Start Suffering the Cross

“With pleasing grief and mournful joy, my spirit now is filled,
That I should such a life destroy, yet live by Him I killed.” John Newton

A recent post on this website (my son’s) talks about a sign on a church that says, “Stop suffering.” (you have to scroll down to the one on transformation). Who do we think that we are? If Christ, as the sinless sacrifice, suffered, why shouldn’t we? It’s only through suffering that we can become like Christ. It’s only after we suffer that we really know joy. Evangelicals today like to downplay the fact that suffering is the means by which we identify with Christ and become like him. This trivilization makes me angry because we are offering a cheap salvation to many. They won't learn that suffering is a means for joy. Christ calls us to suffer. Our suffering will never be close to what Christ suffered.

“Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” Philippians 2:5-9, ESV

Suffer over the fact that you caused Christ’s death. Suffer over the sinful condition of your heart. Start wrestling with the sin that will always be in your heart. Suffer over the seriousness of your sin and the fact that God hates sin. The only reason we are able to approach God is because our sinless savior suffered on the cross. God turned his back on him so that we could face God and live to tell about it.

The pictures we have of Jesus show him as handsome and good-looking, but that‘s not how the Bible portrays him:

Isaiah 53:2 - 5 (ESV) For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed.

In Evil Long I Took Delight
By John Newton

"In evil long I took delight,
Unawed by shame or fear,
Till a new object struck my sight,
And stopped my wild career.

I saw One hanging on a tree,
In agony and blood,
Who fixed His languid eyes on me,
As near His cross I stood.

Sure, never to my latest breath,
Can I forget that look;
It seemed to charge me with His death,
Though not a word He spoke.

My conscience felt and owned the guilt,
And plunged me in despair,
I saw my sins His blood had spilt,
And helped to nail Him there.

A second look He gave,
which said,“I freely all forgive;
This blood is for thy ransom paid;
I die that thou mayst live.”

Thus, while His death my sin displays
In all its blackest hue,
Such is the mystery of grace,
It seals my pardon too.

With pleasing grief and mournful joy,
My spirit now is filled,
That I should such a life destroy,
Yet live by Him I killed. "

Suffer and then rejoice that someone else took your punishment:

1 Corinthians 15:3 - 4 (ESV) For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.

Rejoice that after you suffer and overcome this life by the strength of God, you will have a name that only you and God will know:

Revelation 2:17 (ESV) "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it. "

Rejoice for no other reason than that you will live with God for eternity:

Luke 10:20 (ESV) "Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”

Quotes on the cross

John Newton’s life and hymns

Be Gone Unbelief (the midi music is a little tacky, but the words are all there)

Sovereign Grace Ministries: A good resource for living a cross-centered life.

Cross-centered Music downloadable by song and free sheet music. The Look is Newton's song redone a little.

Detailed expositions on suffering with John Piper