“I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel, so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ. And most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear. Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from good will. The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. The former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment. What then?”

Amazingly, the Apostle Paul seemed never to have worn the mantle of victimhood as a redeemed man, regardless of the physical suffering or social condemnation he experienced. It was antithetical to his “in Christ” perspective. He would not be put to shame as a person for whom Christ had died, risen, and ascended. He had it all!

He could enumerate his insults and beatings to instruct, sure, but he wore them like a badge of honor. To suffer for Christ was noble. He did not seek pity, but rather showed how his sufferings for Christ were an aspect and demonstration of the salvation he had been given. That is, it was part of the new constitution of believers to eat up those sufferings for the greater cause —to rise above them as one never defeated by them, but who turns them to profit. This is truly Christlike, as illustrated best when Jesus bore the sufferings of the cross meant to defeat him. Jesus wasn’t folded by his enemies; rather, he foiled them.

Not even death defeated Jesus, nor did Satan, nor evil men motivated by demonic desires . . . they worked for him! Temporary subjection to suffering and death was the eternal plan to bring life to others. In this same manner, the Apostle Paul speaks about himself and suffering:

But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you. (2 Corinthians 4:7-12)

You cannot put such a man down. What can you do to him? Kill him? But that only delivers him where he would love to be. He taught that this victory over suffering and the perpetrator of that suffering is an aspect of his full salvation. It is the defeat of the powers of sin and death to rise above the plots or circumstances against him. And so, encountering trouble and overcoming by his union with Christ brought him a constant counterintuitive joy. This joy in the birthright of all in union with Christ.

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