Jesus Suffered For Us

In preparing for Sunday's message at Calvary Chapel Sydney, I was struck how consistently I try to avoid suffering if I can.  If I am experiencing pain or discomfort in my body I do what I can to find relief.  Suffering can seem like an unnecessary part of life as we seek happiness and comfort wherever we can.  We are pleased to avoid suffering, but unbelievably God chose to suffer and die so we could be free of suffering forever.

I remember an occasion when I was verbally blasted by an irate parent at a soccer game as the assistant coach.  As his volume grew to a crescendo and the profanity flowed, the parents around me slowly moved away.  I found myself standing face to face with a man who literally trembled with rage.  After the final insult was flung and his sons gathered, he left the soccer field.  Fellow parents slowly meandered back to the sideline.  One man put his hand on my shoulder and said with a smile, "Better you than me!"  After what had just occurred, I didn't know what to say except a sheepish "Thanks."

The scene is instructive, as the troubles man faces in hell for eternity for his sin is infinitely worse than being shouted at.  No one wanted to be the target of an angry verbal tirade, and certainly no one is pleased to suffer death and darkness in agony forever.  God looked upon man's sorry state on earth reigned by sin and said in contrast, "Better Me for you!"  God could not suffer as an immortal Spirit, so He cloaked Himself in human flesh and came to earth in the person of Jesus to suffer death and conquer it and Satan who wielded it for us.  It was man whom God gave dominion over the earth, and thus it was fitting for God to become flesh so He could deliver us from the power of death.

Hebrews 2:16-18 says, "For indeed He does not give aid to angels, but He does give aid to the seed of Abraham. ¹⁷ Therefore, in all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.¹⁸ For in that He Himself has suffered, being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted."  Because Jesus became a man He suffered in our place and we can become children of God.  Another incredible result of God's incarnation was He is also able to help us overcome temptation.  Jesus was "in all ways tempted" and remained sinless (Hebrews 4:15).  We who entrust our eternal souls to Jesus Christ for salvation can have all confidence in His deliverance from temptation even in the midst of suffering.

Suffering was made to serve God's good purposes, and this is one redemptive aspect of the Christian walk.  Jesus knows what it is like to suffer and even suffer what we have not:  physical death!  Three days later He rose from the dead in glory, and the power that raised Him is the power which resides in us through the Holy Spirit when we are born again.  Through faith in Christ we have comfort in our suffering, even as a person awaiting surgery takes confidence in the words of another who experienced the same procedure successfully.  Our hope is not in the opinions of men but in the person of Jesus Christ who suffered for us and has overcome all.