Suffering: Call to the Church

Call to the Church

The sum of apostolic teaching reflects this proclamation of suffering for the people of Christ, illustrated poignantly by Peter in his first letter and Paul in his second letter to the church at Corinth. The unity of the suffering Church is expressed when Peter writes, “But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.”[1] Edmund Clowney captures the tension of union with Christ in both suffering and glory, seen in Matthew and Peter:

But how do we taste that glorious blessing? By suffering in fellowship with Christ, bearing insults for his name ([Peter] 4:13-14). Christ’s Spirit leads the church down the path the Saviour took, the path to Golgotha. ‘To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps’ ([Peter] 2:21).”[2]

The power of the resurrection is visibly at work in faith, hope and love, and the realization of that power in Christ’s sufferings.[3] So central is suffering that Gaffin calls this the “locus of Christ’s ascension-power.”[4] The resurrection power of Christ is manifested in the suffering Church.[5]

The Church is one Body in Christ and so should suffer as one. So long as one member suffers, suffering will remain a mark of discipleship in the Church. Stott views persecution as a “token of genuineness, a certificate of Christian authenticity.”[6] He continues, quoting Dietrich Bonhoeffer:

Suffering, then, is the badge of true discipleship. The disciple is not above his master. Following Christ means passio passive, suffering because we have to suffer. That is why Luther reckoned suffering among the marks of the true Church, and one of the memoranda drawn up in preparation for the Augsburg Confession similarly defines the Church as the community of those “who are persecuted and martyred for the gospel’s sake”… Discipleship means allegiance to the suffering Christ, and it is therefore not at all surprising that Christians should be called upon to suffer. In fact, it is a joy and a token of his grace.[7]

Later in Matthew’s Gospel, we see that those who fall away in the face of persecution were not regenerate. To those who belong to Christ, it has been granted that they should and will suffer.[8] Suffering is not an addition to the gospel by any means. As Gaffin explains, “the controlling consideration is union with Christ in his death and resurrection such that to “know”/experience Christ is to experience the power of his resurrection and that, in turn, is to experience the fellowship of his sufferings – a total reality that can be summed up at conformity to Christ’s death.”[9]

[1] 1 Peter 4:13-14
[2] Clowney, The Church, 62
[3] Gaffin, “Theonomy and Eschatology: Some Reflections on Postmillennialism,” 10
[4] Gaffin, “Theonomy and Eschatology: Some Reflections on Postmillennialism,” 10
[5] Gaffin, “Theonomy and Eschatology: Some Reflections on Postmillennialism,” 10
[6] Stott, The Message of the Sermon on the Mount, 52
[7] Stott, The Message of the Sermon on the Mount , 53
[8] Philippians 1:29, 2 Timothy 3:12; Stott, The Message of the Sermon on the Mount , 77
[9] Gaffin, “Theonomy and Eschatology: Some Reflections on Postmillennialism,” 10