Kissing the Cross~Quotes on Suffering

Tomorrow I will be preaching on why our good Father allows us to suffer. Here are some quotes from men of faith and from the Scriptures about suffering. Of course, these are only a few Scripture verses on suffering from the hundreds I could have chosen. Without suffering we cannot be sons, which is hard to hear because we often think that being a son will keep us from suffering. 

Scripture

Exodus 2:23-24
During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. 

Job 3:1 After this Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth. 

Psalm 69:1-3
Save me, O God! For the waters have come up to my neck. I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold; I have come into deep waters, and the flood sweeps over me. I am weary with my crying out; my throat is parched. My eyes grow dim with waiting for my God. 

Psalm 119:71  It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes.

Psalm 143:3-4
For the enemy has pursued my soul; he has crushed my life to the ground; he has made me sit in darkness like those long dead. Therefore my spirit faints within me; my heart within me is appalled. 

Luke 23:32-33
Two others, who were criminals, were led away to be put to death with him. And when they came to the place that is called The Skull, there they crucified him, and the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. 

Acts 5:41
Then they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name. 

Romans 8:18
For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. 

II Timothy 3:12
Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted

Hebrews 2:10
For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. 

Hebrews 5:8
Though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which he suffered. 

Revelation 1:9
I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. 

Quotes

God had one Son on earth without sin, but never one without suffering. Augustine

Holy Christian people are externally recognized by the holy possession of the sacred cross. They must endure every misfortune and persecution, all kinds of trials and evil from the devil, the world, and the flesh, by inward sadness, timidity, fear, outward poverty, contempt, illness, and weakness, in order to become like their head, Christ. Martin Luther

It is indeed a singular consolation, calculated to mitigate [lessen] the bitterness of cross, when the faithful hear, that by sorrows and tribulations they are sanctified for glory as Christ himself was; and hence they see sufficient reason why they should lovingly kiss the cross rather than dread it. John Calvin 

Christ did not suffer so you wouldn't suffer. He suffered so that when you suffer you will become like Him. Tim Keller

God whispers in our pleasures, speaks in our consciences, but shouts in our pains. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world. C.S. Lewis

To endure the cross is not tragedy; it is the suffering, which is the fruit of exclusive allegiance to Jesus Christ. Dietrich Bonhoeffer

The winter prepares the earth for the spring, so do afflictions sanctified prepare the soul for glory.  Richard Sibbes

The secret formula of the saints: When I am in the cellar of affliction, I look for the Lord's choicest wines. Samuel Rutherford

I am afraid that all the grace that I have got of my comfortable and easy times and happy hours, might almost lie on a penny. But the good that I have received from my sorrows, and pains, and griefs, is altogether incalculable … Affliction is the best bit of furniture in my house. It is the best book in a minister’s library. Charles Spurgeon

I have never heard anyone say, "The really deep lessons of life have come through times of ease and comfort." But I have heard strong saints say, "Every significant advance I have ever made in grasping the depths of God's love and growing deep in him, has come through suffering." John Piper.  

Participation in Christ's glory can only come through participation in his sufferings. Douglas Moo

A Theologian of the Cross and the Same Sex Mirage

I just read Carl Trueman's Luther and the Christian Life. I highly recommend it. One of Luther's key ideas was that we need "theologians of the cross." That is people who understand that God works not through power and might, but through weakness, pain, and suffering. He saved us through the death of His Son on a cross as a criminal. Glory came through suffering and weakness. That is the way God works. Yesterday and today we have seen a power play by our Supreme Court. But it is a mirage. True power is not found in black robes and judges. So what should we do? How should we rise up against this tyranny?  Where is the true revolution? What does a cross shaped response look like in response to the Supreme Court's ruling? I think Luther would approve of this list because most of it is Christianity 101, which is not surprising since our marching orders do not change.

Worship God every Sunday. No matter what. Be there with God's people. Sit underneath the mighty Word. Hear again the old, old story. Do not lose confidence in the ordinary means of grace.  A theologian of the cross knows that true power is found in the sanctuary where the Lord is worshiped, the Word is preached, water is poured, and the supper is celebrated.

Don't forget the gospel. Plead the shed blood of Christ. You are a vile, wicked person. Your sins are many and great. But Christ is greater. He has removed them. Be at peace. All of your sins are forgiven in Christ. They are vile, wicked sinners. Their only hope is Jesus Christ and His blood. If we forget the gospel what will we have to offer them when they cry, "What shall we do?" (Acts 2:37)

Sing the Psalms. The time for impotent songs is over. We have been at war, but we forgot and our swords gathered rust. Now the enemy has burst through the wall and we are waking up. We need Psalm 2, Psalm 3, Psalm 9, and Psalm 56. Okay we need them all.

Read the Bible again and again. Believe every word it says without apology. Teach it to your children.

Be bold. Do not fear the world. A theologian of the cross knows that death, their greatest threat, is our greatest triumph. Why fear them when the most they can do is usher us into glory?

Be prepared to suffer. Following Christ will now cost. Rejoice when your reputation is ruined, you lose your job, friends reject you, and you are run out of town. You are starting to catch up with the prophets (Matthew 5:12) and your brothers and sisters around the world.

Love sinners, including homosexuals, but do not expect them to feel loved. Sinners do not love those who call them to repent. But love them anyway. Overcome evil with good.

If you are in a church that is compromising on human sexuality or is silent about it, leave. The ship is sinking. It is time to get off.

If you are in a church that refuses to call it members to repent, leave.  Without repentance in here, there will be no repentance out there.

If you are in a church that refuses to call sinners out there to repent, leave. You cannot worship Jesus without repentance. A church that does not call the culture to repent is a church that is not preaching Jesus.

Learn what the doctrine of lesser magistrate is. We need politicians with the balls to say no to our Federal government. We need men who will take the opinion of the U.S. Supreme Court and burn it in the street. Here is a good place to start.

Pray for your leaders (I Timothy 2:1-2).

Marry someone of the opposite sex. Stay married.  Make love. Have children. Raise them in the Lord.

Remain cheerful. Life is a comedy. If God can laugh (Psalm 2:4) then so can we. In the end, all will be well.

Can God Justify Calvary?

Donald Macleod's book Christ Crucified has been a great read so far. The book is solid theologically, and Macleod's writing is clear, succinct, and powerful.  Here are two of my favorite quotes so far.

From a human point of view this emphasis on the cross [in the New Testament] is baffling. Every prudential consideration suggested that these first Christian preachers should divert attention from it as much as possible. To Jewish ears, the idea of a crucified Messiah was a contradiction in terms. To Gentiles, the claim that the salvation of the world had come through a crucified Jewish criminal was an absurdity. To both Jew and Gentile, the suggestion that death, particularly death on a  cross, could bring eternal life, was blasphemous idiocy; had the early church had a professional director of communications, he would have said, categorically, "We don't do the cross! Stay on message, and focus on his wonderful ethical teaching." 

It is the cross itself that requires a theodicy. How can God justify what he did at Calvary? What gave him the right to sacrifice his own Son? Only the doctrine of vicarious punishment can provide an answer. The sword falls at the precise point where justice located the sin of the world: in Jesus own body, on the tree. The sword falls here because it is right that it should fall here; and it is right because 'in my place condemned he stood.' Otherwise the cross is a black hole; an irrational evil, the act of a capricious or malevolent deity.  

The Astonishing Love of Christ

John Calvin at the beginning of his commentary on Matthew 26:57-61:

First, in order to remove the offence of the cross, we ought to consider the advantage which we have derived from Christ's emptying of himself (Philippians 2:7) for thus will the inestimable goodness of God, and the efficacy of his grace, be found to remove by its brightness every thing in it that was disagreeable and shameful. According to the flesh, it was disgraceful that the Son of God should be seized, bound, and made a prisoner; but when we reflect that by his chains we are loosed from the tyranny of the devil, and from the condemnation in which we are involved before God, not only is the stumbling block, on which our faith might have struck, removed out of the way, but in place of it there comes an admiration of the boundless grace of God, who set so high a value on our deliverance, as to give up his only-begotten Son to be bound by wicked men. This will also be a pledge of the astonishing love of Christ towards us, that he spared not himself, but willingly submitted to wear fetters [chains] on his flesh, that our souls might be freed from fetters of a far worse description.