Suffering: Conclusion

I suppose this wasn't worth saving for an entire post. * shrugs * Alas, this is the paper's conclusion. I'm too lazy to link all the posts now. Someday. :)
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Conclusion

Christ, who is our Head and our model for all life, came with the absolute intent to suffer. This is clear throughout the New Testament as the call of the Church until Christ returns.[1] This is not our “best life now,” and to say so robs Christ’s work on the cross of its propitiatory nature by minimizing the necessity of the sacrificial demands of the Covenant and resurrection power.

The suffering modeled by Christ is not just his death on the cross to fulfill the terms of the Covenant, but inclusive of all the persecution he faced because of his proclamation of truth – public ridicule and humiliation, physical threats, abandonment by family and friends, and exclusion from society or established orders. He clearly and repeatedly warns his followers to expect these things and more, if they are to take up their cross and follow him.

Partnering with the global suffering Church is essential to fulfilling the mark of discipleship found in suffering with Christ. When we pray, provide and protect our brothers and sisters in Christ, we “stand as bearers of sorrow in the fellowship of the Crucified… as strangers in the world in the power of him who was such a stranger to the world that it crucified him.”[2] If we are to take seriously the proclamation of our Lord to join him in his sufferings, to be persecuted for righteousness, we must continually consider how we will support the suffering Church.

[1] Gaffin, “Theonomy and Eschatology: Some Reflections on Postmillennialism,” 9
[2] Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship, 109