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Suffering with Christ
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1 Peter 3:18 Christ himself suffered when he died for you, and with that one death he paid for your sins. He was not guilty, but he died for people who are guilty. He did this to bring all of you to God. In his physical form he was killed, but he was made alive by the Spirit.
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Download audio fileSuffering unjustly is the pits, amen? When you suffer for doing what’s right, it’s just so wrong. And yet, when we do suffer for doing what’s right, we’re not alone.
We chatted about that yesterday … this reality that suffering is our opportunity to grow in maturity in Christ. But when the suffering is unjust, when we’re punished for doing what’s right, our pride tends to rise up and block any good work that God may have been planning on doing in growing our own character.
That’s why the lesson of the Cross is so powerfully instructive:
1 Peter 3:18 Christ himself suffered when he died for you, and with that one death he paid for your sins. He was not guilty, but he died for people who are guilty. He did this to bring all of you to God. In his physical form he was killed, but he was made alive by the Spirit.
That’s the ultimate injustice in all of human history; Jesus the Son of God who never once sinned, who always did right, being nailed to that Cross to pay for my sin and yours. And right there, we have our role model, Jesus, whom we can look to when we’re suffering unjustly for doing what’s right. He wasn’t guilty, but He did it for us. And though He was killed, He was made alive again by the Spirit.
And that … that’s the spiritual dimension in suffering, both in His suffering back then and our suffering today. Because when we allow the Holy Spirit to work in us and through us in our times of suffering, He brings life. A new life. A resurrection life, free from the devastating clutches of our sin.
That’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.
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