So many in the church today seem to think that participation with Christ means only Easter Sunday, only participation in aspects of resurrection and glory. They forget that it is a package deal: suffering and death are the necessary twin of resurrection and glory. These passages collectively make the strong case that these two aspects belong together and cannot be separated. Thus suffering is not something to be avoided, but in fact something to be welcomed and embraced. For to suffer on behalf of Christ is to somehow share with Him in his ministry.

I have often written on this theme, but when I did a quick search recently, I could find no article with this exact title. So here it is. My point is simple: Christians – certainly Western Christians – are in desperate need of developing a theology of suffering. That is, we need to think long and hard – and biblically –  about all that suffering means, and how it fits into God’s purposes.

While I am the first to admit that I do not like suffering, it is part and parcel of life in a fallen world, so it is imperative that our Christian worldview fully comes to grips with all this. Far too many believers do not want to think about it at all. Indeed, entire theologies exist to either downplay suffering or present it in quite unbiblical terms.

The health and wealth gospel is a clear case in point, with its view that Christians should never suffer – at least in terms of poverty and sickness – and that it is just sin in your life, or a lack of faith, that is causing you to suffer (although they do admit that persecution is the one sort of suffering we might experience).

But many Christians for various other reasons might be aghast at the very notion of suffering as a key part of the biblical worldview and the Christian life. I recently wrote a piece about two saints known for their lives of suffering – but who also had great joy in Christ: Elisabeth Elliot and Joni Eareckson Tada. In it I said this:

Some years ago I met a pastor I knew and I said I was available to preach at his church if he was interested. I mentioned that I had just finished a sermon on ‘Lessons on Suffering from the Book of Job’. His response was to laugh and wonder why any Christian would be interested in that. That took me by surprise. Has he never suffered? Is his congregation free of those who suffer? Hmm, he might not be cut out for the Fellowship of the Broken Heart. billmuehlenberg.com/2021/04/28/the-fellowship-of-the-broken-heart/

We expect the world to want nothing to do with the place and purpose of suffering, but Christians should know better. Scripture so very often speaks of the very real positive benefits of suffering. Thus I believe there is a need to include a theology of suffering in our systematic theologies, in our textbooks, in our Bible colleges, in our seminaries, and in our churches.

It was certainly a basic part of discipleship in the early church. As Gene Green says, commenting on Paul’s remarks about how believers were destined to suffer (1 Thessalonians 3:4): “Part of the basic catechism for new believers was instruction concerning the suffering they were going to endure.”

How many churches today introduce this subject to new disciples? Green offers this contrast: “The theology of suffering was a centerpiece in early Christian teaching, unlike many muddled modern theologies that promise prosperity and the absence of trouble as the fruits of true faith.”

Thus we need to regain this understanding of the centrality of suffering. Obviously a full-orbed theology of suffering would be the stuff of an entire library of books, not just a brief article. There are so many major themes one could discuss, including: God’s presence with us in our suffering; our suffering God; suffering and glory; purposes of suffering; and suffering and joy. Let me look at just one other main theme.

Union with Christ and his Suffering

The broader issue of the believer’s union with Christ, especially as developed by Paul, is a very large topic indeed. One crucial aspect of this is our union with the sufferings of Christ. Some of the key passages on this are these:

Philippians 3:10-11 I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.

2 Corinthians 1:5 For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows.

2 Corinthians 4:10-11 We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body.

Colossians 1:24 Now I rejoice in what was suffered for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church.

1 Peter 4:12-13 Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.

1 Peter 5:1 To the elders among you, I appeal as a fellow elder, a witness of Christ’s sufferings and one who also will share in the glory to be revealed.

At the outset it must be said that these and similar passages are profoundly theological but also deeply puzzling. They contain rich spiritual truths, but they are also the subject of much controversy. Just what does it mean to share in Christ’s suffering? How do we understand a lack in Christ’s suffering? How do we carry in us the death of Jesus?

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