob, he asked Bob if he would redeem his kinsman’s properties. Bob said yes, then declined when he realised that this included his kinsman’s widow, which would affect his estate. This shows the inevitable selfish motive of any redemption act which is outside of God’s provision. However, Boaz, motivated by love, acquired Ruth, notwithstanding the cost. This costly and selfless act points us to God’s act of redemption through Jesus, our Redeemer, who, out of love, gave His life to save us (John...
Read more

True life begins with accepting the word

Mark 4:1-20, 26-29. (The Parables of the Sower and Growing Seed). How do you respond to God’s word? Jesus shows that the continuous experience of true life only comes from accepting the word of God. Anything short, at its best, only yields momentary joy. In teaching about the Kingdom of God (v11, 26), Jesus speaks of a farmer who goes to sow seeds and scatters them on all kinds of soils, with the good soil truly yielding life (v1-8, 26). The seed is the word of God (v14), and the soils are how we respond to the word. But there is only one right response. Accept it The parable shows that just as the kind of soil affects the yield, the kind of response affects the experience of the Kingdom of God. It’s like signing up for an online service, say Amazon; there are terms and conditions open to all. You can either ignore it, tiptoe around it, consider it or accept it. But there...
Read more