Reading: The Cross of Christ, pg. 314-320
18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. 19 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. Romans 8.18-19
…the cross of Christ is the hope of final glory. Jesus clearly looked beyond his death to his resurrection, beyond his sufferings to his glory and indeed was sustained in his trials by “the joy set before him” (Heb 12.2). It is equally clear that he expected his followers to share this perspective. The inevitability of suffering is a regular theme in his teaching and that of the apostles. If the world had hated and persecuted him, it would hate and persecute his disciples also. Suffering was, in fact, a “gift” of God to all his people, and part of their calling. They should not therefore be surprised by it, as if something strange were happening to them. It was to be expected.
Jesus told us to expect suffering and persecution in this life. Why then, are we so surprised and offended when we get even a little taste of it?
O Father, you are sovereign,
The Lord of human pain,
Transmuting earthly sorrows
To gold of heavenly gain.
All evil overruling,
As none but Conqueror could,
Your love pursues its purpose-
Our souls’ eternal good.
-Margaret Clarkson